Survey sites make a number of reward options available to their members, such as cash, gift cards, prepaid credit cards, and also sweepstakes prizes, and they can choose any of these, providing they meet certain criteria, for participating in online surveys. Even though cash may appear as the strongest option at first glance, it may not always be the most suitable option.
Cash is king, right?
Payments of cash into your PayPal account is a significant payment method many survey participants want to receive. Cash, in its ability to offer flexibility, will enable you to spend it as you like, whether as in paying bills or settling debts regardless of the store method in the specific stores or both online and offline.
This is despite the difficulty of cash payments through PayPal due to the downside of fees. It’s the best option to choose survey sites that don’t charge any fee for cash withdrawals, even fees of up to 2% for PayPal withdrawals have been reported by some sites.
Pros
- Sudden cash provides no limit of usefulness for you to exploit whatever you desire.
- It’s convenient, probably for locals in Europe and Australia who often use wire transfers to send money and hence this can be done directly to your bank account without the involvement of intermediaries like Skrill or PayPal.
- No card code will get into the wrong hands, being sent by email as a traditional cash payment.
- PayPal funds transfers with cash remittances are secure as nobody can forge it.
Cons
- It may take more to earn a PayPal payment, probably £20 instead of £10 for a gift card.
- PayPal payments may be charged with fees, ranging from 1-3% commission, implemented either by the market research providers or some GPT projects.
- Transferring a PayPal balance to your bank account can cost you fees, especially for smaller amounts, and PayPal’s fee schedules are stated.
- Sometimes you may not need to send or receive a bank transfer yourself, but you may be the receiver of a bank transfer, and because you have to set up a wallet on a third-party website the process of accessing your cash is far more complicated.
- There are some areas where PayPal may not be available, especially in small or developing countries.
There are a number of survey sites that give money by PayPal, one of them is PointClub where the cash prize is received through PayPal, while there are others such as Branded Surveys and Pinecone Research that offer bank transfer prizes.
Gift cards options
Gift cards, which can come either as hard copies or emails attached, have seen this increase in popularity throughout the years. Innovations like Rewards Link and GCodes have broadened the outdated view of gift cards, limiting spending to only a single store. Now, it’s possible to use them across multiple vendors.
Using gift cards is usually simple and fast; some incentive companies guarantee instant delivery or fulfill the process within 48 hours.
Pros
- Supporting online and in-store shopping, these surveys offer a chance for the shopper to visit the websites of popular merchants like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.
- It is convenient to use as a present, as it is a physical card.
- They are quick to issue surveys on demand, usually upon request by a survey company.
- No associated fees when you request or redeem.
- The restrictions are often loose and, for example, a gift card can be used by kids and teens to redeem the card especially in-store.
Cons
- Cards can only be used once. Reward link cards allow them exceptions from that.
- Liable to get lost or stolen.
- Getting it difficult to use when it’s for the retailer you don’t go to frequently.
- Challenging to be converted to cash or another gift card, the value slightly decreases even when selling or exchanging.
Other sites yielding gift cards like Tellwut and Panel Champ are examples.
Pre-paid credit cards
An old practice of prepaid credit cards exists in physical forms while their digital versions are on the rise nowadays. Visa and Mastercard do have a prepaid card that can be used within a merchant, and wherever online payments are taken like ordinary credit cards. Any retailer willing to process credit card payments would also do prepaid ones.
When you get the digital prepaid card, you can choose to have the physical card (there will be a charge for that), or use the card details (number, expiry, etc.) online, as you normally do when you hold a credit card.
Pros
- Convenient and adaptable, credit cards, can be used everywhere, be it an online retailer or a store, as long, as there is a credit card acceptance.
- With survey firms, offer usually at great speed.
- Can be gifted quickly and physical cards are easy to gift.
Cons
- Though the card is easy to use online at multiple stores, one of its disadvantages is that it has odd remaining balances that are difficult to spend away.
- Costs experienced while converting digital to physical cards.
- Confined to those who are at least 18 years of age.
- Needs to be deployed on the Visa or Mastercard website.
Surveys ‘ PointClub and Univox Community provide cash out via prepaid Visa cards.
Sweepstakes entries
Some sweepstakes on survey sites differ on how they allow you to enter and what the offers are. For instance, Opinion Outpost has a two-thousand-pound lottery for their new signups, and InstaGC has pools of points where you can get tickets by spending a small part of them which allows you to win a larger prize.
In general, the survey sites (sweep the sweepstakes) if you aren’t qualified for the survey or as an additional incentive for the points, as with LEO Surveys.
Pros
- It might be that you are actually getting the chance to win a valuable prize that costs more than the points you spent on the entry.
- A win is what gets you going!
- It is a good way to swap the leftovers (if you cannot use up a large amount of points for another reward).
- Gives people the right to win valuable deals of cash and stuff.
Cons
- There is a good chance that you will not win any of the prizes with this type of draw.
- While if you lose you’ll not get the same value in return for your points spent.
- You have to be careful with your survey sites. Sometimes, they may not have winners selected transparently, so enter draws where there are lists of winners published.
To sum it up
It is not always clear which choice between saving and getting rid of the points you have gotten from the surveys you have completed on reliable sites is right or wrong. It is a good idea to contemplate the advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives before making your decision. You don’t desire to notice that your 50 PayPal expenditure has become 46 after fees and that you have a gift card you can’t use. Following the tips that you learned above, you can gain the highest output from the tips you will make in the end!