Making cash from online survey sites - new MSE guide 9 January 2013 at 4:28PM edited 28 January 2013 at 5:23PM in Boost Your Income 547 replies 241.7K views

DonnySam

Just a word of warning about Pinecone. I signed up a while ago and for a long time everything was OK and my points balance built up nicely. But then I stopped receiving surveys for a few months. I raised the issue to be told that my account had been suspended for non-compliance, presumably for not completing any surveys! My account was reinstated and I recieved another survey which unfortunately arrived whilst I was out of the country and was unable to complete. The next survey arrived a couple of months later - coincidently a year and 4 days after my previously completed survey, thereby giving Pinecone the excuse to cancel my points balance (worth well over £100) on the basis that I had not completed any surveys for a 12 month period. I feel that Pinecone engineered this situation. I've complained but to no avail. They will not accept that the vast majority of this inactivity was due to their inactions. So just be vigilant and if you don't receive any surveys for a couple of months get onto it straight away. Not happy at all.

cagsd

DonnySam wrote: »

giving Pinecone the excuse to cancel my points balance (worth well over £100)

That really sucks, but why on earth would you accumulate over £100 worth of points? No matter what survey site I'm using, I cash out (or get vouchers) the moment I reach the threshold. For Pinecone, every time I get credit for a survey I claim £3 PayPal payment!!!!.

mjm3346

cagsd wrote: »

That really sucks, but why on earth would you accumulate over £100 worth of points? No matter what survey site I'm using, I cash out (or get vouchers) the moment I reach the threshold. For Pinecone, every time I get credit for a survey I claim £3 PayPal payment!!!!.

I let mine go to £5 so I can claim Amazon as I don't have paypal but I agree, always claim rewards on any survey site as soon as the redemption threshold is reached unless a much better rate is available for claiming larger amounts - there is no protection if you don't get paid.

the vast majority of this inactivity was due to their inactions

So it wasn't all down to them, they didn't know you were out of the country so it appears you simply failed to complete the survey which was already a second chance to remain on the panel (even if I didn't always claim my rewards as they become available I certainly would have claimed when they gave a second chance as I would then have known I could have lost the lot if they hadn't reactivated the account)

Gizmo72

Harris cancelled my account for the same reason - they never sent me any surveys, so I couldn't do any surveys, so they closed my account due to inactivity - and it looks like Hi-epanel are going the same way - I keep on contacting them to find out the last time I did a survey or redeemed a reward but never get a reply.
Edit: I got a reply today - it said there is no way to view when I last did a survey or got points, but says my last survey was in about June 2016.

kjmpde

there are other survey sites available but the reviews and past experience of OPINION OUTPOST indicates that this is a scam site . you do get the surveys but i have yet to find anybody that has received a reward. the account gets locked when you ask for a reward,

nandrews

I have volunteered for OPINION OUTPOST for a number of years and have received rewards from them. But they are certainly no better than many such sites.
My experience is that most invites, when I respond to them even after a few minutes, direct me to a survey with a different duration and rewards. More often than not one with no compensation. Though they ask a number of questions unrelated to the survey subject beforehand!

Polaris302

Hello,

I've seen claims that people can earn up to £300 a month just by doing online surveys and I have questions:

1) How much time would a person need to spend doing surveys a day /week / month?

2) Is spending this amount of time answering questions feasible for someone working full time, say 40 hours per week?

Greenqueen_2

I’ve been doing surveys for years. I earn nothing like £300 per month.

To achieve that amount you would need to spend an average of 5 hours every day, including weekends, so for a full time worker I would think it’s not possible.

scaredofdebt

Polaris302 wrote: »

Hello,

I've seen claims that people can earn up to £300 a month just by doing online surveys and I have questions:

1) How much time would a person need to spend doing surveys a day /week / month?

2) Is spending this amount of time answering questions feasible for someone working full time, say 40 hours per week?

I work full time and once earned just over £100 in a month using Qmee - it was very dull and I didn't try to repeat that the following month. It was 1-2 hours effort most days, so as an hourly rate very poor return around £2 an hour I would guess.

I think if you do surveys along a full time job you could possibly get around the £150 mark a month unless you are extremely resistant to boredom!

I will be trying other survey companies though to see if any are more lucrative.

crusader298

I have started doing surveys recently and most of the sites are good (I really like Prolific) but Branded Surveys seems very tricky.  I get a ridiculous amount of emails from them, get screened out from a lot of the surveys and channelled down their pipe (wastes time) and they pay less than most others.  Has anybody else had similar experiences?