Before you redeem credit card points, subtract any taxes you’d still pay from the cash price of what you’re getting, divide by the points it costs, and multiply by 100 for cents per point. If your points can go to cash back or travel at about a cent each, as Chase Ultimate Rewards points can, skip anything under that.
Points don’t come with a fixed price. The same 25,000 points can book a $500 flight, with $10 in taxes to pay, or buy a $200 gift card. That’s a $290 difference on one balance.
The math takes a minute. Take the cash price of the flight, gift card, or item, subtract any taxes or fees you’d still owe when paying with points, divide by the points required, and multiply by 100 to get cents per point.
The flight works out to $490 divided by 25,000, or 1.96 cents per point. The $200 gift card for the same 25,000 points comes to 0.8 cents.
Use a cent per point as your floor for bank points, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou points, and Capital One miles. Each of those programs offers at least one easy redemption worth about a cent, either cash back or travel booked through the card’s own site. Anything below that pays you less than an option you already have. Hotel points run lower, about 0.4 cent for Hilton and 0.7 cent for Marriott in NerdWallet’s 2026 estimates, so measure a hotel redemption against its program’s typical value instead.
The convenient redemptions are where points lose value. Merchandise from a card’s rewards catalog can price points at half a cent. Gift cards run from half a cent to a cent, depending on the program and the store. Paying with points at a big online retailer’s checkout returns 0.7 or 0.8 cents a point with those bank programs.
Transfers to airline and hotel partners can push a point well past a cent. If cash is all you ever take, check whether a cash-back card would pay you more than your points do.
Do the division before every redemption. With bank points, if the option in front of you comes in under a cent, skip it and take the redemption that pays a cent.
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