Freeride 101 - The basics and beyond.
Written: Aug 18 '00 (Updated Aug 18 '00)
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Freeride.com has become the front-runner in online reward sites. Is it any wonder that they are growing by leaps and bounds with excellent customer service, a wide variety of earning opportunities and a vast assortment of gifts to choose from. I’ll try to point out every aspect of the program so grab your coffee and get ready to dig into the guts of Freeride.
Lets start with the basics. Signing up is a breeze. The basic information is needed to start your account. If you use a free email address you will have to wait for a postcard (sometimes a lengthy wait) to arrive that contains a code to “unfreeze” your account. This is done to eliminate fraud and multiple accounts. And speaking of accounts, you can have up to four account per household providing that you don’t sign up your cat and dog. I don’t care how smart Scruffy is, he can’t have an account.
Once you sign up you’ll find 50 points in your wallet. Your wallet is where all your points, earned and spent, are kept. You can even request an email of the last 365 days of your account activity. Your daily totals are available on site as well as the last seven and ninety days of activity. At any time you can click on your wallet, located on the bottom left hand corner, and check your stats.
Earning points couldn’t be easier. The best thing to do is to explore each of the sections on the site and see where you want to start. A great place to start is the Point Works section. Here you’ll find over 100 sign up opportunities ranging from games to investments. Keep track of what you sign up for since most are one time deals and it seems a waste of time to sign up for something only to see that you had already done the same form a year ago. It will show up in your wallet as “exceeded household limit”. The point values range from 10 points to a whopping 2,500 points. Be sure to read the details of each offer and you’ll be on the fast track to more points that you could ever imagine.
You can also earn points shopping on the site. Example. If you shop through Freeride at store XYZ you can earn 4 points for every dollar spent. In most cases that does not include the tax, shipping or other charges. Those points usually take a few weeks to hit your account. Keep your confirmation letters in case there is an issue with points not being awarded or coming up short.
Be sure to stop by the Make Your Points page as well. You’ll find a few surveys that are credited instantly (well, within a minute). Be sure to check that page often for new promotions. Watch you mail as well, they do send out point offers on occasion. The most recent was for 15 points to sign up for a ‘points by mail’ program that Freeride is starting.
Red Light Green Light
On the bottom of the site pages you see banners that change when you surf around the site. Be on the look out for the ones with red dots above the banners. Click on those quick; they are special banners that you get to leave your feedback on. A pop up page will appear in about 20 seconds asking five simple ‘click’ questions about the site. Fill out the form and hit ‘submit’ and you just made 5 points.
Destination Points
Visit this area and get up to 70 points a day. OK, the 10-point banners are few and far between but it’s still a staple of every earning day at Freeride. Click on the main page of Destination Points and a sub page will pop up. From there you can either click on a banner that interests you or surf for the banners with the highest points on them. You can click on seven of them per day so click wisely. You’ll also notice little cabs. Those are part of the Grab A Cab promotion from Freeride. You don’t get any credit for clicking on them but you do get entered into a daily contest for 20,000 points. I’ve never won it and I don’t know anyone that has but good luck if you decide to be brave enough to click where others fear to tread.
NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW
The Magic Bus
With this section of Freeride you can easily add 100 to 200 points per day to your totals, and this is in addition to your normal points. Simply click on the Magic Bus page and picks a section to visit. You get 5 points for every ten minutes you visit the bus but remember, you have to have a store site opened in order to earn these points. While you are browsing small pop up windows will appear. They are a little larger than a postage stamp (depending on your own computer settings) and remain on the screen for anywhere 45 seconds to one minute. Just click on any past of the pop up banner and get your points. They do take a few seconds to hit your account so don’t panic. If you have trouble getting the points (called hitch hikers) and are using Internet Explorer go and adjust your settings to allow a refresh of each page. This might sound extremely confusing but don’t get discouraged, just get on the site and get your feet wet. You’ll be glad you did when you see all the extra points!
Now, the point values for clicking on the hitch hikers range from one to three points but there are bonus points of 10, 20 and 50 points that do pop up. You do have to move around to different stores with in the Magic Bus to get points but I have found you get three to four pop ups per store. You can snag up to 50 of these per day. It is unclear when the new day starts for earning the hitchhiker points but the points for surfing the Magic Bus start at 4 a.m. EST. I haven’t had any trouble so far getting the points at any time of the day.
Daily Searches
This section can be found on under Search – O – Rama. You get 2 points per search with a limit of 10 searches. Type in a word and click the button. As easy as making Jell-O. You do have to wait about 15 seconds between searches for the points to register As easy 20 points a day!
We The Shoppers
This site can be accessed through the Point Works section under the header “Join a Community”. If you haven’t already signed up what are you waiting for? There are terrific surveys for big points (one was for 150 points!). You can also get points for posting messages to the numerous boards on the site. You can post 5 per day for an additional 10 points per day. The point do take a few minutes to hit your account so once again, don’t panic when they don’t show up right away. There are several board just for online reward programs. You can get advice, vent your frustrations or post a hint.
Grocery Points
Freeride has all but eliminated the UPC program that allowed people to buy and send in the UPC’s from various products for points. There are still a few items on the site but I think it is only a matter of time before it goes down as well. Now you can enter your zip code and see the participating stores. You simply enter your stores reward card number and the points are added when you purchase a product. I think this is a bad concept, all someone has to do is have the item scanned (like a Kodak camera for 100 points) and then ask the checker to remove the item. It is the same as with Web Bucks, once the item is scanned you get the Web Buck regardless of whether it is removed from the total or not. This is going to lead to a huge amount of fraud. It is also unfair to people who do not have a participating store in their area. I have sent several letters to Freeride but have yet to get a real response from anyone. I would like to suggest that if you do not have a participating grocery store in your area that you write Freeride and tell them that it is unfair that others have advantage to earn points.
Get your friends on Freeride
Gets your friends addicted to Freeride and have them sign up under you and you’ll see a nice little present in your wallet every month. You’ll get 5% of what ever they earn through the month. The last time I checked this offer was good for the first 12 months that they were members of Freeride but that aspect could change.
Spending!!!
Now that you have all these points it’s time to spend spend spend! The gift certificates are fulfilled through 1-800-Gift Certificates and usually arrive in a week to ten days but don’t quote me on that. The number of stores available are too numerous to list but here are someof the bigger names: Sam Goody, Tower, J C Penny, TJ Maxx / Marshalls, Barnes & Noble, Toys R Us, Olive Garden / Red Lobster, Blockbuster, CD Now, Web Certificates, Amazon.com and K B Toys. Honestly, the last time I counted there were over 60 stores to choose from and that doesn’t include the most recent additions. The Amazon.com certificates usually arrive in three days via email but they have been known to take longer. When you spend any points on any purchase it is immediate. There are no refunds. Make sure you check your address carefully because they will not be responsible for misinformation. The history of your spending is also available in your wallet. If it’s been a month since you ordered something then it’s time write Freeride or 1-800- Gift Certificates.
If you have the time and the patience’s you can reap a hefty reward from this site. There are numerous arguments about “is Freeride really free?”. Don’t get caught up in the drama, it’s nothing but a waste of time you could be using to click away on the site. The customer service team does respond to mail within 48 hours (unless it’s the weekend or holiday) and they can be most helpful with any questions you might have about the site.
Keep checking back for the latest information on Freeride!
Keep clicking! ^V^ Freak ^
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