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How Bold Rewards Works

Earn Bold Points for everyday actions and redeem them for real financial support toward your education.

Written by Tori M
Updated today

Earn Bold Points for your everyday actions and redeem them for real financial support toward your education.

Bold.org is built to help students find and apply for scholarships. Bold Rewards exists to support you along that journey — by recognizing your activity on the platform and helping you save money in everyday life.

When you sign up for Bold.org, you can apply for scholarships and earn Bold Points for being an active member. Those points can be redeemed for benefits that help reduce the cost of education — like student loan payments.

Our Commitment to Students

Bold Rewards is designed to reduce real education-related costs. The program exists to recognize engagement and help students save money — not to rank or pressure students.

What Bold Rewards is:

  • A way to earn points through eligible actions and redeem them for available rewards

  • A student-first benefit designed to reduce real costs over time

Program Rules at a Glance

These are the most important program rules. If anything here ever differs from what you see in your Rewards dashboard, the dashboard is the authoritative source.

Earning and Expiration

  • Minimum to redeem: 3,000 points

  • Expiration: Points expire after 90 days of no qualifying activity (qualifying activity = applying to a scholarship or earning additional Bold Points)

  • Pending points: Some points may show as pending before they become available

Limits and Caps

  • Daily point-earning activity cap: 50 eligible point-earning actions per day

  • Scholarship application cap: 50 total scholarship applications

Start With Scholarships

When you create a Bold.org account, you can:

As you engage with the platform — applying for scholarships, completing your profile, or participating in programs and promotions — you earn Bold Points through the Bold Rewards program.

Bold Rewards is automatically available to all Bold.org members.

What Are Bold Rewards & Bold Points?

Bold Rewards is the rewards program on Bold.org. Bold Points are the points you earn for participating and staying engaged.

You earn Bold Points by:

  • Applying for scholarships

  • Completing and updating your profile

  • Referring or nominating friends to scholarships

  • Participating in user feedback sessions or special programs

  • Taking other eligible actions on Bold.org

These points are designed to turn your scholarship journey into something that gives back along the way.

How It All Works Together

  1. Earn Bold Points by:

  2. Track your points in your Rewards dashboard

  3. Redeem your Bold Points for real benefits

Earning Points

You can earn points through eligible actions. The specific actions that qualify — and how many points each action earns — are shown in your Rewards dashboard.

Common Ways Students Earn Points

  • Completing eligible on-platform engagement actions

  • Scholarship-related steps and platform participation (as listed in your dashboard)

  • Approved partner experiences (when available)

Why You Might See "Pending" Points

Some points require verification or processing time before they become available. This helps keep the program accurate and fair.

If you see points as pending, they should move to available once the activity is confirmed.

Points Expiration

Bold Rewards points are designed to reward ongoing engagement and are subject to expiration.

How Expiration Works

  • Points expire after 90 days of no qualifying activity

  • Qualifying activity means either applying to a scholarship or earning additional Bold Points

  • Either action resets your 90-day window

To keep your points active, simply apply to a scholarship or earn more points before the 90-day window closes.

If You Had Points Before the New System

If you had Bold Points before the rewards system update, you have a 30-day window to complete a qualifying activity (apply to a scholarship or earn additional Bold Points) to keep your existing balance. After 30 days without qualifying activity, any pre-existing points will expire.

Redeeming Points

Once you have 3,000 points, you can redeem them for available rewards.

How to Redeem

  1. Review your available point balance

  2. Select a reward option from what's currently listed

  3. Confirm redemption

Redemption Options

Bold Points can be redeemed for education-related benefits. Here's what's available:

  • Student loan payments — redeem points to make payments toward your student loans (100 Bold Points = $0.75)

Additional options are being added to the program:

  • Tuition payments — coming soon

  • Cash payouts — coming soon

Your Rewards dashboard always reflects the current and authoritative set of available options.

Important Notes About Redemption

  • Minimum redemption amount is 1,000 points per redemption

  • No bank account is required to redeem

  • Student loan payments typically take approximately one week to process after redemption

Your Points Balance

You have a single current balance that increases when you earn points and decreases when you redeem. Your current balance is what's available to redeem.

You also have an All-Time Earnings total that tracks the total number of Bold Points you've earned over time. This is for your reference and appears on the leaderboard — it doesn't decrease when you redeem.

Your Rewards dashboard always shows the latest balance information.

Bold Rewards Plugin

The Bold Rewards Plugin is an optional, free browser extension that helps you earn additional points and savings while shopping online.

What the Plugin Does

  • Finds discounts and savings while you shop at participating retailers

  • Helps lower the cost of things you're already buying

  • Earns you additional Bold Points on eligible purchases

Once installed, it works automatically in the background when you shop at participating retailers.

What the Plugin Does Not Do

The Bold Rewards Plugin only tracks eligible purchases at participating retailers to award points and savings. Specifically:

  • It does not access or use your academic records

  • It does not collect data beyond what's needed to award points and savings

The plugin is entirely optional. You can earn Bold Points through on-platform activities without it.

Get Started

Start with scholarships — earn rewards along the way.

Bold Rewards is designed to help students at every step — from applications to everyday life.

Need Help?

If something looks wrong (missing points, pending points that don't update, redemption issues, plugin questions), contact Support and include:

  • The email on your Bold.org account

  • A screenshot of your Rewards dashboard (available + pending)

  • The action or activity you expected points for

  • Approximate date/time of the activity

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