Did you recently open your Microsoft Rewards account only to discover you've been suspended? If so, don't worry, you're not alone and a fix is on the way.
A number of Microsoft Rewards users noticed on Friday that their accounts were suddenly suspended without warning, sharing frustrations across Reddit and other social media. While it's not clear exactly how many users were affected, it was a large enough wave to quickly get noticed by Microsoft. Fortunately, the issue seems to easily fixable, with the official Microsoft Rewards support account on X (Twitter) sharing that the error has been identified and a fix is rolling out.
"Earlier today, we encountered an issue that incorrectly suspended some Microsoft Rewards accounts. We've deployed a fix, and any affected accounts should be back online in the next several hours. Thank you for your understanding as we address this," the team says.
If your account was inaccurately suspended recently, I'd give it a day or so then check to see if your account is restored.
Doing things like using the program outside of the officially supported regions or operating a bot to gather points more quickly can cause someone to be suspended, but when a large cluster of users are all suspended at once when they haven't clearly violated the rules, it's apparent something is wrong on Microsoft's end.
Microsoft Rewards is popular with Xbox players
Microsoft Rewards is a program that allows users to earn points as they search using Bing or partake in different activities like quizzes. These points can then be redeemed for a number of prizes, including sweepstakes entries and for Xbox gift cards or Xbox Game Pass subscription time. Those latter options make the system especially attractive for Xbox players, making it easier to buy a new game or keep a subscription extended at a lower cost.
Different rewards have different values, but as a rough rule of thumb, around 1,000 points usually correlates to around $1 USD of monetary value for something like a gift card.
There's even some game-specific options that make the system more useful, depending on what you play. For example, if you earn 22,500 points, you can grab an accelerated Diablo 4 Battle Pass for free, which would normally cost you $25.
How do I earn Microsoft Rewards points?
To earn Microsoft Rewards points, you'll want to engage in the following activities on a regular basis:
- Use Bing for searches. Each search earns 5 points, and you can earn up to 150 points this way per day.
- Buy Xbox games digitally. Each dollar you spend on Xbox games earns you 1 reward point.
- Download the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox. This app gives you different tasks which will reward you for doing things like playing a particular game.
While this may not sound like a lot, things add up over time, and it's a great way to save a bit of money here and there on games and subscriptions if you're using your Xbox consistently.
