That’s a title I never thought I’d write, but given that the NASA Federal Credit Union are currently offering a 50,000 point bonus on their credit card it is one that needs writing. Thanks to reader Trevor, we have the rewards website:Â https://startrekrewards.nasafcu.com//login.php. A lot of credit unions require you to have an actual card to be able to log in, but thankfully you can view sample rewards.
Cash Back
- $50 for 7,100 points (or 0.704¢ per point)
- $100 for 14,200 points (or 0.704¢ per point)
Gift Cards
Selection is somewhat limited (e.g no Amazon, but they do have Best Buy & others). Prices are the same for all options:
- $50 for 6,500 points (or 0.769¢ per point)
- $100 for 12,400 points (or 0.806¢ per point)
Travel
The travel page unfortunately does not contain a lot of information (apart from the fact that there are no restrictions in terms of when you can travel). The price of tickets is tied to the monetary cost. Thankfully another reader (Brendan) was able to find out that points are worth 1¢ each towards travel.
Misc
You can also redeem for a bunch of other stuff (merchandise, green products, experiences, live concerts/sports, star trek rewards, charitable donations & theme parks). None of those looked like particularly good value (and in general they never are). I’m not that familiar with Star Trek merchandise, so not sure if that is a better option or not.
Our Verdict
It’s good to have a best and worse case scenario to know how much points are worth, at their absolute worst the points will be worth 0.704¢ towards cash (have you redeem in increments of 7,100 so will actually be worth slightly less if you end up with orphan points) and best case scenario they are 1¢ towards travel.
If we go back to the current 50,000 point bonus it’s 50,000 points after $5,000 in spend. The card does offer bonus categories on Star Trek purchases (3x) and gas (2x) but at least for gas there is much better options out there. So let’s assume that after $5,000 spend you’d have 55,000 points, that’s worth $550 towards travel or $350 in cash with 5,300 points left over (could spend more to either get some gift cards or another $50).
I’m fairly certain that NASA FCU now do a hard pull to become a member and they will likely do another for the credit card (sorry no idea if the inquiries will be combined). Please share your data points in that regards in the comments below.
Is the card worth signing up for? Depends on how much you value cash sign up bonuses and the fact that this is from a smaller credit card issuer. If I could get it for only a single hard pull I’d definitely do it…
