Last Updated: 27 May 2019 – Removed references to expired promo codes and shortened some of the wording

Xindots Rewards Program Review

Last week, I posted about yet another eWallet, Xindots.

I didn’t intend to post again about them so quickly, but they just announced a new rewards program and it’s not too complex, and probably reasonably easy to cover in a post in its current format.

How many points will you earn?

$1 = 5 points.

You only earn on your net spend, so if you use a $2 voucher towards a $5 order and thus only pay $3 out of pocket, you’ll earn $3 * 5 points = 15 points.

At this stage, I’m unsure as to how cents are treated – do they round up or down?

How much can X points get you?

At the time of writing, there are only 5 rewards. It’s extremely easy to follow:

1. $1 Voucher = 1000 points (1000pts/$)
2. $2 Voucher = 1800 points (900pts/$)
3. $3 Voucher = 2700 points (900pts/$)
4. $4 Voucher = 3600 points (900pts/$)
5. $5 Voucher = 4500 points (900pts/$)

The $1 voucher could make sense if you only had enough points for the $1 voucher, but there is not much incentive to purchase a voucher beyond $2. How it might make sense is if you really don’t intend to use the app much, and you want to clear your points out with one big $5 voucher at a merchant with slightly more expensive food.

$1 spent earns you 5 points, and you need 1000 points for a $1 voucher. This gives you a rate of return of 0.5% (i.e. every $1 you spend earns you 0.5 cents in “cashback”). This rate increases to 0.55% based on 900pts/$ required for the $2-5 Vouchers.

It’s not clear as to how long the vouchers are valid for upon redemption.

Expiry?

The expiry is quite simple to follow, albeit a little short for my liking.

The points you earn are valid for between 3-6 months, depending on when within each period the points are earned.

It’s not a particularly generous period of validity, but hey, I did say last week that I literally would have no incentive to use Xindots without promotions. This changes things, albeit only ever so slightly.

Final Comments

It’s a pretty simplistic rewards system, but simplistic is not necessarily a bad thing.

At a maximum of 0.625% “return”, it’s nowhere near high enough to drive a change in my behaviour.

However – as Xindots have pointed out, “Look out for stalls or locations that have a higher multiplier and order from them to gain more points!”

Most merchants have a cashback rate of at least 10X. This makes your potential “cashback rate” (via the Rewards system) at least 5%.

Game changer? Somewhat. But there’s definitely some uncertainty. How long is the multiplier valid for? Do the multipliers fluctuate on a daily basis? I certainly don’t expect it to be permanent.

In any case, if the merchants retain a mutiplier of at least 10x, it probably would result in me changing my dining behaviour… especially at multipliers of 20x or more, i.e. 10% cashback or more.

In comparison to FavePay, I still prefer the cashback system they use, because it doesn’t require you to accrue a set number of points before you are able to use the cashback. The expiry period with Fave is also not too dissimilar – which I believe is the end of the month 3 months from the time a transaction is made (ok, it’s slightly shorter).

In conclusion, from an ongoing usage point of view, I think this looks like a step in the right direction. I still get a very “start up” vibe from Xindots, but.. that’s what they are right? I revisited this post in late May 2019 after first writing about this in early March 2019, and I can’t say that it feels like anything has changed. I’d like to emphasise that having a “start up” vibe is absolutely not an insult – so don’t think I’m insulting them because I’m not intending to!