Ebates & MyPoints 101

You may have noticed that I am a BIG FAN of ebates and MyPoints. I’ve been using them both for some time now and swear by both of their programs.

Ebates provides no fuss, no muss, free money as a reward for my normal online shopping. Every quarter my ebates cash back refund promptly shows up into my PayPal account. You can also elect to receive a check in the mail. Last quarter I received $25.07 from ebates in my PayPal account… and it was a slow quarter.

How ebates works: Instead of going directly to the merchant’s website, I go to ebates.com first. I type the merchant’s name into the Search box and then click on the Merchant link that displays. By clicking on the Merchant link I am then directed to the merchant’s website. By doing this small step first, I earn free cash back on my purchase. The cash back amounts vary from merchant to merchant and typically range from 1% to 20% back.

MyPoints provides no fuss, no muss, free gift cards as a reward for my normal online shopping. Every once in a while I decide to cash in on my MyPoints rewards. For Christmas I redeemed points for a $25 Lids gift card for my husband, a hat wearer. The time before that, I redeemed points for a $25 Home Depot gift card that we used for some minor home updates.

How MyPoints works: Instead of going directly to the merchant’s website, I go to mypoints.com first. I type the Merchant’s name into the Search box and then click on the Merchant link that displays. By clicking on the Merchant link I am then directed to the merchant’s website. By doing this small step first, I earn free points that I can redeem at any time for free gift cards. The amount of points you earn on your purchases vary from merchant to merchant and typically range from 1 point to 10 points per dollar.

You can also earn a flat amount of points for your purchases depending on the promotion at the time. For example, right now if you use NetQuote to change your auto insurance policy you get 5,000 points.

MyPoints rewards also accrue on clicks that are made through their emails. Not only would you be able to earn the promotional points from the email but you can also earn points just for clicking on it. The clicks that are made through MyPoints emails typically earn 5 points.

Like I said, I am a big fan of ebates and MyPoints. Over time, they have really paid off for me. Are there any other great programs out there that I should know about?