Reward delivery
Fintech Reward Program Design: 7 Examples and Practical Rules
In this article
A customer finishes your challenge, opens the app and finds no reward. It might be pending, waiting for a claim or already expired. Without an explanation, every version feels like a broken promise.
Design what happens after qualification as carefully as the offer itself. These seven examples cover the points where customers can get stuck.
1. Acorns: keep merchant rewards pending before investing them
Show a pending reward while a purchase can still be returned or canceled. Give customers an expected date and explain what could change it.
Acorns displayed merchant rewards as pending before investing them. That left time for returns and cancellations to affect the final amount.
A useful status tells customers what they're waiting for. If the date is only an estimate, say so; avoid turning a variable merchant delay into a guaranteed payout promise.
2. Curve: give cashback points a six-month spending window
Put the expiry date beside the reward balance and show where customers can spend it.
Curve's welcome offer earned Curve Cash Points over 30 days. The points could be spent through Curve, couldn't be withdrawn as cash and expired after six months.
Customers had separate earning and spending deadlines. Keep both visible, including after the welcome offer ends.
3. PayPal: issue credit for the next purchase
Make the next purchase easier by giving credit after the first. Show when the credit becomes available and what it can buy.
PayPal offered invited customers restricted credit after an eligible online purchase. The credit applied to a later PayPal purchase and expired 30 days after receipt.
The next useful message is a reminder about spending that credit. Time it around the customer's likely next purchase and the expiry date.
4. Crypto.com: let customers reveal rewards in mystery boxes
Let customers reveal a variable reward inside the app. Make the claim action obvious as soon as they qualify.
Crypto.com's Welcome Bonus used trading milestones within the first 30 days. Each milestone made a randomized mystery box available. Customers had to open it before the reward was credited; one trade could cross multiple milestones.
That extra action creates another reason to return and another place to stop. Check how many available boxes remain unopened before adding more milestones.
5. Revolut: give customers 14 days to claim a loyalty reward
Give long-running challenges a clear finish. Tell customers when they've qualified, how to claim and when the opportunity expires.
Revolut's Milestone Rewards required 100 consecutive active days on an eligible paid plan. Customers received a notification within seven days of day 100, then had 14 days to reveal and claim. Eligible participants were guaranteed a reward, but its type varied.
Someone who stayed for 100 days could still miss the claim window. Use more than one reminder and keep the reward easy to find in the app.
6. Revolut: return points after a gift-card redemption
Offer to return some points when customers use a particular redemption option. Explain when the reimbursement arrives.
Revolut returned 20% of RevPoints spent on eligible Google Play gift cards in one promotion. Customers had to view the campaign message. Reimbursement followed the promotion, and the gift-card exchange couldn't be reversed.
Show the points spent and the reimbursement separately. Customers should be able to tell whether they're waiting for points or have already received them.
7. Wealthsimple: require customers to keep funds after receiving a device
Keep ongoing conditions visible after a physical reward arrives. Delivery may happen long before the customer has fulfilled the whole offer.
Wealthsimple's Apple promotion required qualifying funding, device selection by a deadline and a continuing balance commitment. The offer had no cash alternative. The balance requirement lasted 730 days after the funding period, with recovery rules for excess withdrawals.
Put the remaining commitment where customers check their balance. A reminder before a withdrawal can prevent an expensive surprise.
Explain reward eligibility, claims and expiry
The customer should be able to see three things:
- What has counted toward the reward.
- What they can do now, or what they're waiting for.
- Which deadline or condition could change the outcome.
Start with the most common point of confusion. Pending rewards need clear timing; unclaimed rewards need a visible action; expiring balances need a useful place to spend them.
Choose the offer using card spending campaign ideas, or compare physical and variable rewards in fintech prize campaigns.