So my mom, who’s 60 and usually doesn’t call me, reached out today asking about credit card points and which card she should get. Apparently, she was at a dinner with folks from a 55+ community, and someone was bragging about how their Gen Z grandkid is traveling all over the world for free using credit card rewards.
Now my mom’s feeling inspired—she’s only been to Mexico and Canada and wants to plan a trip to SE Asia!
Do you think this is a sign we’ve hit peak credit card rewards? Is the bubble about to burst?
Foreal …The last solid card we saw was the Venture X. Everything that’s come out since then just seems to nerf their own loyalty programs and slap on a measly 2% points. It feels like they’re just trying to keep up without really offering anything worthwhile.
I feel you on that! If new folks get hyped and rack up interest like previous generations, it could keep rolling for a while. But I think it’ll ultimately come down to the government stepping in. Both retailers and those advocating for people in debt aren’t fans of the current setup. If they start passing laws to limit what the exchange networks can take from each transaction, that’s gonna put a serious dent in rewards. But hey, if the Capital One/Discover merger goes through, it might shake things up and make the market more competitive, which could make retailers a bit happier too…
On the decline actually. Churning is much more difficult and rewards are not as great as they used to be. Redemptions are much more expensive and competitive.
Totally get that… Churning is definitely feeling tougher these days. It’s like they keep tightening the screws on the good rewards, making it harder to keep the excitement going. All the hoops you have to jump through just to score decent deals can be super draining. Honestly, it might be smarter to just focus on maximizing the returns on the cards you already have instead of chasing every shiny new offer. Finding ways to make the most out of what you’ve got is way less stressful…