Swagbucking into 2016

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2015 thread can be found here : http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5142744

NEWBIES to Swagbucks this first post is well worth reading to get you up to speed, give you hints and tips on using the site and give you an idea of what the hell we are going on about in the thread sometimes.

Guide to Swagbucks

Joining Swagbucks (SB)

You can join with just your e-mail address. You can also use a referral link (thread here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1406969) and the referrer will earn 10% of your swagbucks automatically.

The earnings eligible for the 10% referral program include the categories along the top menu bar: Shop, Search, Watch, Play, Answer, Discover. This includes everything found in the drop down menus such as Daily Poll, Activities, Coupons and Tasks. Every earn on a mobile app contributes too.

You will continue to earn 10% for as long as your referral is active on Swagbucks, with no maximum limit.

Categories that do not count towards 10%: Sign-up bonus, Swag Codes, Daily Goal Bonuses, SB Visa awards, Accelerator awards; others may be added.

Please do not post referral links on this thread - they must be posted on the referral board: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1406969

Homepage Directions - top to bottom in the left-hand menu

Shop: You can earn swagbucks by shopping online with a selection of vendors. Click through to the site from Swagbucks to earn SB.

Watch: Earn points by watching Swagbucks TV, can watch videos from watch or via the SB toolbar (10 videos to fill the meter = 3SB, meter can be left part filled overnight to top up the next day)

Answer: Surveys, Daily Poll, Tasks
- Surveys: Answer surveys to earn points from various sources. Points/length vary, usually you will get 1sb per survey disqualification (up to 5sb/day)
-- Gold Surveys
-- Partner Surveys
-- Peanut Labs Surveys (sometimes referred to as PL)
-- Daily Poll: 1 question, 1sb/day (also appears on the homepage menu)
-- Tasks: Requires signup to Crowdflower but can give decent SB amounts once you get beyond the first level

Discover: Usually sign-up offers, worth looking into if you're interested in signing up somewhere anyway
-- Can also opt-in to download/install iOS/Android apps onto your phone for SB, these have to be new apps for your phone however (e.g. if you already have the Nectar app on your phone you won't get SB for re-installing it via their e-mail link)

Search: Random amounts of swagbucks are won from random searches, up to 3 wins a day, sometimes you might be lucky & get 4 wins.
You can also use the search bar at the top of the homepage
Search shorthand: 2nd win referred to as 'dubs', 3rd win = 'trips', 4th win = 'quads', ie 'dubs up' someone has got a second search win of the day. People may post what they searched when they won, sometimes others win with the same search term
Sometimes you are awarded collectors bills for searches (see below)

Play: Earn points by playing games for free, 2SB usually awarded for every 2 games completed and score submitted (but can vary at times) - max of 10SB a day can be earned from games. Quickest game is probably swagasaurus run.

You don't need a specific score, so click to play swagasaurus and allow the dino to fall off the cliff (approx. 3 seconds). Wait at least 30 seconds and repeat. Approx. 6 minutes to get to 10sb.

** For all surveys it is recommended to get a screenshot of the completion page in case you are not credited and need to raise a support request to be credited later.
Gold Surveys are the most reliable for payment however there are also many survey options on the offer walls most of which you can try daily or more often (likelihood of screening out or not crediting is higher on the walls surveys though).
If you keep getting DQ from surveys it might be because of out of date information here - it is possible these questions are used to check for consistency as well as sending you relevant surveys so it's a good idea to keep these up to date.
Survey availability depends on your personal data (age/gender/etc), so people may post about surveys you don't qualify for (and vice-verse).

Rewards: Rewards Store, Swagstakes
- Rewards Store: Link to the Swagbucks store where you can redeem your swagbucks balance against e-giftcards such as Paypal, Amazon, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, etc
- Swagstakes: Use your swagbucks balance to buy tickets for draws to win prizes, some UK users have won previously.

To Do List
-- Daily Poll (mentioned above) - 1sb/day
-- Daily Offers (NOSO) - click through 5-6 offers (just click "Submit and Continue to Next Offer"), fill in a CAPTCHA for 2sb/day

Quick Links
-- SwagButton: Browser extension that will alert you about swag codes, some swag codes are only valid when submitted via the SwagButton (not the Swag Code box at the top of the homepage)
-- Mobile Apps: There are 6 apps (see below for more info), can get 60sb/day minimum (more if bonus offers appear)

Homepage Top Nav - left to right at the top of the homepage

Search: Can search the web (for possible SB wins) or shop (to see current offers)

Swag Code: If there is a current swag code, can enter it here (see above re: some codes only being valid via the SwagButton). Codes are generally valid for 1-2 hours when posted, sometimes the SB team messes up and they're valid for much less

There is a thread dedicated to swag codes here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5067514 so you can subscribe to get e-mail alerts instantly

Daily Goal: You can enter more SBs by meeting your first or second daily goal (see below for more info)

Refer & Earn: Gives you forms/links to use for referrals

Inbox: Swagbucks may sometimes send you offers to your swagbucks inbox found here, this can occasionally include survey opportunities and extra videos.

[XXX SB]: This is your current swagbucks balance

[SB Icon/Your Avatar]:Drop down menu
- My SB: Swagbucks ledger of points received over the full history, can be filtered by earning types and date, and record of collectors bills received (see below)
- Redeem SB: link to swagbucks store
- My Shop & Earn: record of shop & earn qualifying orders
- My Swag Ups: list of earned swag ups (can be instant rebates when redeeming SB, or be linked to SB shop purchases)
- My Gift Cards: Your received gift cards
- Order Status: Record of all giftcard orders
- My Referrals: record of your referrals and how much they have earned for you.
- My Swagstakes: Record of swagstakes entries
- My Settings: including survey profiles

Daily Goal (Bonus Targets)
Swagbucks have individual daily targets for users, your target is shown at the top left of your homepage with a meter showing your progress. By hitting the target they have set you you will earn yourself a bonus for that day [daily meter bonus] (generally 10% of the target, so 100SB target = 10SB bonus).
(People may post how far they have got through their target as X/Y, X being how many they have got, Y being what their target is they are aiming for)
You will have 2 targets each day (1st = blue and 2nd = red), if you meet the 2nd target you get that amount of SB, not the total of 1st/2nd targets (e.g. 1st target 70SB for 7SB bonus, 2nd target 90SB for 9SB bonus; if you earn 72SB you will get 7SB bonus, if you earn 90SB you will get 9SB bonus)
You can earn larger additional bonuses when you consistently meet your daily targets in a ‘winning streak’, winning streaks are recorded by meeting your 1st/blue daily target only and run by the calendar month. You can see what winning streak you've achieved by clicking "Show My Winning Streaks")
A day can only count in 1 winning streak and it is the maximum number of days you get in a row, ie 15 days in a row in 1 month you would get paid 1 bonus for 14 days only plus the daily bonuses for all 15 days, you can get separate winning streaks though ie 2 runs of 7 day streaks that were separate in that month.
Winning Streak Bonuses (meter super bonus)
- 7 Straight Days: 25 SB + Daily Bonuses
- 14 Straight Days: 100 SB + Daily Bonuses
- 21 Straight Days: 200 SB + Daily Bonuses
- Full month: 300 SB + Daily Bonuses

You can see your history of daily targets if you click the calendar icon in the top right next to today's date, from there you can click on any day and it will display what your targets were and how many SB you earned that day.

Bonuses are paid once a month by the 5th of the following month (e.g. Dec bonuses paid 5th Jan), they are not paid daily. They are paid as 2 amounts 1 for the Daily Meter Bonuses and 1 for the Super Meter Bonuses (winning streaks).

You now have to opt-in to collect your bonus. Your Daily Meter dropdown will have a large badge telling you to check your bonus, if you click on that it will display the bonus you've earned. You have to click Claim Bonus to get your bonus amounts. You generally have 2 weeks to do this once the bonuses have been calculated at the start of the month.

nCrave

Can be found on the Watch page, but does not appear all the time/for everyone. Usually the offerings are links that you can click on (need to stay on the pages for a set amount of time for it to credit), or pages with content/videos (sometimes these can auto-update if there's a Discover toggle in the top left, you need to stay on the page for it to progress).

Generally it's 2-3SB per page and this can be repeated many times, so a good earner when it's available.

Instant Surveys
These appear on the homepage in the Answer section. They will always be the first card displayed (immediately to the right of Answer) - they are green and say "Instant". They usually go quite quickly (sometimes in a couple of minutes). Generally they're only 1-2 questions and are worth anywhere from 4sb to 20+ sb.

Mobile Apps (Available on iOS and Android)
Moviecli.ps
Indymusic.tv
Lifestylz.tv
Sportly.tv
EntertaiNOW
SB TV

All award 2SB for watching videos (15 videos for 2SB on all except SB TV which is 5 videos for 2SB). You can earn 10SB per app, plus any bonus rounds.

Bonus rounds are awarded once you've reached your 10SB. It will say you've reached your earning limit but you've qualified for a bonus round and tell you to watch X videos for 2SB more. This can repeat so if you're willing to let it sit for a long time you can earn quite a bit of extra SB. Bonus rounds are random, so don't count on them every time.

Tip: Find short videos (there's a list of times here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SwagBucks/comments/2dyb6h/swagbucks_app_video_times/) and add the shortest one to your favourites for that app. When you use the app each day, just click Favourites and it will loop that (short) video over and over, cutting down the time to get to 10SB.

SB Blog (http://blog.uk.swagbucks.com/)
Top right: Hourly Random Winner: If your picture/username comes up here you can claim 1000SB, check regularly while you are online, UK users have won previously.

Homepage cards
The majority of the homepage under the search box is made up of ‘cards’ these are links to various earning opportunities.


Daily Earning For anyone new to SB here is a quick guide to things you can do every day to earn a few guaranteed SBs:

Daily Poll - 1SB
Daily Offers - 2SB (just click right through via Submit and Continue, no need to sign up for anything!)
Games- 10SB (2SB usually awarded for every 2 completed and score submitted, can vary at times)
Mobile Apps - 60SB (sometimes more)
Toolbar TV - 3SB
Discover - choose OfferToro under Sponsored Offers - choose 1 Click. Follow the directions and it should credit. Easy 1 SB.
Discover - Super Rewards under Sponsored Offers - Choose Video Tab and watch it for 1 SB.

Tip: You can do different activities simultaneously. e.g. have a tab open playing a Watch video, have another tab open playing a game, and have another tab open doing nCrave (may need focus on that tab for nCrave to progress). You can also play the mobile apps while doing SB activities on the web. Generally everything except nCrave/some Watch videos will run in the background while you're viewing another tab. You cannot have multiple tabs open doing the same thing (e.g. 2 nCrave tabs with the same content), SB will tell you to "slow down" and not award any SB.

Once you have done the guaranteed SB above then move on to;
Searches - random amounts allocated for random searches
SBTV - 3SB for every 10 videos (either via SwagButton or http://toolbartv.swagbucks.com/)
Surveys - easiest and quickest way to earn (and possibly the most frustrating) way to earn large amounts of SB. You will find you get DQ (disqualified) a lot from surveys - this is normal as each survey is designed to be answered by certain groups of people only and this varies with each survey. It is not recommended that you change your responses to qualify for surveys as inconsistent answers will result in getting fewer survey opportunities, increased levels of being DQ and possibility of being investigated and having your account terminated. It is therefore best to be honest in your answers (and be consistent with profile survey answers as well!) - check you have opted in for trusted surveys (there is a questionnaire to complete to get started)
Special Offers - watch out for more videos and surveys in there, we will also let you know which other offers track ok in the thread
Inbox - check out your inbox for extra earning opportunities.
Tasks - some can be complicated and some quite easy - usually the check the details of website ones are easy.

Other Useful Info
The swagbucks day starts and ends at 8am our time in the UK (except when UK/US daylight savings times are offset, then it's 7am)
The Facebook page is a good source of info, though tends to be relating to offers in US rather than here.
It is not against swagbucks terms to hold multiple accounts at the one address (however they seem to have an issue with more than 2). Multiple accounts are not to be held by one person or to be shared.

Collectors Bills
Sometimes swagbucks release limited collections of ‘swagbills’ of various denominations on a theme (Christmas/New Year/Halloween/Mothers Day) which you can earn on searches randomly, if you collect them all during the time they are available you earn a bonus (usually 25SB does not count towards your daily target).
Eg. Gingerbread bill/Gingerbread collectors bill/Snowflake bill

Challenges
Sometimes swagbucks run ‘challenges’, you can join one of the teams to contribute points to that team by going about your normal daily earning, the members of the winning team get a bonus (usually 25SB does not count towards your daily target)
Recent challenges: Naughty vs Nice, Vampires vs Zombies


Terminology Guide:
SB - Swagbucks (either the site or the points/currency)
GC - GiftCard (ie Amazon vouchers)
PL - Peanut Labs (special offer wall)
RO - Radium One (special offer wall)
TP - Trial Pay (special offer wall)
SP - Sponsor Pay (special offer wall)
Dubs - The 2nd search win in a day
Trips - The 3rd search win in a day
Quads - The 4th search win in a day
DQ - disqualified - usually relating to surveys

Rewards
- Pay outs take approximately 7-10 days to receive once requested (they send an email once it is fulfilled), sometimes it does take longer!
- To find GBP rewards in the reward store search GBP in the reward store search box
- Swagbucks have removed the option for UK members to claim USD paypal payments.
- It is up to you when you cash out, but if your account is investigated and shut for any reason you would lose all the points Existing posters on the thread are split on saving up for big amounts (£50) and cashing out as soon as possible with cashing out sooner probably being slightly in the lead.

Paypal payments
Swagbucks/Paypal do not charge for receiving paypal payments (likely already factored in)
Paypal payments are sent to the email address that you registered on swagbucks with, if this is not the email address of your paypal account add it as a second email address on the paypal account (see paypal help menu)
- £5 = 999 sb
- £10 = 1,989 sb
- £25 = 4,949 sb
- £50 = 9,399 sb
- £100 = 17,999 sb = best value

Amazon Vouchers
If you choose to cash out to Amazon vouchers Please apply the code to your amazon account as soon as you receive it to avoid losing it should your account get closed for any reason.
Amazon vouchers are valid for approximately 10 years once added to your amazon account and amazon use your giftcard balance in order of expiry date automatically.
- £3 amazon voucher = 525 sb
- £5 amazon voucher = 849 sb
- £10 amazon voucher = 1,689 sb
- £15 amazon voucher = 2,525 sb
- £25 amazon voucher = 4,199 sb
- £50 amazon voucher = 8,389 sb
- £100 amazon = 16,699 sb
- £500 amazon = 82,999 sb = best value

Also available are these E-Gift cards (so will be used for spending online only)
- Marks & Spencer (Marks & Spencer e-gift cards are printable and can be used in-store as well as online. Thanks Tiffany Aching)
- John Lewis
- HMV
- House of Fraser
- Itunes
- New Look
- Pizza Express
- Mango
- Lands End

You will be asked to verify your order - this is via the verify link which will ask you one of your security questions OR by email.

At some point, often when placing your first order, you will be asked to verify your account. This only needs to be done once. The option to do this via mobile phone does not work for UK users, so will have to be done via postcard sent to the address in your profile. Postcards take around 7 to 10 days to arrive and will contain a PIN number for you to enter. (thanks to Fragmented)


Hope that helps do shout if you need any guidance - we all know lots of bits to do and are happy to share our knowledge!


Useful Links
Swagbucks USA Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/swagbucks?ref=stream
Swagbucks UK Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/SwagbucksUK?ref=stream
Swagbucks Twitter page - https://twitter.com/swagbucks
Swagging 101 website - https://sites.google.com/site/swagin101/
(lots of useful information on here)
Swagbucks Swidget Link - http://www.themommysaver.com/
(scroll down to see the widget on the right hand side, click SC to see if any swag codes are out, doesn't always tell the truth)


Not receiving credits for offers completed ? Read This..
(copied from GiftHulk website but same things apply to Swagbucks and Superpoints)

Possible reasons for not receiving credit for Offer Completion:
1- If you did not fulfil or meet all of the requirements necessary to be awarded.
2- Your browser security settings are configured to not accept third-party cookies, causing the report to fail.
3- If you have ad blocking software it will prevent advertisers from placing the cookies required to track the offers.

If all these reasons are irrelevant in your case, you can always get help from the Support Staff!

General rules
Keep all proofs of completion (PIN numbers, confirmation texts, member registrations, payment receipts, invoices, etc.) for your records.

In some cases a confirmation link is sent to your email address. Be sure to check your spam folder for pending confirmations.

FAQ:

What steps do I need to take to complete an offer?
The instructions to complete an offer are written under each offer description. For all offers, you MUST provide accurate information and meet the advertiser’s requirements. Points will not be awarded if you submit incorrect information. Also, do not refresh the page anytime during the completion process. It could harm our ability to track your progress.

Can I complete an offer more than once?
No, each offer may only be completed once. You will not be awarded for any additional attempts.

If an error occurs during the completion process, do I still get my points?
Unfortunately, points will NOT be awarded if an error occurs and you were not able to complete the offer requirements. Please report problematic offers to our customer support team and we will investigate the matter.

What should I do if I complete a survey and it doesn't credit?

Boodedoo wrote: »

It happens sometimes. I usually leave the screen with the completion message open and check the SB balance to see if its added the credit.

If not, I go back to the completion screen and take a screen shot including the url in the address bar which will help support identify the survey.

I wait a while to see if its credited,(now and then it can take a while) if not, click the Need Help? link at the bottom of the home page then choose Contact support from the pop up menu.

At the top right of the next screen is a button that says Submit Request, click that and complete the steps to send the request off to Customer Support. Be aware that they 'do' require a screenshot to show you have actually completed the survey.

In my experience, as long as I supply the correct info, they deal with support requests fairly quickly and usually credit the amount.

How do I cancel or unsubscribe from an offer I completed?
Products and services subscribed or purchased through Offer Walls and Swagbucks offers are all from third-party advertisers. To cancel or unsubscribe from an offer, you will need to contact the advertisers directly.

What are collectors bills?
See above, sometimes swagbucks release limited collections of ‘swagbills’ of various denominations on a theme (Christmas/New Year/Halloween/Mothers Day) which you can earn on searches randomly, if you collect them all in the time they are available you earn a bonus (usually 25SB).
Eg. Gingerbread bill/Gingerbread collectors bill/Snowflake bill

Should I save up before cashing out?
It is up to you when you cash out, higher giftcards are better value for money, but if your account is investigated and shut for any reason you would lose all those points and therefore not get anything at all. Only you can make the decision, existing posters on the thread are split on saving up for big amounts (£50) and cashing out as soon as possible with cashing out sooner probably being slightly in the lead.

Please see this post to avoid scam and losing your balance/account:

Originally Posted by paulshorse
A Happy New Year to everybody. I thought maybe I would start posting again on the odd occasion when I come across anything useful, if that's OK. So to start with, please be on your guard against scammers. A member has posted on facebook that he has had his account cleared out after being conned into giving his user details following an email saying he'd won 100,000 sb in the giveaway. It appears that the scammers have changed his password so he can no longer access his account and have cleared out his swagbucks balance. Hopefully support will stop the payment going out and will be able to restore his account. I know that we all say that this would never happen to us, but this is not the first time that I have seen this and, indeed, we had a scammer on Swagbucks facebook last year who was very persistent. So, please be aware and extra vigilant