Thanks for joining me for episode 18: Make and Save Money with Swagbucks!
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Mentioned in podcast:
Watch me on daily livestreams for the month of March and maybe beyond on Cakeologi’s YouTube channel! Visit Cakeologi’s website.
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with full-time business coach and YouTuber Cakeologi who can help you formally establish your business, build business credit, and get premium business credit cards. When you select from various paid services after the free consultation, I will receive credit for referring you. Listen to Cakeologi on episode twelve of my podcast.
My Swagbucks referral link
MyGiftCardsPlus – Earn Swagbucks as a rebate after buying gift cards
Doctor of Credit – New deals, credit card offers, bank account bonuses, and more
Cashback Monitor – Compare online shopping portals to save and make money
Rough transcript:
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you travel the world at next to no cost through credit card points, miles, benefits, and rewards. Make money, save money, and take advantage of great deals!
Visit my website at HurdyGurdyTravelPodcast.com where you can read episode transcripts, complete a free credit card questionnaire to receive tailored recommendations, follow me on social media, view helpful resources, listen to past episodes, and contact me.
Thanks for joining me for episode 18 – Make and Save Money with Swagbucks. I’ll review the online rewards site Swagbucks.
Some personal and podcast updates: I’m recording on March 30th of 2020 now day fourteen of shelter in place here in the Philadelphia area. As promised, I’m continuing to release more episodes than usual and am livestreaming daily from YouTube at 8PM Eastern Standard Time with supporter of the show Cakeologi. Join us for laughs, helpful tips, and your questions answered live! Visit his YouTube channel at Cakeologi – C-A-K-E-O-L-O-G-I. More information can be found in the show notes.
Now spending more time at home since social distancing guidelines are now extended until April 30th, I’ll be looking to participate on others’ livestreams, podcasts, and YouTube channels – content creators, feel free to reach out to collaborate!
Onto today’s episode, a review of the website Swagbucks. Swagbucks is a virtual currency you can earn, buy, and exchange for discounted gift cards including Amazon, Best Buy, Delta airlines, and many other popular brands. You can also redeem Swagbucks for virtual Visa gift cards and PayPal cashouts although the rate of return is not as good.
Swagbucks can be very helpful for people who may struggle to reach credit card spending goals for signup bonuses or welcome offers and can help higher spenders supplement their spending. At the time of recording, March of 2020, you can buy 2000 Swagbucks for $21.99. Swagbucks are, at the lowest rate of redemption, worth one cent per point, but with more premium redemptions I’ll talk about later in this episode, you’ll see that Swagbucks are worth slightly more than one percent.
Why spend $21.99 for just over $20 in value, you ask? If you’re working on a credit card signup bonus and need the spend to get there – especially in a time like this being sheltered-in-place with low amount of spending – it can be worth paying $1.99 for $20 in spend, an effective fee of 10%, when you’re going to receive a signup bonus which is giving you more than a 10% return on your money. The fee, though, is dramatically reduced if you’re using Swagbucks to buy and then use gift cards which are 10% off or more. Further, as you gain Swagbucks through various ways I’ll mention, you gain bonuses for daily goals and monthly goals, so that’s a rebate making up for the fee.
The best scenario for buying Swagbucks, though, is when sales appear like months ago when one could buy 2000 Swagbucks for $20.99 and when returns from daily goals give you bonuses to offset the effective fees. For instance, if earning 4000 Swagbucks gives you a bonus of 200 Swagbucks, you’re ahead in this scenario when considering credit card rewards. If you’re not ahead, though, I typically discourage people paying fees to hit signup bonuses if they could reach signup bonuses with more regular spending – why pay a fee if you don’t need to? However, creative ways of generating spend can end up saving you time and allow you to apply for more credit cards. I’m quite happy, for instance, to pay a 2% or even 2.5% fee to pay my monthly apartment rent using Plastiq.com – PLASTIQ – as I’m gaining credit card rewards while doing so which largely offset the fees while I’m working on a signup bonus or even high spending goal. Your mileage may vary.
Buying Swagbucks can also be profitable when engaging in other website activity mainly with Swagbucks’ partner site MyGiftCardsPlus. For instance, MyGiftCardsPlus typically offers Swagbucks as a rebate when buying certain gift cards like buy a $500 Home Depot gift card and get a 10% rebate or 5000 Swagbucks. I really like that Swagbucks are offered as a rebate in this situation as opposed to a 10% discount since this generates more credit card spend and I can redeem the Swagbucks for discounted gift cards for more value than one cent per point. Deals like these come and go typically selling out fast – see GiftCardGalore.com and DoctorOfCredit.com for when the deals are live. Buying on MyGiftCardsPlus is my favorite and most profitable element of Swagbucks. I wait for good deals, that 10% rebate on Home Depot, for instance, rather than just getting 1-2%.
Once a month, too, you can redeem Swagbucks for 12% off a $25 gift card. I prefer to cash out Swagbucks for a $25 Amazon gift card once per month since I view Amazon same as cash and the Amazon cards on Swagbucks are almost never with a significant discount outside this once per month feature. As I previously mentioned, the monthly Swagbucks bonus comes after engagement with Swagbucks – you may often see the monthly bonus and the discount around the same time – simply click on your daily goal at the top of their website to see the monthly bonus when it is available.
Swagbucks also has an online shopping portal similar to what you see with other shopping portals like Rakuten or TopCashback. If rates are similar, say, if both TopCashback and Swagbucks offer 3%, I’ll always choose Swagbucks because the rebate is slightly more than 3% with points worth more than one cent per point and more value is had if I’m reaching daily goals because of the added bonus. I’ve also noticed Swagbucks more reliably tracking compared to other portals, so that’s an obvious plus. View portal rates when shopping online – see the website Cashbackmonitor.com for comparisons as rates change day to day.
Another great way to earn Swagbucks and save a tremendous amount, even profit and get free stuff, is redeeming partner offers listed on Swagbucks’ website. One of the best deals I redeemed months ago was a $40 rebate when buying $35 worth of food through the delivery service Schwann’s also stacking a new member bonus with Schwann’s to get even more food and not even paying for delivery! This one-time delivery had no required commitment and the Swagbucks posted to my account as promised while I also gained progress towards a credit card signup bonus. I’ve also received Swagbucks following a subscription to SurfEasy VPN, an AARP membership, a Sierra Club donation, and much more. I find such offers on DoctorOfCredit.com and check the comment section to see other users’ experiences relating to Swagbucks properly posting.
Swagbucks also has a really good referral program – my referral link can be found at HurdyGurdyTravelPodcast.com – where people, at the time of recording, get $3 for signing up and the person who refers also gets $3 plus 10% of what people earn after signing up. Over time, gains from referrals can be quite good especially consider high gift card spend – it’s a great way for you to help me at no additional cost to you.
After continued engagement with Swagbucks, you level up to receive membership perks like instant gift card delivery and shopping portal bonuses. Loyalty, thankfully, is rewarded whereas with other shopping portals, you typically don’t get any bonuses for continued engagement.
Finally, Swagbucks offers other ways to earn like watching videos, playing games, completing surveys. At the time of recording, I don’t see earn from these types of activities to be substantial – it generates a really low hourly rate, but this could be viewed as beneficial to some. I’ll stick to higher earnings for little effort.
To recap, earn virtual currency on Swagbucks through buying Swagbucks when it makes sense to do so; buy gift cards with good rebates from MyGiftCardsPlus; redeem Swagbucks once a month to get 12% off a $25 gift card; use the Swagbucks shopping portal when it’s the best option; participate in partner offers giving good rebates; and use my referral link if you’re not already engaged with Swagbucks.
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Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more content!
Visit my website at HurdyGurdyTravelPodcast.com where you can read episode transcripts, complete a free credit card questionnaire to receive tailored recommendations, view helpful resources, listen to past episodes, and contact me.
Support my work through Patreon, PayPal, the Cash App, and referral links by visiting the donate tab on my website. Subscribe on YouTube at Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast; like my Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast Facebook page; follow HGtravelpodcast on Twitter; and follow Justin Vacula on Instagram.
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with full-time business coach and YouTuber Cakeologi who can help you formally establish your business, build business credit, and get premium business credit cards. When you select from various paid services after the free consultation, I will receive credit for referring you. Listen to Cakeologi on episode twelve of my podcast.
Visit my other podcast at stoicsolutionspodcast.com where you can find practical wisdom for everyday life inspired by the ancient philosophers of Greece and Rome.
Thanks to generous patrons and fans of this podcast who help support my work. Have a great day.
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