Most of these rewards programs allow you to redeem your points for lots of things, but mainly gift cards and merchandise. Depending on the site, using the points for merchandise may be a better deal than redeeming for gift cards. Because I already had a shopping list, I redeemed all of my points in Amazon or Walmart gift cards.
Swagbucks | $30
Swagbucks pays you rewards for shopping through their links, completing surveys, answering daily polls, and watching sponsored videos. I usually pull up an nGage video set whenever I'm online and click through it for 2-4 points. They also reward for searches, and the rewards are pretty big, but they are totally random, so I generally prefer to use bing. The surveys are really hit or miss, but the shopping rewards are great. Whenever I book flights, hotels, shop on amazon, I go through swagbucks. Usually, the rewards are about 2 points per dollar spent. They have most major retailers (Old Navy, Walmart, Target), so that is my big earner. I've heard of people earning that much every month, but I'm pretty laid back about it and only get really active in the fall when Christmas is coming.
Bing rewards | $20
To earn with bing, you can do daily challenges or just use bing when you search! Every two searches earns you one point.
Huggies rewards | $30
Really, the rate of rewards here is terrible. This was our points collection after an entire year and a half of buying Huggies diapers, and for half the year we've been buying for two! The moral is, if your diapers have a rewards program, just do it. Entering all the little codes was super tedious but worth it for the extra few bucks.
Shopkick | $5
I just hopped on the shopkick bandwagon in October, so I'm barely earning my first gift card. So far I love the concept though - you get points for walking into stores in your area. You can get additional points for scanning items in the store and, if you link your credit card to the app, buying items. I'm nervous about that so I haven't linked my credit card. Sometimes the app can be a little glitchy, and not recognize the store I'm in until after I've left. It's frustrating, but it still works often enough that I use it anyway.
Credit card rewards | $75
We get 1% cash back, but we just opened a new card that gets special rates for gas and travel so I'm hoping for even more rewards next year! If you don't have a rewards program on your credit card, switch now!
Walmart Savings Catcher | $12
Android | Apple
I always scan in my Walmart receipts. I try to do price matching on my own, but this catches little things that slip through the cracks. It doesn't seem like much ($12 in about 6 months) but every little bit helps!
Miscellaneous | $100
My husband is a law student, and some of the law databases (Nexus and Bloomberg) offer rewards for anyone with a subscription (so, mostly lawyers). Obviously these won't be available to all, so I did not include them in our grand total.
I'd love to know how you earn a little extra for the holidays! Let me know in the comments.
