Swagbucks is an online shopping portal where you will earn Swagbucks (SBs) for making online purchases. I wrote about this site recently as they are currently offering 3x SBs on all Staples purchases. So instead of receiving 2 SBs per dollar spent, you are earning 6 SBs per dollar spent. This is higher then any of the other online shopping portals! You can also earn SBs but taking surveys, playing games, taking tutorials, etc.
Where Swagbucks differs from some of the other shopping portals is that you are not earning points, miles, or cash back, but instead Swagbucks that you can use to redeem for a variety of gift cards.
Their redemption options are also extremely favorable! Essentially each SB can be valued at about 1 cents, so every 500 SBs equals a $5 gift card. So if you have 10,000 SBs, for example, you should be able to cash out for a $100 gift card! Gift cards are typically in $10, $15, $25, $50, $75, $100 increments and depends on the merchant. And sometimes gift cards are even on sale. For example, you can currently redeem 450 SBs for a $5 Amazon.com gift card. There is also a Paypal option, so thats an easy way to get actual cash.
On the travel front, you can cash out for a Hyatt, Southwest, and Royal Caribbean gift card. You can also find many gas gift card, Walmart, Home Depot, Amazon.com, Starbucks, CVS, Banes & Nobles, etc.
So with the Staples example, if you purchase $500 from Staples online, you will end up with 3,000 Swagbucks. This will allow you to redeem for a $30 gift card. Let’s say you make the same purchase through the Chase UR site, that will only earn you 1,000 UR points which I value far less then $30. With TopCashBack.com you’ll earn $15 cash back, which is half of the amount.
If you are new to Swagbucks, you can sign up here. Through May 27, 2014, you will actually get $5 in free Swagbucks if you make a $25+ purchase with a participating online merchant (for new accounts that sign up through the link listed).
Let me know if you have any questions! I personally haven’t used it that much as I was recently introduced to it, but I have earned my points in a timely manner which I respect from an online shopping portal!
Terms: 500 Swag Bucks (approximate retail value $5 USD) (“Credit”) when you sign up
for a Swagbucks.com account via an applicable referral link and make a purchase
of $25 USD or more through the Swagbucks.com Shop & Earn webpage between 12:01
AM PST on April 7, 2014 and 11:59 PM PST on May 7, 2014 (a “Qualifying
Purchase”). Offer valid for new Swagbucks.com accounts only. Credit will be
issued to your Swagbucks.com account within thirty-five (35) days of your
Qualifying Purchase. Limit ONE (1) Credit per person. This offer may not be
transferred; cannot be redeemed for cash; and cannot be combined with other
offers. Prodege, LLC reserves the right to add, modify, or discontinue this offer at any time, for any reason or no reason, with or without notice. Valid only in U.S., Canada and the U.K. Void where prohibited. Subject to the Swagbucks.com Terms of Use and Privacy Policy found at http://www.swagbucks.com/g/terms and http://www.swagbucks.com/g/privacy, respectively.
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so how does swag compare/contrast to UR/discover/upromise/etc?
@Mr. Cool, it depends on where you are purchasing from. Staples is 5% cash back on uPromise, but not sure about the others.
But do you get Swagbucks on gift card purchases? I bought some gift cards from a certain office supply store today and was going to go through Swagbucks but heard you didn’t earn credit on gift card purchase so I opted for TopCashback instead.
@Justin – I do not have enough experience with Swagbucks to know first hand. There are no terms that state was is included and what is not.
But do you earn Swagbucks on gift card purchases? I was going to use it earlier today for 6x but ended up using TopCashback instead because I heard Swagbucks wouldn’t award you for gift card purchases.
why not use upromise?I can purchase these GCs for a discount anyway.
@asar – Upromise is another great option.
Hi. Love this site! Great overview of Swagbucks. I do have a correction, though. You absolutely can get cold hard cash through Swagbucks. It’s in the form of a Paypal transfer. 2500 points gets you a $25, 5000 points gets you $50 and $100 gets you $100. I ONLY redeem for cash on that site. Okay – maybe one time I redeemed for a restaurant gift card…but that’s because I wanted to feel like it was freeeeeee. 🙂
You can also deposit swagbucks to Paypal instead of getting gift cards.