Many are tempted to take out a particular credit card as a result of the tempting offers which they will receive when using their card. A variety of cards offer air miles, free petrol and shopping vouchers as well as a whole host of other rewards.

But despite amassing these rewards, research from Sainsbury’s Credit Card shows that well over half of customers are not even redeeming their rewards.

While over 8 million people hold credit cards with reward schemes and have built up a bank of rewards on their cards, only 3 million have actually made any use of them.

When questioned as to why they had not used their rewards, the majority said that they simply could not be bothered as the value of the rewards was too small to even make it worth the time it would take to claim them.

27 per cent said that they had not claimed as the process for redeeming them was too long while a further 24 per cent said that the process was too complicated. On top of that, 25 per cent said that they actually had no idea of how to go about claiming their rewards.

With so many people commenting that they found a problem with the process for redeeming rewards, it seems that credit cards companies are drawing customers in with exciting rewards before making the process for actually using them so off-putting that most people do not bother.

Head of credit card services at Sainsbury’s, Donald MacLeod, said: “Our research shows that the credit card industry has a lot of work to do if customers are really going to feel that their reward schemes are worth having. There is no point offering them if there is no perceived value or it is too difficult to redeem the rewards.”