Credit card points add up to $20,000 in super IF you are wondering whether you will ever get a lasting benefit for picking up all those credit card reward points, under one program consumers can convert them into a tax-free super contribution of more than $20,000. Brisbane-based ratings agency Canstar has found that under the program offered by the Westpac-owned BT Financial, a credit card spender racking up 60,000 points a year and qualifying for the government's $500 a year co-contribution benefit could theoretically end up with an extra $22,500 in super over 20 years. The research released yesterday found this compared with $7268 worth of gold class movie tickets they could otherwise qualify for over the same period, or $6250 worth of fuel. The catch is that only those who earn less than $37,000 a year qualify for the Low Income Super Contribution, which the new government has promised to scrap as part of its abolition of the mining tax. Adam Beu, an analyst at Canstar, said, for example, it could be useful for a couple with one partner not working, where the worker could channel points into the non-worker's super account, adding that the average annual expenditure on a credit card in Australia was $18,580. He said that for people with a long way to go before retirement, "using your rewards points as a personal super contribution could be a great idea." Even a lower than average credit card spender buying goods worth $1000 a month could earn an extra $3025 on their super balance over 20 years, without any help from the government, he said. Canstar said the points-to-super system was available with the Westpac Altitude and St George Bank and Bank of Melbourne Amplify cards. "It's a personal contribution so it's tax free," he said, "which means that if you convert $300 worth of points, the full $300 goes in your super fund." He did, however, warn that there was no merit in chasing points if you could not pay off your credit card before it started accumulating interest. "Some people may be paying more in credit card fees than they get back in reward benefits," he said, noting that an annual expenditure of $24,000 on the credit cards could be producing around $1650 worth of what he called "reward return." So in that example, a $60 per annum card fee would leave you with a net reward benefit of $100. A BT spokesman said last night that the takeup was limited to a small number of customers. This is an extra option for those customers who are actively engaged and focused on their superannuation and who want to put what they could have now, into the future.