If you spend your Paypal Rewards Card Points the wrong way, you will lose 30% value!

As mentioned in my last Paypal Rewards card video, I got 50,000 reward points just for applying the card and spending $3000 in the first 3 months using the card (my average monthly spend is probably about $1000, so it's quite easy). After logging into paypal, when I was looking at the transaction record listing things I already paid for using the card, I noticed that there is an option to "pay with points".

After clicking the button to test it out, warning bells started ringing in my head, as doing some quick mental arithmetic showed that the value of the points was less than what they are meant to be worth.

50,000 reward points was advertised to be worth $250, but if you try and spend the points inside the transaction log on things you've already bought, you will only get $175, which is 30% less than $250.

Essentially I found out that in order to get the full value from the points (50,000 reward points for $250, so 200 points for $1) you will need to make sure you use the points when you are paying for the goods rather than afterwards. I will demonstrate what I mean in the video.