This story was originally published 2021/04/11
6:34am PDTon Apr 11, 2021 and last updated 2021/04/22
3:00pm PDTon Apr 22, 2021.
When billion dollar corporations offer to pay you for something you’re already doing, take that opportunity while it’s there. Starting April 12, Google Pay is launching the Spring Challenge, a 10-day contest to perform tasks that will potentially earn a gift of $30. It’s not quite as easy or straightforward as dropping by the store every day to buy packs of gum, but it should be easy enough, and you can even help your friends.
At the time of this posting, the Spring Challenge is still isn’t live, but the basic guidelines are already spelled out. All you need to do is collect stamps through actions like paying friends, redeeming offers, completing transactions, referring friends, and activating insights on your account. If you reach 5 unique stamps, you’ll get the $30 reward.
Each day there will be a set of daily actions in the Google Pay app that can be done to earn stamps. The rules explain that the list of tasks will change every day, and some may require doing some things more than once to complete.
However, there are a couple caveats to be aware of. First, there’s a limit of 200,000 rewards to be handed out, which means the prizes could run out before the end of the 10 days.
To make things a bit more complicated, this isn’t about simply collecting a total of five stamps, but rather you must collect one of each stamp: Robin, Bear, Alligator, Elk, and Fox. Some tasks guarantee specific stamps while others produce one at random. Buried in the terms and conditions, Google gives odds for the randomly generated stamps, noting that there’s a 95% chance for the Robin, Bear, and Alligator; and there’s only a 5% chance to get the Elk or Fox. It’s likely this is intended to push users to complete specific actions rather than taking a chance on getting them randomly.
If you’re really playing the game to win and happen to accrue more stamps than you need, it’s also possible to gift extra stamps to your friends. You can only donate duplicates of the stamps you already have, but if you end up with an extra Elk and need a Fox, maybe somebody else will be in the same boat and you can do a little trading.
The challenge begins tomorrow and runs until the end of day (PST) on April 22nd. If you haven’t already downloaded the new Google Pay app, you may want to wait until the challenge begins and have a friend refer you. Perhaps this will speed up the stamp collecting for one or both of you. Even if you have signed up, wait until tomorrow to activate things like insights and other features, just in case a task can only be completed if it’s your first time doing something.
Now active
The promotion is up and running. If you’ve been diligently working on your free dough, don’t forget to check the Pay app every day. The list of “guaranteed today” challenge stamps (some as simple as opening the challenges page) changes every day, and they’re generally easier than the other options. It’s kind of like the daily opening bonus for a free mobile game.
Time extended
Couldn’t get around to completing all of Google Pay’s tasks in the allotted time? Just one or two stickers away from a complete set (or, let’s be honest, closer to five)?
No worries — Google just decided to give you some extra time to gather the rest of those stamps you’ll need. Instead of wrapping up today, on April 22, Google Pay is extending this offer through May 3.
