How To Redeem ThankYou Points For Student Loan Checks, Mortgage Payments, or Expedia Travel Credit
Since I can now get 5x ThankYou points on restaurants and Amazon.com purchases from my Citi Forward Card, I have been looking into the best way to maximize my redemption value.
The goal is to get as close to making the 5x points equate to 5% cash back by making 100 points = $1. My standard option is to redeem 10,000 points for $100 gift cards to Target and Home Depot, but since the retailer list is getting a bit thinner here are some good alternatives.
Student Loan Rebate Check
Here we can achieve 100 points = $1, but in the form of a check written towards a student loan. From their website:
With the student loan program redemption, Customers can apply their points towards any student loan program -financial institution. Please call 1-800-THANKYOU for details.
You can redeem in increments as small as 2,500 points for a $25 check. You have to call them up, no online redemption. The CSR will ask you for your lender’s name, and they’ll mail you a check written out to your lender (i.e. Citi Student Loans). You are then supposed to add in your account number or whatever else is necessary, and then send it on to your lender. Reader Chris shared that he has a workaround if you lender doesn’t take third-party checks:
I just have the check written out to my bank, Chase, and then write my checking account number in the memo space. I drop it in an ATM and they have always deposited it into my checking account just fine. I’ve been doing this for years with no problem. I would just apply the money myself to my auto-payments and keep my 0.25% rate reduction.
Mortgage Payments
Here we can get up to about 100 points = $0.80. (5x = 4% cash back.) The increments are as low as $25 for 3,300 points, and the ratio gets slightly better with larger check amounts. From the website:
ThankYou Members who redeem will receive a letter with a check issued on behalf of ThankYou Network made out to the financial lending institution to be used towards their monthly mortgage payment. To redeem, members must contact our ThankYou Service Center (1-800-THANKYOU) and must provide the Agent with the name and correct spelling of your mortgage financial lending institution.
Again, you must confirm with your mortgage servicer that they will accept checks from a third-party. I would still prefer to just cash the check and apply it to the mortgage myself.
Expedia Travel Credit
This is another method that we can achieve 100 points = $1 by booking travel directly through the ThankYou/Expedia website. It’s basically Expedia.com, except that the flight costs are shown in ThankYou points. So instead of a $200 flight, it will ask for 20,000 points*.
One benefit of this system is that there are no blackout dates or seat availability issues. If you can find the flight on Expedia.com, you can book it with points. Also, all taxes, fees, and surcharges are included in the point total. In this way, the variable redemption is actually better than the old fixed point option, where the points only covered the base cost of the tickets and you had to pay the taxes and fees separately.
* I just checked this by testing out a SFO-LAS flight on both sites. It was either 12,700 points or $119, which is a little bit off. However, this is because Expedia.com is currently running a promotion until 5/31/09 which waives their booking fees. Otherwise, it should match up almost exactly.
Find more in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 5/7/09, 3:54am | Trackback
May 7th, 2009 at 8:09 am
I have to wonder why anyone would actually do the mortgage payment redemption. If you wanted to pay your mortgage, why not ask for a student loan rebate check, and use it to pay your mortgage anyway?
May 7th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Shut up, Jim! Loose lips sink ships!
May 7th, 2009 at 9:14 am
they still have sears, jc penney, macy’s and dillard’s gift cards on the list. Earlier travel rewards were good, 25000 flat points for any domestic trip in US but if it’s 1 point a dollar like you say, then there is no point in booking through expedia if you can get a better deal with sidestep.com or kayak probably…
May 7th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Does the Amazon.com actually register as a bookstore? I thought it was only brick and mortar locations.
May 7th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I use the student loan rebate option for my husband’s student loan and it has been working great for several years now. Too bad you can’t redeem them online and have it sent it directly to the institution and save a stamp!
May 7th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Another disadvantage of the travel redemption is that you are paying for something in points that you could be buying on a credit card, and earning cash back. Plus, many credit cards offer various types of travel insurance if you pay for the travel with the card, which you won’t have via TYP.
If you have student loans to pay off, that’s the best deal. If I didn’t, then I might go for the travel option over a mortgage payment due to the conversion factor, but not if I could find a gift card somewhere useful at the 100pts/$ rate.
In terms of converting points into $ to use for any purpose, you can simply send in the TYP SL check as your monthly payment, freeing up the cash you would otherwise have sent in.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Careful with that workaround Jonathan, there have been A LOT of people who were denied the deposit when the check was made out to their bank names. Check the Fatwallet thread for all of the discussion. It’s been widely, widely talked about.
It used to be fixed flight redemptions were the best (you can get more than 100 pts= 1 dollar) but that was discontinued last March. Now we can only hope for GCs and student loans (if you have them). Completely sucks the fun out of the program but what’s new these days.
May 11th, 2009 at 11:37 am
I think the mortgage checks are of benifit. If your thinking long term, then your making out way more than 100=$0.80. If you use this as an ‘extra’ payment to your mortgage, then your golden. I consider these extra rewards just that. I dont ‘budget’ this ‘free-money’ into my monthly flow, so anything extra goes to mortgage. So im redeeming $300 in mortgage to make an extra payment, which if made by the 18th, i will knock off 4 months and $383 in interest. So in looking long term, yea i miss out on the $300 gift cards today, but i really put $683 in my pocket.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Hi,
I have a federal Stafford loan and I wanted to use my points to pay some of that off.
Who would I tell them to make the check out to? I have about $250 worth of points, so I’d better use them soon.
Would I just have them make it out to the Department of Education and then mail it in?
Thanks.