South Africa, Sept. 7 -- Then a friend casually points out that if you'd paid with a different bank card and stacked another rewards programme, you could have got twice the value.

Suddenly, your very savvy loyalty strategy isn't looking quite so savvy.

Research shows that South Africans love their loyalty programmes, with 85% of South Africans actively using them (up from 82% the previous year), according to the Truth & BrandMapp South African Loyalty Whitepaper 2025/6. But signing up is the easy part. Getting the most value from these programmes can be another story, says Byron Rode, founder and CEO of (my)cards, part of Glynt. "It can be hard to keep track of all the variables involved.

"With the average South African belonging to mo...