Received: from nobody by stodi.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.87) (envelope-from ) id 1cswTI-0000jj-4B for lojban-newreal@lojban.org; Tue, 28 Mar 2017 12:08:00 -0700 Received: from [162.244.12.40] (port=8873 helo=vac.yourmembernewonlineinfo.com) by stodi.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.87) (envelope-from ) id 1cswTD-0000hA-JM for lojban@lojban.org; Tue, 28 Mar 2017 12:07:59 -0700 To: lojban@lojban.org Subject: Alert: You have $50-in CVS Bonus-Points Waiting. Priority: Normal Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:07:55 -0400 From: CostcoPoints Message-ID: Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit X-Spam-Score: 2.9 (++) X-Spam_score: 2.9 X-Spam_score_int: 29 X-Spam_bar: ++ X-Spam-Report: Spam detection software, running on the system "stodi.digitalkingdom.org", has NOT identified this incoming email as spam. The original message has been attached to this so you can view it or label similar future email. If you have any questions, see the administrator of that system for details. Content preview: Member-Rewards Greetings lojban@lojban.org, The reason that we've reached out to you today is so we could let you know that you have recently-earned $50 in Costco-Points that are going to be-expiring at the end of this week if you have not claimed-them. [...] Content analysis details: (2.9 points, 5.0 required) pts rule name description ---- ---------------------- -------------------------------------------------- 0.0 URIBL_BLOCKED ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE: The query to URIBL was blocked. See http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/DnsBlocklists#dnsbl-block for more information. [URIs: go.here] -0.0 SPF_PASS SPF: sender matches SPF record 0.7 MIME_HTML_ONLY BODY: Message only has text/html MIME parts -1.9 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayes spam probability is 0 to 1% [score: 0.0000] 0.0 HTML_MESSAGE BODY: HTML included in message 1.9 RAZOR2_CF_RANGE_E8_51_100 Razor2 gives engine 8 confidence level above 50% [cf: 100] 0.5 RAZOR2_CF_RANGE_51_100 Razor2 gives confidence level above 50% [cf: 100] 0.9 RAZOR2_CHECK Listed in Razor2 (http://razor.sf.net/) 0.8 RDNS_NONE Delivered to internal network by a host with no rDNS 0.0 LOTS_OF_MONEY Huge... sums of money Member-Rewards
Greetings lojban@lojban.org,


The reason that we've reached out to you today is so we could let you know that you have recently-earned $50 in Costco-Points that are going to be-expiring at the end of this week if you have not claimed-them.

All you have to do to get your-reward today is follow the link-below here and fill-out a quick survey about your recent-experience shopping at Costco...it's that simple!


Go Here to Get Your $50-Costco Bonus-Now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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February is a special month for me for two reasons. First, it’s the month in which I receive my Costco membership renewal notification. Second, it’s the month in which Costco members receive their cash back rewards. Executive members get their 2% cash back reward coupon, and those members with a Costco Anywhere Citibank Visa receive their cash back rewards check earned from purchases over the past year. While both of these items use the term, “cash back,” they are two separate rebates from two very different programs available to Costco members. Costco Executive Membership Cash Back As executive members, my wife and I earn 2% cash back for each qualifying purchase at Costco. As the current year’s membership comes to a close, Costco sends out a renewal notification along with a coupon for the cash back earned over the previous year. This coupon can only be used at Costco for the purchase of merchandise through the check out line. It cannot be used for the purchase of alcohol, tobacco, or at their food court. An interesting fact some people don’t know is that while you can’t cash the Costco Executive Membership rebate check at your bank, but CAN be cashed at the Costco customer service counter. Costco members who have a Costco Anywhere Visa card earn cash back throughout the year by purchasing goods and services using the card. The rewards come in the form of a voucher in the February credit card statement. The first year I had a Costco Anywhere Visa I didn’t realize this, and ended up looking through my trash for the voucher. While you can exchange the voucher for cash, you can’t just take it to your bank. The voucher must be taken to the customer service desk at Costco where it can be cashed. Then, you can spend your money however you wish!

With an Executive Membership rebate of $64, I did exceed the $55 additional cost of the membership upgrade. We could have done better, but I found it too convenient to stop at the much closer Walmart to pick up necessities. We did much better with our Costco Anywhere Visa By Citi cash back, earning $364 cash back, exceeding by far the goal I set earlier in 2015. If you want to learn more about how you can use your Costco rewards, check out my other articles on Costco: Our Costco reward check arrived this week. It’s for $109 and change. Last year it was around $110. We have an Executive membership which has cost us $100/yr but is going up to $110/yr. The Executive membership gives us a 2% reward on pretax purchases at Costco warehouses. It does not include purchases of Costco cash cards or gas, something I was unaware of until I read the fine print on the back of the check. This means we spent around $5,450 on non gas and non cash card purchases. That’s a LOT of meat In a previous post I wrote about buying Costco Cash Cards online in order to get United miles. This still makes perfect sense, if you aren’t an Executive member. But do I want to forego the 2% cash reward for the miles? If I continue to pay almost exclusively with Cash Cards I buy online, our reward checks going forward would be greatly reduced – certainly below $55 and probably closer to $10 or less. And, in order to justify the Executive membership, which costs $55 more than the Gold membership, our reward check has to be more than $55. The warehouse club actually ticked off multiple boxes for what the Excentus survey showed consumers want with its new Costco Visa Anywhere card that went live on June 20. In addition to the gas benefit, Costco offers 3% back on restaurant and eligible travel purchases as well as 2% cash back benefit on all Costco purchases and 1% cash back on everything else. "Rewards that help consumers save on the cost of gasoline ranked #1 again in 2016 as the most popular loyalty program currency, with 37% of consumers preferring fuel discounts over credit card rewards, coupons, retailer points and instant discounts at the cash register," according to Excentus. "Respondents say they prefer fuel-saving rewards because they like saving money any way they can (39%) and they like earning rewards from everyday purchases made (23%) among a variety of retailers."

Costco's gas reward actually compares favorably to what's offered by American Express with its Blue Cash Preferred card, which Money Crashers rates as the best gas credit card. That card only offers 3% back on fuel purchases, but it does not cap spending. Still, for the average person, even if you assume gas prices climb to $2.50 per gallon, $7,000 is 2,800 gallons of gas. That's 42,000 miles of travel if you drive a car that only gets 15 miles per gallon, which is more than three times the 13,476 miles the average American drives each year, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Do rewards cards influence people? Rewards come in a lot of different packages. They include loyalty credit cards, as well as programs based on frequency of visits or making purchases. Excentus, which surveyed more than 1,000 consumers in the United States, showed that rewards programs do change consumer behavior. "More than one quarter (26%) of consumers say they shop more frequently at stores where they can earn rewards, 17% plan ahead to take advantage of rewards and promotions, and 14% shop only where they can earn rewards," Excentus, which provides loyalty marketing and technology solutions to retailers, found. "Another 13% said the ability to earn more rewards or save more money would prompt them to switch brands or shop at a different store."
A big win for Costco As a membership-based retailer, Costco risked pushing customers away when it made the decision to switch to the Visa card. While it offered better rewards, the change required people to activate a new card while their old one became invalid. That did cause initial confusion, but CFO Richard Galanti said that any issues are now well in the past. "Since June 20 and just the past many weeks, 1.1 million members have applied for the new card and over 730,000 new accounts have been activated or a little over 1 million additional Citi Visa cards in circulation," he said in September. "It's still early. We launched only 14 weeks ago, but so far, we are beating our initial expectations in terms of conversion, usage and new sign-ups to the card."