Some cards are making frequent-flier mileage easier to redeem (cardholders have stored up about 8 trillion unused miles). You typically have to charge $25,000 to $30,000 to get a free ticket, but two new cards issued by travel Web sites Orbitz (orbitz.com) and Travelocity (travelocity.com) give customers $100 discount coupons on air fares purchased on the Web after putting less than $4,000 on the cards. The Citibank Citi Rewards and Bank One Free Cash Rewards cards aren’t new but are now being marketed heavily by the banks. They have no annual fee and allow cardholders to earn points that they can trade for cash back or coupons at retailers like the Gap. The stock market may be out of favor these days, but Chase now offers the Stockback MasterCard: for every $100 you charge, it puts $1 into a brokerage account for you to invest or take as cash. About 85 participating retailers kick in rebates of up to 10 percent when you use the Stockback card. There are no annual fees, and you would have to charge more than $25,000 every month to bump up against the cap.
Some of these new card programs are complicated, and to get the best deal you need to figure out the value of the points you’re earning. With respectable programs, points are generally worth about a penny each. So if you cash in your points on coupons that are worth less than that, or spend too high a percentage of your points just paying an annual fee or interest charges, you’re not being “reward savvy,’’ as the industry calls it. Of course, the truly savvy wring the most from their card by charging everything they can, and paying off the balance every month.
