Is it all worth the effort? Mystery Shopping, Survey Filling, etc.?

[Deleted User]

I'm unemployed, I use the computer all day for job searching. I'm nearly 50 and unemployable (and very pi$$xd off!). I am doing a lot of surveys, I don't expect much. It's better than nothing and it keeps my anger away, otherwise I would probably be anti social.

Puzzcat

I do one poll and average about 3 £40 payouts a year. I also do ipsos and my survey but probably only make £50 a year. I also do the royal mail posting survey which pays in stamps and you can earn vouchers for doing other surveys for them. There is a thread for this and one for surveys under up your income.

I did mystery shopping for a few years but found doing the se tax return a pain, and didn't make enough profit from the visits to warrant the work involved.

rockm87

I use Valued Opinions, Probably get £20-£30 in amazon vouchers a year (If I put the effort in).

but Ive made over £100 a year on quidco, using cashback, surveys and 'no-brainers'.

PinkPoppies

I don't think any of these things are worth setting aside time specifically to invest in them, HOWEVER I do think that they are worth doing if you combine doing them with something else (like watching the TV), or when you find yourself mindlessly surfing the internet at a loose end.

I have the Swagbucks search engine as the default one on my computer and earn about 10 SB a day just for doing searches I'd be doing anyway. I don't exactly rake in the vouchers (!) but they do build up slowly and it's something for nothing.

As others have said, there are far more productive ways to spend time but actually some evenings I'm too exhausted to fancy doing much more than slob on the sofa completing a tedious survey... they are probably more constructive in that instance than slobbing about doing nothing else :rotfl:

ReadingTim

I signed up to YouGov 4 or so years ago - it seemed to take absolutely ages to get to the £50, and quite a long time for them to send it to me too! I also won a small overnight bag in one of their monthly prize draws.

However, the surveys began to get very dull and repetitive, so I've scaled back on them a lot.

I've also got the field agent app on my iPhone which is quite good fun and which I made £100-150 from. That pays to Paypal, so only good if you shop online (via paypal), otherwise you'll have to pay a percentage commission to transfer out into real money.

Ultimately, I guess it depends on how much you value your time - if you can do them (say) on the bus into work, on your lunchbreak or while watching the telly then why not?!? If you sat down to do them specifically, they're probably not worth it (especially if you worked out the equivalent hourly wage they're paying you!)

zenshi

It really depends on what you want out of it and what else would you do with the time!

If you're just sitting watching telly of an evening, then why not do surveys at the same time. They're hardly taxing are they :rotfl:

Mystery shopping doesn't pay a lot but I use it to give me and my daughter meals out. Mostly the money doesn't cover all of it but we are happy to pay a couple of quid extra to have a meal out

iris

Have you thought about postal surveys? Have a look on the Freebies Board.


I have participated in the Royal Mail surveys. I did it for about a year and was rewarded with about £150 worth of postage stamps and I also won a £10 voucher. In my opinion you really do need to be near a post office though, otherwise it can be a nuisance.


I also participate in the World Mail Panel, which I think is easier and I make about £8 per month for not much work. You can chose how you are paid.


As others have said, Pinecone is a good one too. Good luck:)

3wisemonks

In my old job I was free to surf the net when I had no work on and due to the nature of the job this gave me about 16 hours a week to do surveys and competitions.
Onepoll was OK but a pain to get them to pay out for me. Swagbucks I found the best as I would run videos in the background and found I did OK with surveys.
For comping I used a form filing app that speed things up but won very little tbh though some are much luckier than me.
The job I do now does give me anytime to do these at work and tbh I don't think it would be allowed. My old job was very unique, so I stopped all of these as there wasn't the time.
Recently I have tried to get into swagbucks again at home who while TV is on but I'm struggling I get screened out for surveys and this is the best way to make the bucks I will try and stick with it as I used the bucks for Amazon vouchers and bought lots of Xmas presents with them and it did help I think I made.
Really like the idea of comping and the buzz when you win is great but I'm not particularly lucky when it comes to this sort of thing so still on the fence.
I would agree with some others its not worth devoting time to but if you can do it while watch TV etc it can be a nice little bonus.

Aphidgirl

I tried a few of the survey sites and also gave up due to how slowly I was collecting points and the tediousness of it all.

Mystery shopping I do recommend though. I do it regularly and can make £20-30 a month (profit) if I do 3-4 assignments a week. Obviously it varies a lot and sometimes there arn't many assignments available so I'll only make £5-10 in a month.

I mainly use Market Force who offer a lot of pub/restaurant/coffee shop assignments and by eating out for free I can cut down on the monthly food bill a bit and enjoy having a day/evening out too. Obviously you have to factor in the cost of getting to the places. I only do assignments I can get to for free by walking or cycling, that way I'm not spending any profit I make on travel costs.

If you like going out to pubs and restaurants anyway then its a great way of keeping the costs down and even making a small profit from it.

Not_Another_Username

Wow! So many replies and lots of useful information. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences.

No, I never expected big payouts for doing this. I think the information given on the Watchdog TV programme needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Did anybody else see this? The episode in question is not yet available online unfortunately.

Quidco sounds interesting. I will have a browse through this, though it's all starting to sound much more "lots of effort, little reward, if any" than I had expected. Although my own experience has, so far, actually been quite rewarding-ish, the pessimist in me says that it's all designed to hook me in with some great opening offers, but then offer very little else. Time will tell.

The first registration I did was with Ipsos-Mori, who state that I will receive no more than four surveys per month, yet I have already had three surveys in four days and have amassed 200 points with very little effort. Crowdology has been about the same.

Sorry to hear your predicament ciaccino. I think you're right about the surveys being better than nothing. It's a shame though if you are not getting a fair payout for your effort. I have worked just about all of my working life. I met my disabled girlfriend five years ago and we are now married. I realised I would be the Carer before long as she needs a lot of help at times. She received the enhanced rate of PIP so you will appreciate her needs are more than most people's. I took the decision to get involved in a relationship fully understanding the consequences. I know I can still work if I wish, but it's got to be from home, if I could only find something reliable and adequately paid as she will lose her incapacity benefit and THAT will make a big difference to our income. At 53 I fear that I too am on that famous scrap heap.

You've hit the nail on the head PinkPoppies et al. I spend far too much time on the computer and watching TV lately. Being paid to do this can only be a bonus.

Once again, thank you all for taking the time to write and give your suggestions. I will look into each one of these. Some definitely appeal, but I'll finish off with those three words again. "Time will tell"!