Catching Up on the Shifting Landscape of Rewards Programs
There’s a lot happening in the world of bank and credit/debit card rewards programs. In case you missed them, here are a few recent articles and posts on this important topic.
After we published our recent post on merchant-funded offers, we read that Visa had just given merchants more flexibility in offering discounts for specific financial institution cards. This could mean a big expansion in merchant-funded rewards.
Rewards programs are evolving in other ways, as well. We found a great piece in Colloquy, for example, which sums up a few other more cost effective rewards options showing up in the post-Durbin world. We also read about a study by IdeaWorks that found airline rewards (the granddaddy of loyalty programs) to be less valuable than bank rewards.
In addition, we see that Discover is launching an online checking account with a unique rewards program: 10 cents back for every debit purchase, online bill payment or check written. And then there’s credit.com’s recap of cash-back cards from Chase, Amex and U.S. Bank that were too valuable, requiring the issuers to makes some changes to the programs.
One thing is clear: issuers are not sitting idly by post-Durbin. Instead, they are finding new and innovative ways to give their customers rewards that are engaging and valuable.
