MyPoints Review: Earn Cash Online From Surveys, Offers & More

Written by Jason Michaels Last Updated: May 8, 2024

MyPoints isn’t a newcomer to the internet scene by any means; it’s been on the web since 1996.

But, it’s had some renovations since its opening. In the beginning, the site focused mostly on giving you cash back for online shopping trips at a variety of stores.

That feature is still in place, and one of the best cash earners on the site, but you can also earn points in more ways than ever before, including taking surveys, reading paid emails, and searching the web.

If you’re into GPT (Get Paid To) sites, then MyPoints could be another one you’ll want to add to your list. It’s free to join, so you don’t have to worry about paying anything out of pocket to get started.

This full MyPoints review will let you know how the site works, how much you can potentially earn from your time spent there, and whether it’s a scam or a legit money-making option.

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What is MyPoints? How Does It Work?

MyPoints is a reward site, also known as a Get Paid To site, that gives you points for various online tasks. You can earn via the website or by using the mobile app available for both Android and iOS devices.

There are plenty of things to do on the site to keep you busy. Some of the ways you can earn points are:

• Earn a percentage of your purchase back in points from online shopping with partnered retailers
• Read emails from MyPoints and click through the links
• Complete daily bonus tasks
• Watch videos
• Take surveys
• Print coupons
• Refer friends

You’ll earn points rather than cash for each task you complete. Some tasks have caps on them, such as a cap of 100 points per month from paid web searches.

You can redeem your points when you have enough to purchase one of the gift cards to over 70 brands and restaurants noted in the rewards catalog. Or, opt for turning in your points for travel miles, PayPal cash, or a Visa prepaid debit card.

The points needed will depend on the specific prize you’re going for.

Pros and Cons of MyPoints

Just about every rewards site has its benefits and drawbacks. Here are some pros and cons of MyPoints:

Pros:

• Free to sign up
• Simple to navigate the site and easy to get started
• Chance to earn real gift cards or cash
• You can get paid from doing things you do online already, like shopping
• Several ways to earn that won’t leave you getting bored
• Mobile app helps you earn points even when you’re on the go

Cons:

• Your points will expire if you don’t remain active with the site
• MyPoints tends to send several paid emails each day
• Some users have noted issues with their accounts being closed before they could cash out their points
• It can be difficult getting a hold of someone on the customer service team and receiving a helpful response
• High amount of points needed for prizes
• Points from some tasks can take a while to show up in your account

How Much Can I Earn with MyPoints?

How much you earn with MyPoints mostly depends on how much time you’re willing to commit to the site.

As with most rewards sites, MyPoints is best used as a side gig. You won’t earn a full-time income using this site, and you shouldn’t expect to.

But, if you spend enough time on it to learn what methods of earning points work best for you, then it’s plausible to at least earn enough points for a free gift card every month or two.

The people who earn the most on MyPoints tend to be those who shop online frequently, since MyPoints has hundreds of partnered retailers that you can earn a percentage of your purchase back from in points.

And, if you happen to shop with one of the current MyPoints Doorbuster retailers, which rotate frequently, you can earn up to ten times more points from one shopping trip.

Those who qualify for surveys do well on MyPoints, too. Unfortunately, you won’t know if you’ll easily qualify for surveys until you try. Brands look for people that fit specific demographics, and these requirements will differ with each survey.

If you happen to get lucky and meet the requirements of most of the surveys you try to take, you can significantly increase your earnings.  

What Hourly Rate Can I Make with MyPoints?

It’s difficult to calculate an hourly rate using MyPoints because every day you use the site can differ. Some days might have better opportunities for you, like MyPoints Doorbusters that you want to shop with and more survey qualifications, than others.

But, since I’m a member of the site, I can outline what a typical hour spent on MyPoints looks like and how it will translate to cash.

During a typical hour on the site, you can:

• Do the Daily 5 tasks, which includes things like taking a survey, watching a video playlist, voting in the daily poll, etc. Completing all five tasks takes around 15 minutes, on average. Reward: 5 points.
• Take a survey. These are different lengths, but you can look for shorter ones, like 15-minute surveys. Reward: 510 points.
• Watch video sets. One 12-video set, for example, takes 10 minutes. Reward: 8 points.
• Discover deals. These are free and paid offers that give you points for things like signing up for trials or filling out your email address. I can complete about 5 free offers in 10 minutes. Reward: 5 points.
• Shop online. Of course, this is only a good idea if you’re going to shop online for something anyway, or else you’ll just be spending money instead of making it. If your shopping trip takes about 10 minutes, you’ve used your full hour. We’ll pretend that our shopping trip was with an online retailer that pays 4 points per $1 spent, and we spent $50 on something we needed. Reward: 200 points.

In this scenario, we spent an hour doing various tasks on MyPoints and received 728 points. Remember that all gift card and cash prizes are worth different point amounts, so your hourly rate might vary.

For the purpose of this scenario, I’ll use an Amazon gift card, which requires some of the lowest point amounts.

For 790 points, you can get a $5 Amazon card, making each point worth around $0.006. So, for my 728 points and hour spent earning them, I would have made about $4.37 in that hour. It’s not terrible, especially for an hour of spare time, but it’s also not great.

And, I also would have had to spend money to make that $4.37, but if you’re going to shop online anyway, you might as well hit MyPoints first to get some cash back.

What are the Best Ways to Earn with MyPoints?

As you can tell from the scenario above, not every way to earn with MyPoints is equal. Some things give you a lot more points than others. Videos, for example, are almost a time waster.

None of them pay more than 12 points, and the ones that do will usually take between 20 and 40 minutes for you to watch. Here are the activities on MyPoints that will give you more bang for your buck:

Cash Shopping

As I mentioned, cash shopping is an excellent way to earn cash on MyPoints, but only if you need to do it anyway. I make most of my MyPoints points around the holidays and my kids’ birthdays when I shop online with the site’s partners.

I never use the cash shopping feature unless I have something I need to buy anyway, and then it’s the perfect way to get a reward for my purchase.

Always check the MyPoints Doorbusters to see what retailers will give you extra points that day to make the most of your online shopping.

There are some in-store deals that you can take advantage of, too. You’ll get credited with your points after you upload your receipt to MyPoints.

Surveys

In the scenario, the one survey I took gave me more points than all the other MyPoints activities combined. Surveys do have the potential to give you the most points on MyPoints, but the ones that pay very well will also take you more time to complete.

For example, one current 850-point survey will take you one hour. But, this one survey alone will give you about $5.10 worth of points, which is more than all the other tasks gave in the example scenario.

The one downfall is that you don’t always qualify for surveys. You could spend 10 minutes answering questions to qualify, only to be told you don’t meet the requirements for the survey.

Deals

Deals on MyPoints are similar to free and paid offers on other rewards sites. You’ll have to complete some tasks with a partner, such as subscribe to a service or sign up for a free trial, to get points.

Paid offers require you to spend something to get points, so it’s best not to do these unless you could really use what you’re signing up for.

Otherwise, stick to the free offers. They’ll only give you one or a few points each, but they’re also quick tasks that won’t take you more than a minute or two to complete.  

Grocery Coupons

MyPoints has a full section for coupons. The online coupons are in the form of coupon codes to use for your purchases on MyPoints partners’ sites. These don’t give you any points, but instead give you things like free shipping or a percentage off your purchase.

Instead, use the grocery coupons, which you can print off at home. You earn 1 point just for printing a coupon. Where the high earnings come in is when you actually use the coupon. Then, you’ll earn an additional 10 points.

Referrals

Most rewards sites offer referral bonuses and MyPoints is no exception. It’s not a program that will rack up tons of points for you just because they sign up, but it can still give you extra points for little work.

You’ll get 25 points when someone signs up using your link. Then, you earn another 10% of all the points your referral earns. You’ll also earn points when a referral spends at least $20 on a cash shopping offer.

The referral bonus here is only as good as your referrals are active, so it’s important to check in with them every occasionally, to make sure they’re using the site.  

How Do I Get Started with MyPoints?

MyPoints is an easy site to get started with. But, I suggest you take the following steps to make the most of your time spent on the site and get your account set up completely.

1. Register

MyPoints is simple to register with. On the main page, click the button at the top that says, “Join Now.”

You’ll need to fill in your email address and desired password. MyPoints will then take you to your profile, where you can fill in the rest of your basic information. Once you’re signed up, you’re free to browse the site and see everything that MyPoints has to offer.

2. Fill Out Your Profile

The more you fill out in your profile, the better your chances of getting matched to surveys that match your demographics. Be sure to fill out your address and other contact information so that you can receive your physical gift cards promptly.

You should also take a minute to check out the email subscriptions tab in your profile.

Be sure to check any emails you want, like the paid BonusMails, and uncheck other emails that you’d rather not receive. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with email from MyPoints and other reward sites, so you might want to limit how many you get.

3. Check Out the Daily 5

The Daily 5 is a daily bonus you can get from doing five tasks of your choice. MyPoints gives you a few to choose from and you pick the five that appeal to you most.

The whole thing usually takes me between 5 and 15 minutes to complete, so it’s an easy five bonus points every day.

4. Take Your First Survey

In order to get any other surveys unlocked on the site, you’ll need to take your first survey. This is one given to every MyPoints member to get their basic information, so you won’t have to worry about not qualifying.

The first survey only takes about three minutes and will give you an easy ten points. After you complete it, you can try any of the other surveys on the list.

5. Refer Friends

Once you’ve gotten familiar with the site and earned some points, you should start referring your friends. It’s good to do this right off the bat so that you can build up a solid network of referrals to help you earn points faster.

You can share your link through email, on your website, or on your social media accounts.

6. Stay Active

Many rewards sites will let your points expire if you spend too much time away from the site. After all, they want active people participating in the site so there is more earning potential for everyone.

According to the MyPoints site, your points will expire after 12 months of no activity on the site. That means that, at least once out of every year, you’ll need to sign in to your account and complete one of the following activities:

• Refer a friend
• Complete a survey, or at least attempt to take one
• Search the web
• Watch videos
• Make a cash shopping or deals purchase through MyPoints

7. Cash Out Your Earnings

There is no minimum needed before you can redeem your MyPoints, but you do need to have enough for the prize you want. The prizes have varying point amounts needed to redeem, but you can find out how much you need by browsing the Rewards Center.

If you want PayPal cash, you’ll need at least 3,970 points, which will give you $25. The transfer can take up to 5 business days. Some other eGift cards will take up to 14 business days to reach you.

You can expect to receive a physical gift card within two weeks after requesting it.

Is MyPoints a Scam or Legit?

MyPoints is definitely not a scam. I’ve used it myself and have always received my prizes and cash that I’ve redeemed my points for. Since it’s been on the web since 1996, it has quite a bit of credibility built and a lot of satisfied users.

With that being said, I want to note that the reputation of MyPoints has declined somewhat in recent months, and it’s been getting some mixed reviews. Some have said that their points for certain activities were never credited, such as completing a purchase with a partnered retailer.

Others have mentioned that their accounts were closed before they could redeem their points for a reward.

However, it’s important to remember that MyPoints does have a policy in which it can terminate your account for not remaining active within 12 months. So, it’s possible that those having issues with closed accounts didn’t meet the activity obligation.

MyPoints’ customer service also has mixed reviews, with some users receiving quick and adequate responses, whereas others have waited days or weeks with no response from the team.

It appears that contacting MyPoints via social media has been more successful for users than contacting through an email.

MyPoints is a legitimate way to earn money online, although it might take some time to get there. Still, since it’s free to sign up, it can still be a viable way for you to make some extra cash online in your spare time.

Final Thoughts

MyPoints won’t equal a full-time, or even part-time, income online. Still, the site serves its purpose, which is to give you a way to earn some extra money online in your spare time. There’s no hard work involved, and you never have to spend a penny to earn points if you don’t want to.

Signing up for MyPoints is completely free, too, so you don’t have anything to lose. Unlike scams that want you to pay to earn points “faster” or to use the site at all, MyPoints is free to use. You decide if you want to complete paid offers and cash back shopping purchases to earn more.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on MyPoints. Please leave us a comment below!