What Are Credit Card Points Worth? A Beginner's Guide

"I have 200,000 points." Great! But is that $2,000 or $5,000? The answer depends on how you use them, and that's the single biggest thing beginners get wrong.

Myth: a point is a point

Nope. Points aren't money with a fixed value. The same 60,000 points can be a $600 statement credit or a business class seat worth several thousand dollars. What you buy with them decides what they're worth.

The three kinds of points

• Bank points. Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou points, Bilt points. These are the most valuable because you can move them to many airlines and hotels.
• Airline miles. Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and so on. Useful, but locked into that airline and its partners.
• Hotel points. Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, IHG. Values swing a lot from program to program.

Rough values to start with

These are the starter estimates I use in my tracker. They're not promises. They're a sensible middle so you can see roughly what your balances are worth.

Notice Hilton at 0.5 cents and Hyatt at 1.5 cents. That's why "100,000 hotel points" can mean very different things.

How to figure out cents per point

This is the one formula worth memorizing:

(Cash price minus taxes and fees you pay) ÷ points used = value per point

Here's an example with round numbers. Say a business class seat costs $4,000 in cash, or 60,000 points plus $200 in taxes:

• $4,000 minus $200 = $3,800
• $3,800 ÷ 60,000 points = about 6.3 cents per point

Same points as a $600 statement credit? That's 1 cent per point. Same points, six times the value.

One honest caveat: only count the cash price if you'd actually pay something close to it. If you'd never buy a $4,000 seat, it's still a great use of points, it's just not "worth" $4,000 to you.

The redemptions that waste the most value

• Gift cards and Amazon checkout. Often less than 1 cent per point. This is the big one.
• Merchandise from the rewards catalog.
• Statement credits, unless you need the cash.
• Letting points expire. The worst value of all is zero.

Where points usually go furthest

• Business and first class flights, especially international.
• High-end hotels where cash rates are high, like Hyatt properties.
• Transfer bonuses, when a bank gives you extra miles for moving points. That's how I flew Virgin Upper Class to London.

Don't forget: some points expire

Bank points are generally safe as long as you keep a card open that earns them. Airline and hotel points are another story. Some expire after 12 to 24 months with no activity, and a few expire on a fixed schedule no matter what you do. The tracker's Point Values tab lists how each program expires and flags balances that are getting close.

See what your points are worth in one place

My tracker multiplies every balance by its value and shows you one number: what all your points are worth together. It's right on the My Snapshot tab, so you always know where you stand.