Update 01/17: Devaluation is now in place again. Fingers crossed you were able to use up your points before now.
Third update: Now some people that were showing the new redemption rates are now seeing the old ones. I’d redeem your points if you can get them to be worth 0.5¢.
Second update January 2nd, 2018: Looks like some people still see the old options…
Update January 2nd, 2018. Not 100% sure when this occurred but Samsung has made two negative changes to their rewards program:
- Devalued points. Previously you could redeem points for the following:
- $5 Visa gift card: 1,500 points (0.333¢)
- $20 Visa gift card: 5,000 points (0.4¢)
- $50 Visa gift card: 10,000 points (0.5¢)
Under the new program the only option is the $50 Visa gift card and this now requires 12,500 points (0.4¢).
- Eliminated referral program. Previously you could refer friends and both parties would receive a $5 bonus
Original post November 14th, 2016: Samsung has added a rewards program to their mobile wallet/payment platform Samsung Pay. Users will receive points whenever they make a purchase using Samsung Pay and these points can be redeemed for gift cards (including Visa gift cards), Samsung products and more. In addition to this users can also instantly win prizes that change monthly.
In addition to this they’ve also launched loyalty tiers based on how many transactions you make per month. The rewards program is scheduled to begin on or about November 17th, 2016 at 6PM and the the first phase is scheduled to end at 11:59PM on November 17th, 2017.
Let’s take a deeper look at this new program.
Samsung Rewards
Points are not tied to the value of each purchase, instead you earn a flat 10 points per qualified transaction (this increases based on your status outlined below). You’re also limited to earning points on 50 qualified transactions per month. Other restrictions included:
- If multiple transactions are made within five (5) minutes, Participants will only earn Points for one (1) Qualified Transaction in these circumstances
- Points earned will expire at the end of the calendar month one year after they are earned
- Points will be awarded approximately within 24 hours of a qualified transaction.
Status Tiers
Samsung Rewards has three status levels
- Silver status: Requires five transactions in one month and gives users twice the points for every transaction
- Gold: Requires twenty transactions in one month and gives users triple points for every transaction
- Platinum: Requires thirty transactions in one month and gives users quadruple points
You can earn Tier status any time within the month by making the required number of transactions and your Tier status lasts the next following full calendar month. For example if you reached Platinum status on November 17th you’ll have that status level for the rest of November and all of December. You’d only receive 40x points per transaction for transactions made after you reached that level.
Instant Win Prizes
The program will award select active enrollees instant win prizes, the prizes will change monthly and to launch they are offering a trip for two to Napa Valley.
Redeeming Points
- $10 merchant gift card: 2,400 points (0.416¢ per point)
- $20 merchant gift card: 4,800 points (0.416¢ per point)
- $50 merchant gift card: 10,000 points (0.5¢ per point)
- $5 Visa gift card: 1,500 points (0.333¢)
- $20 Visa gift card: 5,000 points (0.4¢)
- $50 Visa gift card: 10,000 points (0.5¢)
Best bet is 0.5¢ per point.
Our Verdict
At best you’ll be able to earn a total of 2,000 points per month, that’s worth approximately $10 per month (if you max it out fully with Platinum status) if they aren’t holding any specials and you save up your points.
The nice thing about this is that you still earn the normal credit card rewards and get these Samsung pay rewards on top of it, you’ll also receive points if you use a debit card and most debit cards don’t have rewards programs anymore. I suspect all of the major mobile wallets/payments systems will introduce rewards programs in the near future as well.
Hat tip to reader Avrohom K
Lost almost 6k rewards points. That’s so bogus!!! I was saving my points for something. Very upset at this horrible and basically criminal ToS hogwash!!!
and no more points by buying a phone or stuff from samsung anymore
I attained Platinum status by mid-late Jan, but I noticed today that I had a transaction earn only 20 points. Unless I’ve misunderstood the rules or they’ve recently changed, every last transaction in Feb should earn 40 points.
AB, they have moved into phase 2 of their program. That includes the devaluation of the points with the redemptions, but it also means that point values have been cut in half. Each level is now:
Member – 5 points per purchase
Silver – 10 points
Gold – 15 points
Platinum – 20 points
So yeah, the program has become even less valuable!
This is awful! After the first devaluation I was ready to give it up once getting the $50 gift card. January was pushed to February and now it’s been pushed into March. I like not having to bring my wallet into the gym and it is convenient MOST of the time. With that being said when my perks disappear I change services. It’s just how I roll.
For the convenience I’m trading off letting Samsung into my personal life in regards to my purchase history. I don’t really like Samsung. They don’t have any good faith built up for me to continue using their phone. No Oreo update and slow security updates were a trade off I was willing to make. A $200 or $100 gift card really helps to pay down the cost of the phone over two years. With expiring points and the point system changing it’s not worth me supporting them.
With more and more pay terminals getting updated to work with official tap to pay Samsung can go take a hike.
glad that i switched to pixel 2, was fun when samsung pay worked flawlessly
They updated the referral expiry to Jan 31st
I’ll email you screenshot
I just redeemed 4250 points expecting a $15 Uber GC. Received a $20 Uber GC. Not a deal, just sharing.
My wife had a “similar” experience in December, redeemed for a $50 VGC, received $10 VGC.
She had a few calls with support to fix that (you can guess right, she wasn’t happy), ended up receiving another $40 VGC, and a week later it got combined with the $10 she received originally.
I had $20 expire on 12/31 too. And now that the devaluation has taken place, there’s no rush to redeem them anymore right?
ugh, it’s too late…mine has already been devalued:
$10 merchant gift card: 3000 points
$15 merchant gift card: 4250 points
$20 merchant gift card: 5500 points
$25 merchant gift card: 6500 points
$30 merchant gift card: 8000 points
$5 Visa gift card: 2000 points
$20 Visa gift card: 6000 points
$50 Visa gift card: 12500 points
$100 Visa gift card: 25000 points
$200 Visa gift card: 50000 points
Mine has devalued too. Is there any chance this will be reverted back to old value ?
Doubtful
The lamest of lame is the fact points expire….I lost about 1000 pts just cuz they expired and they went fast too. I just redeemed it and probably wont use it anymore, even though I reached platinum status with that newegg debacle from December.
I’m getting the devaluation but still seeing referrals worth $5