We've all seen them before, reward points credit cards. For some of us, accumulating enough points for any rewards we find interesting might seem impossible. But Bills fan Dan Seagrave proved that the Bills Extra Points Rewards Mastercard is different.
Seagrave successfully earned the necessary 200 thousand points required for two tickets to this year's Super Bowl.
"Out of all the credit cards I have it's probably the best one I've got," he said. "There are small rewards up to the giant rewards and anyone can do it. Instead of paying in cash you can pay everything through the card online and you can make automatic payments to all your bills through the credit card. Any time you have a dispute it's easy to remedy. It's one of the easiest cards to use."
With a point awarded for every dollar spent on the card, some might wonder how Seagrave pulled it off. Even he wasn't sure he could do it until he discovered there were virtually no restrictions.
"I never knew I could get that many points until I did research and found with my utility company and mortgage company and car loan company that I could actually pay all of those things through my credit card," said Seagrave. "Once I did that I was able to achieve all those points. I basically charged everything. Anywhere I went I used my card. I never used cash."
Soon Seagrave, who initially thought an authentic Jim Kelly autographed helmet (36,000 points) would be nice, came to the realization that he had a legitimate opportunity to reach the required reward point total for the VIP Super Bowl experience. But Seagrave still had to be resourceful with his Bills Extra Points Rewards card.
"I did get creative," Seagrave said. "I bought a vehicle on my credit card and two days later I got an auto loan."
Though his mortgage was the single greatest point accumulating item, the purchase of the car is what ultimately put Seagrave over the top when it came to reaching the VIP Super Bowl reward threshold.
But shortly before that there was some concern. As he was rapidly closing in on the chance to redeem his points, he was regularly checking the Rewards Points catalog online and discovered that the Super Bowl tickets were suddenly not on the awards list.
"I called in and said, 'I've been working really hard to get these. What happened to them?'" Seagrave recalled. "And the representative told me they were going to get the award back up. They just needed to know how many more Super Bowl seats they could allocate to the rewards program. So I told him, 'Get them back because I only need 20 thousand more points.' Within a week they had the Super Bowl ticket reward back on line."
Soon after, Seagrave redeemed his points for his trip to Super Bowl XLI in Miami.
The North Tonawanda native, who is also a Bills season ticket holder, now lives a stone's throw from Miami in Fort Lauderdale. When asked why he made such an effort to land the VIP Super Bowl experience Seagrave's answer was simple.
"I do it for my father," he said. "My father is 67 years old. We both live in Fort Lauderdale. I bought him season tickets for the Bills. We have Choice One club seats. I've done that for the last four years for him. And I'll do it for him for as long as I can. My dad… I wouldn't be here without him, so I've got to spoil him."
So Ron Seagrave will be sitting next to his son at Super Bowl XLI a couple of weeks from now soaking up an experience that for most comes once in a lifetime.
But Dan Seagrave wants to see if he can make it to the big game twice.
"I already have a good amount of points for next year's Super Bowl," he said. "I'm going this year and I've got a good shot of going in 2008."
When asked if he plans to make it an annual thing Seagrave said.
"I'm good, but I'm not that good."
And while Seagrave may be very good at racking up reward points on his card, he feels the Bills Extra Points Rewards Card makes it easy.
"They've got great rates for just about anyone," he said. "If you're a person with a median income there are great rewards. You can get Bills sideline jackets for 12 thousand points, so anyone can earn something."
For more information on the Bills Extra Points Rewards Mastercard, visit **www.billsextrapoints.com*. Start earning rewards today and get a Jim Kelly autographed mini-helmet after approval and qualifying purchases.*
