Have you ever lost out on a prize that should have been yours? I have!! It stinks! There are numerous things that can cost you a prize that was almost yours. I have lost a prize by getting the mathematical question wrong and that was a super big bummer.
There are a few things you can do to make sure that you don't miss out on a prize you so deservedly won.
Ways to Not Lose Out on a Prize
#1 Check Emails Daily
Check your emails at least once per day if not more often. Contest winning emails are time sensitive and give you a deadline of when you have to claim your prize by. Winner emails can easily get lost in your spam folder or just be missed because you don't recognize the sender information.
When you sign into your email you cans search your emails to weed out specific ones. Searching certain phrases will help you find any winning emails you may have missed. You will have to search your spam box too the same way.
Search phrases: Congratulations, Winner, You Won, Winner claim form.
Always be aware that with entering contests spam emails are inevitable, just make sure you can tell a fake winner email from a real one.
#2 Missing Social Media Private Messages
When contests and giveaways are held on social media they often don't request your email address. This means if you win they will be contacting you on the platform you entered their contest on.
Facebook private messages will often go into your filtered or hidden messages because you have no association to the person messaging you. This means they aren't going to always show as a notification of a new message.
If you don't respond to those private messages to claim your prize you could miss out.
#3 Pick Up Only Contests
Too often you get too excited to enter a contest and you forget to actually read all the rules. Many contests have a stipulation in their rules stating you must pick up the prize if you are picked as a winner. If you don't live in the same province or even country as that contest you will lose out if you are picked as the winner.
The only time you should enter pick up only contests is when they are local to you. Local contests are actually the best contests to enter. Your odds of winning dramatically increase and you won't miss out if you have to pick it up.
#4 Using a Fake Name or Fake Social Media Account
This is one that really pisses off true contester's. Not only are you ripping other people off of a fair entry contest you can be ripping yourself off when you can't claim your prize under your fake name or fake account.
When a prize gets shipped you may end up having to pick that prize up at your local post office. For that to happen you will need to provide identification and won't have it for your fake online name. Now that may not bother you for a small prize, but when the day comes that you win a massive prize you could be costing yourself that win.
Being a con may serve you well in the short term but if you want to win and actually receive your prizes won, use your real legal name and information always.
#5 Breaking Entry Limits
Almost all large scale contests and even some smaller contests have an entry limit. It could be a daily entry, an hourly entry, a one time entry, weekly entry and even monthly entry options.
When you enter a contest like the Valvoline instant win contest keep a record of your IP address. Each computer or cell phone has a unique IP address. Once your IP has been recorded for your entry it remembers your device. Sometimes a contest will be nice enough to let you know that you have already entered and just not allow another entry. But there are many contests that won't stop the entry it will just simply disqualify you from winning a prize.
Make sure you read all rules to everything you enter and enter only as many times as the rules state are allowed.
#6 Mathematical Question
This is one way I have lost out on 2 prizes. Always do the math question twice or even 3 times before submitting your answer. Not all contests will ask you to answer a math question but many will. Your cell phone calculator is your best friend when responding to prize claims. You can also put the math question right into your Google search engine to get the instant answer.
Make sure to check out the Contest FAQ section for more helping with online contests.
