Year: 2020

UPDATE: Due to issues with the consolidation of MyPoints Video and Daily Scoop into Watch, we are unable to apply completed playlists for those activities towards Watch goals for April 1st and April 2nd, but we are watching to include them for April 3rd on.

For April, US members can earn up to 1,500 Bonus Points and Canadian members can earn up to 1,250 Points for their Monthly Goals.

Submit your April Monthly Goals by 11:59 pm PT on April 7, 2020 and complete your goals by 11:59 pm PT on April 30, 2020 to get your bonus.

As most of us are practicing social distancing, we’ve eliminated any activities that require an in-store purchase. Also, per yesterday’s blog post, MyPoints Video is being consolidated with nCrave and Daily Scoop as MyPoints Watch, so there will be only one video-related activity starting in April. Activities in the Daily 5 will also be affected by this change, so please adjust your goals accordingly.

Activities for April include:

Daily 5: You must complete at least 7 Daily 5 lists to participate in the Monthly Goals Bonus. The Daily 5 is a list of eight MyPoints activities for which you will earn 5 Points if you complete 5 of the 8 on any given day.

PLEASE NOTE: The Daily 5 will change sometime in April to consolidate MyPoints Video and nCrave under one activity: MyPoints Watch. Activate Score! will be a full-time option for your Daily 5 and adding an In-Store Deal to your shopping list will be an activity on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays, linking an In-Store Shopping offer will be an activity on Wednesdays and Saturdays and adding a Shoply (mobile app) offer will be an option for Tuesdays and Fridays. Daily Poll, Visit the Featured Merchant, Attempt or Complete a Survey and Complete a Discover offer will remain the same.

Surveys (optional): SurveyZone surveys completed from April 1 through April 30 count towards this goal. Peanut Labs surveys taken via MyPoints Deals, Guaranteed Incentive surveys, surveys where the completion award is fewer than 6 Points and those with delayed crediting do NOT count towards this goal.

Watch Playlists (optional): Every Watch Playlist or Daily Scoop mobile playlist you complete between April 1 and April 30 will count towards this goal. Sponsored videos will not count towards this goal. Keep in mind video inventory can fluctuate, so take care when setting this goal. There will be at least one guaranteed Watch Playlist per member per day. If you are an iOS user (iPhone/iPad), please note that the Daily Scoop is no longer available for your device, so set your Watch Playlist goals accordingly.

Grocery coupon prints (optional): This is the number of grocery coupons printed (and credited) between April 1 and April 30. MyPoints relies on data from Coupons.com to award for coupon prints and redemptions, so if you have had issues getting credit for coupon prints, please keep that in mind when setting this goal. Also note that Coupon prints will be delayed showing up on your Progress Tracker for up to 48 business hours.

As with Surveys and Watch, please keep in mind coupon inventory can fluctuate–especially given there have been fewer manufacturers coupons available with people quarantined during the COVID-19 crisis.

MyGiftCardsPlus gift card transactions (US Only – optional): This is the only activity that requires a purchase. MyGiftCardsPlus aggregates purchases made during the same transaction, so if you are setting a goal greater than 1 for this activity, please make sure you make your purchases in separate transactions.

Add an In-Store Deal to your list: Add up to 10 In-Store Deals to your shopping list to receive Bonus Points! (US Only –No purchase necessary)

Link an In-Store Shopping offer to your credit card: Add a maximum of ONE In-Store Shopping offer to your MyPoints wallet to complete this activity. (No purchase necessary) (US Only)

REMEMBER: All activities completed between midnight PT on 4/1 through 11:59 pm PT on 4/30 will count towards your Monthly Goals regardless of when you submit.

Currently there are a number of different ways MyPoints members can earn Points for video content: MyPoints video playlists, nCrave playlists and Daily Scoop playlists.

Starting in April, we will be consolidating these activities into one: MyPoints Watch.

If you earn Points with these different activities, here’s how it will affect you starting sometime in April:

• There will be only one Watch-related activity for Monthly Goals in April. All MyPoints Watch activities will count towards this goal.

• The Daily 5 will have one Watch activity in addition to voting in the Daily Poll, visiting the featured merchant, activating Score!, completing a MyPoints Deal offer, attempting a survey and completing a survey. The 8th activity will be a daily rotation of adding an in-store deal, linking an in-store shopping offer or add a deal via the Shoply app.

• If you’ve previously had issues with access to videos or nCrave, there will be at least one Watch playlist available for all members each day.

• If you have an Android device, the Daily Scoop will still offer ways to earn for completing Watch playlists.

We’ll keep you updated as to the exact date this change will take place, but we wanted to provide a heads up as soon as possible for those setting Monthly Goals for April.

There’s more than enough bad news out there, so this week we thought we’d focus on more positive stories as it related to the Coronavirus crisis.

Although a vaccine for COVID-19 is still a while away, research suggests that the virus is mutating slowly which means that when the vaccine is finally ready, its efficacy will be longer lasting according to this Techcrunch article.

The research on the vaccine was one of “4 Bright Spots Amid the Gloom of Coronavirus” reported by The New York Times. Other hopeful notes included not so random acts of kindness and collaboration by the quarantined and medical personnel on the front lines.

Buzzfeed rounded up a collection of “silver lining” Twitter posts shared by people in quarantine. A common theme: deeper connections with family and friends.

Krispy Kreme is not only offering a way for consumers to get a dozen donuts to safely share with family, friends and/or neighbors when they buy a dozen at regular price, but they’re giving away free dozens to healthcare worker over the next two months.

Finally, if the above isn’t enough to raise your spirits, check out these pictures of a hedgehog camping from Bored Panda. If they don’t make you smile, I’m not sure what will.

Stay healthy!

One of the many casualties of my routine during the COVID-19 crisis has been going to the gym. Good-bye Monday and Thursday yoga classes! Good-bye elliptical machine!

Exercise is necessary for staying healthy in both mind and body, so here’s a round-up of some resources to turn your living room or bedroom into a workout studio:

If you’re into high intensity and variety, there are a ton of free guided workouts at Fitness Blender.

If you’re not quite that athletic, HASfit offers free video workouts on Youtube and their website. The website also allows you to filter by fitness level or what muscle group/body parts you want to focus on.

For the totally non-athletic, Leslie Sansome has walking-based workouts on her Youtube channel.

For yoga aficionados, YogaWork has links to live classes you can stream. If you’re wanting something that’s more on-demand, the Yoga with Adrienne YouTube channel has hundreds of yoga practice videos for any level. (6 million+ subscribers can’t be wrong!)

Jessa Baxter Voos, a favorite yoga teacher of mine, has a curated collection of free videos on her website as well.

If you need more workout at home ideas, Make Your Body Work has a listing of 50 free online workout resources to check out.

Since staying home is necessary and, in some cases, mandatory, shopping online for food and household basics has increased. At the same time, finances are tight and so as part of MyPoints’ response to the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve increased Points on a number of merchants so you can maximize your rewards.

Included are food delivery merchants like Vons and Home Chef, purveyors of household basics like Target, CVS and Walgreens and health and wellness merchants like Vitacost and GNC.

If you’re working remotely now, you can get that home office in shape with Staples, HP and Office Depot. Trying to stay in shape while the gym’s shut down? Check out offers for Dick’s Sporting Goods, Gaiam and Bowflex.

We also realized that being on lockdown can cause people to get a little stir crazy if you like to cope by binge watching content, we’ve got Disney + and Hulu. Want to use the time for self-improvement? Check out offers for Udemy and Rosetta Stone.

Finally, we’ve also got offers for Saucy, Drizly and Wine.com because honestly, we could all use a drink right about now.

As much as we’d like, this issue isn’t going away anytime soon. For details on how MyPoints is attempting to make the lives of our members easier as we deal with the crisis, check out our response to the COVID-19 crisis post from Monday.

Here’s what’s been going on this crazy week:

Getting basic necessities has become a real challenge for many of us, but according to Yahoo! Finance, CPG company Kraft Heinz talks with Amazon and Walmart daily on ways to speed up deliveries.

An article in Forbes assures us that the toilet paper shortage is only temporary–which should cause those caught short-handed to breathe a sigh of relief.

If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you know the mad rush to clear shelves of paper products and basics like eggs and milk doesn’t really meet the definition of social distancing. For more at-risk populations, however, Snopes has curated a list of stores offering special hours to seniors, immune-compromised and pregnant women.

If you’re not up for breaking out of your quarantine, you’re not alone. The Washington Post reports that Domino’s is hiring an additional 15,000 workers to keep up with delivery demands.

If you’re worried about finances during the crisis, USA Today suggests contacting your mortgage lender as many are deferring payments.

Need some cheering up during the pandemic? MyPoints members posted a ton of cute and furry pics and GIFs on Facebook. Scroll through and smile.

Stay well, everybody!