Somebody needs to explain to me the point behind points, especially considering reward miles now expire over time.

Aeroplan has been the program in the news lately, but almost all of the so-called reward programs have some type of expiration on the points that you receive.

“It’s a standard in the industry to have these expiry policies just because the loyalty programs want to make sure their members stay active,” says Isabelle Troitzy, director of corporate communications at Aeroplan.

Back in 2006, Aeroplan announced a new program that required users to have miles expired in accounts that have had no accumulation or redemption activity in the previous 12 months. All it takes is one transaction, either using or earning miles, to keep the account active.

The bigger threat is the rules that come into effect in 2014. Miles will only have a shelf life of seven years, so miles accumulated before Jan. 1, 2007 will begin expiring.

That was enough lead time for me because I cashed in most of my points for Best Western hotel vouchers. For those snickering, that was the Paris Best Western, which might as well be the Four Seasons in Toronto based on price.

My logic was simple. The points are almost meaningless for air travel because of restrictions that make it near impossible to get flights over Christmas or March Break using my points. Goods, usually a less effective way to employ miles, made more sense.

I still have 12,578 plus points in my account. There’s plenty I could do with that.

I could use 7,500 miles to offset 3.2 tonnes of greenhouses gases — enough to drive my car for the year. According to one online website, that’s worth about $43.68.

I think I’d rather have a coupon for 40 litres of gas. Guess what? 13,000 points gets me a $100 gift certificate at Esso.

What does it all mean in real money? Based on my gas example, every point is worth .77¢ of gas. Since I get a point for every dollar I spend, that’s 0.77% return.

And this is why I don’t like points. I can go out and get a cash back that will return me 1% and I won’t even have to pay an annual fee. If you are big spender on your credit card, you might want to spend money on annual fee for a large cash back percentage.

There is a great website run by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (fcac-acfc.gc.ca) that compares the cards. Commissioner Ursula Menke says the Crown corporation cannot give specific advice on credit cards.

“We say consider what your needs are and choose according to what you think is important,” she says.

Patrick Sojka, chief executive and founder of rewardscanada.ca, which has been rating credit cards for nine years, says expiring points can be one more reason to go for the cash back cards that I prefer. Cash never expires.

“Expired miles is not as prevalent among programs as the inactivity rule,” said Mr. Sojka, adding reward programs have something in their contracts that allow them to change the terms of conditions. “There is benefit to cash back for sure. For the majority of Canadians, unless you are spending a huge amount on your credit card, there are better options out there like cash back or the travel anywhere cards where they give you a percentage back of your [spending] and you can book your travel how you want. You call them up and they put a credit on your card against that travel.”

How you redeem points ultimately determines the return your are getting on your points, says Mr. Sojka. If you are buying business class tickets with your points or travelling overseas often, the points might make more sense to me.

“I was running the numbers last week on a redemption for Aeroplan for a first class ticket to Asia. I looked at what it would have cost to earn on credit card and at the base level you’d get a 6% return but if you’ve done all your purchases in categories where the return doubles [something American Express offers with Aeroplan], your return could double to 12% or almost 13%,” Mr. Sojka says.

Too bad I only travel around town. I think I’ll just use my leftover reward points for some gas and stick to cards that give me cash back in the future.