The majority of credit card companies include cashback promotions, airline miles and an array of other perks that interest lures.
In fact, many of these companies and other online loan lenders have used celebrities like Jennifer Garner and Samuel Jackson to peddle these benefits, ensuring millions of new users.
Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the program rewards and never redeem them, think it’s not worth it or their efforts. Not using those benefits actually benefits the companies because they don’t lose out. It’s the confusion that causes consumers to not take advantage of the rewards they are offered.
NextAdvisor conducted a survey where over half the people noted their frequent flier programs are confusing, with four in 10 of them letting the airline miles expire. It’s true that redeeming the hotel points and airline miles is a complicated process. There was a time when airline miles cannot be used and stipulations on how this could be used.
Julie Myhre-Nunes, an analyst with NextAdvisor, said not using those rewards or loyalty points or miles means consumers are losing money, which means they need to find a credit card that gives them what they want.
Financial experts advise consumers to research cards that will give them what they want. A study conducted last year found that 32 million U.S. cardholders were still using the same card for more than 10 years.
Another problem is that cardholders can’t understand the fine print of their program and don’t know how to redeem card rewards easily.
Myhre-Nunes said the confusion comes from the lack of clarity in company policies. She said consumers should be held to blame in some respect, but most blame lies with the credit card companies.
