In the context of Credit Card Loyalty Programs, I have heard of the terms “Reward Points” and “Redemption” but I have not heard about “redeem points”. So I don’t know how to answer your question in its present form.

If your question is “Which bank has the best credit card loyalty program”, I can answer that question:

It’s impossible to say.

You might have heard many banks claiming that they offer the best credit card rewards. Against that backdrop, you might find my answer counterintuitive.


The value of a credit card loyalty program is determined by the following metric:

Loyalty Program Value = Earn Ratio * Burn Ratio.

where

Earn Ratio = # of Reward Points Earned / Spend Amount

Burn Ratio = Value of Gift / # of Reward Points Redeemed.

For virtually every credit card that I have used in the last 30+ years, Earn Ratio is declared upfront and fixed over a fairly long period of time e.g. Credit Card A offers 1 Reward Point for every 100 INR of Spend whereas Credit Card B offers 1 Reward Point for every 40 INR of Spend. By this metric, you get more Reward Points for the same spend with Credit Card B compared to Credit Card A, so you might be tempted to believe that Credit Card B has a better loyalty program compared to Credit Card A.

That’s what Credit Card B might want you to believe but that could be the wrong conclusion.

Because the monetary value of a Reward Point is determined by Burn Ratio. Burn Ratio not only varies from one Credit Card to another but also from one point in time to another for the same Credit Card.

So the exact value of the loyalty program varies from time to time for any given Credit Card and can be computed only when you actually redeem your reward points.

That’s why it’s impossible to upfront say which credit card has the best loyalty program.

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Ketharaman Swaminathan

 · Answered March 24, 2019

TY for the A2A. Credit Card A gives you 1 Reward Point for spend of 100 (in whatever currency). Credit Card B gives you 1 Reward Point for spend of 40. On the face of it, Credit Card B offers the best reward points program. But, things are not so simple. Because 1 Reward Point of Credit Card may get you…

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