Who wants some free money for working out?

[TheMagicalPixie]

Hey guys,

I've recently discovered Bounts, which rewards you for working out. You get points, convertible into vouchers (amazon, one4all, ticketmaster, supermarkets etc), for exercise. Points are earned by tracking activities through mapmyfitness, strava, garmin, swimtag etc, logging steps through jawbone, fitbit etc and checking in at participating gyms, tennis clubs etc.

Basic membership is free, but you can pay £10 or £15 a year, to get more points per activity. (As far as I can tell it is never economical to pay £10 a year, because £15 a year gets you twice as many points for the same activity levels.) Based on my activity levels I reckon I should make about £70 a year for the £15 subscription. I've been using it since the beginning of July and almost have enough points to order my second £10 voucher. More info is on the website: bounts.it/

If you use my referral code (fosberry5) when you sign up, we both get bonus points once you log your first activity.

It is fairly new and they have had some teething problems but overall it works and I love getting free money - these opportunities are so rare, and I thought you might enjoy free money too!

I think it is a really interesting way to motivate people to work out more. It totally works on me - not that I don't work out, but if I'm cycling back from the pool I will take a longer route to make the minimum 20 minutes duration to get points! (maybe I need to get out more?!) It also seems to be constantly developing and growing, eg swimtag has been added recently and if fitbit will provide Bounts with the info about your recorded workout then they will give points for those as well.

If you have any questions about how it works or anything I'm happy to help where I can. One of my questions that I couldn't find answered on the website was how it is funded, so I emailed them to ask - apparently it is funded by venues that pay to be listed to encourage people to go.

Sorry for the rambly post! Happy exercising!

[poppypug Graduate]

Oh I'm on this too ! I entered through my Running Club . You can link Runkeeper , Garmin and others with it . I'm saving my points up until Christmas and then see how much I can spend xxx

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to poppypug]

I was worried that it wouldn't work as it sounded too good to be true so as soon as it got enough points to claim £10 (the minimum for what I wanted) I ordered it. But it all worked really smoothly and now I can just top up my card with more money in smaller increments. Because I'm a bit OCD I think I'll still transfer it into money fairly regularly rather than leaving it as points, just in case lol.

[poppypug Graduate in reply to TheMagicalPixie]

Ah yes , good point . I'm on the basic account at the moment but that's a really good idea to upgrade . Double Brucie Bonus ! xxxx

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to poppypug]

I think it's more than double points if you go from free to premium plus (£15/year) - 5 to 20 points per activity per activity.

I tried the free one first for about a week to check it behaved as I expected, to satisfy the OCD before I invested in it!

[poppypug Graduate in reply to TheMagicalPixie]

That's a triple Brucie bonus , even better ! Oh yes , it's definitely worth upgrading isn't it ?

Thanks for posting this xxxx

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to poppypug]

Definitely, it is worth it as long as you are passingly active, which most people here will be. My OH does so little that he calculated even with 20 points per activity he wont make back the £15/year!

As a really basic calculation, if you need 2500 points to get £10 back (seems fairly standard), then to get your £15 back, you need to do 190 "workouts" over a year, be this tracked activities, multiples of 7000 steps, checking in at the gym, etc. You do get points for other things, (eg from reward wheel, bonus for first ride of the week, etc) so that is a worst case scenario but it is just to give you an idea.

[Realfoodieclub Graduate]

I'm definitely going to have a look at this. I'm suspicious of things that sound too good but if it works it is no different than supermarket points.

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

Exactly! I was dubious at first as well, hence not parting with money initially, lol.

[amyukulele Graduate]

Interesting! I've signed up and used your referral code. Thanks!

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to amyukulele]

Thanks

[poppypug Graduate]

On the basic account you can only track one activity a day , I believe . I think although I will have to double check , on the premium you can track more .xxx

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to poppypug]

You get points for up to 3 activities a day on the free one, and 9 on the paid ones.

I cycle to and from work everyday, maybe a walk at lunch, plus I tend to hit about 14000 steps so that usually 100 a day so it adds up quickly

[poppypug Graduate in reply to TheMagicalPixie]

Oh that's really good ! I must've misunderstood ,I thought it only tracked one activity a day . I walk 5k everyday to work and run 3 times a week . Plus you get extra points for working out on a weekend too ! xxx

[ashishkulkarni Graduate]

Done!

[Rignold]

I've been looking at this. With my activity levels it should be a no brainer, but I am evidently a bear of very liitle brain as I can't work out how it works. I can see how it syncs with Strava, Garmin etc to record you runs, but how does it know if you are lifting weights or spining or whatever, even if you do have a Fitbit?

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Apologies if there are typos, I'm typing on my phone which is always less successful!

It says something to the effect of only GPS tracked activities count along with logged steps (you can double count here in terms of your fitbit tracking steps and your app (mapmyrun / strava etc, although only one is allowed for the same activity) records the run as an exercise. So manually entered eg weights doesn't count. However, I go rock climbing with a bounts and fitbit friend who was miffed for not getting any points for climbing, even though she recorded it on fitbit

fitbit. So she Emailed them to tell them it was unfair. They said fitbit don't give them the data to show that you've recorded a workout eg our climbing or your weights etc but if they did we could have bounts points for it. They also said check if you can check in where you climb (or where you do weights, spinning etc) to get your points that way.

So she emailed fitbit and told them they need to give bounts that data. Don't know if it'll work but we'll see. If you have a read through the website it should be fairly clear what you can get points for.

My view is firstly it's still free money, but also that it balances out not getting climbing points but getting fitbit step points and mapmyrun points essentially for the same run.

Hope this helps

[ashishkulkarni Graduate in reply to Rignold]

I went for CrossFit yesterday and mentioned on my FitBit that I was doing a workout. Obviously, heart rate goes up during workouts. And that got recorded as an activity on Bounts!

Will hold judgement until I get the actual Amazon voucher.

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to ashishkulkarni]

That's interesting, it doesn't do that when I go climbing! When you say you mentioned on your fitbit that you did a workout, did you do anything other than record the workout on your fitbit?

And crossfit?! You're brave!

[ashishkulkarni Graduate in reply to TheMagicalPixie]

No. I simply went to:

Main menu -> Exercise -> Workout

And then pressed start at the beginning and finish at the end.

And just like that, I got extra points in bounts!

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to ashishkulkarni]

Excellent, thanks, I'll try that next time I'm climbing

[poppypug Graduate]

That is a very good question Rig, I only use it for running and walking so not sure how it will record lifting weights so on etc, sorry xxx

[poppypug Graduate]

Ah Pixie, yes, I am sure I have read there are certain venues ie gyms etc or " Hot spots"

that record Bounts activities. Im sure I read it on their website.

[Rignold]

Will have to read further. It is a great idea, just need to see if it fits with my activities. May sign up after my next session on the Injury Couch.

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to Rignold]

Awh, get well soon. that's the worst couch!

[Realfoodieclub Graduate]

I am giving it a go and have logged it to my misfit shine account. So effectively if I have I have got it right I just carry on as normal and points should come my way. If it works it sounds like a good thing.

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

I don't use misfit, but with mapmyfitness I find sometimes it needs a little nudge to sync (eg go onto the tracking apps page and hit refresh under mapmyfitness) but it seems to sync fine with fitbit. I keep an eye on it and if I'm not getting the points I expect I double check and then sync if required.

But yes in theory you should be able to link your accounts, carry on as normal and one day you'll be a very fit millionaire!

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate]

I've heard a rumour that you can use the fitbit app to track your step count without shelling out for a fitbit - this might be a handy way to get more points.

Caveat: I haven't tested this so I don't know for sure but worth a try.

[ViaM Graduate]

Would you mind giving us an update on this? Any good?

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate]

Hi ViaM,

I'm not completely sure whether you're asking about Bounts in general or using the fitbit app to track steps so I'll try to answer both.

I'm finding Bounts is going really well, so far I've got £50 out of it, so more than paid for the £15 investment in July. It makes me workout more as well, so I get points for cycling to and from work, but if I go for a walk at lunch that gets me more points so I pretty much always do that. Similarly if I am a little short of 14000 or 21000 steps then I make a point of moving more to get more points. So I guess in summary I am finding it profitable but it is also making me a bit more active.

In terms of using the fitbit app to track steps rather then investing in a fitbit, my friend does this and says it works but as I've had a fitbit longer than Bounts I havent tried it so I can't verfiy it but perhaps someone else on here can.

If you do want an fitness tracker to get the extra points but don't want to shell out fitbit type prices, the misfit might be worth a look, my friend has just got this one for £20, which is compatible with Bounts: amazon.co.uk/Misfit-Persona...

Something else useful to maximise your points - obviously it depends on your phone battery, but I always have GPS, bluetooth and autocheckin enabled on mine. This means, because of how Bounts do venues, I can often check in at the gym across the road from my office while at work. I also (on on occassion) have got points for check in at a venue that I cycled past!

Hope this helps, any other questions just shout!

[ViaM Graduate in reply to TheMagicalPixie]

Thank you for your reply. I should have been a bit more specific, sorry. I was interested in reading a bit more about the paid version of Bounts, which you have covered so that's great!

[TheMagicalPixie Graduate]

No worries, glad it helped