Verizon has unveiled a nationwide loyalty program for its subscribers in which customers can earn points in a number of different ways that can be exchanged for a variety of rewards. The Smart Rewards program will be available to customers with post-paid accounts starting July 24 but before you decide to sign up, there's one big catch that you need to be aware of.
Activities that accrue points include signing in to the My Verizon online account management tool, paying your monthly bill, choosing paperless billing and using the Verizon Trade In program, just to name a few.
Once points have been accumulated, they can be used for things like discounts on hotel rooms, car rentals or select products from Verizon's catalog. What's more, points can also be used to bid on items in auctions hosted on Verizon's website.
Here's the big catch: customers wishing to participate in the program will need to enroll in Verizon Selects, a targeted marketing program that uses location, web browsing and mobile application usage data to generate advertisements based on user interests.
We're told that you can expect at least 10,000 bonus points for signing up for the Verizon Selects program. Users can leave the program at any time and remain in the Smart Rewards program although sticking around will net additional monthly bonus points.
Would you be willing to opt-in to such a marketing program and have you location and data usage knowingly tracked in exchange for reward points?
