Sunday, January 13, 2008

How I earn free gift certificates and money back

I've been using MyPoints.com for about 10 years now. In the early days, you could log on and just click away daily on point opportunities. I was earning points towards gift certificates pretty often. About the time of the dot.com crashes, things got a little dodgy for a while. They couldn't meet customer demand, they were taking forever to ship gift certificates, and advertisers began to drop. It was really rough. I remember receiving a letter in the mail apologizing for their inability to fulfill a redemption request, but they committed to making it happen. I had also participated in a bunch of similar websites, many of which went under.

MyPoints came through with flying colors. They delivered on requests and revamped their program and website. I stuck with them. Over the years, I've earned countless gift certificates. I bought Bud's travel system before he was born with Babies R Us gift certificates I earned from MyPoints. In more recent years, I've tapped into my balance to order gift certificates for thank you gifts, birthday gifts, and Christmas presents. It's nice to have these budget savers. I haven't been as diligent these past few years so I've missed out on some opportunity. But, after ordering some Christmas gifts using my points balance, I was re-inspired to click away.

You can set your preferences regarding frequency of emails (if any) you receive with point offers. I've received as many as 5-8 a day. I don't usually do the point offer, but just click through for 5 points credit. It's amazing how quickly 5 points ad up. You can complete other point offers for a lot more points if it's something you need. I haven't in a while. I do complete surveys that come my way. It's easy to earn 50 points by telling a little about your preferences. As you may or may not be able to tell, I definitely have strong preferences. If you are interested in joining, click through my link to MyPoints.

I used to shop through MyPoints to earn points per dollar. Most of the time now, I shop through Ebates.com. Using Ebates, I earn a percentage of my online purchases back in cash. They send a quarterly check for my earnings (minimum $ amount required to send out check). What's great is, that I can use store coupons AND get a rebate from Ebates. There are rebates on average between 2%-5%. Gap/Old Navy rebates are 3%, Barnes and Noble 4%, and even 3% for Apple iTunes. If you have purchases to make online and are interested in saving, head on over to Ebates to sign up for your account. It's free and it's definitely worth the effort.

I do get credit for referrals as will you once you get started!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I've been a huge fan of MyPoints for almost as long. Yah, they went through a rough phase but they survived. Takes more points to earn certs now but free is free!

ptoland said...

I never like Mypoints as they send me too many emails. I liked ebates but have found more cash back using http://www.savingswatch.com.