MSPeconomist

Macy's was pushing this hard today in a suburban store. The deal is ten points per dollar spent at Macy's on either their own credit card or a Macy's AmEx card, and one point per dollar otherwise. Cosmetics department purchases earn double points, presumably indefinitely.

pbnair

That is not correct. It is 1pt/1$ when using Macy's card and 1pt/$10 when using non-Macy's card. I earned 8pt for $56 spent put on Citi Premier card - can't figure out the earning rate yet. See https://www.plenti.com/partners/macys for details. Wasted 5 minutes of my life signing up for Plenti.

snackboxes

There is definitely not plenti of reasons to sign up for this!

eajusa

They must really believe we are becoming more gullible.

MSPeconomist

You're right. I had the ratio right but the numbers wrong. With Plenti points worth one cent each, this is only 1% cash back (2% for cosmetics and fragrances) when using a Macy's own or Macy's AmEx card and only 0.1% cash back (or 0.2% for...) otherwise.

Spend $1,000 and get $1 back. Is this even worth bothering with for most people?

DougDons

Doesn't cost anything to sign up and it appears you don't have to choose between earning Plenti points or the store's points currency, so I'll sign up and add another points currency to my list.

I wouldn't choose Plenti over another type of point currency...

mia

Note that there is a Plenti Credit Card, with a 2500 point bonus after $250 spend:

https://www304.americanexpress.com/c...rch:RecomLink1

Worse, there is an option to transfer Membership Rewards points to Plenti, at the unfavorable rate 500:400.

http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...%7Cbdsc%7Cmrhp

I do not find any option to transfer in the other direction from Plenti to Membership Rewards, which would be interesting if the ratio were 400:500.

jmanEB04

Actually the transfer to MR points may be the best part. Even with a less than desirable ratio, it's pretty easy to earn more than 1.25 cents per point in value with MR. Think transfers to BA with a 30-50% bonus.

mia

It would be if it were possible. Does Plenti offer transfers to Membership Rewards?

Bigserver1

No. I believe you can just transfer MR to Plenti points. Amazingly, it's 500 MR points for 400 Plenti points.

The lack of value in this card/program is astounding.

mia

This matches my understanding. I did read one newspaper article in which the reporter asserted that Plenti is replacing Membership Rewards, and all existing pont balances would be converted on a 500:400 basis .

Bigserver1

LOL, if that were to happen, cardmembers would go nuclear. Can't imagine that is the case.

longtime_lurker

I agree, I certainly don't believe that this would be happening. I happen to use ATT and so I enrolled for a few extra bucks off gas - what I'm really interested in, however, is if it will take off and become like it's U.K. counterpart.

I truly think there's a lot of potential, and obviously (to me) with an undertaking this big of trying to make one big loyalty program, there is going to be a gradual increase in value.

I kind of relate this to TYP. Until the recent Prestige changes and the FF transfer options, TYP were much less valued than MR/UR. Now, I actually have cancelled my CSP, planning to downgrade my PRG to Sr. Green, and keep Prestige long term because to me there is more value in what I do in amassing TYP (I fly AA mostly, and to get "free" tickets to me (using TYP) AND get AA miles is a win/win and absolutely worth more than MR)

FreakingFlyer

Interesting that AT&T is one of the partners, given the recent splash Citi is doing with their AT&T Access card.

vgacolor

The only benefit I see is that if for some reason you wanted to convert membership reward points to Macy's gift cards, going through Plenti it will be more advantageous.

Membership Rewards -> 12,000 points per $100 Macy's gift card

1 Membership Rewards = 1 Plenti = 1 cent off at Macy's