September 2005 Archives

Until 9/30, ClubMom Rewards members can earn 250 bonus points for placing any online shopping order on their site (only good once). 250 points at ClubMom is worth around $1.25.

ClubMom offers some fairly reasonable shopping rates -- they came out around the middle of the pack in last year's shopping rebate comparison. (Remember, rebates may have changed since then, this is just for a basic comparison.) If you were getting close to cashing out and needed a little boost, this would certainly help.

My review of ClubMom Rewards is here; or please click here to join.

Greenpoints.com is the online version of the old S&H Greenstamps program. I have a review of the program up here. If you're a member, please check out the survey available there for 100 points which updates your contact and demographic info and also asks a lot of questions about your online shopping habits for a planned upgrade of their shopping portal. This survey is available either as a popup when you first go to the site, or when logged in, go to Earn Greenpoints and you'll see it there.

This overhaul of their shopping portal is LONG overdue, in my opinion. First of all, Greenpoints offers one straight shopping rate for all their merchants: 10 points per dollar. When you do the math, that comes out to a rebate of about 1.2%. When you compare what other rewards programs are paying for the same purchase, generally 1.2% is just plain insulting. (Greenpoints does make an exception for FTD.com; they pay 50 points per dollar there, but that's still just 6%...why earn 6% when you can earn 10% for shopping at FTD through Ebates.com or Giving2Gether.org??)

Not only are Greenpoints' shopping rates laughable, their merchant selection leaves much to be desired. They carry only around 120 merchants, and some of the big ones like Walmart, KBToys, and Buy.com aren't offered (but hey! They have Soft Surroundings and Jerry Baker!).

Now what Greenpoints DOES have that's pretty unique is the online point crediting of offline grocery shopping. More info on that is here. Again, we're still talking about 10 points per dollar (1.2%), but if you were going to buy groceries anyway...

So: My advice to the folks at Greenpoints is, wake up and realize that the modern rewards shopper is smart enough to know that your points aren't worth that much. You have to have a more flexible platform that allows you to offer different rebates for each merchant -- we know you may only MAKE 2% on some of our purchases so giving us 1.2% may be fair then, but when, for example, you're making 30% on each ValueMags sale and only paying your members 1.2%... c'mon, we're just not that stupid. And let's see if we can offer a wider variety of merchants!

Giving us a voice in the future of the site is a start. Now, please... listen to us.

Update, 10/17: It's back! Now there are actually TWO reclickable HotJobs banners up at both QR and CR! Enjoy!

Until now, the only rewards program that would credit you for clicking their HotJobs banner multiple times was Freeride.com. But now QuickRewards.net and CreationsRewards.net have added this option to their sites as well. Both sites allow you to click their banner up to 250 times per day. QR values each click at 3 points each for a total of 750 points, or 75c, per day! CR values each click at 1/2 a point each, for a total of 125 points, or 62.5c per day. Note, 10/17: Both sites have added a second reclickable HotJobs banner with a lower value; QR's is 1 point and CR's is .2 points. These second banners have fewer allowed clicks (somewhere around 25 or less).

This is in addition to the points you can earn for clicking on the HotJobs banner at Freeride, currently 75 times at 4 tokens each, for a total of 300 tokens, worth about 28c per day. (Note: on 9/24 Freeride added a second HotJobs banner, located under What's New, clickable for an additional 500 tokens daily.)

Not sure how long this will last, so grab those points while ya can!

A newsletter subscriber who just received a redemption from PointPool emailed to say that her GC included a letter from the site promising some upcoming improvements, including:

- Immediate crediting of shopping points to your account starting in October
- Guaranteed delivery of GC redemptions within 2 to 4 weeks; otherwise 110% of the points redeemed will be returned to your account
- 50% bonus points for frequent shoppers
- A commitment to expeditious communication with their members.

Hope that's the case, as the site has been plagued with customer service issues in recent months. Thanks to Mary for sharing this info with us!

I'm not going to tell you what to do, no. But let me give you some background information, and then I'll share my SUGGESTIONS. From there, make your own judgments based on your own personal tolerance for risk.

An article last week by Associated Press writer Justin Bachman contained some interesting passages:

“'If you hold miles with an airline you’re essentially a creditor, and this is a terrible environment to be a creditor to an airline — especially an unsecured creditor,' notes Jay Sorensen, president of IdeaWorks, a Shorewood, Wis.-based brand consulting company that researches airline and other loyalty programs."

and,

"...You have an asset in which you've invested - with the expectation of a future return - that is now at risk. The best route? Sell - cash in - as much of that asset as you can unload now..." (The full article is here, among other places.)

Now, they're talking specifically about frequent flier miles... but I think it applies to MyPoints as well. Point-holders at MyPoints are creditors, and UNSECURED creditors at that.

Here is a copy of United Airlines' Joint Plan of Reorganization, filed on 9/7/05. Let me warn you, it's 130 pages of legalese. You can pretty much skip the first 37 pages -- they're basically definitions of terms.

It's tedious reading, but if you do a search for "MyPoints.com" you'll see them breaking MyPoints' creditors into different categories, and each category will receive a certain percentage of the total amount they're owed. Page 81 has some discussion on all of UAL's loyalty programs. It says that when the reorg plan becomes effective, it's at UAL's discretion whether to honor all of their loyalty programs (including MyPoints). Which I guess would mean, they could choose not to honor them at all. Not much there we didn't already guess.

Now, if you have some accounting skills, take a look at this (it's an appendix to the reorg plan) -- go on down to page 33 and rotate it clockwise and increase the font size so it's readable. This is United's Hypothetical Liquidation Analysis of MyPoints.com. I see that the estimated unsecured claims is 9.9 BILLION dollars (rubbing my eyes to make sure that number's right) and the amount they plan to pay the unsecured creditors (I'm guessing that would include us point-holders) is... ZERO. ($0.00. Nil. None. Zip.) But hey, if you have 20.9 million dollars lying around, that's about what they're estimating is the liquidation value of their assets minus their liquidation costs. (Hey, I'm no accountant; if I'm mis-reading this, someone, PLEASE correct me!)

But if you want a bargain basement deal, they're valuing their intangible assets at 3.1 million bucks. Now I've got a hunch that THAT asset is...US. Our information. Our email addresses, as well as all the demographics they've collected on us. Now, we've all seen the statistics on how profitable spam can be -- a couple of million bucks for email addresses and demographics (MyPoints proudly claims, in their media kit here, to collect over 400 data points on each member) for 10 MILLION MyPoints members -- worth it? To a lot of organizations, you're darned tootin'.

So, back to the original question -- what to do with your MyPoints? Do I cash out now? Do I wait? Now THIS is my opinion, and you can take it or leave it...and as I said, not being an accountant, I may be misreading the financials. But this is how I see it: United Airlines plans to be out of bankruptcy by February 2006 at the latest. That means, by then they will already have sold MyPoints. Will the new owners fork over the 3 million for the database, or the 21 million for the whole business? It really doesn't matter, because NEITHER projection shows the unsecured creditors (that's the pointholders) getting paid. My suggestions are that A) you cash out now and do not do any more offers or shopping through MyPoints -- remember, there's a pretty lengthy wait time after you complete most offers before the points become available for spending, B) you change your email address on file with MyPoints to a spam address and, C) After receiving your last redemption (assuming you still have time), change your entire profile with MyPoints to something bogus -- fake name, fake age, fake number of kids, fake mailing address... as a precaution should the site be sold to spammers or to some less-than-trustworthy company to fold into their own existing rewards program (not naming any names (coughMEMOLINKcough) ).

And hey, if I'm way off-base with how this plays out... no harm done, right? You did get something for your points, you can always change your profile back, and in the meantime, you probably would have earned more by doing your shopping and offers through MyPoints' competitors (check out my favorites, QuickRewards.net and CreationsRewards.net -- may not be as slick-looking but they offer better shopping rates and better customer service). Another oldie-but-goodie is Ebates, which primarily rewards you for shopping...they give you $5 FREE for signing up and making your first purchase through them!

By the way, just for kicks, here is where I initially reported on this story, in 12/02, and here's a copy of the actual papers filed in court in December 2002 for MyPoints to declare bankruptcy.

Good luck, everybody! I hope you're able to get your points out before WHATEVER happens, happens!

***Update 11/9/05: (rofl) Now LP and SRR say, "Sorry for the scare," that despite yesterday's message, users still have until 12/1 to redeem points. Get a clue...and a spellchecker, Memolink.

**Update 11/08/05: LP and SRR's sites this morning state that all earnings AND redemptions are over. They still have trivia up, though.

Yep, LuckyPoints.com and SavingsRegisterRewards.com are shutting down.

The Site of the Day at SRR has been gone for months, and LuckyPoints' has been missing for the past week. We all knew that couldn't be a good sign. Late yesterday, members at both sites were greeted with this message:

"We regret to inform you that we are discontinuing the LuckyPoints.com [or SavingsRegisterRewards] rewards program. We value your membership and have made sure that you still have enough time to earn points and order your last prizes. Click the "View Site of the Day" link to learn more."

When you do, they say they're giving users until 10/3 to earn points and until 12/1 to redeem them, and they're promising delivery of all prizes by 12/15. The sites will stay up until 12/31. Users who haven't received their prizes by 12/31 are told to contact Memolink at prizeshipments@memolink.com

No idea about whether they'll honor any pending points (for example, if you do/have done any shopping or signups. The lowest redemptions available are for $5 in Burger King Bucks for 5000 points (click Prizes, Fast Food), or for Tsunami Aid (click Prizes, Charity) -- 1,750 points for $2 or 4,000 points for $5.

Right now, PCHPoints.com (the other site "powered by Memolink") is still up and running, with its Site of the Day up as normal. Hope Publisher's Clearing House, who funds it, continues to find it profitable.

For whatever it's worth (so you can have another company to throw darts at or whatever), remember that SavingsRegisterRewards was owned by the parent company of Milesource -- more on that here.

Other relevant articles (in chronological order): Reviews Up, Daily Points & Site Visits Dropped at 3 Sites, SavingsRegisterRewards Eliminates SOTD & Site Visits, LuckyPoints Drops SOTD Points to 5

[waves to the Memolink staff caught lurking here on 9/20 and several times on 9/22... not going to leave anymore fake comments, pretending to be diehard fans of Memolink defending their favorite site? (snicker)]

In light of this news, if you are looking for a couple of good rewards programs to replace LuckyPoints and SavingsRegisterRewards, please let me suggest QuickRewards.net and CreationsRewards.net -- click to see my reviews and email me if you have any questions at all about how these two WONDERFUL sites work! And you can get the answers to their daily trivia questions here!

Yeah, and good luck with that.

If you recall, last year Memolink got tagged as a big ol' spammer, in an independent spam study (read my post about it here) conducted over the first 6 months of 2004 by Mike Adams of ArialSoftware.com.

In a news release yesterday, Memolink's president David Asseoff announced that his company was one of the first two to be "certified" by LashBack, a new "certification program for unsubscribe compliance."

Asseoff stated, "Being certified by LashBack outwardly projects Memolink's commitment to protecting consumers from spam and shows our dedication to responsible email marketing."

Yeah, that and $3.50 will buy you a gallon of gas.

Well, for the many folks who've been ceaselessly spammed by Memolink or the other companies owned by Memolink, I hope that this is more than PR hooplah... hooplah conveniently timed to coincide with the same-day announcement that two sites run by Memolink, SavingsRegisterRewards and LuckyPoints, would be closing.

Hmmm...coincidence, maybe? You make the call.

If you had any referrals under the old system, too darned bad, says Henry Bullis. Ya lost 'em. Suck it up. Oh, but if you go recruit some MORE unsuspecting newbies for us, we'll give you a percentage of the offers they complete during their registration (and then only). Or since it's so hard to find people who'll touch Memolink with a ten-foot-pole, if you can get non-members to complete Memolink offers, we'll toss you a kickback on that, too. Okay, yeah, that's paraphrased a tad, from an email that a user sent me (I'll keep her anonymous to cover her behind), but that's basically the gist of it. Sad, huh? I know there are folks who insist, "Hey, they've always sent me what they owed fairly quickly!" (The Lucky Ones, I call them.) But I just don't understand why you'd want to bother with a program that pays less for offers, pays less for shopping, pays less for daily clicks, and screws around its users more, than EVERYBODY ELSE. Need some GOOD program recommendations? Ask me. I have a list. Or go browse through the 30 or so programs I have listed here. Do an eenie-meanie-miney-mo on it and I guarantee you you'll end up with a better program. It's a free country, stick with 'em if you insist. But hey, don't say I didn't warn you! ;)

The actual text of Memolink's email regarding their new referral program follows.

The owner of the BabyMint rewards program, Vesdia Corporation, is selling the program to a company called Collegiate Funding Services, Inc. CFS plans to expand the program by allowing members to apply their rebates toward Stafford and PLUS loans, private loans, and Federal AND private consolidation loans...in addition to the current Section 529 college savings plans.

Here's the news release.

According to the Chicago Tribune (or also see the article here), United Air Lines (the parent company of MyPoints.com) has announced its intention to sell MyPoints as part of their plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection -- now slated for mid-January. They're expected to file their reorganization plan in a Chicago bankruptcy court on Wednesday and I'll get you the full details then.

They've been under bankruptcy protection for almost three years now.

They bought MyPoints in June 2001 for $112.5M in cash. I would imagine that with the increased membership since then, the company would be valued much higher now.

How will this affect us as members? Who knows? I've said before, and I will reiterate, that it is not a good idea to maintain a high point balance with ANY rewards program, and if you're as protective of your earnings as I am, you'll probably want to cash out at a fairly low level until we find out what the future holds for MyPoints. Update, 9/21/05: I did some research and I do have some suggestions for you here.

Older related entries: Bad News for MyPoints, Best Redemptions at MyPoints, Changes to MyPoints Coming Soon?

QuickRewards.net is the latest rewards program to join the efforts to support the Red Cross in their efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. You can choose to donate any portion of your earnings, even as little as a penny. My newsletter subscribers know how this tragedy has hit awfully close to home -- I'd consider it a personal favor if you'd donate a penny, a quarter, even a dollar of your QR earnings to help these folks out. Thanks.

Andrew Cram, who has a very thorough site analyzing loyalty programs including frequent flyer sites, has put together a great list of programs that are allowing members to donate points or miles to the Red Cross or to other charity relief organizations.

Andrew's list of these programs, and how you can help, is here.

His site, an awesome tool for those wanting to get information on frequent flyer programs, is here. Make sure you check out his shopping comparison table here (a list of merchants, alphabetically, and which loyalty programs reward for purchases there).

This message was sent today from QuizPoints:

Quizpoints.com sincerely regrets the tragedies that have taken place as a result of Hurricane Katrina in the United States. Quizpoints would like to request your help in contributing to the disaster relief efforts that are taking place all over the affected areas. That is why we would like to offer our members the chance to help however they can. Quizpoints is allowing all of its members to donate "points" to the funds. For every 1 point that a member chooses to donate, Quizpoints will donate $0.04 to the red cross fund - that's double the average point value. Please visit Quizpoints today and view your account balance. If you wish to donate points to this campaign, send an email to support@quizpoints.com, telling us how many points you wish to donate. Any member may donate any amount, even 1 point. Every little bit helps! We will send another message when this opportunity has ended.

If you feel like you can help, please send us an email today! Your points will go directly to the Red Cross relief fund.