Last updated 23 September 2026 · Written by Kgothatso Moleke · General information, not financial advice
The short version: a rewards programme is worth it only if what you get back exceeds what it costs you to qualify — including the higher account fee, the spending you would not otherwise have done, and the time. For most people it is close to breakeven. For a minority it is genuinely excellent. The arithmetic decides which you are, and it takes ten minutes.
Convert everything to rands first
Points, miles, tiers and cashback percentages exist partly to stop you doing this. So do it before anything else.
Find what a point is worth when you spend it. Take a reward you would actually redeem, divide its rand price by the points it costs, and you have your rate. If 10,000 points buys a R500 voucher, a point is worth 5 cents. Now every earning claim becomes comparable.
The sum
Annual value of rewards, minus the extra account fee, minus any programme subscription, minus anything you bought only to earn. If that is negative, the programme is costing you money regardless of how many points you have.
On R12,000 a month of card spending, here is what different effective return rates are actually worth:
| Effective return | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5% | R60 | R720 |
| 1% | R120 | R1,440 |
| 2% | R240 | R2,880 |
| 5% on a narrow category | R600 | R7,200 |
Now put a cost against it. If qualifying for the programme means moving from a R7.50 account to one costing R240 a month, that upgrade costs R2,760 a year. At a 1% effective return you are R1,320 down. At 2% you are barely ahead — and you are ahead only if you were going to spend that R12,000 anyway.
The four things that quietly destroy the value
Headline rates that apply to almost nothing. “Up to 30% back” usually means 30% at two partner retailers, on a capped monthly amount, at the top tier, if you also hold the insurance. The number that matters is your blended rate across everything you actually spend, and it is generally a fraction of the headline.
Tier requirements that change your behaviour. If reaching the good tier requires a minimum spend, a qualifying product or a certain number of transactions, the programme is now steering your decisions. Spending R1,000 to earn R80 back is not a reward. It is an R920 purchase you may not have wanted.
Points you never redeem. Unredeemed points are worth exactly nothing, and programmes rely on this. Expiry dates, awkward redemption catalogues and minimum thresholds all quietly increase the share that is never claimed. If you have been earning for two years and have redeemed nothing, your actual return to date is zero.
Interest, which beats every reward. A card charging around 22% costs you roughly 1.8% a month on any balance carried. No rewards programme in the country returns that. If you do not clear the card in full every month, the programme is irrelevant — you are paying far more in interest than you could ever earn back, and the right move is to stop using the card, not to optimise the points.
When rewards genuinely work
They work when the rewarded spending is spending you would do anyway — groceries, fuel, medical — and the programme sits on top of it rather than changing it. They work when you clear the card monthly. They work when the qualifying account is one you would have chosen on its fees alone. And they work when redemption is something you will actually use, such as money off a grocery bill, rather than a catalogue you will never open.
Under those conditions a 1 to 2% return on unavoidable spending is real money for no behaviour change, and worth having.
Where it fails is the mirror image: a higher-fee account taken for the rewards, spending nudged upward to hit tiers, a balance carried on the card, and points that expire unredeemed. That combination is common, and it is a net loss dressed up as a benefit.
A five-question test
- What did I redeem in the last twelve months, in rands?
- What did the qualifying account and any subscription cost me over the same period?
- What is my blended return across everything I spent — not the headline rate?
- Did I buy anything purely to earn points or hold a tier?
- Did I carry a card balance in any month?
A yes to question five makes the rest academic. Otherwise, question one minus question two is your answer, and it is usually smaller than people expect.
Work out what the qualifying account is really costing you first — what your bank account actually costs you covers how to get that number off your own statements.
Note on figures: the examples use illustrative spending and fee levels to show the method, not any specific programme’s terms. Rewards structures change frequently — check the current terms of your own programme, including caps, tiers and expiry, and do the sum with your own numbers.