January 2006 Archives

Today, a judge is expected to officially bless United Airlines bankruptcy organization plan and release them from bankruptcy protection on February 1. Like many of you, I'm very anxious to find out how this is going to affect MyPoints, particularly in light of the fact UAL announced they want to sell the program. Despite a member care employee's claim that MyPoints was no longer owned by United and was now "independent," I can't find any information about it, and MyPoints' media kit still shows UAL as their owner. The latest financials don't reflect its sale, either, so all I can assume is that the employee was sadly misinformed.

Meanwhile, I came across an article posted earlier this week on the website of vocal adware opponent, Ben Edelman. He shows how MyPoints, in its relationship with a company called Direct Revenue, is violating the terms of its affiliate network agreements with both Commission Junction and LinkShare.

I'll try to explain this the way I understand it: MyPoints contracted with Direct Revenue, an adware firm that sticks popups over some merchants' websites. Direct Revenue is putting Join MyPoints type popups over the websites of some of MyPoints' merchants. So... I might have been getting ready to make a purchase directly at Buy.com. The MyPoints popup prompts me to join their program first to get a reward. Now Buy.com is out however-many percent because now they have to pay commission on the sale... the sale I would've made WITHOUT a rebate (remember, your rebate is just a cut MyPoints gives you of their sales commission).

Okay, from the end user's standpoint, whoo-hoo, we were given the heads-up on a rewards program that'll give us a rebate for the purchase we were going to make anyway! But from Buy.com's standpoint, they're paying MyPoints for a sale that Buy.com would've made on its own. AND, this is the kicker, MyPoints as an affiliate of Commission Junction and LinkShare (the sites that manage Buy.com and other merchants' affiliates) AGREED IN ADVANCE not to interfere with their merchants' websites in this way. They're violating the affiliate agreements.

I think this goes back to what I reported on a few months ago: MyPoints is hurting for business. Word of the program's uncertain future has gotten out, no thanks to any sense of full disclosure on the company's part but due to news reports about United's bankruptcy and intention to sell MyPoints. They're desperate to get shoppers in and will go to any lengths to do so.

The dying gasps of a once-mighty giant, my friends. :(

For the second month in a row, I received a timely payment from FusionCash.net. I cashed out at the end of December, and the site promises payment on or before the 20th of the following month. I was paid $121.00 on 1/19, actually a day early.

I went in search of a few more offers so I could up my balance for this month's cashout and found two I wanted to share:

1. AskNow. I used a prepaid debit card to pay $1.95 for a 10 minute psychic reading. My FusionCash account was credited $21.60 within an hour or so. The offer was a one-time-only charge -- if you take the 10 minute "reading" they'll push you to subscribe -- so there was nothing to cancel, but just in case, after my FC account was credited, I logged back into AskNow and deleted my debit card info.

2. Real.com SuperPass. Used the prepaid card number again, this time there was no charge for a 14 day trial. FusionCash credited my account $12.00 a few hours later, then I logged onto Real.com to cancel. They did require me to call a toll-free number to cancel. A foreign lady was helpful but wanted a reason for me leaving; I just said look, I don't want it, please cancel it, and she did, quickly and politely.

3. Real Fun. Cost $1 for a 30 day trial membership and they're supposed to send a free $20 gas card, too. Printable coupons are available on their website for savings on restaurants, entertainment, and more. FusionCash paid $12 for the signup and it credited within a few minutes. Just need to remember to cancel in 30 days but if I forget, my debit card only has $7 left on it now, so, who cares?? :)

Just wanted to share these three particular offers because they were easy to do, cheap, and good earners. Of course if you like the services, by all means, stay on as a paying member.

Remember to cash out by 1/31 to be paid on or before 2/20. I've cashed out twice, been paid twice on time (or early) a total of $182 with another $70 on the way. Fast offer crediting, nice customer service people if you DO have a question, prompt payment -- can't say enough nice things about this program. GREAT site for doing trial offers! Here's a link to join -- thanks!

According to a press release on Friday, BzzAgent will be getting a nice (nearly $14 million) infusion of capital, and they plan to use it to "upgrade their reporting architecture," hire more staff, and increase their market share.

If that means faster processing of our reports (they say they get 4,000-9,000 reports a week now and they may implement filing by phone), and maybe a higher profile to bring in more/bigger campaigns, that sounds good to me.

Not a member? BzzAgent gives you points for trying out new products for free and telling friends about them...then you can cash the points in for prizes. Fun! Email if you'd like a link to join.

By the way, if anyone wants to toss CompareRewards 14 mil in venture capital, I'd entertain their offer.

I was surprised to find a long-outstanding redemption from SixQuestions ($10 Amazon) in my inbox this morning, so I went to the site to check the payout list and sure enough, they made a mass payout yesterday, their first since October.

While this is a great sign that the owners intend to honor their debts, until I get some feedback -- through the owners themselves and/or the SixQuestions member forum -- that they are caught up and they're firmly committed to going forward with their website, I still can't recommend this rewards program to anyone. It is still a fun game, though, if you go into it without the expectation of receiving a reward for your points.

(Updated, 1/16/06)
On Friday, ParadePerks members still awaiting approval of Gold status (required for cashout) found that all rewards now required Platinum status. PP's customer service responded quickly to user emails, attributing this to "a glitch in our inventory management system." They apologized for the error and went on to say that due to "overwhelming response" to their Gold VIP survey, level upgrades were backlogged but our levels should be corrected "shortly." They warned that prizes would go fast, but added, "rest assured that we are working diligently to add additional rewards at the Gold level and expect to have many up within the week."

Over the weekend, Gold status was finally conferred upon at least SOME of ParadePerks' members (myself included), and many of the points-only redemptions are now only available for points-plus-cash. (Yes, the iPod has been snatched up. Surprised? Me, either.)

This leaves ParadePerks with some challenges ahead. First of all, they've got to provide enough rewards for the remaining members to cash out for, or else they will drop the program. Second off, they need to adjust the cost in points of all future redemptions. The program can't afford to give out 250,000 free points a day and then let people cash out 2 million points (8 days worth of earnings) for a $90 prize. Next, they will need to provide points-plus-cash prizes for those who have already taken their only allowable points-only prize, and at a substantial enough discount that it is worth their time to stay with the program and continue to accrue points. And last (that I see right now), they need to gear up for the many folks who will no doubt be approaching Platinum level soon.

Right now I'm torn between cashing out for one of the few remaining $50-ish prizes for points only, and hanging in there to see if they'll offer anything more exciting in the higher point range in the near future. I'm sure that choice will be taken away from me during the day today as the last of the points-only prizes will be quickly claimed.

Congrats to those who were able to cash out!

I'm very pleased to see that my favorite rewards program, QuickRewards, is in the running for the 2005 BeenPaid Seal of Approval's Program of the Year. There are a total of 12 contenders for this award, but QuickRewards was the ONLY rewards program to be nominated (all other nominees are PTR sites).

Of course it's just an honor to be nominated (yeah, right) but I'm sure QR wouldn't mind winning, so if you have had good experiences with the program, please give them your vote at BeenPaid.com. You'll need to log in first, then click the poll on the bottom left of the home page.

QuickRewards.net is having another promotion for its frequent shoppers, this one set to last until February 28. In addition to their regular, very competitive cashback rates, each order placed will result in a points award. Points can be cashed in (at any time during the promotion) for either cash to your QR account or various GCs. Hit "Continue reading..." for the full details.

If you were unable to attend last night's joint chat of the AdLib Corner and CompareRewards.com, you missed a doozie! The chat ran three hours, included the owners of three different rewards programs, and averaged 30+ people online at the same time (though some participants came and went). Good programs, bad programs, upcoming program changes, comparing notes and tips -- lots of great info was shared.

If you couldn't make it, though, you're not totally out of luck. Ginger, of AdLib Corner's Daily Trivia Answers Newsletter and AdLib Corner Message Board, put together a very comprehensive summary of the chat and it's available on her message board here.

Take a look, and hopefully in the future we can provide more advance notice of these chats so you can make plans to attend.

QuizPoints.com has just added in some merchandise redemption options. Called "Huge Rewards", these items are all roughly $300 retail and include such things as 30GB iPods, a JVC MiniDV Camcorder, an Envision 17" LCD Monitor, and a 12-month (4-out) Netflix subscription.

These redemptions cost 13,000 points and assuming a value of $300 for these items, the value of this redemption is slightly better than requesting six $50 GCs (their next highest redemption level). Plus, according to my contact there, James, shipping on these items will be totally free. Definitely something to consider.

It's been down for me all day...no idea what's up unless the lengthy (and time-consuming) VIP surveys somehow froze up the site.

Hope we'll see it come back up soon.

Parade Perks has just put up the first three of six sets of 20 questions each that make up the Gold VIP Surveys. These surveys are required for members to officially achieve Gold status and be eligible to cash out for rewards. The site says you can only complete three sets of questions "on any given day" so I'm not sure if that's an indication the second set will be posted tomorrow, or next Saturday when they typically update the quizzes for the week. Might be worth staying up late tonight to find out...

Update, 11:08pm: daily points reset at 11pm central but sets 1-3 of the gold surveys are still up. Guess we have to wait 'til after 11pm Friday. The VIP surveys are re-clickable for points, by the way.

Update, 1/9, 7:15a central time,: After being down all day Sunday, PP is back up today with sets 4-6 of the gold surveys now up. Only problem is, they're not granting users Gold status immediately upon their completion... in other words, no, we still can't cash out... and there will be much melee when we can, with thousands of users vying for, what...25 or so redemptions? May be worth it to sit back and wait to see what the new redemptions will be...

Update 1/9, 1:15p central time, the site is down again!

Ah, yes...it's been an exciting year in the rewards program biz. Lots of comings and unfortunately lots of goings, too. Please join me on a trip down memory lane as we revisit some of the biggest stories of 2005.

It was a LONG year...so, settle in, get comfy, and then click "Continue reading..."!

Memolink has shown yet another example of their poor judgment in offering up the following question in their trivia section:

"IN DOGMA, WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE BOY THAT BETHANY LET PISS IN HER HAIR?"

Um, maybe I missed the day that "piss" became acceptable language, but where I live, we call that profanity. Not only does the WORD seem completely out of place on a professionally-run rewards program, but the question itself does as well (in other words, simply substituting "urinate" would still result in an inappropriate question). Are there no more tasteful questions that they could come up with? I'm a big fan of Kevin Smith movies, myself, and I can think of...well, at least a FEW, potential trivia questions from Dogma that wouldn't require foul language. And if I couldn't, I'm afraid I'd have the common sense to pull my trivia questions from more family-friendly movies.

Bottom line: if "piss" is acceptable conversational English among the people behind the scenes at Memolink, this reveals a lot about their maturity and professionalism.

Today's Chicago Tribune reports that United Airlines, parent company of MyPoints, is still on schedule to emerge from bankruptcy protection in February, as their creditors approved their plan last week. The court will have another hearing on the plan on January 18th.

MyCoupons continues its descent into utter lameness, now requiring site visitors to register in order to view their message boards.

I've posted about their dictatorial crud before, multiple times, so I won't belabor the point. Newbies may want to refer to these posts at DOD and CR for an example of how responsibly that site is run.

Too many other forums out there, y'all. Vote with your feet (or your fingers, in this case).

While I'm flattered to find some of my posts appearing on rewards program discussion forums, I'd appreciate if you'd properly credit the source. I put a lot of time and effort into my research. Thanks.

Becky -- CompareRewards.com

Okay, I'm about two weeks late on this news item...it was the holidays, sorry.

On 12/19, MyPoints announced to members that they have a new MP credit card, the MyPoints Rewards Visa. Use the card within a year and get 1,000 points, plus double points on all offers regularly up to 6 points per dollar through June 30, and 1 point per dollar on all offline and all other online purchases.

Now, I slacked off and didn't read this email until today, by which time the 5 points for visiting the offer had expired...so I had to go to MyPoints' website in search of more info on this offer. And guess what? Now the website says that double points per dollar EXPIRED 12/31/05!

I had thought it was fishy that, with MyPoints up for sale, they were issuing a new credit card. Apparently sometime between 12/19 and today, they decided to discontinue a HUGE part of their signup offer. There's a big difference between offering double points until June 30th and just between 12/19 and 12/31, 13 days. Hello? Is this sending up red flags in anyone else's head?

Determined to get to the bottom of this, I clicked on the Terms & Conditions link on the site, and guess what? It says, "Sorry, that offer is no longer available." Hmm, maybe a site glitch. So I went to the Apply Today link and got the same error message.

I hate to keep playing the role of doomsayer with MyPoints, but we are running out of time before their parent company, United Airlines, is due to emerge from bankruptcy. They already told their bankruptcy court in Chicago that they intended to sell MyPoints. No idea WHAT business they thought they had in offering a new credit card right now but obviously someone slapped them upside the head and told them to pull out of the deal.

Hate to sound like a broken record, but... redeem and get out, ASAP.

Meanwhile, I've submitted an email inquiry about this to MyPoints' Member Services. I'll let you know what their response is.