What Are My Points Worth?

Rewards credit cards advertise how many points you can earn from spending and sign-up bonuses, but it’s not always clear how much value you can get from those points. After all, high rewards earning rates don’t necessarily mean good redemption values. To find the best rewards credit cards for you, look for cards that earn well for your typical spending and have good redemption values for rewards you will use.

When you make a purchase with a rewards credit card, you can earn cash back, miles or points. These can be valuable for cardholders, but rewards may not be top of mind when you swipe your card. A recent U.S. News survey found that more than 10% of respondents who used travel rewards cards didn’t know how much they had earned in rewards.

When you sign up for a rewards credit card, the issuer should explain how many points or miles or how much cash back you can earn. For example, you might earn a 50,000-point sign-up bonus when you open a new credit card and meet a minimum spending requirement. But what is the value of those 50,000 points?

Points are often worth about 1 cent each, but the value can depend on your card, the card issuer and how you redeem. Redemption options can include travel, cash back, gift cards and merchandise.

For example, 10,000 points may be worth $100 when spent on gift cards but only $60 as a statement credit.The cards below all offer higher or lower values depending on the redemption option. Keep in mind that redemption values can change.

Issuer rewards points are similar to loyalty program points and miles, but not the same. Miles are often associated with airline rewards programs. Hotel companies and cruise lines also have loyalty programs. You can earn points by booking getaways and using co-branded credit cards, such as certain airline credit cards.

Keep in mind that points and miles earned via loyalty programs may not have a set value. Instead, the value of your loyalty rewards can fluctuate depending on the flight, hotel, when you book your travel and other factors.

U.S. News approximated the redemption values for several major travel loyalty programs. The points or miles value is based on the reward-to-dollar ratio on:

Some credit card rewards programs allow you to transfer points to other programs. For example, eligible Chase cardholders can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to several airline and hotel travel partners at a 1-to-1 value.

You might want to transfer points to a frequent flyer program if you need more miles to purchase a flight. It may also be possible to get more out of your points by transferring them. For example, if you redeem 30,000 points for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards, they’ll be worth 1.25 cents per point and $375 total with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. But if you transfer them to Air Canada Aeroplan, they could be worth more, since the average economy value of a point is 1.6 cents.

With some programs, you can get additional points when you transfer. Most of the American Express Membership Rewards travel partners have a 1-to-1 transfer value, but 1,000 Membership Rewards points are worth 2,000 as Hilton Honors Points or 1,600 as Aeromexico Club Premier Points. However, you should consider the redemption value offered by the loyalty program before transferring.

On top of that, some issuers have rules for credit card applicants that can limit your ability to earn sign-up bonuses. You may not be able to get a new card if you’ve opened several credit cards within the past year or two, for example, or you may only be allowed to earn the sign-up bonus on a particular card once in a lifetime.

Ideally, you should find a rewards credit card that both earns and redeems at a high rate in categories that are useful to you. Pay close attention to card costs and the process of earning and redeeming points to get the full value from each rewards credit card.