I feel so bad for you. Another innocent MS search customer, hurt and thrown away.
Have you noticed the drop in value for the secondary questions we have always answered for 5 points each. Those same questions are now only 1 point each now. This cannot be coincidental. They seem to be scrambling to stop having anybody cashing in anything. Even at the chance of insulting people, or losing people from their search platform.
For me, they only allow a phone number to confirm that I am me before sending me the GC number. The only thing wrong with that is that they don’t accept my real and valid phone number of ten years. I have just stopped using Bing completely. Though from time to time I do try to see if I can cash in my 26,250+ points for $25 in Amazon Gift Cards. Much like yourself, I just want to cash out and go away, which apparently is what they want. I just don’t want to leave and give them all of those earned points.