Samsung slashes Samsung Rewards points in half

Two years ago, Samsung introduced Samsung Rewards as a perk for users who can access the company’s mobile wallet app Samsung Pay. The program operates like many similar rewards programs, wherein users earn points based on the purchases they make using the Samsung Pay app. Users can then convert those points into gift cards at popular retailers and even enter into drawings for Samsung hardware.

However, Samsung today slashed the number of points users earn for transactions in half. That means that even if you use Samsung Pay just as much as you had been using it before yesterday, you’re only going to earn half as many points.

Samsung Rewards is a tiered system where users who utilize the app a lot earn more points than casual users. Yesterday, a Platinum user, the highest tier, earned 40 points per Samsung Pay transaction. Today, they’ll earn 20 points. Standard members used to earn 10 points and now earn five.

Samsung hasn’t made any formal announcement of the alteration to the rewards program, so not much is known about how this will affect longtime users of the app. It appears that all users, regardless of seniority, are affected by this change, which surely will make early adopters and members of the Platinum tier quite angry.

The prizes Samsung offers in the rewards program require quite a bit of points to get. Even simply entering a drawing to win a Sandals Resort getaway costs 50 points, which for standard members would require 10 Samsung Pay transactions.

Samsung Pay is only available on specific Samsung devices, most notably the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S line. If this Samsung Rewards program was a significant reason device owners chose to buy a Samsung phone, they are probably pretty upset about this change.

Do you use the Samsung Rewards program? Will this turn you off from using Samsung Pay?