My Personal Thoughts About Loyalty Programs

angry man with a banana

“Go ahead and swipe your rewards card if you have one.”

“Do you have a rewards card? Would you like one for free?”

“After you buy 10 items, you can earn bonus points, upgrades, free coffee, and vouchers!”

“It only takes a minute. Please join, you won’t regret it! It’s free! Why wouldn’t you want free stuff? (Are you serious?)”

I’m going to be honest. I have no desire to be a part of your club, program or scheme, because of the fact that you offer nothing that I want. If there were other things I wanted from you, I would have already bought it with the other stuff I just bought.

Please stop wasting my time over filing out these forms, getting statements, being told about all these “exclusive” offers, as well as monitoring my points and membership card.

I never remember my own points and often times they expire, obviously the reason I don’t bother anymore. I have my own leisure time I’m interested in, and those tasks take away from that time. My time is golden in my eyes. Regardless of how much money I make, time will always be more valuable to me. Why can’t these loyalty programs just pay me for my time that they waste? How about $90/hour, which is more than I make. That’s how I view my time.

oversized wallet in mans back pants pocket

There was a time when my wallet was so loaded with receipts and methods of keeping track of various points and loyalty programs that I could barely even fit it into my primary school pants. Yeah yeah, I lost a bet and had them because I tend to hoard, buzz off. Besides, I ended up splitting those pants, just like my wallet.

These loyalty programs are supposedly ways to save us money. Yeah right. Instead, they just are money makers for themselves, otherwise they wouldn’t waste time promoting them. However with the way companies talk about their rewards programs, it makes me feel as though I’m missing out on something, or am a fool for not joining. But the moment I join, I quickly remember how pointless it really is.

Once I join, all I end up thinking about when out and about, is “I didn’t forget that card, did I?” “Where is that receipt with the voucher?” “Did I seriously leave it at home again?” “I got a flight to book, where’s the card with my Frequent Flyer points?” I spend nearly an hour looking for this stuff, and realize I’m not going to find it, and have just wasted my time.

Can you imagine working for one of those schemes? What does it feel like asking people to sign up over and over? They must know themselves what a waste of time it really is. Having that type of involvement doesn’t do anything for people, except the ones profiting off of it.

I say we should make them all illegal. Get rid of these special prices, club pricing, member’s discounts, or frequent shopper points to eventually get a small discount. Want more customers? Drop your prices for everyone. And say it doesn’t happen, we can still get those prices to drop and schemes to disappear by refusing involvement. They can’t exist without any members.

I’m going to begin a club without any membership fees, no discounts, secret offers, and won’t bother you ever again. Just say “no” to all those other clubs. The benefit? More freedom, more time. Use that extra time wisely. It’s gotta be worth more than $90 an hour.

Well that’s my opinion. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think about it.