Wednesday, November 18, 2009

MyPoints Review - A Scam or Worth Doing

Three to four times a year I receive a $10 gift card from MyPoints. We got one a few weeks ago for Pizza Hut, my favorite restaurant. Tomorrow is our four year wedding anniversary, but Dan will be in class, so we are going out for our romantic anniversary dinner, with the kids of course, tonight, paid for in part by MyPoints.

What I love about MyPoints is that it is something set aside for me. When I earn enough for a gift card, I usually pick out a store that I love and buy something I want for me. I usually get a gift card to TJMaxx for clothes. We chose to use it for our anniversary this year because our budget is a little tighter than usual. The other option, going out to eat courtesy of mystery shopping where you come home and consult your husband on the cleanliness of the men's room while devoting yourself to writing an essay style report, is not as romantic. Some may not consider Pizza Hut with the kids romantic either, but to each his own.

How Do I Earn Points from MyPoints?

Reading Email

They send you an email with a link you have to click on for 5 points or roughly $0.035. It takes between ten and fifteen seconds per email, depending on how awake my computer is.

Surveys

They send surveys via email. You get 50 points, or $0.35, for completing the survey, which takes about ten minutes. Or, you get 10 points, $0.07, if you try to complete the survey but don't qualify. One of the first questions asks if you or anyone in your household works in "Marketing or Market Research." Well, I still do occasional mystery shopping, so I honestly answer that I do work in that field, and I disqualify myself for the survey. I get the 10 points and move on with my life in under a minute.

Shopping

They give you a percentage back on online purchases made through shopping from their site. I shop on ebay fairly often, so I travel to ebay through their site and get something like 2 points for every dollar I spend.

Easy Points

About once a month, I go to their website and check out their "Easy Points" section. They ask me if I am looking for a contractor to work on my home, or if I want to save money on my groceries with coupons. I click that I don't, so they offer me another point earning opportunity if I click on a link. Just by clicking to see what they're offering, I get 5 points, or $0.035.

How Do I Not Earn Points?

Offers

They have a lot of offers that you can do for extra points. You can make more money doing offers other ways, if you're interested. A few years back, I did that with GetPaidTo.com, which has no minimum payout, meaning if you earn today, you can cash out today. Doing offers is the whole idea behind Project Payday. You have to keep a close record if you want to make money from offers, as you could end up losing money.

Online Games

Their online games are online gambling with your own money. You get a piece of the money you lose back in points. That's not a good "earning" strategy in my mind.

Referrals

The only person I ever referred was my husband, and he never earned any points. We had the deal that if he earned points, he could spend his gift cards recreationally, just like I usually do, but he never did anything with his account.

But Emily, you have this blog with all of these people visiting, surely you could refer your readers! You'd think so, but I can't. I'm not an affiliate; although I tried to become one, my application was rejected. So, I can only refer people I actually know via individual email invites. This is kind of a sour point between myself and MyPoints, but as long as they continue to send me gift cards, I'll still like them deep down, and I'll even write some nice things about them on my blog.

14 comments:

Linda @ A La Carte said...

Emily I have used MyPoints for years and it has helped me earn gift cards. I've given them as Christmas presents, used them for things I wanted but wouldn't have 'bought' and have been pretty happy with the whole thing. It does only take a few minutes to click thru and get my 5 points and they do add up! Thanks for sharing this with others. I'm about to get a gift card for Christmas.

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary! Have a wonderful time with hubby and the kids-what a great way to celebrate your marriage and all that God has blessed you with by all being together :o)

Jennifer said...

Happy Anniversary! I would take Pizza Hut any day of the week BTW. I love Mypoints. IF I shop online, I try to do it through Mypoints. Even the occassional shopping I do adds up quickly. On our vacation this summer, we paid for a tank of gas and a subway lunch by using Mypoints giftcards.

I referred my husband too, but I am the one that checks that email. He was getting so much spam he switched to a different email and we have his settings to where he only received mypoints emails into his inbox. Every week or so I go through them. WE earn twice the giftcards.

BEAN said...

i love my points.. easy free giftcards..R

Lori said...

Happy anniversary. Mine was Saturday. Congratulations.

Taryn said...

Happy Anniversary! I love your blog and look forward to reading more.

Robin said...

I like MyPoints, too. I use it just for the e-mails, and compare the payout with Ebates when I'm making a purchase. I recently bought clearance clothes from Children's Place for about $2 per piece, less than the thrift stores around here, and got a percentage off and a percentage back from checking the codes first and shopping through Ebates (got the best deal from them.) I did a MyPoints magazine offer recently for holiday gifts, too. It adds up fast, and I would have bought clothes for the kids and gifts anyway, so might as well get $$ back.

You don't have to answer yes to working in market research. They're asking if you work in the research portion or marketing portion, not if you're the shopper hired by the researcher or marketer. It is completely honest to answer "no" and still mystery shop.

Emily said...

Penny Saver, I answer that I work in market research (a technically honest answer) so that I can still get points without taking the survey.

Eileen said...

I like mypoints too. I have been doing it for almost 2 years. I average about 2 $25 gift cards per year. I use it for date night for my husband and I. :)

M. Lilly Grohman said...

Hi Emily, this is way off topic; feel free not to publish, but I wanted you to know that you got me thinking. Thanks.

Unknown said...

Happy Anniversary, Pizza Hut can be a pretty nice dinner.

I do surveys for a place called E-Rewards. I get almost all my magazine subscriptions through them. Because I drink Coke products, i use their codes and earn points and also cash in on magazines.

Have a nice night out.

Treva said...

I do mypoints, too, and I'm signed up with ipsos i-say surveys (I hope I have that right). Every time I do one I get 50 points in my mypoints account and ipsos pays me in points which I then cash in. I just cashed in $5 from ipsos, which just got here so it's not in the bank yet. And I just got my Walmart gift card from mypoints which I'm using to buy my DD a barbie for Christmas.

Carla said...

I belonged to MyPoints for years, did everything but never got very many points, not to mention there was never anything good for Canadians. A while back I donated all my points to the Red Cross and haven't bothered any more. I don't know if it's different now.

I haven't had much luck with any survey sites (I once had over $100 and was about to cash out on a valid one that paid out but they went under right before, aw man!). I just signed up to another one and by being signed up to one, I got on a consumer panel which already made me $50 (yes, I have the cheque in hand ;) )

Kristi said...

Hi Emily,
I have been with MyPoints for several years now and love it. I usually cash out once a year between Oct and Nov (DH's b-day Oct 24 and my b-day 11/19) and we have an all expense paid birthday dinner courtesy of MyPoints. When your points accumulate you can get a decent amount on a giftcard.
Love the blog,
Kristi

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