October 2005 Archives

Use this coupon, expiring 11/5.

I'm not too impressed with Best Buy's Reward Zone program but if you spend a lot there it might be worthwhile.

Today MyPoints released the results of a member survey about their intended holiday shopping this year. They polled around 1,000 of their members, "the internet's most active and frequent shoppers," and found that more than half of them intended to do about half their holiday shopping online this year. Big shocker.

I don't know, I found the full survey results pretty boring. But I don't think the intention of the press release was to really provide any useful information, it was to say, "Hey! MyPoints is still here! PLEASE shop through us!"

They say MyPoints' biggest shoppers plan to continue to shop through the program, and they quote one member who said she liked being able to shop for her grandkids and earn GCs with her points. Yeah, like there aren't other programs that do that, too...and pay more. And faster. And who aren't up for sale.

The press release went on to tout the generosity of its members in making point donations for Katrina, saying that it amounted to more than $600,000 to date. We'll kind of have to take their word for it, since MyPoints refused to give out the exact dollar value that each member's point donations were buying.

They brag that GCs are sent just days after redemption (a fact I don't dispute at all -- except for Webcertificates), but they don't mention how long it takes for those points to become available for redemption -- for many offers and shopping transactions, it's 30 days.

And that's what bothers me.

What wasn't said, and what I have to caution you with again, is that MyPoints' parent company has announced its intention to sell MyPoints. MyPoints may be up and running when you do your shopping, but will it be there in 30 days when your pending points become available? Or in however many days after that, when you finally get enough points to cash out? MyPoints is not giving you the entire story.

MyPoints may be sold to another company and the program may continue without any interruption or changes to point value whatsoever. WE JUST DON'T KNOW. To be plugging your program, making press releases a month before the Christmas shopping season starts, encouraging people to shop through your program without giving them the whole story, is in my opinion irresponsible and unethical.

Here's the press release if you want to read it.

I get a lot of redemption reports from the great subscribers to my daily trivia newsletter, and almost always folks have glowing reports about how fast they receive their MyPoints redemptions. It's not unusual for members to receive their snailmail rewards in under a week! I guess that's the pro side to the delay in point crediting that MyPoints requires. In any event, I've heard MyPoints members complaining about not receiving their redemptions for Webcertificates and I wanted to pass this along:

MyPoints has responded to several members' concerns about this, and they're saying now that if you request a Webcertificate as your reward there, you can expect a 4 to 6 week wait for the code to be emailed to you.

Unless you have your heart set on a webbie, and you have a month to a month and a half to wait for it, you'd be better off requesting one of their other options. Pretty ironic that it would take longer to receive an emailable GC than a snailmail one, huh?

This program has been around for 2 years and I'm only just hearing about it? I understand that not all stores participate in this, maybe mine don't... (the site says to "click here to find out if a Pizza Hut near you participates in VIP").

Join the Pizza Hut V.I.P (Very Into Pizza) Program and for $14.99 you get one free large 3 topping, specialty, or 4ForAll pizza, plus 12 free coupons for breadsticks or baked cinnamon sticks over the year. Then, place two or more $10+ orders in a month (dine-in is included, too) and you'll be mailed a coupon for a free 3 topping, specialty, or 4ForAll carryout pizza. (Or get it delivered if you redeem with an additional $8 delivery order.) Earn up to 2 free pizzas a month.

For more information, call 1-866-VIP-3444 or go to http://www.pizzahut.com/faq/vipprogram.asp

CompareRewards.com started 4 years ago today. I was reviewing rewards programs and analyzing points on a Homestead site before then, but I chose/registered the URL on this day in 2001.

To see an early version of the site (the first version archived by Archive.org, actually about 7 months after I started), click here.

Many thanks to my visitors/supporters. If you find the site useful, please tell a friend!

How cool -- NBC announced today that it's launching Days of our Lives Daily Rewards, "the first long-time online viewer rewards program for both a daytime drama and a scripted series."

http://www.daysofourlives.com/news_events/detail_1380.html

You get 1,000 points for registration, then earn 150 points for correctly answering a daily trivia question, plus extra points for clicking links in their emails. Cash in points for Sony discounts (blah, this program is powered by MySony, and we've seen this before) or (oooh!, now THIS is cool) for Days merchandise.

I'll take a look at how the program is set up, and if there's ONE daily answer, I'll post it in my daily trivia newsletter.

The press release about this new program is here.

Last week I asked subscribers to my daily trivia newsletter to give it some thought and submit an ad for their favorite PTR (paid to read email) program. I only allowed one ad per person and one ad per program. Over 20 ads were submitted and I sent out an email to the newsletter subscribers so they could see what programs other folks were enjoying and maybe they'd find a new one to try out.

In the spirit of sharing (and helping out my dear subscribers), I've posted that email onsite so it might help out others who are searching for a way to earn a little extra PayPal before Christmas. Here's the link.

On Friday, Freestyle Rewards sent out their first paid email, worth 5 points just to read and click it, similar to MyPoints' program. It takes 30 days for the points to appear in your account, but still, it's nice any time a program lets you earn free points.

To give 'em a try, click here...thanks!

Today QuizPoints announced that users who qualify and complete 3 or more daily surveys in the course of a week (defined as Sunday through Saturday) will receive an additional 25 bonus points into their account.

Also, on Friday QuizPoints launched its new blog, to "release information about new offers, services, and other cool stuff we think you'll like." They're looking for folks to join in and share their feedback. There aren't many rewards programs actively seeking out member opinions with a willingness to listen. We should definitely take 'em up on their offer.

According to this article at MSNBC, Best Buy has begun offering discounts on some items for customers who have a membership in their rewards program, Reward Zone. The article goes on to say that it could be a good thing if it bolsters sales of their rewards card ($9.99), or it could cause non-members to rebel and just shop somewhere else where they can get everyday lower prices.

If you already have a Reward Zone membership, it may be an added perk. Hopefully they won't jack up prices for non-members and make their old prices the "discounted" prices. We'll see.

Note: This comparison has been updated for 2007! Please click here to read the 2007 Shopping Rebate Comparison.

Points, tokens, miles... how are you supposed to know which rewards program is best for shopping when they use these cryptic systems for rewarding you instead of just giving you a good old-fashioned PERCENT REBATE?

Well, my friends, that's why ya got me -- your own personal MBA with way too much free time on her hands. :)

After a week of looking at way too many numbers, I've just finished up the 2005 CompareRewards Shopping Rebate Comparison Chart. I reviewed 18 rewards programs and their rates for 103 merchants. Points/tokens/miles were converted to percentages for ease of comparison -- after all, how else would you know how 60 tokens per dollar compares to 1.5%, for example?

How did your favorite rewards program do? And with the Christmas shopping season right around the corner, is there a different rewards program you should shop with to maximize your earnings?

For the full scoop, Continue Reading!

In an email to members this morning, QuizPoints announced their first daily offer to earn points without spending any money. Members can earn 25 "free" points per 24 hours by qualifying for and completing a survey from Greenfield Online.

25 QuizPoints is worth 50c.

They have other various signups that allow you to earn without spending, too...but this is their first "daily."

If you'd like to give QuizPoints a try, click here.