It is just the other day that we learned, much to our astonishment, that loyalty points earned by shoppers at supermarket chain Carrefour’s outlets actually do have an expiry date. They confirmed as much. That was news to us who have been used to collecting/earning and keeping such points for ages since the days of Nakumatt (hands up if the retail chain went down with your points). And we’ve had nothing to worry about since the likes of Naivas have kept the same regime of non-expiry loyalty points.
Before the dust can settle from that shocking revelation, here’s another one: starting next year (January 1st, 2023), your Bonga points, if you are a Safaricom subscriber, will expire.
Yes, that is right.
Any Bonga points earned 3 years before (i.e. by December 31st, 2019), will have expired on that day.
This move may not affect new subscribers but will likely affect older Safaricom subscribers who have not redeemed their Bonga points in a long time.
If you’d noticed, Safaricom had become aggressive recently in pushing subscribers to redeem their loyalty (Bonga) points. The company has also continuously been highlighting them every other time it was releasing its financial results. Why? Well, such is usually a liability on its balance sheet. That could explain why they have moved to void older loyalty points that have not been redeemed so that they can get them off their balance sheet.
Whether the move to expire Bonga points that are over 3 years old will result in more users redeeming theirs remains to be seen.
Safaricom subscribers can do so many things with their loyalty points. They can buy data, airtime, SMS and corresponding bundles. They can, as yours truly did a while back, pay for their postpay subscriptions. They can use them as part payment for phones at Safaricom shops. They can redeem them at supermarket tills to pay for goods. Heck, they can even buy airline tickets and shares at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. For those feeling sufficiently philanthropic and charitable, there has existed an option to donate them, too.
Want to check your Bonga points balance? There are several ways to do that: you can “View My Balances” on the mySafaricom application or just dial *126# from your phone.
Photo: @lu_kei on Twitter
