2024 refresh - rewards of credit cards from Discovery, Capitec, Woolies and FNB (Miles, Cash Back, Vouchers and eBucks)

[s307kingsley]

EDIT/UPDATE (6 days later - 3rd of May 2024): I updated the calculation table below.

What's best seems to be down to being able to earn FNB eBucks when paying for your Municipality and Electricity via the Clicks App and Website. If it does still give you 15% back in eBucks, then the FNB Credit Card wins over Discovery.

Can any FNB user confirm it still works via the app? (It does not work in store. I tried.)

original post:​

I know there are many posts on specific rewards, how they all got worse over time and how one has to play by their rules to optimise. We also all have stories where this system did not work for us and it sucks. Let's not talk about that here.

Let's check the math instead. Searching the forums and gooling only gets me this far. If you used their rewards, and you checked the statements to see it all play out and spend the rewards, please help me get my math right ...

Question 1:

A Gold-level Vitality & Discovery Credit Card holder spends R1,000 on healthy food at Woolies. They get 50% back in rewards. Does that mean...

A) Vitality points and 500 Discovery Miles; or

B) Vitality points 5,000 Discovery Miles?

Question 2:

A Level 5 FNB Credit Card holder buys 160L of Diesel at Engin per month, and is entitled rewards of R4 per Liter. Does that mean they get ...

A) 4x 160 = R640; or

B) 640 eBucks?

Question 3: When an owner of a Gold Woolies Credit Card spends R1,000 at Woolies. How does 2% back actually work?

A) R20 back in money to spend anywhere; or

B) R20 worth of money to spend at Woolies, and only as a voucher after 3 months?

If you find any flaws in my logic, please let me know.

https://preview.redd.it/1imp4jkw66y...bp&s=794af07555aafe25650870a0b7c237f7d92d7bb4

 

[kevin_67]

@s307kingsley For question 3 you get the money back as vouchers

 

[s307kingsley]

@kevin_67 thank you!

 

[susu]

@s307kingsley Question 2

Not sure on business but with private wealth it is capped at R2750 per month or 20% of your monthly spend on the account whichever is lower, of fuel which you can earn ebucks on. Haven't had a business bank account with FNB for a while but used to be the same not sure what the caps are now though. But this is what it would look using your question

160L OF FUEL @ Whatever the inland price of 95 fuel is per liter so lets say for simplicity R25 per liter that would = R4000 but limited to R2750/R25 per liter which would mean 110l of fuel qualify for earn

Let's say you spent R20000 the month on that account 20% of that would mean R4000 could qualify but because the other cap is lower it shall apply.

110l of fuel earning R4 per liter gives you R440 or 44000 ebucks.

10 ebucks = R10.

Edit I see the max earn is dependant on which account you have

Platinum and enterprise business accounts have a cap of R5000 of fuel spend which are elegible for earn rates

The others are all capped at R3500.

 

[susu]

@s307kingsley You haven't included the checkers earn in your FNB ebucks calculations, you can earn 15% on level 5 for spending at checkers.

 

[s307kingsley]

@susu awesome - will update!

 

[susu]

@s307kingsley Quick question regarding municipal rates at clicks

Do you earn the 15% as with regular purchases on level 5 with ebucks when paying rates their. I know with checkers money market payments are excluded from ebucks earn, is this not the case at clicks I always assumed as much?

 

[s307kingsley]

@susu I have not done it yet but read in other Reddit threads about people doing it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceZA/comments/13pkltq

Search for the word "clicks" in there.

 

[s307kingsley]

Update: I was at Clicks today. In store, at the branch you cannot pay for electricity or municipal rate. This only works online or via the app. So not sure if the thing with the 15% back in eBucks still works.

another Reddit thread that mentioned it was this one from 10 months ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceZA/comments/14m7qg4

 

[pastorben]

@s307kingsley For Question 1 you would get 5000 Discovery Miles back and I think 10 or 20 vitality points per healthy item.

 

[s307kingsley]

@pastorben Ahhhh - that makes a huge difference. Thank you!

 

[mountainerd]

@s307kingsley Question 1:

Healthy food in regard to Discovery miles works on spend amounts and not on item counts.

From my understanding and experience this is how it works:

You get a base discount, mine is 25% at your preferred partner (PnP for me). Then based on your spend you can get additional discounts, I manage between 5-12% on top of the base discount. This is all dependent on the previous month’s spend, so if I spent R0 this money then I’ll get no additional discounts, only the 25%. For example to get the addition 12% I need to spend R10,000.00 during the month, but this excludes debit orders.

All of this gets paid back as Discovery miles. You do then also get miles back for the actual spend. I think it is 1 mile per R10 or something like that.

Note I have a Platinum CC, and am on Diamond status for both vitality health and vitality money. So yeah I don’t get anywhere near the 50% back, for that I would need to spend R25,000.00 per month.

Hope this helps, and if I got some info wrong here just shout.

 

[s307kingsley]

@mountainerd so good to see a real world example! thank you

Just so that I can explain it to my grandma ...

Let's assume I only manage to achieve the base discount of 25%.

The 25% discount does not happen at the checkout at PnP on my first shop.

I still pay R1000 for R1000 worth of shopping.

Later that day, magic happens 2500 Discovery Miles arrive in my Discovery Account.

Next say I go shopping at at PnP again. I bring stuff worth R250 to the checkout till.

I need to go into the Discovery app, and convert 2500 Discovery Miles into a R250 PnP shopping vouchter. I show at voucher code at the checkout till instead of paying with money.

Alternatively, I can buy stuff on TakeaLot, Makro .... worth R250 with the 2500 Discovery Miles.

Please confirm.

 

[lordismyshepherd]

@s307kingsley You can convert the miles directly to cash on the credit card as well.

 

[cellosandwolves]

@s307kingsley Let's assume I only manage to achieve the base discount of 25%.

The 25% discount does not happen at the checkout at PnP on my first shop.

I still pay R1000 for R1000 worth of shopping.

Yes, you pay the full amount at checkout.

Later that day, magic happens 2500 Discovery Miles arrive in my Discovery Account.

Assuming that your basket was 100% healthy food items, on the 15th of the following month, you get 2500 miles in your Discovery account. You get penalised for unhealthy items (e.g. sweets), and neutral items just don't count (e.g. chicken with skin).

You can monetise these miles to cash in your bank account immediately via the app. 2500 miles = R250 cash in your account. No need for vouchers. If you buy online at Takealot, Makro etc. you can use the miles directly and you get an additional 5, 10 or 15% discount depending on whether you have vitality, bank and car insurance.

 

[s307kingsley]

@cellosandwolves perfect thank you.

Yes - I interviewed some check-out staff last week on this 'unhealthy foods' topic. They say Discovery people pay two baskets. One with all the healthy stuff with their Discovery Card and the unhealthy stuff thereafter separately with their Woolies or Capitec credit card.

 

[cellosandwolves]

If you use a virtual card, you also get 0.55% back via Discovery miles on all of your transactions using that card (as soon as the transaction clears "pending"), independent of the other discounts (e.g. fuel, healthy food).

 

[cellosandwolves]

Also, assuming you hit your weekly Vitality and bank spend goals, you will get a minimum of R30 back per week (i.e. >= R120 per month) in gameboard rewards (again Discovery miles which you can just convert to cash weekly).

There are lots of moving parts, but it adds up.

 

[s307kingsley]

@cellosandwolves Indeed. This is a bit of an educational journey. I did have Vitality and eBucks for 10+ years now and fell for the marketing of XX% back but never got anything back because I did not educate myself on how to play their game right. Thanks for your help.

 

[s307kingsley]

@cellosandwolves nice - I will add the virtual one one Apple Pay