I'll take cash, please

I use a credit card that has the "WorldPoints" reward program feature. I have always just waited until I build up enough points for a 1% cash reward and then request a refund check. I decided, however, to see what sort of value WorldPoints is providing for the merchandise in their catalog. I found an item that was just over the 1% cash back point threshold of 25,000 points.

See the image below for the Hamilton Beach Eclectrics mixer which can be yours for only 25,200 points!



Now take a look below and see that, alternatively, you could redeem those 25,000 points for $250 in cash.



So...is buying the blender for those points a better value than the $250 in cash?

Ummmm....no.

According to the Hamilton Beach website, this blender has a MSRP of $200.



And anyone who has shopped online in the past decade knows that you can usually find products cheaper than MSRP on stores like Amazon. Here is the same blender on Amazon.com for $186.



So, if you were to redeem 25,000 WorldPoints for a blender, instead of the $250 in cash, you would effectively be overpaying for that blender by $64!