It is that time of the year when everyone indulges in some kind of retail therapy courtesy the slew of festivals that are around the corner. Naturally, it is also the time when you feel the burden of depleting finances too. But what if there’s a way for you to make the most of the festivities by encashing your reward points? Read on to know how.

Value adds
Rewards points have a lot to offer, and if done right, you could make the most of the payment that you would have done anyway. The more you put a single payment option to use — even for routine expenses like utility bills, groceries and the like, the easier it gets to rack in rewards. “Generally, credit instruments offer higher reward points compared to debit. Take for example the case of ePayLater-- not only do you get the option to pay later for your purchase, but also the facility to avail rewards on the same. These points can be redeemed for further transactions as well as repayments,” says Uday Somayajula, co-founder, ePayLater. This is also the time when traders offer discounts, cashbacks and reward points both offline and online to attract maximum number of customers who are looking for attractive deals for festive shopping. 

Aggregation matters
If you simply look at all the places you shop, you will realise that you have several loyalty or reward points. However most of it is scattered and if you could aggregate all of it on one platform the kind of potential savings you could have is immense. Twid, a payment app for millenials that aggregates and joins multiple loyalty or reward points, is one such platform that helps you to use these points to pay at offline and online stores. 

Amit Koshal, founder and CEO, Twidpay, says, “Over Rs 16000 crore worth of points are lying unseen by the consumers in India today. These rewards get accumulated in the user’s account but are usually forgotten, and there are hardly any meaningful options available to spend them.” 

Inspired by this realisation, founders of Twid, Koshal, Rishi Batra and Amit Sharma, established a mobile-first global platform. This platform helps consumers utilise accumulated reward points by making payments at leading online and offline retail avenues by aggregating points earned from various sources. The app, that is currently available on Google Play, has well integrated partnerships with banks, retailers, dining, travel, online platforms. It allows the users to keep track of all their loyalty memberships, total accumulated points, their worth, expiry date, transaction history, and so on.

Tech talk
Twid has technological integrations with banks and brands that allow a user’s current reward balance to be retrieved in real time. “We use the mobile number, first and last name of a user to fetch the details. The details of the reward points are auto fetched, so you don’t have to add one by one. However in corner cases where the mobile numbers are outdated, users can manually select the bank or a brand and enter card or mobile number, and complete OTP authentication,” says Koshal. 

This platform combines multiple loyalty programmes from banks, brands, airlines that we all are a part of but do not track. “We bring all the points under Twid and combine them as per their current conversion ratio set by the bank or brand so that it becomes big and then it can be used anywhere and everywhere. Therefore, a shopping brand reward can be used to pay your coffee or dining bill,” he explains. 
 
So, what better time than now for you to look into your wallet and pull up all the cards that have potential savings in place. Remember, loyalty points often come with an expiry date, so make your money work for you. And, let the savings add a smile to your festivities.