Key Takeaways
- Surveys that pay you are generally safe if you use reputable market research companies with high-quality reviews and a good reputation. However, there are risks such as identity theft if you share personal information with untrustworthy companies.
- To avoid survey scams, research the site’s security features, check user reviews on Trustpilot, App Store, or Google Play, verify the company’s rating on Better Business Bureau, and ensure they offer legitimate payout options like PayPal, check, or gift cards.
- Most surveys pay between $1 to $3 and take 5 to 20 minutes to complete, allowing you to earn up to $9 per hour or more. Participating in paid focus groups can be even more lucrative, paying up to $200 per hour. With consistent effort across multiple sites, you can earn $50 to $100 per month per site.
Are The Surveys That Pay You Safe?
If you have been looking for a way to make money online from home, you might as well be wondering whether surveys that claim to pay you are safe. With the increase in demand for making money online, the number of companies scamming people has increased as well.
Nonetheless, there are still many reputable market research companies around that will pay you for your opinion. These companies use your feedback to help businesses improve their products and services.
Thus, as long as you use a surveys site that has a good reputation and high-quality reviews, you should be relatively safe.
What Are The Risks?
One of the major risks of paid online surveys is identity theft. Most online survey platforms require you to provide them with your personal information. As such, if the company isn’t trustworthy, your personal information might be used without your consent.
Paid Surveys and Your Privacy
When you participate in paid surveys, you will usually need to provide some details about yourself so the survey platform can identify which demographic you belong to. To some, this may seem like a privacy risk.
In reality, your name is only necessary to verify your identity, and it gets detached from the data you provide. This means that most surveys you take are still anonymous, and your privacy is highly protected.
Thus, it may be a good idea to do some research about how secure a platform is before signing up for an account.
How to Avoid Survey Scams?
Here are a few tips to help you avoid survey scams:
- Do a Google search of the name of the survey site to find out more about the platform’s security features.
- Pay attention to feedback people leave on review websites such as Trustpilot, App Store, or Google Play.
- Check the company rating on the Better Business Bureau.
- Legit survey sites usually pay via PayPal, check, or gift cards. If the platform doesn’t state its payout options, it may be a scam.
How Much Can You Earn Taking Surveys?
How much you can make as an online survey taker can vary significantly from platform to platform. In general, most surveys pay between $1 to $3 and take just 5 to 20 minutes to complete. Thus, you can easily earn up to $9 per hour or more.
Pro tip: Focus on participating in paid focus groups because they can pay as much as $200 per hour.
How You Get Paid for Taking Surveys
Most that provide legitimate online surveys usually offer several withdrawal options for your earnings.
The most common payout methods include:
- Check
- Bank transfer
- PayPal or Venmo
- Gift cards from Amazon, Xbox, Starbucks, and other popular retailers
Nonetheless, some survey sites only offer one withdrawal option. This does not necessarily mean that the survey site is not legitimate. Thus, be sure to research a survey site before joining to find out what their available withdrawal options are.
How to Know if Paid Survey Sites Are Legit?
Here are some ways to determine whether a paid survey site is legit:
- Do a Google search for the name of the survey site with the word “review”. If there are no results or mostly bad reviews, the survey site is likely to not be legit.
- A legit survey site will never ask you to pay for membership. If a survey site asks you to pay to join or access surveys, it is probably a scam.
Are Surveys Worth The Effort?
Generally, participating in paid surveys is one of the best side hustle ideas for earning extra cash in your free time.
For example, you could make a few extra dollars while you are waiting for your order at a restaurant or just when you have some free time after work.
On average, you can expect to earn between $50 to $100 per survey site per month. Thus, if you use multiple survey sites at once, you can maximize your earnings.
