MyPoints Rewards Program - An Easy Way To Earn Giftcards

MyPoints is a rewards program that gives you points for doing all sorts of stuff online. It's one big reward network, just like when you earn miles on an airline or cash-back on a credit card. The best part about MyPoints is it is flexible and you don't have to just shop at one store to earn points and you don't have only one or two things to choose from when you redeem your points for gift cards. You can earn points several different ways:

• For shopping at hundreds of brand-name merchant sites such as GAP (8 points per dollar), Best Buy (2 points per dollar), Vistaprint (300 points), and the Apple Store (1 point per dollar).
• For responding to email offers.
• For taking surveys.
• For booking travel arrangements.
• For printing and using coupons
• and also for playing online games.

I have been a member of MyPoints since 2004. My sister said it was something I just "had to do" so I jumped on the band wagon. I figured how hard could it be to open an email, click on a link, let the link load and then close it. That's basically all I did for the first year. Even though most emails are only worth 5 points it does have a tendency to add up.

Once we moved overseas and I did a lot of shopping online, I would always go through my MyPoints so I could earn a little extra money for some gift cards down the road.

Since we have moved back to the states I have been saving my points for a rainy day. One day I will decide I want a Kohl's gift card or even a Starbucks one and order it. It will come in the mail shortly after I order it and then I have a redeemable gift card I didn't have before.

MyPoints is easy to get into. You start by signing up for a MyPoints account at www.mypoints.com After your account is started and linked to your email (I started it's own email account in case spam gets through) you can make purchases and open emails to start making points.

There are a lot of different ways you can get points on MyPoints. I don't do a whole lot of online purchases anymore, but when I did that was my major source of points. When you shop through MyPoints you get points per dollar with most places like Kohl's is 2 points per dollar an so is Walmart. That means if you spend $100 at either store you get 200 points closer to your next gift card. When shopping online at GAP you get 8 points per dollar. So $100 at the GAP is 800 points closer to your next gift card. When you do shop through a website on MyPoints when you check out or have an account with that company, it has to be the same email address as your MyPoints. That is the only way it knows how to give you your points.

There are many other ways to receive your points other then making a purchase online. Here's some of those ways.

• Sign up for NETFLIX through MyPoints and you get 2,000 points (that's more points then 1 gift card for some places)
• Print grocery coupons from coupons.com through MyPoints and you get 150 points for printing and redeeming those coupons.
• Complete your profile (your profile tells MyPoints what kind of emails to send you) and you get 60 points.
• Downloading the toolbar is 100 points and you get points if you use the search in that toolbar so many times a day.
• MyPoints has free games you can play and earn points too.
• There are always questions on the homepage that you get 5 points for each for answering.

The main way to get points (it's not a lot of points but it adds up over time) is opening emails and clicking on the links. I don't ever purchase anything through these emails but if you do you earn what points are said in the flyer. As in the picture below you can see that you get 5 points for reading this email and and visiting the site and if you respond to the offer you get 15 points. Your emails do expire most of the time though, so if you do not click on the email before the expiration date (usually at the end of the email) then you will not be eligible for the points.

Another easy way to make points is to refer a friend. Here's how Refer A Friend works with MyPoints.

Step 1: Enter your friends name and email address in the refer friends form plus an optional short message.

Step 2: MyPoints will send your friend a personalized invitation, addressed from you.

Step 3: If your friend joins MyPoints through the link in your invitation email they will become part of your network and you will earn 10% of all their eligible points.

Step 4: Sign-Up Bonus: Once your friend joins MyPoints and makes a merchant purchase (other then Amazon and Games) of at least $20 (excluding taxes, shipping and handling, and any special processing fees) within 90 days through the MyPoints.com website and emails (including Bonus Mail), MyPoints will award both you and your friend with 750 points each!

The reward opportunities on MyPoints is incredible. There are so many things you can choose to do with your points You can get gift cards, cash and even travel miles. You can even donate your points to charity. Here are a few rewards and how many points you need for each.

• Amazon.com - 3,950 points gets you a $25 Amazon.com Gift Card (claim code) and 7,500 points gets you a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card (claim code)
• Barnes & Noble Booksellers - 1,600 points gets you a $10 Barnes & Nobel Gift Card and 3,650 points gets you a $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card
• BP - 1,700 points gets you a $10 BP Gift Card, 3,950 points gets you a $25 BP Gift Card and 7,350 points gets you a $50 BP Gift Card
• Marriott - 6,850 points gets you a $50 Marriott TravelCard, 9,100 points gets you a $75 Marriott TravelCard and 12,600 points gets you a $100 Marriott TravelCard
• Outback Steakhouse - 1,650 points gets you a $10 Outback Steakhouse Gift Card, 3,800 points gets you a $25 Outback Steakhouse Gift Card and 7,100 points gets you a $50 Outback Steakhouse Gift Card
• PayPal - 4,550 points gets $25 deposited into your PayPal account and 8,900 points gets $50 deposited into your PayPal account
• Red Lobster/Olive Garden - 1,600 points gets you a $10 Red Lobster/Olive Garden Gift Card
• SHELL - 1,750 points gets you a $10 SHELL Gift Card, 3,950 points gets you a $25 SHELL Gift Card and 7,450 points gets you a $50 SHELL Gift Card
• Starbucks - 1,650 points gets you a $10 Starbucks Gift Card
• VISA Prepaid Card - 4,600 points gets you a $25 Visa Prepaid Card and 9,000 points gets you a $50 Visa Prepaid Card
• Walmart - 1,750 points gets you a $10 Walmart Gift Card, 4,000 points gets you a $25 Walmart Gift Card and 7,600 points gets you a $50 Walmart Gift Card

These are just a few of the rewards you can use your points on. There are over 80 different merchants you can use to get your points changed into Gift Cards and they can be restaurants, PayPal payments, Visa prepaid cards, American Red Cross charity donations, and travel miles. There are so many different options that make MyPoints really worth it.

In these tough economic times people are always looking for new ways to save some money. I have found that my MyPoints has helped out a lot. If you can save your points and cash them in for Christmas or Birthday gifts it helps save you money out of pocket. It really is as simple as opening an email, clicking on the link, letting the web page load, and closing the page. In my opinion it is very much worth the 2 seconds extra I spend on that one little email. And if there is ever anything I need to purchase online, going through my MyPoints gives me that little extra (almost makes paying for shipping a little more worth it).