One of the best ways to make money is earning it on things you already do. With Microsoft Rewards, you can get paid just to surf the web. The only real sacrifices you’ll have to make are spending a few minutes answering quizzes and using Bing as a search engine. In exchange for your time usage of Bing, you’ll get Microsoft Rewards points, which you can redeem for gift cards, Microsoft products and plenty of other stuff. But is it worth your time? Let’s find out.
User Experience
I must say that Microsoft Rewards is quite pleasant to use. It’s integrated directly into Edge, and you can view your tasks and points earned quite easily. You can also install the Microsoft Rewards extension, improving the experience. Completing quizzes is also quite pleasant, with the actual quiz area being a simple floating bar at the bottom of the page.
How to Earn Points
There are plenty of tasks you can complete in order to earn Microsoft points, and unlike most rewards websites, these ones don’t involve handing over personal information or watching ads.
Instead, you can choose from a variety of more fun tasks, such as quizzes, polls and even simply searching something up on Bing. Filling out one of these quizzes shouldn’t take more than a minute, and you’ll get your points no matter what, even if you don’t get the right answers.
If you install the extension, you can also earn a bonus 3 points per Bing search you make, up to a maximum of 30 points per day. You can also earn three bonus points daily in exchange for using Edge as your browser.
When shopping, you’ll earn 1 point for every 1 dollar you spend on the Microsoft Store. If you use an Xbox, you can also install the Xbox extension for more rewards.
Microsoft Rewards’ Rewards
Microsoft Reward’s tasks will generally give you between 10 and 30 points each, and there are around 10 to choose from every day. Once you’ve gone through all of them, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for them to reset. Generally, you can earn around 150-180 points per day.
You can redeem these points for a variety of rewards, mostly gift cards and Microsoft products. A $5 gift card might take anywhere between 5,000 and 15,000 points depending on which one you’re purchasing. You can also use your points to enter contests for 200 points.
If you’re the charitable sort, you can also donate your points to a variety of charities.
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to give points a fixed value, since the price of gift cards will vary on the gift card’s value, your Microsoft Rewards tier and which gift card you are buying. If you choose the $25 Microsoft Gift Card, the highest possible redemption value, each point will be worth just under a 10th of a cent.
Levels
Microsoft Rewards has two status tiers, creatively named Level 1 and Level 2. Both of them are free, Level 1 being the default level. To reach Level 2, and maintain your position there, you’ll have to earn a minimum of 500 Microsoft Rewards points in a given month.
Level Two members will get discounts when redeeming points, earn five times more points on Bing searches and unlock some “exclusive” offers.
Pros and Cons
- Owned by Microsoft – a very reputable company
- Points are relatively to earn – you won’t have to fill out surveys or hand over personal data
- Points can be redeemed for a variety of gift cards and Microsoft products.
- You can also enter contests or donate your points
- People with Level 2 can get some nice discounts on gift cards
- There’s a cap on how many points you can earn every day
- Most tasks pay very little points
- To earn the most points, you’ll have switch to Bing and Edge
Is It Worth It?
In my opinion, Microsoft Rewards is great for those who want an easy way to earn rewards without having to spend too much time doing so. Completing all of your daily offers shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes, and there are plenty of redemption offers. However, since the daily rewards potential is capped, if you want to spend a lot of time earning points, it would be best to look somewhere else.