Toyota to Offer Rewards Credit Card With Points Redeemable at Toyota Dealers

Following years of American tradition, Toyota Financial Services is rolling out its own credit card, the Toyota Rewards Visa, which gives cardholders points they can use towards repairing their current Toyota or buying or leasing a new one.

For every dollar charged to your Toyota Rewards Visa card, you'll get one point. For every dollar you charge on the card at a Toyota dealership, you'll get five points. Toyota doesn't mention in any of its ads how much a point is worth, so we went to www.toyotarewardsvisa.com and used the online points calculator to find out. According to the calculator (and Toyota's Terms and Agreements), 100 points is worth $1 at a participating dealership. That means you'll have to spend $25 at a dealership or $100 elsewhere in order to save $1 on your next Toyota-related purchase, making the dealership points worth 25 cents and regular points worth one cent.

While that's not much, if you use your card a lot and your Toyota only ever needs to go to the dealer for routine maintenance, you could get some real savings out of the card. If Toyota allows you to collect points by charging maintenance on your Toyota car or truck to the card, you may be able to earn a large number of points towards your next visit, but we're not sure if that's the case, nor are we sure if the points can be combined with other offers. Regardless of how you earn the points, they can be used towards maintenance and repairs, Toyota accessories, buying or leasing a new Toyota or buying a used Toyota.

The card also comes with several standard incentives, such as a 0% introductory APR for the first six months. After that, Signature cardholders will pay 11.75% per month while Platinum cardholders will pay 11.75% to 16.99% per month. Your APR will be determined by your credit history. You get 2500 bonus points ($25 at the dealership) on your first purchase, and there is no annual fee and no limit to the number of points you can earn. Points cannot be turned into cash, so you have to use them with Toyota and they expire after December 31st on the sixth year from when they were earned.

source : http://wot.motortrend.com