priceline VISA card 5,000 free points

[TravelPhotographer]

Just got mine. (a credit card with Wm Shatner image)

$29 annual fee.

5,000 free points for 1st use.

4 points for each $1 spent on NameYourOwnPrice.

Points can be applied to reduce future NameYourOwnPrice results.

But no one at customer service can tell me how much a point is worth!

Any info & strategy advice appreciated.

[TravelPhotographer]

I now have been told:

each $1 spent on NameYourOwnPrice = 4 points = 4 cents = 4% credit

for example, $50 offer = 200 points = $2 credit = 4% discount

one gets 5000 point on any first buy = $50 credit

the problem is a $29 annual fee to earn 4pts/$1, otherwise its only 1pt/$1 = 1%, worse than most airline points

[dahammer]

just about all of the airlines issue a credit card and many will give you enough points for a free round trip on your first purchase. I just got a US Airways card because I was about to loose 27000 points due to inactivity. They offered to renew my "old" points and issue me 25000 new points, so I now have enough points for two domestic round trip tickets.

[ShibuyaJon]

the problem is a $29 annual fee to earn 4pts/$1, otherwise its only 1pt/$1 = 1%, worse than most airline points

For anyone who puts $725 or more a year on priceline products that qualify for the 4 points per dollar rate this card more than pays for itself.

here is the earnings structure:

4 points per $1 earned on "Name Your Own Price" transactions

3 points per $1 earned on eligible "Priceline.com" transactions

2 points per $1 earned on Utilities (cable internet service, electric and gas payments, etc.)

1 point per $1 earned on all other purchase transactions

5,000 points earned for first purchase Welcome Bonus (for the card with the $29 annual fee, this bonus is worth $50)

The 3 points per $1 for non-bidding products has led me to purchase such products from priceline for the first time (and I've been using priceline since it launched). For example, I just bought $3400 in airfare with my airline of choice via priceline's non-bidding product. $102 cashback is nice considering this is airfare I will be reimbursed for :) If I used my airline card I would have earned 3400 redeemable miles to add to my pile of >200,000 miles with this carrier.

This earnings structure is much better than most hotel or airline cards as with those cards you are locked into earning points or miles that expire and are constantly being devalued. I prefer cashback and a 4% cash back rate (after the $725 threshold) works for some of us. The last thing I need is more airline miles. I don't have time to use the hundreds of thousands I have now LOL

edited to add that there is no annual cap on the cash back that can be earned, unlike many cashback cards. Redeeming points is easy too; you can do it online by selecting which current charge you want to pay for with your points. I like not having to wait for a check, gift card, etc to be able to use the earned cashback.