Free Money Using Bing

Who uses Bing? I get this a lot whenever someone looks at a search on my computer screen. And it's true, what a terrible name, no one likes Microsoft or Edge, they are all Safari or Chrome people. 

But at least Microsoft gets the fact that they are making a fortune off of other people's search data and the consumer deserves to have some of this returned. Google instead is more than happy to keep your data for themselves and profit from it.

What people don't know about is Bing Rewards. You accumulate points every time you search using Bing while you are logged in. These points quickly accumulate and you can trade in the points for different rewards.

They have three categories of rewards - sweepstakes, donations, and shopping. The sweepstakes are where you can be entered to win a bigger prize like a free Microsoft Surface or Xbox. I think sweepstakes are a waste of time so I don't bother.

The donations are great particularly if you are passionate about one of their participating organizations. And they have some good ones - Wikipedia, WWF, Special Olympics, Nature Conservancy, Boys & Girls Club, Teach For America, Red Cross, etc.

The best though is the shopping. It is all in gift card form. They don't have too many options but what they do have is pretty great - my go-to is the Amazon gift card. So easy and versatile. They also have gift cards for Microsoft/Xbox, Walmart, Target, Starbucks, AMC, Chipotle, Dominos, Hulu, REI, NFL Shop, Sephora, and a few others.

I'm not a heavy user of search engines but I usually end up accumulating enough points for $10-15 worth of gift cards a year. Not bad for doing something I would have done any way using Google and not getting anything for it.

The best way to start accumulating points is first to get a free Microsoft email account (I still use my old Hotmail one from 1999 - totally retro). Then make Bing your homepage so you habitually start your searches there every time.

Plus Bing is a fantastic homepage. So much better than Google. It has an awesome picture of a landscape or place to visit. It gives me news snippets so I can stay current on the latest happenings in an efficient way. The news doesn't get customized based on my preferences. Just the most popular stories from any subject matter. And the search results are pretty good. Efficiently laid out with not nearly as many paid advertising results as Google.

So in every way Bing is superior. It really just gets a bad rap because other people give it a bad rap. Stop following the crowd and start realizing that there are better alternatives to what everyone thinks is best.

And then buy yourself something nice with your Bing rewards points. It's literally free money.