Rewards Cards are so unrewarding
I have so many Rewards Cards and yet the rewards I get are so scarce. With the exception of only a few, they just don’t work the way they are supposed to work
By Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania
My mom gave me my first credit card which popped up in my wallet around 1975. I had just been honorably discharged from Active Duty during the Vietnam War and I was driving from Chicago to Peoria to report in for my monthly service in the Illinois Air National Guard.
Driving back to Chicago, I stopped and tried to use it at a Peotone gas station, but it didn’t work.
Back in the 1970s, you could talk to a gas station owner, or almost anyone, and there was trust. The owner let me put $5 of gasoline in my car to get me back to Chicago on the promise I would mail him a check for $5 in repayment, which I did do that same night.
I’m not sure how that would work today. There’s so little trust in our society any more. And, for good reason.
Rewards Cards
We’ve been duped into believing that in order to get something, we have to do something first. It’s called the “Rewards Card.”
I have dozens of “Rewards Cards,” from grocery stores, bookstores, gas stations, Lowes, Macy’s and more. The first one I ever got was from Jewel, back in the 1980s, so I could cash a check and get a cheaper price on food items. That one really seemed to work, which is probably why they ended it a few years ago.
You see, I don’t think the purpose of a “Rewards Card” is to really give you a “reward.” The purpose of the “Rewards Card” is to make you think you are getting a reward when you don’t.
I tested all my rewards cards this past week, and most gave me no rewards at all.
I have spent a fortune at Lowes buying flowers, rocks and supplies for my yard, garden and home and I have never gotten a reward from them at all.
I was at Speedway the other day, fumbling to find the “Rewards Card” which is not a large credit card size but a “key-chain” size about a half inch wide and one inch long. It falls out of my wallet all the time. But, I give it to them each time I buy something, and I spend a lot there for gasoline ($80 to fill up the tank twice each week) and two diet cokes almost every day.
Do you think I ever get a reward for doing all that? About once in a blue moon, they give me a paper receipt that says I can get a Diet Coke bottle the next time I stop there. Of course, I never can find the piece of paper when I do stop and while the computer can remember my “Rewards Card” number, it can’t seem to remember my rewards.
Non-existent.
I go to Pete’s Market all the time. I love their Deli. I just hate their “Rewards Card.”
Every time I purchase something, they want my “Rewards Card.” It’s a small one, too, and it always falls on the ground. In the past few months I’ve spent a fortune there but I’ve never gotten one reward. (I did get one free White Chocolate Latte free after buying nine before, though).
And don’t get me started about the airlines. Rewarded with “miles” that you can exchange for free tickets. It’s never happened to me once.
Jewel did one thing right when it eliminated their “Rewards Card.” I wish the rest of them would reward me by getting rid of them, too.
So far, “Rewards Cards” have been very unrewarding.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. Reach him at [email protected].)
Blogger, Columnist at Illinois News Network Online
Ray Hanania is senior blogger for the Illinois News Network news site. He is an award winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist who covered the beat from 1976 through 1992 (From Mayor Daley to Mayor Daley). And, Hanania is a stubborn and loud critic of the biased mainstream American news media.
Hanania Chicago political beats and Chicago City Hall at the Daily Southtown Newspapers (1976-1985) and the Chicago Sun-Times (1985-1992). He published the The Villager Community Newspapers covering 12 Southwest suburban regions (1993-1997). Hanania also hosted live political news radio talkshows on WLS AM (1980 - 1991), and also on WBBM FM, WLUP FM, WSBC AM in Chicago, and WNZK AM in Detroit.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media;In 2009, he received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Hanania has also received two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and in 1990 was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
Hanania’s writings have been published in newspapers around the world. He currently is syndicated through Creators Syndicate. He has written for the Jerusalem Post, YNetNews.com, Newsday in New York, the Orlando Sentinel, the Houston Chronicle, The Daily Star of Lebanon, the News of the World in London, the Daily Yomimuri in Tokyo, Chicago Magazine, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, The Saudi Gazette, the Arab News in Jeddah, and Aramco Magazine.
Hanania's Chicagoland columns are published in the Southwest News-Herald, the Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News and the Palos Reporter newspapers.
He is President/CEO of Urban Strategies Group media and public affairs consulting which has clients in Illinois, Florida, Michigan and Washington D.C.
His personal website is www.TheMediaOasis.com. Email him at:
[email protected].
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Rewards Cards are so unrewarding
I have so many Rewards Cards and yet the rewards I get are so scarce. With the exception of only a few, they just don’t work the way they are supposed to work
By Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania
My mom gave me my first credit card which popped up in my wallet around 1975. I had just been honorably discharged from Active Duty during the Vietnam War and I was driving from Chicago to Peoria to report in for my monthly service in the Illinois Air National Guard.
Driving back to Chicago, I stopped and tried to use it at a Peotone gas station, but it didn’t work.
Back in the 1970s, you could talk to a gas station owner, or almost anyone, and there was trust. The owner let me put $5 of gasoline in my car to get me back to Chicago on the promise I would mail him a check for $5 in repayment, which I did do that same night.
I’m not sure how that would work today. There’s so little trust in our society any more. And, for good reason.
Rewards Cards
We’ve been duped into believing that in order to get something, we have to do something first. It’s called the “Rewards Card.”
I have dozens of “Rewards Cards,” from grocery stores, bookstores, gas stations, Lowes, Macy’s and more. The first one I ever got was from Jewel, back in the 1980s, so I could cash a check and get a cheaper price on food items. That one really seemed to work, which is probably why they ended it a few years ago.
You see, I don’t think the purpose of a “Rewards Card” is to really give you a “reward.” The purpose of the “Rewards Card” is to make you think you are getting a reward when you don’t.
I tested all my rewards cards this past week, and most gave me no rewards at all.
I have spent a fortune at Lowes buying flowers, rocks and supplies for my yard, garden and home and I have never gotten a reward from them at all.
I was at Speedway the other day, fumbling to find the “Rewards Card” which is not a large credit card size but a “key-chain” size about a half inch wide and one inch long. It falls out of my wallet all the time. But, I give it to them each time I buy something, and I spend a lot there for gasoline ($80 to fill up the tank twice each week) and two diet cokes almost every day.
Do you think I ever get a reward for doing all that? About once in a blue moon, they give me a paper receipt that says I can get a Diet Coke bottle the next time I stop there. Of course, I never can find the piece of paper when I do stop and while the computer can remember my “Rewards Card” number, it can’t seem to remember my rewards.
Non-existent.
I go to Pete’s Market all the time. I love their Deli. I just hate their “Rewards Card.”
Every time I purchase something, they want my “Rewards Card.” It’s a small one, too, and it always falls on the ground. In the past few months I’ve spent a fortune there but I’ve never gotten one reward. (I did get one free White Chocolate Latte free after buying nine before, though).
And don’t get me started about the airlines. Rewarded with “miles” that you can exchange for free tickets. It’s never happened to me once.
Jewel did one thing right when it eliminated their “Rewards Card.” I wish the rest of them would reward me by getting rid of them, too.
So far, “Rewards Cards” have been very unrewarding.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. Reach him at [email protected].)
Ray Hanania
Hanania Chicago political beats and Chicago City Hall at the Daily Southtown Newspapers (1976-1985) and the Chicago Sun-Times (1985-1992). He published the The Villager Community Newspapers covering 12 Southwest suburban regions (1993-1997). Hanania also hosted live political news radio talkshows on WLS AM (1980 - 1991), and also on WBBM FM, WLUP FM, WSBC AM in Chicago, and WNZK AM in Detroit.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media;In 2009, he received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Hanania has also received two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and in 1990 was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
Hanania’s writings have been published in newspapers around the world. He currently is syndicated through Creators Syndicate. He has written for the Jerusalem Post, YNetNews.com, Newsday in New York, the Orlando Sentinel, the Houston Chronicle, The Daily Star of Lebanon, the News of the World in London, the Daily Yomimuri in Tokyo, Chicago Magazine, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, The Saudi Gazette, the Arab News in Jeddah, and Aramco Magazine.
Hanania's Chicagoland columns are published in the Southwest News-Herald, the Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News and the Palos Reporter newspapers.
He is President/CEO of Urban Strategies Group media and public affairs consulting which has clients in Illinois, Florida, Michigan and Washington D.C.
His personal website is www.TheMediaOasis.com. Email him at: [email protected].
Latest posts by Ray Hanania (see all)
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