Get Paid for Answering Surveys Online

By: Stacy Garrels | July 25, 2020

Do online surveys really pay you?

Yes, online surveys really do pay. When you complete them on legitimate online survey sites, you’ll get paid rewards for sharing your honest opinions with brands and companies. 

Rewards can include Amazon gift cards, Walmart gift cards, and other free gift cards, PayPal, cash, or prepaid credit cards with a Visa or Mastercard logo.  

With most online surveys, you can complete them in an app or on mobile web. This makes it easy to make money during your spare time from your Android or iPhone device. You can get some cash back for things you’re already doing online.  

Where can I take surveys for money?

There are a number of places where you can take surveys or give consumer feedback in order to make money. 

Market research companies will gather feedback from focus groups (in person or online), telephone surveys, and survey opportunities that you’ll find on online survey sites. 

How do paid surveys work?

Paid surveys work by paying you for giving your honest feedback to market research and survey companies. 

You may be asked to do product testing and give feedback, or to answer questions about new products, a side hustle you’ve tried in the past, pet food, or new flavors of potato chips. Market research companies want consumer opinions about everything! 

With online survey sites, you’ll be told up front what the survey topic is and how much it will pay you if you qualify for it and answer all of the survey questions. Typically, you’ll need to reach a minimum threshold (anywhere from a few dollars to $50) before you can request payment. And it can take a couple of days to a couple of weeks for your payout reward to process. 

You don’t get paid seconds after completing a paid survey, but you will definitely get paid. It’s a fun part-time side hustle to make a little extra cash. 

How do you get paid for surveys?

How you get paid for surveys can vary from company to company, but you will generally get paid in points or rewards currency that you can redeem for gift cards, cash, and prizes. 

Swagbucks, for examples, rewards you with its own prize currency called SB. On MyPoints, survey takers are paid in points. And unlike most survey websites, on InboxDollars survey takers earn dollars, not virtual currency or points.

When do you cash out for the paid surveys you’ve completed, you’ll usually have a few payout options. Popular payout options include Paypal cash, free gift cards, a prepaid Visa card or Mastercard, or a check payment. 

Can I sign up to multiple survey sites?

Yes, as a survey taker you can sign up to take surveys on multiple survey sites. 

Survey takers who are the most successful at hustling in extra cash usually participate in a number of sites. This will give you a higher number of surveys you can take and increase your earning potential. 

Additionally, the best survey sites offer attractive sign-up bonuses for joining. These sign-up bonuses can include extra cash, sweepstakes entries, or a free gift card. 

Which paid survey sites are legitimate?

There are a number of legitimate paid survey sites for you to make money. The following is a list of some well-known survey sites that pay survey takers cash for completing surveys. 

  • Swagbucks
  • InboxDollars
  • Opinion Outpost
  • Survey Junkie
  • Pinecone Research
  • MySurvey
  • Ipsos
  • MyPoints
  • i-Say
  • Global Test Market 
  • Toluna 
  • Vindale Research 
  • Lifepoints 

Many of these paid survey sites also offer other earning opportunities, including trivia, cash back shopping, playing games, and watching videos. 

Happy businesswoman using phone outdoors

How to find scams and fake survey sites?

While there are many legitimate paid survey sites, there are also scam survey sites out there as well. 

If you’re considering joining a paid survey site, here are some red flags to look for: 

  • Earning claims that sound too good to be true. No one can make $50+ an hour doing online surveys. It won’t replace a full-time job salary. At best, it’s a tidy side hustle to make extra cash. If the survey site is promising ridiculous amounts or claiming you can quit your regular job, run away quickly. 
  • Does the survey site have positive news coverage? Anyone can place images of news logos on their website. Do a Google search (selecting the filter to only get results from “news” sources. You’ll see that Swagbucks has been positively featured in New York Times and InboxDollars has been well reviewed in Forbes and Yahoo! Financial. For fraud sites, there won’t be any news mentions–unless it’s to warn you to steer clear. 
  • No clue who is running the site. On legitimate sites, there will be clear, in-focus photos of the company’s leaders and other team members. The homepage will link to a company bio page. You can find more information about these individuals in LinkedIn profiles and on other credible sites. 
  • You’re asked to provide your credit card or banking information. It should always be free to join a paid survey site. Only fake survey sites will want your money upfront. You should never have to provide your credit card or banking information to sign up. 
  • No Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy. A legitimate site will link to their terms and conditions and privacy policy on the homepage. They’ll let you know exactly what data they collect, for what purposes, and how it’s stored. Additionally, they’ll indicate when these terms are updated and who you can reach out to in compliance with any questions or issues. Fake survey sites will not have this information, or if they do provide it, it will be a generic outline. If it does not contain a working email address for compliance, with the same domain as the survey site, that’s a red flag that it’s a fake site. 
  • All the reviews are glowing. Yes, good survey sites should have good reviews. But bad reviews don’t always mean that it’s a fake survey site. Generally, people only take the time to write a review after they’ve had a bad experience. If you google Target, for example, you’ll see it has a 2 of 5 star rating even though it is very much a legitimate retailer. With legitimate survey sites, you should see a mix of positive, negative, and neutral reviews. If all of the reviews are positive and glowing, they’re probably fake.  
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