MyPoints App Overview

MyPoints is a free rewards based app that gives you “MyPoints” for performing a variety of activities, like shopping online, taking surveys, or playing games.

You can then redeem your MyPoints for gift cards to hundreds of well-known stores, such as Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, and eBay.

But shopping and survey-based rewards sites like these are a dime a dozen these days.  Why should you use MyPoints over a site like Rakuten? And is it even worth it?

This review will explain how to accrue MyPoints, and if it’s a scam or a legitimate way to make extra money.

Signing Up for MyPoints

The signup process is super simple.

Simply head to the App Store on your phone and download the MyPoints app.

Enter your personal details, such as name, address and zip code, and MyPoints will send you a confirmation email.  Simply confirm that, and you’re immediately ready to start earning MyPoints!

This is one of MyPoints’ biggest strengths.  The ability to jump right in and earn points with no waiting.

Earning MyPoints

There are five main ways to earn MyPoints using the MyPoints app.

Shopping Online

This is one of the easiest ways to earn MyPoints.

Simply log in to the MyPoints app and head to the “Shop” tab in the bottom left corner of the menu.

You’ll be brought to the MyPoints’ shop list, which includes a huge variety of retailers, such as Nike, William Sonoma, PacSun (remember them?) and Hotels.com.

Listed next to each store is the number of points you’ll earn per dollar spent.

Some are generous, offering hundreds of points for completing offers. Others are ridiculously low, giving you just one point per dollar spent.

It’s an impressively long list of completely reputable companies that have partnered with MyPoints, ensuring that any time you shop online, you can earn MyPoints.

Keep in mind that to earn MyPoints, you have to shop through the MyPoints app.  There’s no way to just link your account or sign in outside of the app.

Taking Surveys

This is another easy way to earn points, usually only requiring 10 to 15 minutes of your time.  Simply browse to the “Answer” tab in the app, and you’ll be greeted with a list of surveys you can complete, along with the expected time to complete them and the amount of points you’ll earn.

Typically, the longer the survey, the more MyPoints you’ll accrue.

Note that surveys will unlock after you complete your survey profile, which will also net you 10 bonus points.

Unfortunately, many of these surveys are laser-focused on a specific group of people, so it’s always possible you may get kicked out of a survey before it’s been completed, forfeiting any points you would’ve earned and wasting precious time.

MyPoints does offer you a single point if you’re not able to complete the survey, but that’s far less than the compensation you’d normally get.

Clipping Coupons

You can also clip coupons through the MyPoints app to earn points.

Using the Coupons.com extension through the My Points app will earn you 1 point per coupon printed, and 25 points per coupon actually redeemed in-store.

Simply clip the coupons in the app, then send them to your email address to download from a computer or print directly from your phone.

There’s a limit of 500 coupons clipped per month, but at the time of this writing, only 89 coupons were available.

Coupons have an average value of $1 off.

Playing Games

You can also play games in the MyPoints app, which operates through the Game Show Network website and the World Winner website.

Unfortunately, most of the games aren’t free and require “tokens” to play, which are purchased with real money, so while it’s technically possible to earn points by “playing games”, you’re really only earning MyPoints when you purchase the tokens needed to play the games.

With Game Show Network games, you’ll earn a 50 MyPoints sign up bonus with your first token purchase, and you’ll earn 8 MyPoints per dollar spent on GSN.com.

With World Winner games, you’ll earn 50 MyPoints with your first deposit, and you’ll earn 4 MyPoints per dollar spent on WorldWinner.com.

Searching the Web

You can even earn MyPoints by searching the web through the app.

Simply link your phone number for verification, then search the web through the app for the chance to win MyPoints instantly.

Every forty-one searches net you 100 points.

Now that you know a few of the ways to earn MyPoints, let’s explain how the point system works.

The Point System

The entire purpose of using the MyPoints app to shop, search and play is to earn MyPoints that you can later redeem for gift cards.

While gift cards by store vary by dollar value and the points needed to redeem them, they generally all fall within a close range.

For example, to redeem a $3 gift card to Amazon, you need 480 points, an average of 160 points per dollar.

To redeem a $25 gift card from Amazon, you need 3,950 points, an average of 158 points per dollar.

This means each MyPoint you own is worth approximately .63 cents in store.

In order to determine if using MyPoints is truly worth it, let’s outline a few of the ways you earn MyPoints.

Shopping with MyPoints

Depending on where you shop, using MyPoints over another store like Rakuten may actually be worth it.

For example, let’s say you’re shopping at Amazon, which gives you 10 MyPoints per dollar spent.

If you spent $50, you’d get 500 MyPoints, enough for a $3 gift card.

Contrast that to spending $50 on Amazon with Rakuten, which will only earn you $2.50 in cashback.

This is likely one of the only times it makes sense to use MyPoints, but you’ll have to do the math before to make sure it’s worth it.

Doing a Survey

Let’s say you want just a $3 card from Amazon. You’re not a big spender.

To earn that gift card, you need 480 points.

One of the quickest “free” ways to earn points is to take a survey.

Let’s say you’re doing a survey and it takes you 15 minutes, for which you’ll receive 85 points.

To get to that 480 points, you would have to do 5.6 15-minute surveys.  That’s 1.4 hours of work just to make $3.

That means you’re making an average of $2.14 dollars an hour.

Now let’s say you have your eye on the $25 gift card from Amazon.

To earn that card, you need 3,950 points.

To get to that 3,950 points, you would have to do 46.47 15-minute surveys.  That’s 11.62 hours of work to make $25.

I’m pretty sure you already know this, but that is not good.

You’d make more money standing on the side of the road asking for change.

Will I Get Rich Using MyPoints?

I think you already know the answer, but for the most part, the answer is “no”.

The only way to “make money” for free by using MyPoints is to take surveys or browse the web, both of which will take hours to earn a minuscule amount of points.

Every other method to earn MyPoints, whether that’s shopping online, clipping coupons or playing games, requires you to spend real money (either online or in-store).

While it’s certainly possible to save money using MyPoints, when it comes to making money, you certainly will not get rich.

Pros & Cons of MyPoints

There are a few pros to using the MyPoints app, though none of them are redeeming enough to make it worth it.

For one, it’s extremely easy to use.  Just download the app, sign up, and you’re ready to start earning MyPoints right away.

MyPoints also works well in that there are a large number of ways to earn points.  You’re not limited to just shopping or surveys, you can play games, browse the web, and download coupons.

It’s also great to be able to pull up MyPoints from wherever you are, whether that’s riding a train to work or during your lunch break.

The biggest pro of using MyPoints is that there are thousands of retails stores you can earn points for, so it’s likely you’ll be able to earn points whenever you need to shop online.

Pros

• Easy to use and quick setup
• Earn points right away
• Many ways to earn points
• Can be done from anywhere
• Wide variety of stores to earn points through

Cons

Unfortunately, the cons to using MyPoints generally outweigh the pros.

For one, using MyPoints isn’t always worth it.  While it’s easy enough to take a survey or play some games, these are generally time-consuming activities for relatively little gain.

Another con is that it can take up to ninety days for your points to be deposited into your account.  While the survey based portion pays out relatively quickly, receiving points for coupons you clipped or games you played take far longer.

• Not always worth it
• Can take forever to earn enough points depending on the activity
• Points aren’t always deposited quickly

Final Thoughts

MyPoints is a perfectly legit way to earn and save money. Having said that, aside from the shopping and entertainment value, it’s generally not a great use of time (monetarily speaking).

Even when it comes to shopping, depending on the points offer, using other sites like Rakuten can earn you more than using the MyPoints app.

If you have lots of free time and you’re okay burning some of it while you wait, then MyPoints is a great app to use for random entertainment and saving some change.

But if you’re trying to earn a lot of extra cash in your down time, it would be better to look elsewhere or consider a side hustle with a larger upside (eg. Amazon FBA).