In this digital age, it’s never been easier to stay organized. From calendars and grocery shopping to budgeting and fitness, there’s an app for just about anything. And that includes keeping track of all your points and miles from your loyalty and rewards accounts.
Why You Should Track Your Rewards
Do you know how many points or miles you’ve earned? It’s important to keep a close eye on your loyalty accounts. Here’s why:
Rewards Expiration
Some programs have rewards that don’t expire, but that’s rare. Most require you to redeem your points or miles within a certain time frame. If you don’t keep tabs on your accounts, your rewards might vanish into thin air.
Bonuses
You can earn bonus points or miles in a number of ways:
- Using your rewards card for purchases within bonus categories
- Signing up for limited-time promotions
- Reaching a spend threshold
- Holding elite status
Tracking rewards ensures that you’re getting the bonuses you’re entitled to.
Hacked Accounts
Not only do cybercriminals target bank accounts and mobile wallets, but they’ll also hack into loyalty accounts to steal your points or miles. If you don’t keep a close eye on your rewards, hackers could wipe out your entire balance.
5 Online Rewards-Tracking Tools
Ready for them? Here are five online tools to make your rewards life easier:
AwardWallet
This OG is also the most popular website for tracking rewards. AwardWallet.com currently supports 705 loyalty programs and manages over 167 billion points and miles with 648,000 active members. There are two plans to choose from:
- AwardWallet Free will let you track reward balances for you and your family. You’ll also get email notifications when your points or miles are about to expire.
- Award Wallet Plus includes additional analysis tools, like historical averages, exporting balances and more. This version is available for a donation (the amount is up to you).
If you love playing around with numbers, then you might want to shoot for the Plus version. But for most people, the basic one is all you’ll need.
MaxRewards
While AwardWallet focuses on loyalty programs, MaxRewards.co solely integrates with banks and credit card issuers. The app-only platform provides plenty of useful features, including automatic activation of rewards categories, best card for use, and a tracker for your welcome bonuses.
Besides tracking rewards, MaxRewards also gives you important credit information, like overall credit card balance, credit utilization ratio, and available credit.
Points Loyalty Wallet
Since 2000, Points.com has helped its members organize their points or miles, for free. You can track accounts from over 110 loyalty programs and exchange your rewards between different programs. Albeit at a ratio of less than 1:1.
Tripit Pro
This online travel tool offers detailed daily itineraries and real-time travel notifications. Tripit Pro (tripit.com) also happens to track points and miles from over 150 rewards programs as well. Other software requires you to manually enter loyalty program details. With Tripit Pro’s Point Tracker feature, this information will automatically populate.
Other features include expiration notifications, seat tracking, flight refund alerts, and the ability to share your itinerary. Tripit Pro costs $49 a year, but you can try it free for 30 days.
UsingMiles
As its name suggests, UsingMiles.com not only helps you track rewards, but also redeem them. With the free membership, you can track your points and miles, as well as book travel with cash.
If you want additional features, you’ll have to fork over $29.99 per year for the premium membership. The higher-tier plan comes with alerts for expiring points and miles, notifications for special bonus rewards from your loyalty programs, and the ability to book award travel using points, miles, and cash.
Online Rewards Tracker Limitations
While all five sites seem like great additions to your rewards arsenal, there are a few things you should keep in mind, including:
Relying on a Third-Party
None of the online tools are affiliated with the actual loyalty programs they track. So the only way to make sure, say an expiration alert is accurate, is to contact the loyalty program directly.
Besides rewards expiration, you’re also relying on the software to keep your information secure. In order for these tracking sites to work, you’ll have to share sensitive account details.
Doesn’t Track All Programs
Even AwardWallet, the online tracking giant, cannot pull data from travel biggies like Delta, Southwest, and United. However, the tool does let you manually add your account balances from non-partnered programs. It’s not the most ideal setup, but it’ll have to do for now.
Bottom Line
Keeping a close watch on your loyalty accounts is a must, so your rewards don’t expire unknowingly. Plus, it’s a great way to ensure you didn’t get hacked. If you want a super easy way to track your rewards, AwardWallet, MaxRewards, Points, Tripit Pro, and UsingMiles are excellent solutions.
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