I've been sort of half-heartedly using MyPoints.com to try to rack up some points for gift certificates. I've never shopped through the sites, but I read the e-mails, and they do have offers for some pretty great free sites (unfortunately, mostly sites I already belong to like SparkPeople and Kaboodle). I realized that I was getting close to a reward level and decided to look at what sorts of rewards I could get.
Admittedly, the list is limited, but there's a decent enough variety that I found a few different gift certificates I would like. But now, my question is this: Do I spend the points for something practical, like a CVS gift certificate, or do I spend them for fun on something like an iTunes gift certificate?
I tried to think about what I do with other rewards programs. The two I use the most are on my Amazon.com Chase Visa and my Discover Card. With the Discover Card, rather than cashback, I tend to bump up to a gift certificate, as you get more - $20 cashback gets you a $25 gift certificate for some merchants, for example. I've used those for both a shoe store (which I spent on shoes for work) and for Lands End (which I spent on new sheets). Sort of practical, I suppose.
I treat the Amazon rewards differently. These are used for either fun items or for gifts for family and friends for birthdays and holidays. I have bought grocery items from Amazon, but never used the Amazon rewards gift certificates for the purchase.
I'm not sure what I'll do with my rewards at MyPoints. Maybe I'll wait and see how my budget looks before I make a decision.
How do you treat these types of rewards? Are they fun extras or are they just more funds to be used in your normal budget?