The Best Places To Get Free Gift Cards
Reward programs are all the rage nowadays. It seems that everyone wants something in return for spending. More and more companies are using strategies to attract business. Airlines, such as Southwest and Delta, are giving away points for buying airlines tickets with them. They are also giving points towards airlines tickets for shopping around town using an airlines credit card.
Restaurants and Coffee shops do this as well. For each meal purchased a stamp is placed on a card allowing you a free meal after so many. Coffee shops, like Starbucks, give stars for buying their brand. After receiving a certain number of stars they are redeemed for something special such as a free drink.
The only problem with independent stores, restaurants, and coffee shops having their own programs is it takes a long time to accumulate points or stars. Honestly, how many times can you eat at a certain restaurant or visit a certain coffee shop? Customers get discouraged with these programs and give up. Thus, doing the opposite the program was intended to do.
It is much more rewarding to have all the companies in the same location providing rewards which accumulate together. That concept brought around a different kind of reward program. Someone saw a need to group everything together and give the customer a positive shopping experience at the same time. Customers are no longer limited to a free coffee at the same place they visit each morning, or a free meal after buying six, but rather customers are given a choice of products. These products can range from gift cards for gas to restaurants, movie tickets, or cash.
New style reward companies, offer a variety of rewards from a variety of retailers. My points and U promise are two that come to mind. There was another company named Bond Rewards however; they closed their doors this year and plan to reopen as a different company. Both My points and U promise are big name businesses with thousands of members. They charge nothing to join and offer a ton of value to their members. The difference between them is this,
U promise offers members a way to make money in the form of cash.The earnings can be applied to any student loan, transferred to a high yield account, redeemed in the form of a check, transferred to a 529 account and more. My points offers its members a way to earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards or donations to charity. Both are reward based in a different way.
After joining U promise for free members registers credit cards, grocery reward cards, etc. Credit cards are not required however; this is the way the company tracks dining purchases. Credit cards are not required to track online purchases or grocery purchases. To shop online members simply sign on to U promise and shop on their site. Their tracking system add rewards to be added to the appropriate U promise account. Members simply use their reward grocery store card, obtained from their local grocery store, to earn money while grocery shopping. The grocery card stores items purchased allowing U promise to track purchases and once again add money to members accounts. Logging into the member area shows which grocery stores are available to purchase from. U promise has been in business since the early 2000’s and is currently managed by Sallie Mae.
The My points network works a little differently than U promise. Again, My points is free to join. Members receive points instead of cash. The points are redeemed for gift cards or donations to charity. The online shopping is the same as that of U promise. This is due to the fact that tracking is necessary for these companies to know that purchases were made. My points also rewards members for opening emails. They call this bonus mail. Bonus mail can be delivered at the rate the member requests. Examples would be: less than 10 per day or between 3–5 per day, etc. Each email opened and read gives the member 5 points.
Another way for members to earn rewards is by qualifying for surveys. Each non-qualifying survey counts as 10 points however; a survey completed to the end can range from 50 points up to over 200 points. Other ways to earn rewards is by watching video clips and printing grocery store coupons then redeeming them.
A standard reward can be obtained after the member reaches 1650 points. This would give them a gift card that they can keep for themselves or give to someone as a present. My points has been around for years and is currently a member of the BBB.