Last year I earned nearly $475 for completing online surveys. Since I only earn a few dollars here and there I was rather surprised by the total. I received a few comments asking about legitimate survey sites so without further ado here is a list of the sites I currently use.
- e-Rewards: Unfortunately you must receive an invitation to join e-rewards and I’m not sure how I received my invitation. It is by far one of my favorite survey sites. The survey pay outs are quite high and I earn a $25 Macy’s gift card from them every quarter along with points to Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards program. You can also earn rewards for magazines, restaurant.com and a whole host of other airline reward programs. Their customer service team is also extremely responsive.
- Pinecone Research: This is my absolute favorite survey site. Unfortunately they are not currently accepting new applicants. They used to pay $3 for every survey completed, but now they offer points which can either be cashed out or saved to spend on merchandise.
- MyPoints: This site rewards you for reading emails and taking surveys. If you sign up definitely use a separate account so you aren’t inundated by unwanted emails. It can take a very long time to accumulate points through this site, but if you don’t mind clicking on emails and taking occasional surveys then this might be the site for you. If you’d like a referral just leave a comment below and I’ll email one to you.
- JD Power Panel: I’m not too fond of this survey site. I often complete more than 50 to 75% of a survey before being told I don’t qualify for it. A few times I’ve completed the entire survey, but have not been properly credited. The customer service team is no help in these situations. They will offer you 10 cents which is the rate they provide if you do not qualify. I have been burned enough times by this site that I only complete surveys with high values. Also, it takes an extremely long time to receive payouts. You have to wait until you earn $25 to receive a payout and sometimes it takes a month from the time it is requested. Having said all that I did earn $125 from them last year.
- Swagbucks: This is another popular survey site. You can also receive rewards for other tasks like searching the web.
I also earn money from three discussion panels. Unfortunately these are also by invitation only. I believe I was forwarded on to these sites by e-rewards. (Another reason I love that site.) A few times a month they send out a few questions to members. If you reply promptly you will receive payment in the form of Amazon gift cards or cash depending on the panel. I typically earn between $25 and $35 a month from these and fill out less than 4 surveys during that time. (I actually forgot to add the Amazon gift cards into the tally from completing online surveys. Those cards would add another $100 to my yearly total.)
I will mention that survey sites are not for everyone. Some people find them quite tedious and uninteresting. You may want to sign up for one and see if it’s worth your time. If not, you can always remove your email from their mailing list. I do encourage you to set up a separate email for these sites. While I’ve never encountered SPAM from any of these sites it is certainly possible that your information could be shared.
*Note: This post contains referral links.
Any idea how much time you spent over the year doing the surveys? I know it might just be a fun activity for some, and I used to participate in them when I was younger and had more time, but it’s hard for me to do anything but click on the MyPoints mails now.
I didn’t record the time, but I decided to use an iPhone app for recording from this point forward. I should be able to provide a pretty accurate number in a month or so. It’s actually a great idea to see just how much time these take. These days I typically respond to higher paying surveys and ignore the lower paying ones.
I also do swagbucks. I have the swagbucks tool bar loaded for my searches and the points add up quickly. mypoints also has a tool bar, but I do better with the swagbucks one
I forgot about swagbucks. I added that one to the list. I don’t complete their surveys very often, but every once in awhile I do use their search engine to earn rewards. Thanks for commenting!
I do Pinecone and I still receive cash payment through Paypal. Do you have a paypal account with them?
E-rewards sounds awesome! Too bad it’s invitation only.
I do have a PayPal account, but Pinecone Research just changed their system so you have to request the payout. I liked it much better when they automatically sent the money.