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Whoring yourself out to companies for rewards...Follow

#1 May 29 2014 at 6:13 PM Rating: Good
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Do you participate in rewards programs?

A while ago I bought a handful of the Studio Ghibli films on BluRay cause they were on sale. Yesterday I was relaxing, and saw the discs on my shelf, opened them up and saw some redemption codes for some rewards program. So I signed up to Disney's site, and redeemed all my codes. Ended up having enough points to get a free BluRay/DVD combo copy of Treasure Planet (I like that movie).

And I ***** myself out to Microsoft for a 5 dollar Amazon gift card through Bing searches. Got about 5 dollars once a month, and recently it popped up that I could get more points for mobile searches, so my last 5 dollar gift card only took 18 days.

I have a lot of points built up on my cable company's system. Monday is a monthly rewards day, I'll probably redeem a bunch of stuff then too. My last one was an ESPN folding chair. One of those ones that fold up into a tube shaped bag. It's actually pretty nice for being basically free.

I really should get around to grabbing a credit card from my bank with a decent rewards program too... I'm just never think about it. I just got a check that I'll have to drop off at the bank tomorrow, maybe I'll do it then if I can remember.
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#2 May 30 2014 at 6:18 AM Rating: Good
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When my kids were middle-school aged, they entered codes from their Dad's Mountain Dew cans into a Dew promo site.

They got a Mountain Dew pogo stick with their reward points. It was actually of pretty good quality. My daughter, particularly, pogo-ed her heart out. Smiley: grin

I think we still have the thing in the basement somewhere.

Back when the internets were new, I did some Harris Polls for reward stuff - mostly music cd's iir.

These days I can't hardly be bothered to keep track of and dig out my coffee-card for the local gas station.
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#3 May 30 2014 at 6:25 AM Rating: Good
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My mom worked as a cashier at a convenience store for most of my elementary school and early high school life. And in Michigan we have the bottle deposit, so they returned those bottles with caps worth points, which the employees took and distributed amongst themselves. We ended up with two full size mountain bikes for returning caps, as well as some random other junk, chairs, etc.
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#4 May 30 2014 at 6:50 AM Rating: Good
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I have a rewards card at the local pet supply store. Their average price might be a little bit higher than the big chains (about $2 on a bag of dog food), but it's a local business, they don't sell animals in the shop, and every 10 bags of dog food I buy, I get one for free.
#5 May 30 2014 at 6:56 AM Rating: Excellent
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I signed up for some online survey thing by Nielson (the TV ratings guys) where you'd earn points yadda yadda. Except they'd constantly send me a survey, I'd spend ten minutes going through it and then they'd say "Sorry, we don't need any more middle-aged white guy opinions... no points for you". So I stopped filling them out. I think their survey offers still go into my spam folder.

I don't do the Bing points and stuff. I can't even be bothered to follow my Playfire Rewards through GMG and they want to literally pay me for playing video games.
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#6 May 30 2014 at 7:06 AM Rating: Good
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I just signed up for Playfire the other day. I figure I'll just play what ever I want to play and see what it gives me. It's all automatic right? So if I don't play the games when they want me to, who cares.

So far it gave me $1.00 just for signing up and linking my account. Not sure where it came from exactly, I can't find a "history" that shows what exactly I earned, just a list of what I could earn (and nothing on it saying If I have earned it or not...)
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#7 May 30 2014 at 7:21 AM Rating: Excellent
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Yeah, I'm signed up for it but don't bother to see what games I "should" be playing that week. I suppose kismet will throw me a nickle now and then.
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#8 May 30 2014 at 7:39 AM Rating: Good
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Jophiel wrote:
Yeah, I'm signed up for it but don't bother to see what games I "should" be playing that week. I suppose kismet will throw me a nickle now and then.


I'm not going to play specifically to get all the money I can... but I'm sure people do. I bought the FFIII release that came out a few days ago (20% off + GMG credit). To get all the money (beyond "played for the first time") on that game you basically have to 100% the game. And they give you a week to do it. I'd rather not focus all my game play time on a single old game. I'll just sprinkle it into my game play as I feel.

Edited, May 30th 2014 9:39am by TirithRR
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#9 May 30 2014 at 7:50 AM Rating: Good
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I have a couple of little keychain cards for a few places that I hand over with purchases and don't really see any difference with, I guess.
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#10 May 30 2014 at 7:56 AM Rating: Excellent
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Places around here largely stopped doing the "Savers Club" thing. Dominicks/Safeway was the last to do so and they've left the area and none of the other grocery stores I use have it. I guess they figured they had all the demographic info they needed or else so many people use credit/debit cards for purchases that they could cull all the same info that way for free.

Walgreens & CVS still use it which is annoying because they always want my card or phone number and there's no savings on the products. I don't make a fuss about it but usually just say "No thanks" when they ask for a savers card.
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#11 May 30 2014 at 8:06 AM Rating: Good
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I don't know if it still works this way, but Lowes came out with that "My Lowes" thing. Offered no rewards, no discounts, or anything... just purchase tracking (so you could go online and find out what you bought...)

Tracking cards with no rewards or discounts are pointless from a consumer point of view.

There was grocery store in Kentucky (big chain, but can't remember the name) that I went to once... they charged non members a higher price than members. That kind of irked me. But I only went there once, only because my coworkers wanted to go. And it's not like they offered anything special. Same **** Wal-mart did, at same prices, but higher if you didn't have their membership card.
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#12 May 30 2014 at 10:14 AM Rating: Excellent
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I have a bunch of those club card things you have to scan to get the sales prices at stores. The only one that has any sort of reward is the Safeway which saves money on gas, the rest are just the standard 'let us spam you in return for sale prices' kind of agreement. I just lose track of the more complicated stuff.
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#13 May 30 2014 at 10:31 AM Rating: Good
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TirithRR wrote:
I don't know if it still works this way, but Lowes came out with that "My Lowes" thing. Offered no rewards, no discounts, or anything... just purchase tracking (so you could go online and find out what you bought...)

Tracking cards with no rewards or discounts are pointless from a consumer point of view.
They were selling it as a way for the DIY'er to keep track of sizes, colors, etc.

At least when i painted our hallway last month that's what they tried to hit me up on. I didn't get one. I'll probably not be able to match my paint next year. Smiley: frown

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#14 May 30 2014 at 10:32 AM Rating: Good
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When I worked at Bridgestone I used to travel a lot and stay at many hotels. I got the rewards cards for the cooresponding hotels. The ones I stayed at the most for the comfort inn chains and thier sister chains. I would stay at so many of them I would redeem the points and get best buy gift cards(mostly). I think I probably earned anywhere from 500-600 dollars in best buy cards. Plus a few resturant cards as well. Paid for a lot of games and what not at best buy.
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#15 May 30 2014 at 10:35 AM Rating: Excellent
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I get points for flying. I get all the hotels I stay at to give me the same type of points. It's not quite as efficient, but I only have to keep track of one point system, which is really useful.
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#16 May 30 2014 at 10:43 AM Rating: Good
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My phone plan gives me points for the amount I spend every month, I'm like, half a year away from being able to get a pink cupcake maker!

Other than that I never bother with anything.
#17 May 30 2014 at 11:18 AM Rating: Good
The only one I do obsessively is my frequent flier miles with Delta. I have the AmEx card and I scoop up all the points from flying with my company that I can.

My planet ticket to Chicago earlier this month cost me only a $5 processing fee.
#18 May 30 2014 at 4:01 PM Rating: Good
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Sir Xsarus wrote:
I get points for flying. I get all the hotels I stay at to give me the same type of points. It's not quite as efficient, but I only have to keep track of one point system, which is really useful.
Aeroplan blows.
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#19 Jun 02 2014 at 8:33 AM Rating: Excellent
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It's point redemption values are good, but I find I'm often stuck with sh*tty flights.

That being said, it fits better into my travelling than any other point system I've looked at and lets me get all points in one place, so I'll probably stick with it for now?

Do you have a recommendation?

Edited, Jun 2nd 2014 9:33am by Xsarus
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#20 Jun 02 2014 at 9:40 AM Rating: Good
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Booking hotels from whatever chain it is he works for of course.
#21 Jun 02 2014 at 11:52 AM Rating: Excellent
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aeroplan is airline points not hotel points.
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#22 Jun 02 2014 at 2:53 PM Rating: Default
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I typically try to avoid reward type cards and whatnot. I do have one for the two big chain grocery stores in the area (Ralphs and Vons). They're the same kind of "slightly increase prices if you don't have the card" deals. You can use them without actually filling out the personal information on them though (just don't fill it out and send it to them). So I don't get whatever magical offers they'd surely send me in the mail if I'd filled them out, but I get to enjoy a slightly increased sense of privacy in my weekly grocery purchases. I only really care about *not* getting screwed by their pricing model, so that's good enough. Oh, and you can use the Ralphs card for reduced gas prices at the pump. Got to fill up my tank at 20 cents off yesterday because of this. So not too terrible. I'm sure I'm paying for every benefit I don't use though, which is the annoying part of these sorts of things.

I did kinda have to give Best Buy my info though. No way around that when you're buying something that has to be delivered and installed at your home. So I'm sure some star chamber somewhere knows what videos and music I like to buy or something. Good for them, I guess.

The ones that are really obnoxious are the stores that ask for your phone number and address at the cash register, despite having no rewards program at all. They just want your information to track you as a customer, I guess. I usually glare at them and ask them if they really want the sale or not and they stop being stupid.
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#23 Jun 02 2014 at 4:00 PM Rating: Excellent
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Way to take it to the clerk.
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#24 Jun 03 2014 at 7:41 AM Rating: Good
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Sir Xsarus wrote:
Way to take it to the clerk.
Guess the cashiers work off commissions?
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#25 Jun 03 2014 at 7:53 AM Rating: Excellent
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Cashiers probably either have sign up goals to reach or else it's as simple as catching hell if a supervisor hears them not asking. I assure you that the wage slave working the register at the drug store isn't asking for anyone's information out of personal interest or because she's "stupid".
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#26 Jun 03 2014 at 4:19 PM Rating: Good
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lolgaxe wrote:
I have a couple of little keychain cards for a few places that I hand over with purchases and don't really see any difference with, I guess.

I have one of those too. That for the place over on Delancy Street? The one with the door in the alley with the card reader? I built up enough rewards points for a free "happy ending" there a week ago.

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