Microsoft Points and What they Do For Your XBOX LIVE Account. How to Add Points from a Card!

Microsoft Points are the monetary symbol of the Xbox network and are used in place of cash or credit/debit cards to make purchases from the XBOX marketplace. Microsoft Points make a good present for anyone who has an XBOX 360 console and likes to make marketplace purchases. You can purchase points at many different retail locations and from xbox.com through your account. One nice thing about Microsoft Points are there is no limit on how many you can have in your account at a time. Most dedicated XBOXERS have a decent amount of points all the time to make those DLC purchases.

Microsoft points can also be held onto for purchasing future content since they do not hold an experation date. Points purchased from a retailer will remain in your account until you use them up. Sometimes when you win points from microsoft they will come with an experation date on them and that is usually a year after they are won.

Currently there are five amounts you can purchase in Microsoft points, they include;

1. 400 for $4.99
2. 800 for $8.99
3. 1600 for $19.99
4. 4000 for $49.99
5. 6000 for $79.99

Once purchased they are applied directly to your account, if you purchase a points card at a retail store you will have to enter in the code in your account where it says redeem code in order for them to be applied. The most common purchase amount is usually 1600 Microsoft points and the 6000 Microsoft points can only be purchased online through your account.

You can sometimes find discounted points cards on Amazon or at Gamestop.com both these places are a good place to shop online when it comes to MSPoints.When you order your points from Amazon.com the code is emailed to your account and you just go to your xbox account and apply the code. The points will than be added as if you purchased a normal card from the store.

Something else that a lot of consumers forget is that if you purchase a card from someone who has already used those points, you have just wasted your money. Points can only be applied once to one account, once used the code becomes invalid.

Most of the time you will see offers from places giving away free Microsoft points, this is usually a scam and wont get you anything more than a headache and a hacked account. To keep your XBOX account safe never give out your gamertag to anyone or any website that is offering free points. You will find a lot of information out there from different websites that claim that for signing up you can get free microsoft points, these sites are a scam and what they do is get your information to your account and than spend all your microsoft points.

Now, sometimes Microsoft will offer free points to players for doing certain things or logging into certain games of a certain period of time. If this is the case those points will be directly deposited into your account through Microsoft and you will not have to do anything at all. XBOX Live Rewards program also offers free Microsoft points for doing various things like answering surveys, making purchases and getting MSPoints back in return or Just playing games.

If you have a family account with four accounts on it, you can transfer Microsoft Points among them splitting them up however you like. This is a great way to save money and make sure all accounts have some points to spend in the marketplace.

Currently Microsoft is giving away 1 million points up until August 1st, 2011 for purchasing Games for Windows content. This offer is only good for Games for Windows but the points can be spent anyway you like on either XBOX live or Games for Windows.