Last year there were multiple opportunities for Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards members to earn some bonus points when linking their accounts with the Bakkt app for the first time.
It appears that these new users weren’t enough to keep Bakkt going – particularly with its up-to-now focus on consumer crypto activity – and they’ve announced that they’ll be closing the app next month.
Interestingly, it wasn’t Bakkt who I learned about this from today. Instead, Wyndham Rewards sent the following update to members who’d linked their account to Bakkt:
Hi Stephen,
Because you’ve linked your Wyndham Rewards account to the Bakkt® app, we’re writing to let you know that the Bakkt app will be going away. As a result of these changes, March 15, 2023 will be the last day to earn, redeem, buy, or pay with Wyndham Rewards points through Bakkt. You can read more about these upcoming changes at Bakkt.com/Bakkt-App.
We remain committed to ensuring that Wyndham Rewards members enjoy a rewarding loyalty program. You can still redeem your Wyndham Rewards points for gift cards and merchandise, and at thousands of hotels, vacation club resorts, and vacation rentals worldwide. And don’t forget, you can earn points on everyday purchases like shopping—plus, local tours, experiences, and so much more.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Member Services at 1‑866‑996‑7937.
Bakkt isn’t keeping this development hidden per se as they have an announcement on their website – they just haven’t communicated it to customers yet. Or perhaps they have sent emails to customer, but only those who’ve actually been using the app and their debit card up to now rather than those of us who only linked our Choice and/or Wyndham accounts and then subsequently ignored it like Eagles fans wish a certain holding call had been last night.
If you did some of the additional activities to earn bonus points with Bakkt, you might have a small cash balance sitting on your account. And by small, I mean smaller than the cost of a postage stamp. I had $0.35 in my account after redeeming 100 Wyndham Rewards points in the app. Yes, that’s poor value in theory, but that was an activity that earned 2,500 bonus points so it was a net win of 2,400 points + $0.35. Despite the small balance, Bakkt let me withdraw it to my bank account which I’d already linked in the app back when doing the Wyndham deal. I don’t think you actually had to link a bank account though, so it’s up to you if you want to newly link an account in order to withdraw $0.35.
If you did link your Choice and/or Wyndham accounts with Bakkt, it’ll show a total points balance in the app. Those points are safely stored in your respective Choice Privileges and/or Wyndham Rewards accounts – they were never transferred to Bakkt and so your points aren’t at risk from the app closing down on March 16.
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Bakkt was a garbage company from the beginning. No respect for it’s customers’ privacy, buying points for 30% of value, not letting users export crypto, taking commissions on every level possible, Bakkt screwed its customers daily then offered no competent customer service. Since merging with a SPAC they have expanded to exploiting companies instead of individuals. I expect their new model to be as unsustainable as the original. I stopped using Wyndham after they steered me to their partnership with this dumpster fire of a company.
If we signed up just for the points, we are still able to keep the points that they gave correct?
Yes, those are in your Wyndham and/or Choice accounts, so those will remain there.
Wait! Are you telling us that yet another crypto platform is shutting down? I’m shocked. Absolutely shocked.
Hi Stephen, I only had 35 cents in my Bakkt account, so when I linked my debit card, it said it was too small of a transaction to cash out (I think $1.25 is the minimum amount), but I was able to cash out via a ACH transfer through Plaid.
all good with app. i havent logged in in months and had to delete the app and re-install the app, all worked, cashed out
wont let me login, go to forgot password, email and phone are invalid, help?
Just tried to redeem my $25.70 for a $25 gift card (tried various types) and it just keeps declining the transaction. It says I can cash out to my bank but then wants all sorts of information I really don’t want to give them at this point.
I found the Bakkt App to be awkward and confusing. But I did get a couple of small bonuses and converted them to a Home Depot gift card. I just withdrew the remaining $2.35 cash balance to my bank account. Unless they come out with some huge promo to ease the transition, I don’t think I’ll be using the website.
FWIW, I think the cash balance aspect remains as part of the new “Bakkt Web Experience”, so from what I can tell seems like there shouldn’t be any rush to withdraw the $0.35.
Of course, this all seems very strange and hard to view as a comforting sign about the future of Bakkt (removing gift cards, loyalty, and… the app?), so may be just as good an idea to take funds out now.
I received an email about this previously and ignored it since I’d gotten the Wyndham points, but I tried to log in after seeing your post and it won’t let me, in app or online. It says I’m on an unsecure device and to click a link for their help desk faq’s or something, but it redirects to a page that also requires login. Anyone else have this problem? Have they gone kaput even earlier than announced or are they overloaded with withdrawals? Anyway, thanks for the points, Bakkt. 🙂
I was able to log in just before publishing the post.