# What is burn rate in loyalty?

Burn rate is how quickly customers spend what they have accumulated, as against earn rate, which is how quickly they build it up. A healthy programme keeps the two roughly in balance; credit piling up unspent is a warning.

Source: https://fidella.app/glossary/burn-rate
Last reviewed: 2026-08-30

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Earn and burn are the standard pairing for describing whether a programme is in
balance.

## Why imbalance matters

Credit accumulating faster than it is spent means a growing liability and a
growing population of customers who are not getting anything. Both ends of that
are bad.

## What causes low burn

Usually a threshold set too high, or customers forgetting they hold anything.
The second is far more common than owners expect, and much cheaper to fix.