If you’re interested in earning extra cash, you’ve probably considered taking surveys online.
Taking surveys is a simple and effective way to pad your budget, and one site you can use to do that is Swagbucks which is one the most well-known and more trusted make money platform.
But you should consider if it’s worth your time before you download the app and start using the platform.
Alternatives to Swagbucks
Swagbucks isn’t the only survey-taking site on the market. You can also use Swagbucks and do surveys on other sites.
InboxDollars. InboxDollars works like Swagbucks in that users complete surveys, watch ads, and redeem cash-back offers. Like Swagbucks, you need to qualify for surveys before you can take them. Unlike Swagbucks, they won’t send you them automatically. You’ll have to login or visit the website to complete questionnaires each day. It’s available as a website or an app.
Survey Junkie. Survey Junkie is another site that pays users to take surveys. Like Swagbucks, users can download an app, web browser, and register for email notifications about survey opportunities. However, unlike Swagbucks, users can only earn money through surveys, focus groups, and testing products. There are no shopping portals or search engines, and users must redeem their rewards in increments of $5.
What Is Swagbucks?
Swagbucks is a site and mobile app. You join for free and then earn points by doing simple tasks. Then, you can redeem your points for gift cards or cash — yes, cold hard cash — via your PayPal account.
The easiest way to earn these points is by using the Swagbucks search engine to do your daily web browsing. This way you’ll earn points without even thinking twice about it.
But this isn’t the only — or even the best — way to earn extra cash. There are many other ways to earn points. We’ll talk more in-depth about them below.
Is Swagbucks Legit?
Swagbucks is a legitimate company that pays its users real money. It boasts a 4-star rating on Trustpilot with more than 13,000 reviews and has an 8.3 TrustScore of 10.
Swagbucks’ parent company, Prodege, LLC, currently holds a B+ rating with the BBB. There are a few hundred complaints on Prodege’s profile, but there are zero unanswered or unresolved complaints.
Since its start in 2010, Swagbucks has gained over 20 million users and paid out over $400 million in cash and gift cards to millions of users. Swagbucks’ reputation is well known in the online sphere and appeared in publications such as Reader’s Digest, Cosmopolitan, and U.S. News & World Report.
How Does Swagbucks Work?
The Swagbucks rewards program is pretty straightforward.
First, you sign up for a free Swagbucks account. Once you’re a member, you earn rewards points, known as SBs, when you take surveys, play games, watch videos, use Swagbucks’ search engine, and shop online.
Cash out your Swagbucks for PayPal cash or gift cards to Amazon, Starbucks, Target, or dozens of other retailers. You’ll need at least 300 Swagbucks to redeem the lowest reward available, a $3 Amazon gift card.
The Swagbucks App
Naturally, Swagbucks has aN app for iOS and Android users to take online surveys. You can track your SBs, take surveys, buy gift cards; in short, the app gives you mobile access to the web site.
With the app, you can now find app-specific ways to earn SBs. Swagbucks Live lets you earn SBs for correctly answering questions and watching movie trailers.
The SwagButton
The SwagButton is an extension you can add to your Google Chrome browser. Whenever you shop online, it will search the Swagbucks database for coupons, codes, and cash-back opportunities at your chosen retailer.
By using this extension, you don’t have to shop through the Swagbucks website to take advantage of its deals. You can shop as you normally would and let the SwagButton alert you to available offers.
SWAGBUCKS FEATURES
The power of Swagbucks comes from its ability to turn what you’re already doing into extra cash. Here’s how:
- 1.Watch Videos
- 2.Shop Online
- 3.Buy Giftcards
- 4.Search the Web
- 5.Play Games
- 6.Discover Deals
- 7.Take Surveys
- 8.Entering Swag Codes
- 9.Referring Friends
As you can see, Swagbucks users can earn rewards in seven different ways. You can use only one method or pick several. It all depends on what you like to do and where you see the most value.
1. Watch videos
Swagbucks Watch isn’t the most lucrative way to make money, but if you find yourself consuming a lot of video content already, it could be a good way to earn rewards for something you already do.
You can choose from over 10 categories, including entertainment, fashion, health, food, and travel. When you click on a category, you’ll find a playlist of videos, and you’ll see how many SB that playlist is worth. Playlists are typically 15 or 30 videos and range from less than 30 minutes to more than an hour’s worth of content.
Most playlists are worth 1 or 2 SB. If you have multiple tabs open and click away from Swagbucks, the video will pause until you come back. However, you can watch the videos on a split screen, which gives you the ability to earn points with Swagbucks Watch while working on other things.
2. Shopping Online
Swagbucks shopping works like Rakuten, formerly known as Ebates. When you shop through one of their links, Swagbucks receives a small commission. They pass on part of that commission to you as cash back.
For example, a 5% cash-back deal on Amazon means you’ll get 5 SB for every $1 you spend when you purchase something through a Swagbucks link.
Related: 12 Cash-Back Apps to Save Money on Everyday Purchases
The Swagbucks shopping page also offers coupons for local and online retailers. When you find a deal you like, just click the link that directs you to the company’s site where you can complete your shopping trip.
Sometimes Swagbucks offers multiplier deals for specific retailers. So if a store normally offers 1% cash back, but has a 10x deal, you’ll receive 10% cash back, or 10 SB, for every $1 you spend. There are no codes necessary for the multiplier deal.
It can take 30 days or more for your Swagbucks points to show up in your account depending on the retailer.
3. Buy gift cards
This is one of the easiest and most straightforward ways to earn with Swagbucks. When you click a link to buy gift cards on Swagbucks, you’ll be redirected to MyGiftCardsPlus.com, a Swagbucks-run site.
From there, you can buy gift cards from dozens of retailers and earn up to 10% back in SB. Once you make a purchase, your points will be added to your Swagbucks account within one to two business days.
Buying gift cards can be a great way to earn cash back on purchases you were going to make anyway. For example, if you already know you’re going to buy something from Bed Bath & Beyond, you can purchase a gift card from Swagbucks beforehand.
Now you’ve earned points on the purchase of your gift card, and you can earn even more points when you check out online.
5. Use the Swagbucks search engine
This tool rewards users for searching the web with the Swagbucks search feature. You can even install the Swagbucks Search Chrome extension to make the site your default search engine.
The platform rewards points randomly. It’s unclear how many SB each search is worth, but the more you use Swagbucks Search, the more points you’ll earn.
5. Play games
Swagbucks offers a handful of free games that you can play for points. You’ll need to turn off any ad-blocking software and make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player installed.
Swagbucks also offers a number of popular games including Bejeweled, Solitaire, Bingo, Angry Birds Champions, and Slots. For these games, you can earn points for each dollar you spend on in-app purchases.
If you already like or spend money on computer games, then this could be a good way to earn cash back on your hobby.
6. Discover deals
With Swagbucks Discover, you can earn SB by signing up for product trials, donating to charities, downloading mobile apps, and more.
Not all offers are that high-value, but you can sort and filter to find the ones that make the most sense for your situation. If you want to earn points without spending money, you’re probably better off browsing the free offers section.
If you’re interested in exploring new brands and earning the highest rewards, you’ll want to check out the featured deals and sign-ups listings.
Not all of the offers are still valid, so you might have to search to find one that hasn’t expired.
Related: InboxDollars Surveys Review: An Easy Way to Make Extra Money
7. Take Swagbucks surveys
One of the more popular ways to make money with Swagbucks is through paid online surveys.
Major brands rely on companies like Swagbucks to get feedback from consumers. When you take a survey, those companies pay Swagbucks for your answers, and Swagbucks passes on some of their earnings to you.
When you first sign up for Swagbucks, you’ll fill out demographic information such as your age, income, and interests which Swagbucks uses to match you with surveys that are a good fit.
You’ll still need to answer pre-qualification questions to take the survey, and there’s a chance you’ll be disqualified. If that happens, you may end up with a small reward or no points at all.
Each day, you can find survey options in your account. The more accurate and complete your profile, the better your survey matches will be, which should mean less time answering pre-survey questions just to be disqualified.
Swagbucks offers three main survey options:
- Everyday surveys
- Daily survey
- Daily poll
The daily survey and poll renew each day. Daily polls are 1 question worth 1 SB. Other survey payouts range from 1 SB to 300 or more depending on the time required and value of the survey.
Occasionally, you may get the opportunity to earn as much as $50 for a single study. The higher the payout, the more time it will take to complete. Swagbucks’ website says users can expect to earn 40 to 100 SBs for the typical survey.
8.Entering Swag Codes
Frequent Swagbucks visitors will come across Swag Codes from time to time. The site hides these little strings of codes here and there like little bonus points in a video game. Just enter the codes to cash in free SB points.
9. Refer friends
By referring a friend you could earn a 10% commission of that friend’s SB points — indefinitely! This is where passive income — a favorite topic for any personal finance blogger — enters the discussion.
If you have referred a handful of friends who really got into earning extra money with Swagbucks, your own points total could rise without you even logging in. You’d log in only to cash in.
So, why not get on social media and invite everyone you know to join? Because this wouldn’t earn you any SB points. Your friends would need to use your referral code to get connected off your profile.
To get credit, you’d have to invite friends, one at a time, using the “Refer and Earn” tool on your account page. Yes, it’s more time consuming but worth it if you can get a few friends earning points for you!
HOW MUCH MONEY CAN YOU MAKE ON SWAGBUCKS?
So what’s the exchange rate between Swagbucks and real bucks? Most of the time, 1 Swagbuck pays out 1 cent. You’d need at least 300 Swagbucks to cash out your account. So these 300 Swagbucks would become $3 in PayPal cash or gift cards.
To put matters in perspective:
- You may earn 40 to 100 SB points answering a survey that takes 5 to 10 minutes.
- In terms of labor, this could almost rival the federal minimum wage: It’s possible to make 100 SB ($1) in 10 minutes which would become $6 in an hour ($1.25 short of the federal minimum wage per hour). But this isn’t likely. Read on to find out why not.
Is Swagbucks Worth It?
Stringing together enough surveys or tasks to payout a steady flow of income isn’t really possible.
In reality, you’d be spending time browsing for surveys or considering product trials — and that’s time you wouldn’t be paid for. This is true for just about any survey site. The amount of time you put into the surveys doesn’t payout efficiently.
You may spend a few minutes reading about a survey before discovering you don’t fit the demographic. Or a study you do qualify for might fill up before you get going on it. Either way that’s time wasted from an earning perspective.
All this translates into a low return on your investment of time. Often, you may earn only a dollar an hour, or less.
When Swagbucks Is Worth It
But if you are sitting on the couch binging your favorite TV shows, why not earn some points when you aren’t doing anything else? It’s not exactly free money, but if you have plenty of free time, it’s pretty close.
So it all depends on how you see things. If you’re looking for “make money online” ideas to replace your day job, Swagbucks won’t hold up, and this wouldn’t be a legitimate review if I didn’t let you know this right now.
But if you want to turn the time you already spend on your phone or laptop into extra money, keep reading. With Swagbucks you could earn enough to buy a couple movie tickets, an extra fast food meal every week, or at least a couple gallons of gas — all without leaving the mobile app.
If nothing else, you could earn enough to pay your Hulu bill or your monthly Amazon prime subscription.
Swagbucks is an online rewards platform that offers up to 20% cash back when users complete surveys, shop online, purchase gift cards, watch videos, sign up for free offers, and more. Points can be redeemed for gift cards and PayPal cash, with a minimum payout of $3.
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