84 Swagbucks a day?

Shortly after I committed to building this blog, there was a change in the redemption policies for Swagbucks.

The Amazon gift card was your best value if you ordered it in $5 increments. You were limited to five gift card orders per month, and you could only order two per day, although you should order them as soon as you accumulate enough Swagbucks. There’s no benefit to hoarding your points and ordering them at the end of the month. The sooner you convert your points to a gift card and apply that code to your Amazon account, the better.

With the November 2012 changes, the $5 Amazon gift card is still your best value at 450 Swagbucks per card. You’re still limited to five of those per month, but if you earn a ridiculous amount of Swagbucks in a month, you can order additional gift cards. In the old days the rule was five gift cards per month, period. Now you can order an unlimited number, just no more than five of the $5 Amazon cards.

Those five cards, as you know, cost you 2,250 Swagbucks a month.

The new policy allows you to order other retail cards, and Paypal credit, for 500 Swagbucks per $5 of credit. And that includes Amazon cards. Yes, you’re limited to five of the $5 cards per month for Amazon credit, but you can order a $15 card for 1,500 points in addition to the five $5 cards you should order first. Earn 3,750 points in a month, you can turn that into $40 of Amazon credit.

And more important, at that same rate of 500 Swagbucks per $5 in credit, you can earn Paypal cash. And honestly, unless you know you’re going to order something on Amazon in the near future, why not just take the cash?

There are drawbacks to the new redemption system. We’re offered Amazon gift cards in increments of $15 and $25 for 1,500 and 2,500 Swagbucks, respectively. Paypal however, is offered at the $25 level and higher, although I don’t think that’s a big deal.

If you’re averaging 75 points a day for 30 days, you’ll earn 2,250 Swagbucks, and that will get you $25 in Amazon credit. If you would prefer cash, then all you have to do is earn 84 Swagbucks a day for 30 days. That will give you 2,500+ points, enough to order one $25 Paypal payment.  

There are $5 gift cards for 500 points – including Target, Walmart and CVS – but to me you’re better off saving up 2,500 Swagbucks and getting cash.

I anticipate accumulating some Amazon credits during the year. Yes, I can use my Paypal cash for Amazon orders, but why waste 250 points if I don’t have to in order to earn $25 for an Amazon purchase?

Decide what’s best for you. If you know you’ll use all the Amazon credit you can get, dump your Swagbucks into Amazon gift cards, because you’ll get the most bang for your points. If you’re like me, your goal will be a daily average of 84 Swagbucks, which can then be turned into $25 cash.