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.
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Like other sites we tested, InboxDollars is a survey aggregator. So clicking on a survey opportunity typically redirects you to a third-party site. In most cases, I was led to a typical survey setup: starter questions about my age, gender and ZIP code, followed by either a disqualification or questions on a specific topic. A few survey topics I covered include McDonald’s, insurance and grocery stores.

Not counting the profile survey, I attempted 38 surveys and qualified for seven of them. That’s an 18% success rate, which is on the low end among the 12 sites we tested. Most of the time, I’d immediately receive a disqualification notice with a link to a new survey opportunity. For a few surveys, I answered questions for a couple minutes before getting the boot.
With InboxDollars®, members earn cash for doing what they love online. Our members consistently read emails, take surveys, play games, sign up for offers — and come back to our site to find more ways to earn. With our extensive experience in online rewards and in segmenting broad demographics, we can bring specific types of members together with modern brands.
In addition to the free offers, there are “paid” offers, too. i.e. Buy a bouquet of flowers through an online florist, get $7.00 back in your InboxDollars account. Lots of similar cash back offers for subscription box services and eCommerce sites. If it’s something you were already interested in, it’s not bad. Otherwise, no point in spending (read: losing) money in order to make money.
I belong to almost all of the sites you listed and out of all the surveys I take I don’t qualify for 95% of them. I will spend 15 minutes with generic questions with them collecting information about me then when done they say I’m not eligible for the survey or they have reached the required amount of people for that research. I can understand the reaching the required amount of people but I would think I would qualify for at least 1 or 2. It’s really discouraging when you take all that time to do the survey and not even get any points for doing so!
Another important thing is that the points you earn in HCD Research can only be converted to cash. You will never have to redeem your points for prizes/ vouchers. The minimum payment threshold is 1,000 points, which is $10.00. Once you’ve accumulated that amount of points, you can proceed to request your reward, and a check will be sent to you. You can only get your rewards via check by mail; as a result, you’ll have to wait about 6 – 8 weeks before receiving the payout. 

The Harris Poll has been around for 45 years, which makes them one of the oldest polls in the world. And also one of the online surveys that pay cash instantly via Paypal in the industry. There’s no doubt about it. Harris Poll is a legit survey panel that pays you for your opinions. First, the Harris Poll is a member of the National Council of Public Polls (NCPP), the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research (CMOR), and the European Society for Opinion & Marketing Research (ESOMAR). Also, the Harris Poll is accredited by BBB, and has the highest rating possible by the organization, which is an A+.

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The only reason Springboard didn’t rank higher on our list is because some users have reported a fairly limited supply of available surveys, making it difficult to reach the $50 minimum cashout threshold. However, the availability of surveys depends on your demographics — so my recommendation is to join, making sure your profile is 100% complete, and then see if enough opportunities come your way to make it worth your while.
Apart from helping you earn more per survey completed, a high trait score will also make it possible for you to receive the maximum number of surveys available. One other way you can earn from Paid Viewpoints is through referrals. You get paid 20% of whatever your referrals earn from completing “biz surveys” (that is, excluding what they earn from trait surveys or their own referrals).

Inboxdollars does not tell you this – you have to find it on your own. After uninstalling Firefox 54, and installing this version required, the issue with those partner ads still persist. I am still seeing the majority of ads as inboxdollars offers.. So I guess this means I will have the “feature” disabled again. Despite screenshots of the ads, showing them what I am seeing it is being blamed on some security setting, adblocker, or those plugins not being enabled. Rather than checking with their site, or the partner and checking their own ad rotations. When an ad starts to play sometimes it just vanishes and an inboxdolls offer pops up.
These methods are certainly less tiresome, monotonous and refreshing compared to just filling up random surveys all day. Some users (chiefly “premium” members) have mentioned how they received money from InboxDollars on referrals from offers. Additionally, some members have also stated how they earned  a proportion of money from InboxDollars’s “qualified surveys” and other features.

No it’s not a scam, although lately it seems their partners may be scamming members. I have been an inboxdollars member since I believe 04. Last year they introduced the tv channel, just another way to earn first it was earn up to $2.00 a day viewing this channel then they capped it at .50 which is fine. It takes awhile, you see the same videos over and over again. The player eats up memory, retaining more than half of my 12gigs sometimes.
Hi, ive never done surveys, but I would like to start, thanks for the great info…. I know there are many, many variables, but did I read your article right, did you say 200/year for the average person ? That seems hardly worth it haha…… It seems too me if you join more than 1 site, and are actively doing them daily, or weekly, you should be able to generate almost that monthly?? Maybe its my lack of experience that makes me think that lol.. Thanks Mike
The survey sites online fall into three broad categories: (i) those that are outright scam sites that will only waste your time and not pay you after taking the surveys (ii) those that will pay only paltry amounts that do not justify the time spent on the surveys (iii) those with which you can earn decent additional income and get paid instantly through Paypal.
First, thank you for providing this extensive list. I wanted to offer a quick follow up. After reading your post I decided to give Survey Junkie a try and I’ve already closed the account. Yes, I can tell it’s well organized and it is definitely a user-friendly platform. The problems I experienced were first that not one of the surveys they emailed me about were available. I did, however, complete several surveys from the site itself and I found them to be lengthy – in itself, not a problem, but 3 out of 5 told me I didn’t qualify after I’d already invested 10 – 12 minutes filling out the forms. They got more than enough information from me to be useful which is an old and highly unethical trick in market research – which happens to be my background. All in all, it was a LOT of wasted time.

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.

Their are many exclusive communities for different demographics. For example: There is the iGamelab Beta Testing Community where children aged 6 – 17 can sign up to be beta testers for online games, mobile games/ apps, virtual worlds, toys surveys and more. There is also the Xtrender community where teens can participate in reviewing social media, TV shows, celebrity surveys, and much more. Finally, there’s the Paid Moms Community where mothers with children aged 2 – 17 can join to give insight on parenting, cooking/ recipe and more.

This is a joke, it isn’t a scam but its not worth the trouble. It works don’t get me wrong but it takes FOREVER to make any actual money plus you have to hit a certain dollar amount before you can even cash out. Surveys said to be 4 minutes long pay out the same as survey that will take 50 minutes, and it only pays $0.25 for most surveys! $0.25 for an hour!? What! When you do find a higher paying one (meaning $0.50-$1.00), it’ll say its full or you don’t qualify EVERY time. The “Billy Spin Win” IS cool but also it is rigged. You NEVER land on money only “no win” or survey tokens. Out of 50 spins I landed on “cash” ($0.02 & $0.09!) twice. Like really? Complete waste of time honestly, SurveyJunkie pays better and you can cash out at $10 not $30! I’ve made $40 in about a month with SurveyJunkie rather $9 with Inbox Dollars

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Be sure to update/check your mailing address so that your payment is mailed to the correct location. Next, you need to select your preferred payment option – either a traditional cheque from InboxDollars with its logo, that you can easily cash or deposit into your bank account, or ePayments, which include Merchant eCards( that can be redeemed in-store or online), Prepaid Visa and Donations.

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Not counting the profile survey, I attempted 38 surveys and qualified for seven of them. That’s an 18% success rate, which is on the low end among the 12 sites we tested. Most of the time, I’d immediately receive a disqualification notice with a link to a new survey opportunity. For a few surveys, I answered questions for a couple minutes before getting the boot.
MyPoints isn’t as shady as them and isn’t as difficult. I’ve been clicking emails for 5-7 years (they offer surveys too but I only click emails) and cannot even remember how many gift cards I’ve gotten from them (a lot in that many years). Not once did they stop sending emails once I got to a certain amount of points. I can quit at any time after cashing out too, unlike InboxDollars who forces you to stay active until your payment is sent.

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.

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I've made hundreds and hundred's of dollars with Inbox Dollars, sometimes cashing out 2 times per month. You have to have patience and stick with it! My account was cancelled when my wife and I had one at the sesame address but hey, rules are rules and it does state 1 account per household. I simply started over and I've made plenty since. Thank You!

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How it works: LifePoints is the survey platform of a company called Lightspeed, which is owned by Kantar (one of the world’s largest market research and consumer data analytics firms). The platform was formed as a merger of two of the company’s other products, MySurvey and Global Test Market, and gives users a variety of ways to earn points that can be redeemed for cash:


No it’s not a scam, although lately it seems their partners may be scamming members. I have been an inboxdollars member since I believe 04. Last year they introduced the tv channel, just another way to earn first it was earn up to $2.00 a day viewing this channel then they capped it at .50 which is fine. It takes awhile, you see the same videos over and over again. The player eats up memory, retaining more than half of my 12gigs sometimes.

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Honestly I’ve been using this app for a less than 1 year and have thus far made more than $150. Don’t do the surveys unless the title is specific and you know the market they are searching for. But they are a waste of time!!!I just use the TV part of the app. I use to be able to make $2 a day just with that, but they lowered it to 50 cents. I use this app while I’m at the office or in school. Just leave it playing and have your phone make money while you’re not using it. You don’t have to actually watch it. That’s where everyone is getting this app mixed up. It’s not a waste of time if you’re not actually paying attention and doing something else productive. I don’t think about $.50-$1 a day but making $30 a month and $360 a year for doing nothing.

Some users have also complained how after playing hours and hours of games on sites like Winster, their accounts were not credited, and upon contacting InboxDollars' customer support, were told that “it is not the company’s responsibility to determine playing time but the responsibility of their partners.” Some users have decried how after being inactive at InboxDollars for a few weeks or a month, their accounts were suspended and they were no longer able to receive paid emails.


Be sure to update/check your mailing address so that your payment is mailed to the correct location. Next, you need to select your preferred payment option – either a traditional cheque from InboxDollars with its logo, that you can easily cash or deposit into your bank account, or ePayments, which include Merchant eCards( that can be redeemed in-store or online), Prepaid Visa and Donations.
Another good news that, survey invites are sent frequently, and disqualification rate is very low in One Poll. You’ll receive a good number of invitations in a week to participate in surveys, and you’ll be eligible to participate in many of them. Also, the surveys in One Poll are arguably the shortest surveys you’ll find in the market, as well as the most fun to participate in. Surveys take between 2 – 10 minutes, and most of them are very interesting.
Surveys can be on many different topics, like your TV-watching habits, your favorite places to eat, what material of sweater you prefer in the fall, etc. Many surveys can take less than 5 minutes to complete, although some take longer (and pay more money). Despite the wide array of topics, the end goal of paid online surveys is usually the same: to get a better idea of what consumers are thinking and how they make decisions.
From the get-go, new members will instantly earn their first $5. The process of signing up is extremely easy and simple – enter your email, create a password and confirm your account via email. Then, you will need to answer several basic questions that are on par with every other survey panel (i.e. about your marital status, kids, degree, race, income etc).

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In addition to the free offers, there are “paid” offers, too. i.e. Buy a bouquet of flowers through an online florist, get $7.00 back in your InboxDollars account. Lots of similar cash back offers for subscription box services and eCommerce sites. If it’s something you were already interested in, it’s not bad. Otherwise, no point in spending (read: losing) money in order to make money.
I have had IB for months and it was very difficult to earn anything except pennies on scratch offs.. strike 1....hardly qualified for surveys and when I did they were long and a waste of time for 25 cents....strike2...finally got to the $30 mark to cash out, which is exactly what I did however I had no idea that they would charge you a process fee of $3 and you have to wait 3 weeks to get your money.... strike 3 for me. Now I have to wait and see if I get it.Total waste of time people. I use Swagbucks which is pretty good and Ibotta which I love and recommend, I literally have made $30 in a day with Ibotta depending on my shopping needs. IB is not good period

A little late getting into this discussion. But my favorite so far is OneOpinion. I think it’s mentioned here. Survey Junkie cool. MyPoints is okay. Ipso, not so much. I did make 300 points today in about 6 hours and every single survey except one I was disqualified for. I was disqualified for the two pointers as well as the higher pointed ones. I’ve never had that problem. Yes you get disqualified, but not everyone out of 30 or so. One of them I actually made to the 98% and was disqualified. I think they didn’t like the fact I was female, except that was answered at the beginning. 

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How it works: LifePoints is the survey platform of a company called Lightspeed, which is owned by Kantar (one of the world’s largest market research and consumer data analytics firms). The platform was formed as a merger of two of the company’s other products, MySurvey and Global Test Market, and gives users a variety of ways to earn points that can be redeemed for cash:
IOCS is a not-for-profit research organization that conducts studies and experiments on shopping-related behavior – things like how we, as consumers, evaluate products, how we make the buying decisions, etc. Although the focus is mostly on shopping related behavior, some of their experiments and studies include broader areas of marketing, psychology, and economics.
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