Last week, Memolink unveiled a new holiday shopping promotion, offering increased points per dollar spent at around 300 of their more popular stores. My take? It’s more ho-hum than ho-ho-ho.
To figure out what Memolink points are worth in terms of percentage cash back, multiply the points by .0579. For example, the new points per dollar rate for Barnes and Noble is 80, and 80 x .0579 = 4.6, so 80 points is 4.6% cashback. (Although if you compare it to their competitors, Ebates at 8% and MrRebates at 6%, this isn’t anything to get excited about.)
In glancing through the list or participating stores, I see that some rates were doubled — most of those are what we consider “offers” (a flat payout per order) — for example:
- Columbia House DVD was a flat 10,000 points, is now 20,000 points ($11.58) – FusionCash has it at $8, so this one’s a good deal, but…
- Delta Air Lines was a flat 1200 points, is now 2400 points ($1.39) – Ebates has it at $1.50,
- Entertainment Book was a flat 2800 points, is now 5600 points ($3.24) – QuickRewards.net has it at $6.50,
- Peapod was a flat 4000 points, is now 8000 points ($4.63) – MrRebates has it at $12,
- Personalization Mall was a flat 4800 points, is now 9600 points ($5.56) – MrRebates has it at 15% (making them a better deal on orders over $37)
There are some other comparatively large point increases but the tricky thing about points is that they’re so hard to value at a glance. If you didn’t know that a point at Memolink is worth 5/100 of ONE CENT, you might be needlessly impressed at their promotional rates. After translating them to percentages, to compare to their competition, it’s rare to find a rate that can outdo MrRebates, although a few do best Ebates.
Just a sampling of some of Memolink’s promotional rates that ARE worthy of consideration:
- Apple Store @ 24 points/$ (1.4% cashback) — compare to 1% at MrRebates and Ebates
- Colorful Images @ 176 pts/$ (10.2% cashback) — 12% at MrRebates and 6% at Ebates
- Drugstore.com @ 144 pts/$ (8.3% cashback) — 9% at MrRebates and 6% at Ebates
- HP @ 56 pts/$ (3.2% cashback) — 3% at MrRebates and Ebates
- Limoges Jewelry @ 240 pts/$ (13.9% cashback) — 10% at MrRebates and 7% at Ebates
- Magazines.com @ 512 pts/$ (29.6% cashback) — 30% at MrRebates and 26% at Ebates
- Target @ 96 pts/$ (5.6% cashback) — 4% at MrRebates and 3% at Ebates
Almost always, you’re still going to do better at MrRebates, but the new promotional rates at Memolink do give them the edge over Ebates for a few merchants. If you’re looking to increase your Memolink point balance to reach cashout, some of these rates at least make them competitive. If you cherry-pick the rewards program offering the best rate for each merchant before making a purchase, however, be sure you do the math before choosing Memolink: remember, multiply .0579 times the points per dollar to get percentage cashback rate.
If you’re not a member of Memolink and would like to give them a try, please join with my link — thanks! You can also click here to join one of the other programs mentioned in this article: QuickRewards.net, Ebates, and MrRebates, and FusionCash.
