I posted a couple of weeks ago about my fear of the devaluation of points in Citi’s Thank You rewards program, and that I had cashed out most of my points for the mortgage payment reward. At least as of now, the mortgage payment reward is $0.007987 per point, or 93,900 points for a $750 reward.
For those of you curious as to how this works, here is a quick overview. You have to call the customer service number to request the reward and when you do you will need to provide the representative with the name of your mortgage company. You will be provided a request ID number, and a paper check will be sent to you in about two weeks. It is then your responsibility to forward the check on to your mortgage company to be applied to your account.
The interesting thing is how the check is made out, which could make the reward more flexible than you would initially think. The check you receive is simply made payable to the lender with Citi as the payor. The check you receive will not have your name or any account number printed on it. This means you could have this made out to a friend’s mortgage company (the idea being the friend would be willing to pay you back for the reward check that would be applied to their account) or perhaps have the check made out to a credit card company that also offers mortgage products. For example, if you requested a check to be made out to Chase, you could then send the check in to your Chase credit card account to pay down your balance or even create a credit balance you could then request a refund check for.
As I noted before, this is probably not the time to have a large number of reward points built up in any single program, and gift cards are a risky proposition just because there is no way of knowing who will survive the current economic downturn. This is a quick and easy way to realize some value for your Thank You points, which could be worth little or nothing in the months ahead.