Topic: Microsoft Rewards - Are you using it?

[Chris]

The Game Pass quests have started working now it looks like. I just checked the app on my phone and had a bunch of things to turn in because they weren't logging earlier when I tried. Right now I'm waiting for my second game of PUBG to start so I can run off and die so that will be my 75 points for playing 2 games. From there I'll be heading to Minecraft to smash a bunch of blocks for another 75 as long as everything keeps tracking now.

Should I move this to the Video Games board since it's mainly used for that? I know you can get over things when cashing in points but I've never done anything but Microsoft credit or a few random luck games when I feel like trying my luck with 200-300 points every so often.

[Chris]

I've completed almost all of the current Game Pass quests that are available and also finished all of the various punch cards for getting achievements in the rewards app on the Xbox. I still have a few more monthly quests to maybe do but for now I can go easy until next week when the new batch of weeklies come out.

[betterdan]

Just bought Call of Duty Modern Warfare for my grand daughter and now I am up to 46,153 points. Not bad seeing as I didn't really start trying to get points until close to the date the Series X came out.
I was thinking of buying 3 months of Ultimate Game Pass and using 35,000 points but I hate to see the point amount drop 
Maybe I'll keep saving and get that Seagate external ssd

[betterdan]

I see some 2,000 point January thing on Xbox it says something about gamerscore challenge. What is that? I guess it starts Jan 6

[Chris]

35,000 points is good for $50.00 in credit.

I was at 53,xxx earlier and then cashed out enough to get a $50.00 card. I then flipped that into buying Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition for $68.xx so I ended up paying $18.00 for it in the end. I had to end up refunding it and reordering it a few minutes ago because I didn't get rewards points and I was trying to complete the Countdown Sale punch card of spending $50.00. I bought a $2.00 Goosebumps game on my laptop(I bought the others on the Xbox) to see if that would give me credit and it did so that's why I refunded and reordered real quick. I ended up getting 5200 points for Borderlands and then another 5000 for the punch card so that worked out in the end. I still have the points missing from the Terminator game I also bought but I'll just send an email for that tomorrow if the points don't show up. I was pressed for time with the Countdown sale ending in 14 hours and I didn't want to deal with trying to explain all of it in an email and most likely missing out on either the 5200 or 5000 points because someone might not understand. Now I'm back up to 18,300 points after the refund and reorder.

Just remember to not cash out points unless you plan on buying something shortly after because they expire in 90 days. Also, never plan on it being exactly 90 days and thing of it more like 80 or so because I've lost a few dollars here and there a while back because they expired in less than 90 days. Also, never use them to preorder unless you use enough to cover the full price. If you split it between points and a CC and the game is out longer than 3 months you will lose your points before they are actually used for the game. I'd say go another month or two and see where you're at for points and if you get close to 91,000 you can use them and chop $100.00 off the expansion card.

Also, imagine watching 300,000 points go away like I did when I cashed in for my Series X. I went from 300,000 to something like 2000. That was rough.

[Chris]

The gamerscore challenge is the one I did a few months back where you got reward points equal to achievement points up to 10,000. It was a nightmare honestly. You had to play a bunch of games and it took a lot of time. Just think about your current gamerscore and how long it took you to get it to that and then imagine doing 10,000 achievement score in a month. I definitely won't be trying for the 10,000 again this time around.

[betterdan]

How can you get $50 for 35,000 points? It shows 46,000 points for me

[Chris]

Oops, Typo. Wrong numbers on the keyboard. I meant 46,000.

[betterdan]

Ahh ok. I thought I had missed some deal or something   

[Chris]

I still miss the days of $5.00/10.00 gift cards for 3500/7000 points. I cashed in for those quite a few times. They started creeping up the points requirements around 2 years ago(first it was 3750 then 4000 and then 4200) I think it was and now they don't even do hot deals on $5.00/10.00 cards anymore. I would constantly save my points just for those hot deals until I realized buying Gold was a better deal. Then I spent points doing that to stack a few years and then it was back to points for gift cards again. I'll be over 825,000 lifetime points in the next day even if I don't get my 1600 points for buying Terminator Resistance in the next day or so by doing my daily searches and the extra 10 points for the Game Pass stuff.