My Points was the first point site I signed up for more and more than two years later; it’s still my favorite. Simply put-you gather points and then turn them in for gift certificates for both online and offline merchants and services. Here’s how it works:
Earning Points.
Points are earned by all the usual methods-visiting web sites, trying services out, reading emails, referrals and shopping. The number of available sites to visit varies greatly. Early on there were always a few new ones. Recently there are rarely any new.
Emails are sent according to your interests and you set the frequency. To maximize the number of points you can get in this area-check off all the boxes in the interest area of your profile. There are rarely more than a dozen in a week. All will give you some points for just clicking onto the site. Usually you can get more points by signing up or making a purchase at the featured site.
There are always lots of try it out points available. These generally require you to join a site or sign up for a service. Be very careful with these! I almost never take advantage of these because they either will end up filling my mailbox with junk or they require a credit card to charge you for the service after a trial period. These offers are great point builders IF there is a product or service you want to try anyway.
Shopping is my primary way of building points. There is an extensive list of merchants in all categories and, at the least, you will get 2 points per dollar spent. Some give extra points for first time buyers. Periodically, shopping points are doubled. (usually around holidays). There are also sites featured at times with special offers.
One place to earn a few extra points is to purchase an online gift certificate through the site and then use that certificate to make a purchase at another vendor through the site. (a $50. gc for Borders Books gets you 100 points, then use that to pay for an order through Borders -through My Points and you will get an additional 100 points) This IS allowed-it is not cheating the site.
You can also build points by referrals and/or banner placements.
Spending Points
You can start redeeming points at 750. At this level the typical reward is a $5. gift certificate. You will do better if you save for the higher levels. By 5250-most of of the gift certificates are at the $50. level. We tend to use our gc’s for restaurants. GC’s always come in less time than the time the site says to allow. They come as typical gc’s-there is nothing to indicate they are from a point site-so this is a great way to get gc’s for gifts.
I have occasionally had to use customer service to track down missing points. They are always helpful and problems get solved. They can be a little slow to respond but since I know the end result will be resolution, I can be patient.