Expert: Credit card incentives are too hard to claim back

By MoneyhighStreet Staff. Published on July 19, 2008 This post currently has no comments.

It is often very hard for consumers to reclaim the rewards they earn for using credit cards, an industry expert has said.

Donald MacLeod, head of cards at Sainsbury''s Finance, said that many consumers opted for credit cards because of the incentives and cashback deals they offered, but found that getting the reward was very tricky.

He was commenting after research from Sainsbury''s released earlier this week (July 16th) showed that only three million of the 8.19 million people that used credit cards with rewards schemes in the last year bothered to reclaim their incentives.

Mr MacLeod explained: "The redemption process isn''t straightforward. It may either take a while before you get the vouchers or it''s just too difficult and awkward and people are just thinking they haven''t the time or energy to do that.

"For instance, where you accrue points and then redeem against flights you might have all the points sitting there but when you actually go to book the flight it is quite a tricky operation to get the flight you want to the destination on the date that you want."

Recent analysis from Moneyfacts.co.uk showed that credit card lenders were starting to respond to the credit crunch by increasing rates and removing deals.