URL: https://www.aarp.org/rewards/
An unconventional earner, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has a rewards program that allows one to watch videos, take quizzes and play little games to earn points that can then be cashed in for gift cards. And it's available to anyone of any age. But is it worth the time? If you sign up for a membership via a GPT site, it very well could be!
NATURE OF WORK AND PAYMENT
AARP Rewards has you complete various activities in return for points. The ones I've seen thus far in a few weeks of experimentation are:
- Quizzes of about 10 questions that take only a minute or so to get through. These are based on some recommended article (sometimes "sponsored content" from some ad partner, sometimes some health or financial awareness thing from AARP themselves), but you don't actually have to read it, no matter what you score you get awarded the points as long as you attempt every question.
- Watching informational videos, also usually on health or financial topics. Again these are sometimes sponsored content, and range from 1 minute to 4-5 minutes in length for the most part. You just let the video run to get rewarded, sound doesn't even have to be on.
- A collection of daily games such as crosswords, trivia and etc.
- Optionally you can connect a supported fitness tracker model and do little daily and weekly fitness goals for points
- You also get 15 points per day just for logging in, and there's a free "daily spin" that can reward you with prizes or more points
Most of the prizes offered are discounts on gift card purchases, usually of 5 to 10%. For example, you can buy a $500 Royal Caribbean cruise gift card for $450 by cashing in some of your points. However, scattered amidst these offerings are some straight-up points redemptions for either a $5 or $10 gift card (delivered to you digitally by email, so be prepared to order online or use the company's app to make a purchase in-person).
I've seen a couple new companies appear over the last few weeks, so these might come and go over time, but here are the ones with $5 gift cards available at present: Burger King, Bass Pro Shops, Petsmart, Camping World (RV parts and supplies), the NFL.com store, and AMC Theaters. There are some $10 gift cards available but seemingly only for a couple different flower delivery services thus far.
Other than that, AARP does currently offer a signup gift for new paying memberships: either a car organizer or a portable battery recharger pack for phones and tablets (the sort that are usually around $10-15 at Walmart and such). And you get a whole buncha discounts with membership. Far too many to list (here's the full list) but I can name you some highlights: up to 35% off Avis and Budget rent-a-car, $5 monthly off AT&T phone plans, 5 to 10% regular discounts off most hotel chains and temporary offers that go up to 20% or add double points or some benefit, 10 to 15% off at about two dozen restaurant chains (some of the more common ones: Cicis Pizza, Dennys, Outback, Cinnabon & Papa Johns), and $40 off an annual Walmart+ subscription (almost 50% the regular rate).
SITE HISTORY / LEGITIMACY
About as legit as it gets. AARP was founded in 1958, and has 38 million members and offices in every state of the US. It's famous enough to be a household name and parodied countless times on TV and in movies. No worries here as long as you got the right URL!
INTERNATIONAL ACCESS
AARP is primarily in the business of lobbying the US government on behalf of seniors, and partnering with US insurance companies to offer plans. So naturally there are some international restrictions. Membership does seem to be open to most of the world, but the EU and UK are presently excluded due to their data protection laws. And if you are not a US resident, you can only join for one year initially; it's unclear if you can renew after that.
Now that's for paid memberships. Anyone can create a free account online and participate in AARP Rewards without purchasing a membership. However, not only are your points earnings opportunities limited, you cannot get the really good redemptions (the $5/$10 gift cards) without a paid membership. Paid membership also gets you a 50% boost on all points earnings. You also need to verify with a legitimate phone number when you set up a paid account, and it's not clear if having a non-US number will be an issue there.
STARTING OUT
Before you do anything, check the GPT sites for an AARP signup offer. I was recently able to get one for $25 via Freecash, and it credited almost instantly after purchasing the $15 membership and is totally legit. If you're signing up for a new account and use our referral link, that also gets you an added $5 when you first cash out (which you'll be able to do with $25). I have seen other offers for only $10, which isn't nearly as worth it, so shop around carefully and maybe wait a bit if Freecash isn't currently showing it.
Just follow the GPT site instructions and sign up for the membership with a credit card. It's a one-time $15 charge for a year's membership. To get that price you'll have to agree to annual auto-renewal, but that isn't for a full year from the purchase date and once you get into your AARP account it's extremely easy to cancel online if you don't want to continue beyond that.
That gets you into AARP, there's one extra step to get into AARP Rewards that's presented to you during your signup process. I think you have to verify an email account and give permission for them to send rewards materials or you can't cash out your gift cards.
You can then start doing activities and earning. You'll get like 8k points just for doing all the signup stuff. There's a 7.5k daily limit to activities earning. The $5 gift cards cost 15k to 17k points each depending on the provider.
And while some AARP insurance products are only for those over the age of 50, the rewards program and discounts are available to anyone of any age.
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| Gandalf disguise not required |
PROBLEMS WITH AARP REWARDS
I wouldn't say there are "problems" so much as "limitations." The actual signup was as smooth as could be, as was getting rewarded by Freecash. But keep in mind you can only cash out each gift card type once per month, and are limited to three redemptions per month (and "redemptions" include things like their little prize drawings you pay points into, so watch out for those). So that's a likely max of $15 in real money value per month, unless they introduce some better $10 gift cards than the flower shops.
FINAL VERDICT - MIGHT WORK FOR YOU
The upside of all that is that earning is about as easy as possible. You can simply let videos play in the background on a secondary device while you do something else. Occasionally they actually have something interesting or useful though. The many quizzes are also simple to quickly get through as well. While you're probably limited to $15 per month it only takes six days of max points earnings to get to that, and it can be done in about an hour per day just letting stuff run in the background for the most part.
Still, is that worth the time? It might not be just for earning $15 a month. But I think the $25 GPT site offer is a no-brainer, especially if some of their discounts are helpful to you. It's $10 pure profit just for doing it plus the welcome gift of a free battery charger pak, and then you're halfway in points to a $5 gift card already to boot (and another bonus $5 if you're new to Freecash and use our link). It's more questionable if it's worth keeping past the first year, but it's very easy to cancel and if you do keep it just one month's worth of gift card earnings covers the membership cost for the full year. It might come down to combing their list of discounts and seeing if you get enough added value out of that to make or break the deal, but I think it's definitely at least worth looking into.
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