How Each Rewards Program Works

In my opinion, eBucks and Vitality Discovery Miles are the best rewards programs in South Africa. I’ve successfully earned eBucks through FNB for a number of years now. Over the last 12 months I’ve also targeted Vitality Discovery Miles. Which one is more rewarding and user-friendly? As someone who has experienced both, I’m here to guide you through a detailed comparison of these programs, helping you decide which aligns best with your lifestyle and goals.

How Much is eBucks in Rands?

10 eBucks is equivalent to R1. Try our eBucks to Rands converter here.

How Much is Discovery Miles in Rands?

10 Discovery Miles is equivalent to R1.

How Much Did I Earn from each Rewards Program?

For simplicity sake, I’ll state my comparison in the Rand equivalent of each loyalty program.

eBucks Earnings

I’ve historically found it very easy to earn more than R1 000 worth of eBucks per month. I’m able to earn this on a consistent basis on auto pilot mode without having to worry about very much. Over the last 12 months I struggled to achieve this though as I was spread thin by the Vitality Discovery Miles rules and dropped the ball quite often.

Vitality Discovery Mile Earnings

I found it much harder to earn a significant amount of Discovery Miles and that was after putting in a lot of research and analysing things extensively throughout the year. Most months I just earned a few hundred Rands. It may have been easier if I was only focusing on Discovery Miles and not trying to also earn eBucks, but I doubt that was the only reason I struggled. I’ll be getting into the details of each reward program so that you can understand the struggles that I had.

Ease of Use

The eBucks rules are at least 10 times easier than the Vitality Discovery Miles rules. And I’m not even exaggerating. Part of the reason for this is because eBucks is linked to your banking whereas Discovery Miles is linked to both your banking and your health habits. But I definitely don’t think that’s the only reason it’s so much easier to understand the eBucks rules.

The eBucks rules can all be accessed in one place. There are detailed instructions on how to earn points and how many points are required to reach the next rewards level. The information automatically changes based on the account type that you select.

There is even an eBucks Calculator where you can input your predicted spend at eBucks partners and based on the reward level it predicts that you will reach based on questions that you answer, the eBucks calculator shows you how many eBucks you would be expected to earn which makes it incredibly easy to maximise your eBucks rewards.

The rules for Discovery Bank and Vitality Money rewards which are linked to the Vitality health rules are complicated to the Nth degree and the information is all over the show rather than being in one central interactive table. I’ve spent hours trying to understand the rules, clicking on multiple links and trying to figure out how the various aspects of the rules interact with each other.

There are also many time-consuming tasks that one needs to complete in order to maximise the benefits such as answering questionnaires, going for health check ups and activating various aspects of the rules which in my opinion should automatically be activated when you sign up for the rewards program. At times I’ve felt like it would be easier to make money by starting a business than by trying to maximise vitality rewards.

There are however some advantages that Vitality Discovery Miles have over eBucks and it’s very possible that Vitality will fit in with your lifestyle so well that you will get more out of it than eBucks. This will become evident when I dig into the details of each reward program.

eBucks’ Strengths

As I’ve already said, eBucks is simple:

Step 1: Access the eBucks Calculator and follow the simple steps to get to level 5

Step 2: Using your virtual card, spend at the most important eBucks partners where you earn significant percentages of your spend back in eBucks. Examples of such eBucks partners are the following:

• Checkers (15%)
• Engen Fuel (R4/litre)
• iStore (15%)
• Clicks  (15%)
• Spotify (40%)
• Netflix (40%)

There are quite a few other eBucks partners, but these are the significant ones. Just remember to buy with your virtual card.

Step 3: Spend your eBucks.

There are many things to buy with eBucks. You may:

• Spend your eBucks at the eBucks shop.
• You may enjoy up to a 40% discount if you go to eBucks travel and book flights with eBucks or hire a car.
• Hiring a car is another way to spend them which could lead to a 40% discount.
• Buy airtime with eBucks

Make sure to use the right strategy when spending your eBucks so that you maximise your rewards. It’s quite simple, so I’ve written about it in a separate article.

Vitality Discovery Miles’ Strengths

If you are a runner, you should be able to get to a very high Vitality level quite easily. You will also enjoy the Apple Watch benefit if you consistently run multiple times a week. Note that this benefit is linked to Vitality as well as Discovery Bank, so you’ll need to have both. As a general rule it’s good to have both to maximise your Discovery Miles. But watch out if you think that you’ll clock heart rates that are high enough without running as these devices tend to track running more efficiently than other forms of exercise. And if you miss your goals in 1 week of the month, 50% of your debit order will go off. It didn’t work for me, so maybe I’m a bit sour, but it should work for you if you love running.

Here are some other cool benefits that are possible to enjoy through Discovery Vitality and Vitality Money. Up to:

• 75% saving at Virgin Active or Planet Fitness.
• 75% back on Healthyfood items at Pick n Pay or Woolworths.
• 50% back on personal care items at Clicks or Dis-Chem with HealthyCare.
• 50% saving on fitness devices and Nike performance gear and apparel.
• 75% off a return flight (local and international)
• 20% back on Uber
• Half-price movies at Ster-Kinekor

Just keep in mind that you need to be incredibly wealthy to max out some of these benefits as many of them are heavily linked to Vitality Money and your financial situation and spending habits. This makes it very difficult to enjoy the upper end of these benefits and the rules are complicated. It might suit you particularly if you fly often, you want a gym membership, you’re a runner and you’re prepared to become obsessed with learning the rules and maximising the rewards.

Conclusion

I suggest choosing between these two loyalty programs rather than trying to maximise them both like I did. If you want something simple and easy to consistently benefit from, I highly recommend prioritising eBucks. If the details I discussed in the previous section lead you to believe that Discovery Miles will suit you, the upside is very high, but beware of how difficult it is to achieve the desired results.