MyPoints Review: Legit or Scam? Here's What You Can Expect... (2024)

Are you looking to earn extra cash on the side with some variety? Check out MyPoints, a website that offers you rewards for completing an array of simple tasks that usually take just a few minutes each.

Signing up is free, and once you complete your profile, you can start earning points immediately.

In this MyPoints review, we’ll discuss the different ways in which you can earn points to exchange for real money, how to cash out, and what kind of return on your time investment you can realistically expect from the site.

You can jump to the section you’re most interested in reading about via the table of contents button below, or jump directly to our final verdict on the platform.

MyPoints Basics

MyPoints is owned and operated by Prodege, which also runs the popular rewards sites Swagbucks and InboxDollars.

Like those sites, MyPoints offers members a host of opportunities to earn money on the side.

Here are just a few examples of ways you can earn points, which are redeemable for cash or gift cards:

• Taking surveys
• Scanning receipts
• Playing games
• Earning cash-back

Many of these opportunities can also be found on other money-making websites.

So the question becomes this: What distinguishes MyPoints from the plethora of other options in the marketplace?

In our view, MyPoints offers a more structured approach to earning than many of the competing alternatives. The site is cleanly organized and easy to navigate, and you’ll find a daily to-do list and various challenges that gamify the experience and reward consistent usage.

This can make it easier to earn enough points to actually get a substantial reward for your efforts.

Ways to Earn on MyPoints

Here are some of the specific ways you can earn money on MyPoints.

#1. Welcome Bonus

MyPoints offers two different welcome bonuses. And which one you’ll be eligible for depends on what link you use to sign up for the site.

Throughout this article, the links to MyPoints will qualify you for a $10 welcome bonus when you spend $20 through the site’s cash-back shopping portal within the first 30 days of signing up.

If you shop online regularly, this can be a quick win, as most major online retailers are available on the platform.

However, note that some popular stores — such as Amazon, eBay and Home Depot — are excluded from this welcome bonus offer.

You can see whether or not a store is excluded when clicking through to their site from the cash-back portal.

See also: An up-to-date list of sites that offer welcome bonuses.

#2. Shopping

In order to earn the welcome bonus mentioned above, you’ll need to use the MyPoints shopping portal. That’s not a bad thing, because earning cash-back is one of the most lucrative ways to rack up points on the site.

That’s especially true since there are a number of ways you can earn points through the shopping you already do.

Cash-Back Online Shopping Portal

If you’re someone who does a lot of online shopping, then leveraging this feature is a no-brainer.

MyPoints partners with hundreds of retailers to offer points (which you can think of as cash-back) for every dollar you spend. These rates vary between stores and change constantly, but typically you’ll receive between 1% and 5%.

You’ll also occasionally find promotional rates that pay well above those figures.

As with most cash-back sites and apps, there are some retailer-specific exclusions.

For example, Walmart only pays cash-back in a limited set of categories (which you can see clearly marked under the “Terms and Conditions” section of each offer).

Here’s an example of what that looks like in practice:

How do MyPoints’ cash-back rates stack up to the competition?

As we noted earlier, rates on cash-back portals change all the time. But here’s a comparison of a few major retailers and their rates on some of the top sites at the time this article was written.

Note that this data was collected on May 29, 2024. We’ll update this article periodically to keep the numbers fresh.

We noted in our TopCashback review that the platform almost always offers an above-average cash back rate, and that’s true in the table above. So, it makes sense for frequent online shoppers to choose that site over MyPoints.

However, the TopCashback only offers cash-back shopping.So if you’re looking for ways to earn points for an array of tasks — and don’t do a ton of online shopping — then it might make more sense to keep all your earning opportunities on a single platform, using the cash-back portal as a way to augment the points you earn through other activities.

Pro Tip: Cashback Monitor is a site that aggregates current offers for most major retailers on most of the top-tier cash-back sites. You can always start your shopping there to see which platform is currently offering the best deal.

Magic Receipts

There are multiple sites that pay you to upload your receipts, the most notable of which is Ibotta.

MyPoints offers this option via its “Magic Receipts” section.

As with Ibotta (and the earning opportunities mentioned above), you have to activate offers before shopping, and then upload receipts with qualifying purchases.

To do this, navigate to the “Magic Receipts” tab under “Shop,” then simply browse through the available offers and add the ones you want to leverage.

Adding an offer to your list places it to the right on “Your Shopping List.” A small icon of your chosen product, along with how many points you’ll receive, is listed there.

Here are some important things to know about Magic Receipts:

• Most offers are linked to specific stores, so make sure your supermarket of choice is listed for the offer you want to take advantage of.
• You can frequently find offers for “any brand” of common household staples, like bread and eggs.
• Offers have specific time constraints, and the eligibility windows vary widely.

Let’s take a look at the screenshot below.

In this screenshot, you’ll notice:

• It’s a generic offer for any brand of milk (at least 1 gallon in size).
• There’s a long list of eligible stores.
• The purchase must be made, and the receipt uploaded, within a year-long window.

Conversely, the watch out for more restrictive offers, which often have the following attributes:

• You have to purchase multiple items to get the advertised points.
• The offer is only good at one store.
• The purchase must be made, and the receipt uploaded, within a one month window.

Once you click “Upload Receipt,” you’ll be prompted to verify a phone number if you haven’t already done so.

#3. Complete Offers

Found under the “Deals” tab, these offers allow you to sign up for (or subscribe to) a service, or purchase a product, to earn points.

Earning points this way requires a bit more effort than the other types of offers on the site, but in many cases, they’re among the best ways to earn.

This is especially true when you’re able to find “money makers,” which are offers that pay you more in points than the cost of signing up.

Pro Tip: Learn more about money makers in our guide to Swagbucks hacks, which goes into detail about the concept.

For example, at the time of this writing, the banking app One is offering the following:

Per the screenshot above, here’s how it works:

• You sign up for free, then deposit $30 into your new account.
• After a waiting period of approximately one month, MyPoints will add 12,750 points (about $50) into your MyPoints account.

Other examples aren’t quite as clear-cut. Often, you have to actually spend some money and then wait for that cost to be offset by the points you earn.

Why do companies offer money makers?

Simply put, because they’re looking for subscribers to sign up and (hopefully) continue using their service.

As such, they typically offer great deals for new customers that taper off the longer you stay with them.

If you’re looking to try a service, these offers could be a good way to maximize your benefits — even if you ultimately end up canceling that service.

When looking at these money makers, be sure that you’re reading the fine print and that the terms and conditions align with your goals.

We recommend paying particular attention to cancellation requirements and deadlines, as well as signing up with the virtual credit cards you can get from Privacy.com.

These cards shield your actual credit card number, and they can be paused or closed at any time. This way, you can be sure you’re never charged for something you don’t want.

#4. Take Surveys

Like Swagbucks and many other rewards portals, MyPoints functions as a survey site that will pay you for providing your opinions.

Upon navigating to the “Surveys” tab for the first time, you’ll need to complete a brief demographic survey in order to unlock the feature. This takes about five minutes.

After that, you’ll be met with a list of surveys that shows how much time you can expect to spend completing that survey and how many points you’ll earn. This list is sortable by “Featured,” “Highest Points” and “Shortest Time.”

How much do surveys pay on MyPoints?

First, let’s establish that the value of MyPoints points varies slightly depending on how you’re redeeming them. But in general, we can say that 175 points is worth about $1.

Given that exchange rate, here’s the approximate per-hour pay for the 10 highest-paying surveys we were offered after completing our demographic profile.

While around $3 per hour is no great sum by any stretch, it’s not that bad as far as compensation for paid survey sites goes. Combined with their larger inventory, it’s one of the better survey sites we reviewed.

We’d never recommend trying to earn this rate as a side hustle, but it’s not a terrible way to make a little bit of extra money in your spare time.

Note that some surveys are marked as “featured” and include a star on the left-hand side of the survey list. MyPoints refers to these surveys as “Gold” surveys. This designation doesn’t necessarily translate to more points, however. And in our research, they almost always paid less on a per-hour basis than other available surveys.

Another key element to note is that MyPoints does take its surveys seriously. A review of how the surveys work reveals that your ability to complete them can be revoked for any of the following reasons:

• Using coarse language in your responses to open-ended questions.
• Low-quality responses to open-ended questions.
• Providing contradictory answers and information (note that surveys are often designed to validate that the info you’re providing is consistent).
• Answering “red herring” questions incorrectly (these are questions designed to make sure you’re actually paying attention).
• Failing to show up for in-person focus groups and similar opportunities.

Even clicking through a survey too fast can disable your survey-taking eligibility.

As such, we recommend answering surveys thoughtfully and respecting the opportunity as a way to influence retailers you might shop with on a weekly basis.

#5. Play Games

MyPoints itself doesn’t offer a gaming platform. Instead, gameplay is conducted via WorldWinner, a website with its own set of rules and regulations.

WorldWinner requires you to pay to enter tournaments, and lets you cash-out your earnings via a paper check, prepaid debit card or PayPal transfer.

Given this arrangement, you earn points by depositing money into your WorldWinner account, which will be linked to your MyPoints account.

In that sense, it’s basically cash-back for spending money on WorldWinner.

Each of the games listed on the MyPoints “Games” page denotes a reward of four points per dollar.

Given that we’ve established an approximate exchange rate at 175 points per dollar, this does not represent a very good earning opportunity.

There are many other opportunities to earn points on the site without spending a single cent that we recommend you take advantage of.

And there are better ways to get paid to play games.

#6. Other Ways

If you’re looking for more ways to earn points without spending money, MyPoints includes the following as part of their platform.

7-Day Challenge

Designed as a way to earn more points for consecutive days of completing tasks, the 7-Day Challenge only runs periodically and was not available when we tested the site.

For a recent Challenge, a progress tracker listed all the activities you completed during the course of the event, and you could set your own goals to earn even more points.

Even though the 7-Day Challenge wasn’t active when we tested the site, the Daily Goal works in a similar way. We’ll discuss that more in detail below.

Daily To-Do List

The Daily To-Do List consists of nine predetermined tasks that you must complete in order to receive 29 total points.

Completing five tasks rewards you with one point for each task, along with a five-point bonus.

Once you reach the ninth task and complete it, you’ll also receive a five-point bonus.

Many of the tasks remain the same from day-to-day, but they can change. The Daily To-Do List correlates with the Daily Poll, which we’ll discuss next.

Daily Poll

Answering a single question for a single point sums up the Daily Poll. Questions featured in the Daily Poll generally ask about preferences rather than purchasing behavior.

In fact, after you answer the poll, you’ll be able to see what other people answered. Given the low payout, the only reason to ever answer the poll is to make progress on a daily goal or other challenge.

Search and Earn

Search and Earn can be found under the “More” tab, located in the dark gray ribbon across the screen.

Simply put, you enter search terms in the field, as you would with Google, and earn points.

Well, MyPoints clarifies that you “earn Points randomly for your web searches throughout the day.”

Thus, the more searches you perform, “the better your chances of earning!”

We performed a few single-word searches but never earned any points for doing so.

Related: Get paid for searching the web.

MyPoints Bingo

Those familiar with Swagbucks popular “Swago” game will easily grasp the concept of the MyPoints Bingo (and if not, you can read about Swago here).

Members are given specific bingo cards that include various actions in each square. Completion of those actions rewards you with filling that space, and particular patterns (listed on the right-hand side of the game screen) earn you a set number of points.

The bingo cards are only active for a certain period of time and some squares require you to make a purchase or complete a specific action.

You can only submit your bingo card once, so it’s important to come up with a strategy before completing any actions in order to fill the squares you want and avoid those that will mess up your particular pattern.

Refer and Earn

Many websites gain value by adding more subscribers, so the Refer and Earn program is MyPoints’ way of doing just that.

Existing members can earn 25 points for each referral who creates a new account.

If that account holder then completes the welcome bonus task of spending $20 via the online shopping portal within the first month, the referring member receives another 750 points.

Perhaps most notably, members also earn 10% of all eligible points earned by their referral.

You can refer as many friends and family members as you like, and the perk of potentially earning 750 points per referral — plus a lifetime cut — does make it worth your time.

Point Perks

Point Perks are codes that MyPoints sometimes shares on its social media channels. When you find one, just visit your dashboard, click the “Point Perks” button, and enter it.

We found the code “MARZIPAN” on both Twitter and Facebook, and after typing it into the Points Perks box on our dashboard, we received three points.

As long as you’re subscribed to their Facebook and Twitter, you shouldn’t miss a chance to redeem Point Perks.However, whether or not the small number of points they provide is worth your time is a completely different question.

Bonus Points

Looking for yet another way to get extra points? Bonus Points can be found under your name, beneath your “Account Statement.”

Clicking there will lead you to a list of activities you can complete in order to earn — you guessed it — bonus points.

Listed next to each opportunity is a description of the necessary task, how long you have left to complete that task, and how many bonus points you can expect to receive after doing so.

We only saw surveys listed — specifically, “Gold” surveys that would give us a 20% bonus if we completed them.

Note that these surveys do require you to verify your account with a phone number and verification code.

Daily Goal

In combination with the Daily Poll and Daily To-Do List, the Daily Goal keeps track of all the points you’ve earned that day.

Each day, you’ll have a set number of points to earn in order to receive Bonus Points, which are redeemable in the next month.

Besides the Bonus Points listed for meeting your goal, you’ll also have the chance to earn points for streaks of completing your Daily Goal.

For example…

• After five days of completing your Daily Goal, you’ll receive an extra 25 points.
• At seven days, that number jumps to 50 points.
• After two weeks of completing your Daily Goal, you’ll earn 100 Bonus Points — which doubles on the 21st day.
• A full month will get you 300 Points to redeem the following month.

If you can keep on top of it, you should be able to rack up all these points for a total of at least 675 points for that month.

That’s not to mention the points you’ll be receiving for completing the tasks to earn enough to meet your Daily Goal.

MyPoints Score! Browser Extension

Like many extensions out there these days, Score! is all about saving you money — and earning points at the same time.

You can download Score! only on your desktop or laptop, in Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Firefox.

Downloading the extension is free if you have a MyPoints account. In fact, you can earn 100 points simply by downloading it.

Specifically, MyPoints Score! will look over your shoulder as you shop online. If you make a purchase on a website that partners with MyPoints, you’ll be notified of any opportunities you may have to earn points.

In some cases, coupons are automatically added for you from the MyPoints website.

The value of Score! lies in the simple fact that it basically does the legwork for you. Rather than having to switch from one tab to the next while shopping online, you can task Score! with adding any benefits from MyPoints directly to your shopping.

However, you should know that Score! may interfere with other extensions, so be selective when choosing which browsers you’re using for various tasks.

For example, you may not be able to use Score! and Rakuten’s browser extension at the same time, as trying to do so could mess up the tracking process and result in your getting zero rewards.

Getting Paid

Generally speaking, it is easy to cash-out your points — at least once you reach the minimum number necessary to redeem the offer you desire. Rewards options start at $15.

Once you’ve chosen to cash-out, click the “Redeem Points” square next to your points total in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

This will take you to a screen where you can choose from a variety of gift cards of various amounts.

These gift cards come “from online stores, restaurants, airlines, hotels and more.”

Under a thumbnail of each brand’s logo, you’ll find a minimum number of points necessary to purchase a gift card from that store.

After you click on a particular brand, you should see a breakdown of exchange rates for that merchant.

MyPoints says that most gift cards will be emailed to you within three business days, but it can take up to 10.

You can also choose to have your points exchanged for cash via PayPal.

Note that you will need to have a PayPal account, or register for one, in order to do so — and the email address you use to create a PayPal account must match the one you used to register for MyPoints (the same goes for your first and last name).

A note about the MyPoints exchange rate

If we’re to use the MyPoints equivalent of $10 equaling 1,750 Points (from the welcome bonus), then a single point is worth 3/5 of a cent.

However, a single point doesn’t always have the same value across the board when it comes to rewards.

One merchant might have a $15 reward for 2,300 Points, while another will only require 2,000 points for the same amount.

See also: The best ways to get free Amazon gift cards.

MyPoints: Our Take

As a whole, MyPoints can be a rewarding way to earn money back for the purchases you already make.

The site takes advantage of a system many credit card companies implement to attract more customers — that is, earning small amounts of money for spending it at specific stores.

If you’re looking to make a few extra dollars to use on a gift card to reward yourself, then MyPoints is a great option.

Generally speaking, however, you’ll want to tailor your efforts to specific offers that benefit you the most. Taking a few surveys here and there will help boost your points level a bit, but it’s in the offers and online shopping portal that you’ll find the more lucrative opportunities.

MyPoints has a lot going on, but in that chaos there’s a lot of opportunity. Approach this website strategically, and you’ll find yourself earning enough points to cash-out for a gift card to your favorite restaurant or retailer.

MyPoints FAQ

MyPoints Review: Final Thoughts

Is MyPoints legit? Absolutely. The site offers multiple ways to earn extra money from small tasks, making it easy for most people to reap decent rewards from the site from their typical online activities.

You can think of it as a combination of a survey site, cash-back portal, coupon codes aggregator, and all-around online rewards site.

It’s free to become a MyPoints member and no purchase is necessary to earn points, so it’s a platform you can take full advantage of without having to steal a single penny away from your budget.

However, the best earning opportunities are via cash-back shopping and money maker offers — and you often have to spend some money upfront to take advantage of these.