PointsPay.com is the second company to allow consumers to turn their credit card points and frequent flyer miles into cash (the first company being points.com). They are a Zurich based company that launched in 2012.
Contents
How Does It Work?
- Sign up
- Add your eligible reward programs
- Select your preferred currency
- Decide if you want to add your points to a virtual card or plastic
- Choose the amount of points/miles you want to redeem
PointsPay.com Partners
Points pay originally seemed to launch with three partners: Hilton, American Airlines & Delta – these are no longer available. Below is a list of the partners currently participating:
- Etihad Guest members
As you can see, they’ve gone from three partners to one which is a backwards step. Their FAQ states “More programs will be added in 2013”, as it’s currently almost December of 2013 we doubt that’s the case.
Points Pay Conversion Rate
The following conversion rates are based on the Points Pay iPhone app and were correct 29th November, 2013. Obviously these rates are subject to change and only relate to the Etihad Guest Member program which was available at the time of publishing.
- $10USD: 1,479 Miles (0.68¢ per mile/point)
- €10: 1,859 Miles (0.54¢ per mile/point)
- $10AUD: 1,523 Miles (0.66¢ per mile/point)
- £10: 2,346 Miles (0.43¢ per mile/point)
There is also a fee of 141 miles per transaction, regardless of how many miles are loaded. A maximum of €2,400 can be loaded per year for the virtual cards, no limit is listed for the plastic cards.
Important Things To Note
- Cards cannot be used for cash withdrawals
- Cards cannot be used to make payments on other cards
- Issued Virtual Cards are from Switzerland, some companies may not accept these. Unsure of where plastic cards are issued from, but should be your home country.
- Virtual cards only stay loaded for 24hrs and then automatically unload.
You should still be able to use the cards to fund amazon payments as this doesn’t count as a cash advance.
Our Final Verdict
PointsPay is one of the only ways to sell your points without infringing on the loyalty programs terms of service, unfortunately they offer far less 1¢ per point/mile which is what people should be trying to aim for when redeeming their points. They also only have one loyalty partner at the moment and don’t look like they’ll be adding more anytime soon.
When compared to other points buyers who are offering well above 1¢ per point/mile a lot of consumers are probably going to take the risk and violate the terms of service.