Credit union program delivers

Monday, April 26, 2004

Source - The Globe and Mail

Martha Dyck credits her points card for taking her family around world and back again to their Alberta home.

"We've done Costa Rica, we've gone to Honduras and we've been on cruises," Ms. Dyck says. "We've even travelled to Cuba all within the last three years -- and all on points."

The family's several trips in the past few years, she says, were possible because of the flexibility built into her credit union-issued MasterCard, which has let them travel when they want, how they want.

Ms. Dyck is among more than 700,000 Canadians who have credit cards supplied by Regina-based CU Electronic Transaction Services, or CUETS, which services more than 95 per cent of all credit unions outside Quebec.

Through the organization's Choice Rewards program, Ms. Dyck and her husband can rack up points for free travel and brand-name merchandise rewards.

Unlike some points cards issued by banks, the couple can redeem points whenever they want, even though they may not have enough to pay for a particular trip.

"Cardholders can choose when they want to travel without any seat restrictions or blackout periods," explains Sandi Bergen, CUETS' executive vice-president for growth and development.

"They also choose how they want to travel -- be it first class, business class or the cheapest seat sale that's available," Ms Bergen adds.

"The cardholder gets to determine how and when they want to redeem their Choice Rewards."

The program even lets platinum class cardholders like the Dycks increase their accumulation of points because they collect two points for each dollar they spend.

The top-tier card also comes with out-of-province/out-of-country medical insurance that covers the first 31 days of each trip.

CUETS' seven other MasterCard products vary in their features. Annual fees range from nothing to $150 a year for the platinum class card.

Through the Choice Rewards program, they all let cardholders redeem points for any available seat for any kind of travel on any carrier.

There are no booking fees. Cardholders can even pay a trip's taxes with their points.

With CUETS' platinum card, accumulated points have a value of 2 per cent, so 1,000 points is worth $20 towards a travel or merchandise reward. Its other, non-platinum cards have an accumulation value of 1 per cent.

"The CUETS MasterCard is great if you value choice and flexibility," Ms. Bergen says. "You also don't have to wait five years to take your first trip.

"If you don't have enough points to pay for a whole trip, you redeem the ones you have for a partial credit against the cost and pay the rest with your MasterCard."

Ms. Dyck has done just that. In fact, she and her family have enjoyed so many trips, they're on a first-name basis with the staff at CUETS' in-house Choice Rewards travel agency. They even send postcards and pictures from each trip they take.

"I am very happy with my Choice Rewards MasterCard," she says. "I tried some of those other points credit cards, but how and where we want to travel is just too fancy, too far from the beaten path for them.

"We can become very specific with credit union points," Ms. Dyck adds. "We were even able to redeem them for an airport transfer in Honduras."