It’s very simple to get paid via PayPal for completing surveys but little do you know that some survey sites will charge a fee on the request to cash out. Survey panels experience administrative costs when they issue payments, and they choose to transfer them to their members.
A brief overview
It’s most probable that you have used PayPal at least once in your life, as it is used by over 250 million people all over the world. It is a common sight across many survey websites to PayPal payments as an option to their participants as cash is the most preferred way of compensation. PayPal is available in most countries, it facilitates the same day transfers and its registration is free of charge.
PayPal’s mass pay option
PayPal mass pay is what most survey panels are leveraging to distribute the payments to the many panelists they’d on need to pay at once. This advanced feature, which performs periodical payments in different countries and currencies, greatly increases the system’s usability for users. The benefits of these services are offset by the price they entail. Most survey panels usually taken 2% for each payment amount as a fee but they are, however, different for the maximum fees according to the counties. As for payments made through API and £0.25 charge per transaction fee, the fee can be more or less than 2% in comparison to the size of payments issued by different survey sites.
Fees can be passed on to you
While many survey panels cover the PayPal fees as part of their operating costs, some choose to pass these fees on to their members. In such cases, a deduction of 2% of the cash-out total is typically made before sending the remaining amount to the member. For example, if you requested a payment of £15.00 from a survey site, you might only receive £14.70, as 2% of £15 is £0.30.
While it may not seem like a significant sum, these fees can accumulate, especially if you primarily participate in surveys through panels that impose withdrawal fees.
Keeping things free
Among many survey panels, their payment options often allow members to withdraw income via PayPal, and the fees would be eliminated, whereas the cash out minimums are relatively higher than other rewards such as gift cards. This is not to say that the survey site holds a superior or inferior rating to others, it only means that once you request a payout to be transferred to your PayPal account, you’ll receive the total amount with no deductions.
Some survey sites that offer free PayPal withdrawals include:
- Branded Surveys
- PaidViewpoint
- Opinion Outpost
- LifePoints
- OneOpinion
- Ipsosi-Say
- LEO Surveys
- Univox Community
For a comprehensive list of survey sites that offer free PayPal withdrawals (updated regularly), visit: SurveyCentral forum course.
Additionally, GPT (Get-Paid-To) websites that provide surveys and also waive withdrawal fees for PayPal payments include:
- PrizeRebel
- QuickRewards Network
- InstaGC
- Earnably
Tip: In the case, you take pleasure in a survey site which is to blame for PayPal charges, such as when there’s a fixed rate (e.g. £0.25 per cash out), bear in mind to postpone until you’ve sufficient cash in your account to set that cash out. £0.25 pound has a higher impact on a £10 payment than on a £25 payment from a proportional view. Take your payment requests to one-off events instead of one main payment and you might end up saving more over time.
Alternatives to PayPal
Pinecone Research is a survey website where the company doesn’t charge any fees for cashing out which makes it better than most others. Nevertheless, since 2020, they stopped their PayPal payments being a form of payment choice. And instead, PayPal users transferred to banking accounts, which provide a benefit of cashback, by any means being received on account and transferred to the bank.
Switching isn’t necessary
Remember that, even if you are already satisfied with the surveys that are available from panels that charge fees for cash withdrawals, this doesn’t mean that you can switch off the panel just yet.
However, one should emphasize a small deduction from the total payment percentage while the commission is made when withdrawing, but take into consideration the benefits you get from the referral program. On the other hand, if the fee is bothersome but you are still, consider having a reward option instead such as a brand-name which is often your preference. At the end of the day what we gave up will not be spent on anything else.