April 22, 2006

By Peter Kenny

A survey just published today by Morgan Stanley has found that credit card holders are not taking advantage of their credit card loyalty schemes.

Many now offer loyalty points every time you use your credit card to make a purchase. These loyalty points can usually be redeemed for discounts on future purchases like a holiday or your weekly grocery bills.

The survey published today found that less than a third of credit card holders had cashed in on their loyalty points. Morgan Stanley, who own Goldfish, stated that Goldfish credit card holders were more likely than any other credit card holder to utilise their collected loyalty points. The amount of Goldfish credit card holders who actively used their loyalty points came to over 46 per cent, averaging a saving of £64 every 3 months.

A very interesting part of the survey showed that consumers who used a credit card that offered air miles as a loyalty bonus were less likely to cash in. The actual figure only amounted to 9 per cent.

With the reduction of 0% credit card deals, more and more credit card companies are offering consumers loyalty bonus points in an effort to hold on to them. If these credit card holders are not taking advantage of their loyalty points the credit card companies are in a win win situation.

Patrick Muir, marketing director for Morgan Stanley's UK consumer banking group commented “Credit card reward schemes can be a great way for cardholders to be rewarded for everyday spending, but there is no point in having one if customers do not redeem their points.

"Savvy spenders should consider how useful the rewards actually are and how easy they are to redeem."

Click here for more information on the Goldfish credit card