ChinaShrek

What do you mean by "quiz?" I get MyPoints emails everyday without failure. They include surveys (probably one a day) and offers to buy stuff (2-7 emails a day).

Cornroaster

I have still gotten a few survey offers, but the "click for 5 points" offers seem to have been lesser in numbers, while the emails offering points only in the event of a purchase seem to have increased. I do not click on those.

dcpatti

I have been a MyPoints member for a long time and have a couple of observations/tips/cautions to make:

--Overall it seems like a small operation and their customer service, should you need it, is lacking. Document everything when redeeming as I've had rewards get "lost in the system" before. Back when they used to give Hilton points, it took about 12 weeks to transfer the points to my Hilton account on one redemption. What was odd was I'd actually done 3 redemptions and two sailed through while the third went to mars. I got the same email CSR as I got on other redemption issues which is what leads me to believe they've not got a big operation. This CSR was snarky to say the least and I really had to prove my papertrail when I was showing them what the problem was. Took at least a week for them to sort out that there were 3 points redemptions but only 2 postings to my Hilton account.

--I would *strongly* recommend holding your gift card redemptions till you have more than $200 worth. I've had the gift cards go missing in the mail before and I think it was just that they forgot to ship them, as I get gift cards on my company's employee recognition plan all the time and never had one go missing, even though my employee plan clearly looks like a gift card is inside while the MyPoints envelopes are a lot plainer. Anyway, they *say* that orders over $200 will go by Fedex and require a signature. I have yet to see this as my last 2 redemptions were over this mark and came plain ol' US mail but at least if it gets lost, it works in my favor to point out that they didn't follow their own policies

--Watch the pricing when you're buying things you'd buy anyway. Some things really are more expensive when purchased through a MyPoints link. Harry and David around holiday time is a good example, and Omaha Steaks are sometimes more expensive too.

--Have your gift cards shipped to you and not your gift recipient because when you give them two addresses, chances are it is coming to your house anyway

All in all, I like the service and I'll keep using it-- but it's definitely not without its kinks and flaws.

samdori

I joined mypoints back in january to get UA miles, but I am definitely done with them after I get 10,000 points and cash out. It is a nice service for getting points if you're someone who buys a lot of things online, but I don't.
The problem is I have spent way too much time doing the other things that just aren't worth the time consumed doing them such as spinning the wheel (do it almost every day and never gotten more than 5 points), clicking bonus mails, surveys, toolbar searches and signing up for offers that often don't credit unless I save the emails and contact member services after 30 days. I will have put in many hours of time just to get 5000 UA miles. When I think of the value of the miles I will be getting compared to the time I have put in, it is a no brainer to give it up. I will stick with other ways of accumulating miles such as signing up for more credit cards offers^

Also it will be nice to stop getting so much junk mail in my inbox

crabbing

this is actually a fantastic mypoints deal, because it gives you the "national association" costco coupons, which are easily worth the $50 signup fee alone.

personally, i value mypoints at 1.5 pts/cent, based on standard redemption of 1500 pts for $10 gift cards. i do most of my shopping through other portals, so it takes too long to build up enough pts for $25/$50 cards. i've never lost a gift card in the mail, but i don't worry so much about losing $10 that i never really worked for anyway (just clicking the emails, printing coupons, and "failing to qualify" for surveys).

TrojanHorse

I know I do

I answer 2 yo, Female and that usually does it
i'll add 12345 for zip code if they require that as well

I only want the ten points anyway and since it seems that qualification seldom works, why waste the time

aerospace

Definitely better to get the 10 easy points, especially if the survey client is OTX.

KathyWdrf

Thanks for your observations. I've also been a member for a few years now, and have NOT experienced any of the problems that you have had. The few problems that I have experienced have generally been solved quickly.

So, everyone's experience is a bit different!

As for the posters who question the value of the points, I fully agree that they are worth only about $0.006 to $0.007 apiece (i.e., 0.6 to 0.7 cent), based on the points cost of gift cards.

However, if you're sitting in front of your computer, surfing the web anyhow (perhaps while eating breakfast or a snack or drinking some coffee), reading a few mypoints 5-point e-mails and/or answering a survey and/or running a web search from their site, etc. is a harmless yet mildly profitable activity. I occasionally do shop on the site as well -- usually at Office Depot, where I can stack an online discount coupon with earnings of at least 500 mypoints per order, with free shipping included. (Orders over $50.)

ZZyzx000

I've used Fatwallet for years. They are great and never miss anything. You can get an email when things are ready for collection and have it sent to your Paypal account almost immediately.

However, they recently reduced their Priceline commission from 3% to 2%. I asked them if Priceline reduced it or just them. They are going to check this for me.

Fatwallet is great. Does any other site pay more than 2% to link to Priceline?

Jaelle

I use mypoints as a portal for a lot of different places - but primarily ebay and abebooks. But there are at least another ten places I have used. Over 90% of the time the points posted automatically with no problems - the few times that the points didn't post I wrote to customer service and they posted within a week. I have no complaints with mypoints about getting points through them.

I prefer points to cash in this situation because I use my points for a special use of mine. Everything I get from mypoints gets turned in United Miles - and those are the miles I use to give tickets to my friends and family when I want to help them. This lets me have one type of miles to give away without having to touch my main type of miles which I use for my husband and myself. It lets me be generous without it really impacting me. And virtually all of my united miles come from mypoints - I do a small amount of flying on united or partners, but not much. And, I get enough points to get more than one ticket a year. Considering that all I do is click on everything that comes through and use mypoints as a portal for my shopping, I really can't complain with what I get in return! And more importantly, neither can my family and friends.

Jaelle

Carolinian

Over the last week or so, I have had multiple survey emails show up, but when I complete the qualifying questions, I get a screen that says I have already done that survey. I get no points after spending the time on the qualifying questions. I have not had this in the past, but it has been common recently. It is extremely annoying for them to recycle surveys that they will not give us points for. I have sent in a complaint over this practice.

The spam mail called a ''bonusmail'' but without the 5 points for opening it is another huge annoyance of this operation. I often send complaints when I get one, and am starting to send them to the merchants, too. THe ones that do this a lot like Overstock piss me off so much that I would not buy anything from them from any site or store.

JerryFF

I still think the Entertainment Books are the best deal with My Points. Although the value of these books has gone down quite a bit over the past few years, I can always manage to at least get my purchase price out of the book, if not a little bit more, and at the same time receive anywhere from 750 to 1500 points per book.

I have bought 6 books this year at prices ranging from $12.50 to $22.50, and have saved about $200 from the 6 books combined. Furthermore, the 6 books were worth 5500 points with My Points.

alterman

I quit MyPoints. It does not worth my time.

loomis

After 11 years, I finally quit MyPoints. It was always a pain to click through all of their pesty emails, but at least they were good for five points each.

The last straw for me was when, about six months ago, they started sending emails that you got no points for clicking on. My Inbox is feeling so much more free now.

jgxtrav1

If all I ever did at MyPoints is click on the e-mails for 5 points each, I also would have quit a long time ago.

However, I also use them for purchasing (i.e. my latest cell phone provider upgrade/switch) as long as I can get as good (or better) a price as elsewhere and lots of points). So I find them very worthwhile.

Even won 100,000 points once in one of their contests!

I have been a member since the mid 90's and have cashed in over 500,000 points.

No, I didn't track the hours but I feel it was worth it.