We just discovered something a few months ago. You may be saying to yourself, “Seriously? Where have you been? It’s the 21st century, we ALL know about this.” 

What is the “THIS” we are referring to? 

The Verizon Wireless Smart Rewards.  

Yes, we just discovered it a few months ago. And when we discovered it, we have well over 300,000 points. Yes, THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND POINTS that we can redeem. 

How does this happen?

How did we not know about the Verizon Wireless Smart Rewards, recognize or discover this before now? 

It really seems quite silly that this savings goldmine has been under our noses for several years and we had no clue. 

So just in case others might be in the dark on this treasure hunt, let me fill you in. 

What is the Verizon Smart Rewards? 

Verizon Smart Rewards is a program where you earn points for being a Verizon customer – basically like a loyalty program. You apparently  need to register to be a part of it. Then you can see how fast your rewards build each month.

Then you can “cash in” your rewards by redeeming them for coupons and discounts of all kinds! 

What we have loved the most is the discounts for local restaurants and attractions. You see, we haven’t purchased an Entertainment Book in a couple of years. We loved using them, but a couple of years ago, we pretty much ate out nearly for free with our gift card trick we share here. But that also meant that we were visiting chain restaurants all year.

So we got into this routine that we ate at the popular national restaurants where we can get the deeply discounted/free gift cards.

But the Verizon Smart Rewards have local restaurants and deals, like the Entertainment Book. In fact, it is sponsored by the Entertainment Book.  Most coupons will give you 10-20% off, with many being 50% off, just like the Entertainment Book! 

Here are some coupon discounts for local restaurants and attractions: 

There are also some chain restaurant coupons:

They also have travel discount gift cards and national restaurant discount gift cards that will yield a 10% savings off the top!

That’s a great deal because you can combine gift cards with coupons and other discounts as they are treated like cash. So whenever you can get a discount on a gift card, it is extra money in your pocket. 

One of our favorite local restaurants is a little local Thai restaurant around the corner from us. We get to redeem buy one get one free entree’ nearly every time we visit! This means a nice cheap lunch date. 

We actually did this yesterday as a lunch date and it reminded us of why we need to post about this! It was such a great deal, and nothing that we could get from the public 10% off coupons or even from our gift card deals. We can only get this here for free with our rewards points, or if we bought an Entertainment Book. 

Here’s the crazy part! 

To redeem most offers, it is 500-1,000 points. We did not know this existed, so we have been accumulating points for several years. 

But you may recall that we love the no-contract, month-to-month options to save us loads of money on our cell phone usage. Well, Alex’s work provides a reimbursed phone through Verizon Wireless. So he’s been using his work phone all of these years and unknowingly been a part of the rewards program. We hardly paid attention because we rarely had to log-in. One day, I spotted this weird number as it caught my eye because it was so large. 

The way we have figured the cost of the discounts – it appears that every 1,000 points is approximately and loosely $10 in value. 

That means we have accumulated approximately $3,235 in rewards to spend! This will take us FOREVER to spend, but what a blessing! I don’t think we will need to buy an Entertainment Book for a long time! 

And the best part is that we get to pick and choose EXACTLY what we want to use it on, so it is guaranteed to get used. Unlike the Entertainment Book which is valued at “several thousands in savings” but you really only end up using less than 10% of the coupons (probably more like 2-3% of the coupons) throughout the year, so most of the savings is wasted. 

But not in this case! 

How are the points accumulated on Verizon Smart Rewards?

Since we have barely known about the program, I can’t explain the exact science beyond the calculations. However, there is a chart! 

Here’s what we wanted to know? If you register NOW, do you get back points for your history of spending in the past…meaning, the moment you register, you may find yourself with several thousand points from the past that just needed to be claimed. 

To us, it appears that this question is answered on their FAQ, that yes, indeed you will also get back points! Is that what you read in this “how to get started” question? It appears that the “note” answers this question, which would make sense. In fact, I think our account has points accumulated from the beginning (as this is an awful lot amount of points), as we were Verizon customers personally until many years ago when we switched to the no-contract, month-to-month programs. When Alex got his work phone, it is through the same phone number and account that we had from before. So I think this has accumulated for many years. You are likely in the same boat! 

But since we are apparently already registered, I don’t have a definitive answer. So I am hoping some of you can answer it based on your experience! So register now and start saving today! 

Lo and behold, the savings treasure chest was unleashed! 

Now when we want to visit a local attraction, eat at a local restaurant or when we want to get additional gift cards beyond what we are getting for deeply discounted and free from these sources, we enjoy this! And it looks like we will be able to enjoy this for a near lifetime! 

Did you know about Verizon Smart Rewards? 

Now the truth comes out…how far behind the times on this are we? Since we use the no-contract, month-to-month phones personally, we simply didn’t pay attention! 

If so, what rewards have you redeemed the most? If not, I’d love to know how many points you “discovered” you had and what rewards you plan to spend them on?

Also, we would love to know if other cell phone carriers have a rewards program of sorts too! Speak up if yours does as well and tell us about it! 

See more Frugal Living Tips