Hey there! Jamie here with another part of our multi-part survey series (here’s what I thought about InboxDollars, Harris Poll, Opinion Outpost, Toluna, Springboard America, Ipsos i-Say, and OpinionSquare). MyPoints is a cash back site (like Ebates or TopCashBack) also offering up other ways to earn, including surveys.
Bonus: Get a $10 gift card, just for signing up for MyPoints and spending $20 in the first month.
In a Nutshell: MyPoints is a cashback site like Ebates, but they do surveys on the side. . . just not very well.
In addition to getting users to shop through their portal, MyPoints works to incentivize users to take surveys, watch videos, print coupons, and sign up for stuff like life insurance. But, like their sister company, Swagbucks, in trying to do everything, they end up not being ‘the best’ at anything.
The Good: MyPoints’ low $10 cash-out is just one task away.
When you spend just $20 through the MyPoints site in the first 30 days, you’ll get a $10 bonus, which allows you to cash out instantly! Bam. Some sites like Springboard America, with its $50 threshold for payment, take much longer to cash out of. Also:
MyPoints offers more rewards gift card options than other survey sites. You can cash in points for eGift or physical cards to places like Amazon.com, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Walmart, Target, CVS, and more.
The iOS or Android app makes mobile earning easier. Their app is easy to use on my iPhone. It’s not sluggish like Toluna’s app (yeah you, Toluna).
Refer-a-Friend earns 25 points. And, after the first 30 days, I continue to earn a residual 10% of all points my friends earn.
Best opportunity. Join MyPoints and spend $20 in the first 30 days through their Ebates-like marketplace of vendors, and you get $10 back into your account. So, buying a $20 set of towels at JCPenney gets you $10 back, plus 20 points per dollar. Other high-points vendors include FTD (20 points per dollar spent) and Overstock.com (10 points per dollar spent).
The Bad: MyPoints tries to do too many things, but it doesn’t do any of them that well.
MyPoints tries really hard to be Ebates for cashback, Bing for paid searches, and InboxDollars for tasks, but they’re pretty much missing the mark. Also:
Points values are worth 20% less than other sites. At only $0.006 per point versus Harris Poll’s $0.008 (as an example), with MyPoints, I’m lucky if I’ll clear $80 in a year with surveys alone.
PayPal and the Visa Prepaid Card require more points than other cash-out redemption methods. While the cash is nice, the PayPal $25 gift card costs 4,550 points, quite a bit higher than most of the other $25 gift cards (ex: 3,650 points for a standard $25 gift card). If I’d like a $25 Prepaid Visa Card, I’d have to redeem at least 4,600 points (950 more points than the standard gift card).
Surveys are pretty typically low-paying: Sure, there are a few surveys worth 100+ points; however, on average I earn 50 points (roughly $0.35) for completing many of the lower-paying surveys, each of which takes about ten minutes. I can earn 10 points, about $0.07, if I try to complete the survey but don’t qualify. For a 30-minute, 150-point survey, I can earn $0.90.
Worst opportunity: Watching videos. The video payouts are pretty terrible at $0.006 per view.
But wait! There’s more in this series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
My MyPoints Strategy
My secret is capitalizing on the big earners, so the easiest money I ever made ($10) was for spending $20 when I signed up (totally easy to do). My recommendations:
Take advantage of the $10 back deal: Join and spend $20 in the first 30 days through their Ebates-like marketplace of vendors, and you get $10 back into your account. Then cash out immediately. You’re done!
Always cash out at $10. There’s no reason to not cash out at the $10 threshold.
When redeeming my points, shop the best dollar/points rewards value. As an example, at the $10 level, I save 100 points by cashing in for the Chili’s card, (value: 1,600 points) instead of the $10 Amazon.com card (value: 1,700 points).
Only take surveys worth a dollar or more. I receive lots of emails for surveys that pay pennies, but I ignore these and search the website for the best paying opportunities.
Skip the games and don’t pay for anything you wouldn’t normally buy. I only go for the cash back rebates on items I can get a legit good deal on. Like the Walmart Summer Waves pool–it’s 33% off (only $179), and I’ll earn 1,432 MyPoints rewards points, worth $8.60 when I shop through MyPoints.
MyPoints is as legit a survey site as it gets, but don’t expect to make much money if you’re not buying deals through the cash back portal. My recommendation: Go with a site like InboxDollars or Harris Poll, which offers pretty much the same number of earning opportunities, with higher, faster, payouts.
UP NEXT: How 6 Moms Used One Site to Get $705 for Free
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