iPointless? (ipoints.co.uk)

Member Name: GuruOnAMountain

Product:	ipoints.co.uk
Date:	18/09/04 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rewards for doing what you would be doing anyway., Rewards are very varied., Ipoints are relatively easy to collect.

Disadvantages: Points sometimes go missing., Be prepared to get spammed if you hope to collect a lot of ipoints.

I first stumbled across this site about a year back when I was first struck with the realisation that you could actually use the internet to earn yourself a bit of moolah. I'd recently signed up with Ciao, and signed up here too, excited at the prospects of becoming a millionaire just through using the 'net.

First of all, this is a well-known site and is used by a large amount of people. If you're searching for ways to make money on the 'net, it is likely that this site is going to pop up again and again. Sign up is relatively simple and straightforward and you can earn your first ipoints for signing up and filling in some questionaires.

Right, so you're signed up, your fingers poised above your keyboard and mouse, rearing to go and take advantage of this money making opportunity. So where to start?

Well, the initial reason I had for signing up was the fact that you could make money back on online purchases. There is quite a few sites affiliated with ipoints eg. ASOS.com, Amazon.co.uk, ChoicesDirect etc. and they all offer varying amounts of ipoints for online purchases made with them. Sometimes it's 1 ipoint for every pound, sometimes 1 ipoint for every £5 and allsorts of other variations in between. You have to remember to follow the links through ipoints to the other sites to make your purchases, though, and sign up to any sites you are going to buy from using the email address registered with ipoints.

On top of this, there is ipolls, which are short topical questionaires that you can earn 1 point for, and various other deals eg. earn 5 ipoints for signing up for a certain newsletter, or 10 points for requesting a brochure. Of course, this means giving out your details to a lot of companies, so prepare for you email inbox, at least, to be spammed a bit.

So what does all this hard work get you? Well, lots of things. Ipoints rewards the consumer by offering a large range of gifts and goodies for their hard work and spending. There really is a lot to choose from, even though there is no cash option. There is the expected Amazon vouchers, and vouchers for some other sites, but also games consoles, champagne, leisure vouchers, high street vouchers, trips to Paris, flying lessons, tandom skydives...the list goes on and on.

I joined up and then never used my ipoints account until recently when I ventured back there. Ipoints are relatively easy to collect if you're willing to subject yourself to a fair bit of spam, and it is an especially useful programme for people who shop on the internet anyway.

However, I've experienced some problems with ipoints, personally. Often, points don't appear in my account. Admittedly, I've not given them much time to, but they haven't appeared in my account under points that I've earned but not been awarded yet, either, so I don't know whether I should hold out much hope for them.

I've not ordered a reward from them yet, either, so I can't comment on that, but I've heard good reports off other users.

I suppose it doesn't harm you to follow the ipoints links to do a bit of internet shopping. If your points turn up then that's fabulous, but if they don't, I suppose you're not really losing anything.

Also, there isn't a member forum or anything similar, so it doesn't have quite the friendly, community atmosphere that sites like Dooyoo have, but it is still a very popular and long running consumer award site, so it's probably worth having a peek at at least. I must admit, though, that in my experience of consumer reward sites, this one is decidedly average.

If you're interested in trying it out yourself, go to www.ipoints.co.uk.

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