How it works: Panda Research is a market data company that claims to have paid out over $2 million to date. Users complete surveys, which can take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes each. The sign-up and survey completion process are both easy and typical, but there are a few things you should be aware of before investing too much time on the platform:
Satrap is not a financial advisor & MoneyPantry.com is for entertainment & educational purposes only. Material shared on this blog does not constitute financial advice nor is it offered as such. As mentioned in our Disclosure page, MoneyPantry may have a financial relationship with some of the companies mentioned on this site, including Credit Card providers, and as such it may be compensated with a referral/commission fee. All trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks mentioned on this site are the property of their respective owners.
InboxDollars is one of the worst programs. Unlike others, they have a very short “6-months of inactivity and we’ll close your account and keep your money” term. Plus, you earn next to nothing. I too stopped getting paid emails and tried to unsuccessfully qualify for surveys. As such, I mostly did the big-ticket things, like signing up for money back on donations to charities. I accrued $98 and log in monthly to avoid the “inactivity” thing. But, guess what? They just closed my account for not completing anything in six months. They don’t even hold up their own definition of “activity”. So, user beware–withdraw when you can, even though UNLIKE the other programs, they charge a 3% fee on what you’ve earned. Sketchy, sketchy, sketchy.
It’s a very well-known scam. You cash the check, then they ask you to either wire some of that money back to them as some sort of fee or buy something for them and send the item to them. So, you deposit the check, then wire some cash to them thinking that the check you just deposited will cover that. A few days later, after you already send them the money, the check will bounce and the money you send to them will come out of your own account.
In addition to earning real cash and helping brands with critical marketing information such as consumers’ preferences, you can also earn so-called “spins”. You can use these to play the Billy the mascot’s Spin and Win game which will earn you additional money, survey tokens and sweepstakes. Consequently, you will bank even more cash after completing a survey.
I signed up for InBox Dollars, which led to a rabbit hole of sweepstakes and surveys, all of which, had the same 30 questions repeated 2-3 times in a single survey, punctuated by attempts at selling magazine subscriptions. One survey had a couple of telling questions. “Do you believe Trump is the best President America has ever had?” “Do you believe Hillary Clinton should be convicted of a crime?” and “Is Fox your main source of news?” I started getting an ungodly amount of spam emails and I can’t even count the number of spam calls, that are now growing at a rate of about 18 per day. I can’t block them fast enough, though one number has called 21 times in the past 3 days. 11 of those tries were yesterday. Today they only called 5 times… I just started mass spam dumping from my inbox. I don’t even care what’s in the message. If it’s not something I know. DELETE DELETE DELETE! I received a Netspend card in the mail today. Wasn’t able to activate it though.
You shouldn’t expect to make a killing by taking paid online surveys. Instead, you should view them as a way to make a little bit of extra money in your spare time — while you’re in line or when you’re stuck in a waiting room, for example. In cases like these, surveys can be a decent way to monetize your time. And while the payouts aren’t huge, even a few dollars per month can add up in a savings account and help you start to build a more solid financial foundation.
Why would you put InboxDollars on your list? They owe so many people money, including my $36.00. I will never get it, and I contacted them 3 different times. Each time I got the same answer, which did not work. Then, someone else from InboxDollars emailed me with the same information, that does not work, so I emailed back. Now they ignore me. I am on my 4th or 5th email with no answer. I think my next step is to report them.