How much do you save with rewards programs...

[rnorwo1]

and how much work do you have to do, or how much money do you have to spend?

I see everyone posting their ebates and mypoints rewards and talking about surveys they do... can you tell me which programs you use, how they work and is it really worth it? I looked up mypoints and signed up, but I'm already a little overwhelmed with all of the emails and haven't done anything with it yet. I do work outside of the home, so I want to make sure the time investment it worth it first. Thanks!!

 

[stennille]

my points I use it alot. Just by clicking on the email and the link provided you get 5 pts. I let the points bank up for a while usually a year and cash them in for gift cards. It's completely FREE. Ebates is a site you use to go to thier site look up the site you want to purchase something thru find the link on the ebates site for the store. And it forwards you to that site. They pay you a % of your purchase back to you. And yes they really do send you a real check in the mail quarterly. Hope this helps. I would suggest a different email for mypoints. It tends to clog your email up if you don't check it daily.

 

[Marionnette]

and how much work do you have to do, or how much money do you have to spend?

I see everyone posting their ebates and mypoints rewards and talking about surveys they do... can you tell me which programs you use, how they work and is it really worth it? I looked up mypoints and signed up, but I'm already a little overwhelmed with all of the emails and haven't done anything with it yet. I do work outside of the home, so I want to make sure the time investment it worth it first. Thanks!!

I think that you are smart to be cautious. The programs that you mention are the real deal. But face it, there's an element of spending that has to happen to really make anything substantial on these programs.

Ebates is a straight rebate program. You get a percent back on whatever you spend. Upromise is the same way.

Mypoints is similar but they send you emails to click on for points or surveys in addition to shopping. Sunshine rewards is similar but they don't send a lot of clickable emails. You have to visit the website to do surveys. You cannot do surveys for both Mypoints and Sunshine without running into problems. Choose one and stick with it. You also need to follow their rules about clearing cookies and not clicking thru other program's links first when you go shopping.

Some people will tell you that they make a lot just doing the surveys. They don't tell you how frustrating it can be to just qualify for a survey. Mypoints will give you 10 points for just trying. Sunshine gives you nothing. Some surveys can take 10 to 20 minutes of answering questions before they tell you that you did not qualify. You always have the opportunity to qualify for another survey but how much time do you want to waste in the quest for eighty cents?

BTW, if you plan to do these programs you should sign up with an email address that you use just for that program. It's amazing how much spam you can get from participating in these programs!

 

[Brer Shay]

I can't speak to mypoints or ebates, but I got into sunshine rewards last year after reading about it on here. I was a diligent "survey only" participant (practically no shopping) from late January to mid June. I earned $250 in that time span. I spent about 40 minutes a day. After I got my Disney GC for our trip, i backed off almost completely from burn out. I did about $25 the rest of the year. I did a little Christmas shopping through it and have picked up surveys again in January and have another $75. They've added four more surveys, so, in theory you could make over $100 a month. I put a time limit on it and do what I qualify for in that time frame. I just sit with the laptop while I watch TV in the evening (max of an hour). My goal is to get to $300 by the end of May for our next trip. Hope that helps.

 

[mrsmav]

I use mypoints, ebates and swagbucks. I also use sunshine rewards but not as often and earn very little there.

I get gift cards through mypoints a few times a year - usually for the gap or amazon.

With ebates I get cash -

I earn $25 a month in amazon gift cards with swagbucks.

 

[LetsDoDisney!]

I like Big Crumbs. Cash sent directly to my paypal account. But it's only shopping there, no surveys, etc. You can go through their site to book travel, shopping, lots of stuff.

 

[3boymthr]

I love mypoints and ebates. I spend about 5 minutes a day on the daily clicks for mypoints and no time at all with ebates beyond the extra minute it takes to have the page load up and choose the website I want to shop at.

I use ebates for almost all my online shopping. Between my Christmas shopping and our snowblower and buying books for my Nook I've saved about $70 in the last two months. I also have a $5 refer a friend bonus - she saved 3% on a washer/dryer combo, not a ton but as she said - hey that's my delivery fee .

I use mypoint primarily for the e-mail clicks and the surveys. Another good way to earn points thru my points is the printable manufacturer's coupons - you get 10 points for each coupon you print thru their site - most are redeemable at any store but a few are specific to say walmart or target or... I had stopped shopping thru them as I found I could do better thru ebates, but now also randomly buy a book for my Nook thru them as I found that the e-mails slowed down significantly when I didn't click thru them to shop once in a while. I always deliberatly disqualify myself from their surveys - it takes about 3 or 4 minutes or less to do this (just choose no prefererence or prefer not to say when ever it's an option and it will automatically pop you out) but I'll still get the 10 points, which is way better than the 50 i'd get for 20 minutes or more of taking a survey.

 

[Belle0101]

I use mypoints, ebates and swagbucks. I also use sunshine rewards but not as often and earn very little there.

I get gift cards through mypoints a few times a year - usually for the gap or amazon.

With ebates I get cash -

I earn $25 a month in amazon gift cards with swagbucks.

Could you post how you do so well with Swagbucks, please? I think that I'm doing all I can there but I'm open to learning how to do better. $25 a month is great!!

 

[worm761]

Could you post how you do so well with Swagbucks, please? I think that I'm doing all I can there but I'm open to learning how to do better. $25 a month is great!!

Not the same poster but Swagbucks TV is GREAT to rack up points. Swagbucks is my Christmas plan. I earned $25 last month cashing out for the $5 Amazon gift cards. I cashed out for my first one this month last night. I run Swag TV while I ChaCha. Every so many shows, you get 5 swag bucks. Also, do the daily poll, NOSO, and trusted survey. Install the tool bar and search everything you want to go to. Wanna go to disboards.com? Just put disboards in and search it. Once in a while you get lucky and get points. They add up fast. I love love love this program. It paid for half of my Christmas last year.

 

[rnorwo1]

Wow, thanks for all the info! A couple of questions so far:

-Can you do upromise and ebates at the same time?
-For mypoints, what do you mean you just have to click on the email? When I open the email, what do you click on, the target site's name? And then does the page just have to open up or what?

Thanks for the advice on the new email.... I was so frustrated with everything in my inbox!

 

[mrsmav]

Could you post how you do so well with Swagbucks, please? I think that I'm doing all I can there but I'm open to learning how to do better. $25 a month is great!!

I do the 4 daily points - toolbar, poll, NOSO, survey every day. I watch videos in the special offers. I use Swagbucks TV. I also installed the toolbar and use the search. Whenever I want to go on any site I go through the tool bar search. So if I want to come here to the disboards I put disboards in the SB toolbar.

I don't do too many special offeres - just the videos and things I am truly interested in. Like the other day they gave 317 SB for doing the B&N groupon. I did want to groupon so I made sure to get it through the SB special offer. I already earned two $5 amazon gift cards this month.

And I do the special offer surveys sometimes. I don't have much time for the surveys but today I did one that gave me 90 SB.

 

[Kycha]

Wow, thanks for all the info! A couple of questions so far:

-Can you do upromise and ebates at the same time?
-For mypoints, what do you mean you just have to click on the email? When I open the email, what do you click on, the target site's name? And then does the page just have to open up or what?

Thanks for the advice on the new email.... I was so frustrated with everything in my inbox!

I can't help you with your first question. I don't belong to upromise.

For mypoints, when you open an email from them, scroll down a little bit until you see the orange button that says "GET POINTS". Click that and once the page opens up your points should be credited to your account. Not all of the mypoints emails will give you points just for clicking or visiting the site. Some of the emails require you to respond to the offer(spend money) to get points. Just open each email and read the requirements. Some will give additional points if you register on the site or sign up for a newsletter.

I have been a member of mypoints since 4/2006 and have earned 18,908 points(and for 18 months of that time I wasn't active at all). And all of that was from clicking emails, signing up for newsletters and easy points. I have never purchased anything through mypoints. And I receive, on average, 25 clickable emails a week.

Also check out mypoints website. Click on the EASY POINTS tab. There are a bunch of offers you can respond to that don't require you to purchase anything. It can help build up your points.

 

[Dahly]

I love mypoints..have been a member since 1999, and have cashed out multiple times for lots of gift cards (marriott hotels, target, resturants, etc) ..including enough Amazon cards to completly pay for a Kindle a few weeks ago!

I just joined swagbucks a few months ago, and have earned enought for $60 in amazon gift cards so far..which is perfect for buying books for my kindle! i get most of my swagbucks from SwagTV..i just let it run in the background while I am doing everything else I need to do online.

I think any program is what you make of it. For example, if I need to purchase something online, i go to mypoints first to see if the retailer I am interested in is listed there...i made 3k points last month for booking my southwest vacation to las vegas through them.

 

[msmama]

How much online shopping do you do?

An easy thing I've found is, if I'm going to buy something online anyway, makes sure I don't just go to the website - click through somewhere first. For instance, I was sending flowers today, and rather than just go to a flower website, I went to Swagbucks first and got 900 swagbucks - enough 2 $5 Amazon cards. Nice bonus for something I was going to do anyway.

My credit union (USAA) has "click through" deals, too. Sometimes % off, sometimes a % back, so check with your bank.

 

[Kycha]

Another thing, most of these rewards sites have great coupon codes that you can combine with the cashback %. For example, I recently puchased printer ink cartridges from hp.com through ebates. I got free 2 day shipping(standard at hp.com) plus $10 off $50 with a coupon code from ebates. Plus, 20% cashback from ebates.

When I am ready to make a purchase online, I check which site gives the best cash back % and coupon codes and go from there. I use ebates, mypoints and sunshine rewards.

I am curious about swagbucks. I have been reading a lot of positive things about them lately.

 

[starry_solo]

I used to do MyPoints but now it seems like they want a copy of your state identification card / driver's license Not sure if I really want to give them that...

 

[Loralei]

I use swagbucks, mypoints & quickrewards. I rarely shop online. So, I don't earn a lot that way, but with just clicking links (quickrewards)& emails(mypoints), searching (swagbucks). I make a decent amount of "fun money" with minimal effort. I spend about 30 minutes a day total & probably make about $10 a month on Swagbucks & quickrewards. Mypoints is slow, but I've found if you add their search tool (they now have one that adds to the one in your browser as opposed to having to download a toolbar) it adds up faster since you can get 75 points a month for doing just 30 searches.


...Kycha...I just sent you a PM...

 

[Kycha]

I used to do MyPoints but now it seems like they want a copy of your state identification card / driver's license Not sure if I really want to give them that...

I have never had them ask for that. What do they want your id for?

...Kycha...I just sent you a PM...

Thanks Loralei!

 

[Carina]

And I receive, on average, 25 clickable emails a week.

How do you get so many, I dont even come close to 25 a month

 

[Carina]

I always deliberatly disqualify myself from their surveys - it takes about 3 or 4 minutes or less to do this (just choose no prefererence or prefer not to say when ever it's an option and it will automatically pop you out) but I'll still get the 10 points, which is way better than the 50 i'd get for 20 minutes or more of taking a survey.

Where are the surveys, I sometimes get those things on the main page that ask if I watched TV last night or if anyone in my house has asthma ( or whatever) and I can click for 5 points if I dont qualify or I can routed to an offer. But those are just 5 points and they don't sent to a survey so I am not sure where the surveys are.

2 people mentioned 10 points but I don't see anything for 10 points ( or more)