In this review of Swagbucks, I am going to be brutally honest with you. I tested with my team various most popular paid survey sites, and we selected out the very best paid online surveys.
Now, most of you are probably thinking, is Swagbucks one of the best? Yes, it is!
There are tons of Swagbucks reviews out there that are focused on recommending and endorsing the site aggressively to collect their affiliate fee but forgot to be objective. However, this Swagbucks review will be different. I will cover the good, bad, and the ugly.
You will get the answers to the following questions:
- What is Swagbucks?
- How does it work?
- How can you earn Swag Bucks?
- Is Swagbucks legit? Is it safe to use?
- How to sign up and start earning (sign up bonus $10)?
- Is Swagbucks worth it?
- Pros and cons
Before we get started, let me save some of your time by pointing out that, unfortunately, you can sign-up for Swagbucks if you are from one of the following countries: U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Australia, and India.
NB! If you are from Germany, France or Spain please click here to go to your Swagbucks regionally dedicated website.
That said, without further delay, let’s jump into it!
Table of Contents
What is Swagbucks?
Swagbucks is a site where registered members will earn points called Swagbucks (SB) by several actions – sharing your opinion via surveys, watching videos, searching the Web, buying gift cards, completing special offers, etc. Earned Swag bucks can be either redeemed for Gift Cards, or you can withdraw it via PayPal.
How does Swagbucks work?
In terms of dollars, 1 SB equals to $0.01. If you want to withdraw your money through PayPal, you have to earn at least 2500 SB, because the minimum payout for PayPal is $25.
Of course, you can also use your earned SB’s to buy gift cards from various stores, restaurants, sites, retailers (incl. Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Target Stores, etc.).
It is also worth to mention that you can start picking the fruits of your work quite soon after starting. For example, the smallest Amazon gift card is available in the value of $3 (300 SB). That is the lowest threshold for gift cards that we have seen.
The trade-off here is not your money for the SB’s, but instead your data. Swagbucks is acting like a middleman between consumers and companies, where consumers trade their data about preferences and opinions for rewards. This data helps companies to make better decisions in their marketing strategies and product development processes.
Moreover, some companies are using the Swagbucks platform to reach out to new clients through various offers and free trial periods.
How can you earn Swag Bucks?
As already mentioned above, there are several ways to earn SB-s. In this section, we will take a close look at all of them.
Taking Surveys
You can take surveys through the Swagbucks website or mobile app. Surveys are classified in different categories like Gold, Partner, and Peanut Labs. As a reward, you will get SB’s. Gold surveys have the highest payout and Peanut Labs lowest.
It’s fair to say that, on average, there are thousands of surveys taking place in Swagbucks every day. Although the number seems impressive at first glance, you should be aware of several negative factors.
As most of the surveys are targeting some specific location and/or demographical profile, only dozens of these will appear on your dashboard. Furthermore, you may not be eligible to take all the surveys which are prompting to your dashboard.
The questionnaires are covering various topics: brand recognition, about different services, your buying behavior, etc. Some of the surveys are longer where you can earn a decent amount of SB’s, and in the opposite, some might be quite short, and so do the amount of SB’s you will get as a reward.
How much SB’s you will exactly earn depends on your demographical profile – some profiles are more preferred and get many more surveys and better payouts as well.
Answering the Daily Polls
Vote for Swagbucks daily poll and receive 1 SB as a reward. Every day there will be a new question, which is super easy and quick to answer. For example: “Do you drink soda?”
Although 1SB per day ain’t much, it literally takes just a few seconds of your time. Moreover, if you keep answering it every day one year in a row, the numbers add up, and you will earn 365 SB in total.
Finding Swag Codes
Swag Code is a promotional code that contains letters, numbers, or both (never spaces between them) and will earn you SB’s if you enter them at the right time.
You can find these anywhere on the Swagbucks network – their Facebook, Twitter, homepage (www.Swagbucks.com), Youtube channel, Swagbucks newsletter, Swagbucks blog, etc.
Swagbucks code is usually valid for a limited time after release, so whenever you find it somewhere, redeem it quickly. You can enter them to SwagButton, Swagbucks app, or Swagbox on their website.
Usually, these codes will give you 2-5 SB, but once in a while, it may reach up to 20 SB.
Using SwagButton
The SwagButton helps you to get your money pack while shopping – it will alert you if the site you are visiting is participating in their cash pack program (there are thousands of participants).
Thus, whenever you are making a purchase, you will get back SB’s in some particular % of the total purchase amount.
Furthermore, it will automatically show you if there are any coupon codes available and then applies them automatically at checkout.
Pro Tip! SwagButton will give you tips about where to find Swag Codes if you press the „Check for Swag Code“ button. You can also enter Swag Code to the SwagButton. Sometimes there have even been Swagcodes that are redeemable in the SwagButton.
Searching the Web
If you do a lot of online searches, then this one is for you! You can do online searching from their website, or you can use SwagButton. The second option is more comfortable in my opinion because if you have to go to their homepage every time it takes extra time.
Not every search will give you SB’s, but whenever Swagbuck logo appears, you’ll immediately know that you have just earned again some SB’s.
For example, my average earning via searching the web was 5 to 10 SB’s per day. It’s not much, but on the other hand, I would have done it anyway, so why not collect SB’s for that? The numbers add up eventually, and the search engine itself is quite similar to Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
Buy gift cards
You can get some of your money back instantly by buying gift cards. Cashback % varies a lot; it could be as low as 1% for some of the gift cards; others may reach up to 20-30%.
Pro Tip! It is super useful if you would like to give your family/friends gift cards for different occasions like Christmas, Birthdays, etc.
Watch videos through Swagbucks TV
They are offering you videos to watch, and for a reward, you will receive SB’s. You can watch videos from their homepage, or you can download the Swagbucks Watch app. Videos are from various categories, for example, entertainment, food, hobbies, parenting, etc. It used to be 3SB for ten videos, but lately, they have changed it to a WAY lower rate. Now it has been like 1SB for 8-10 videos. My advice! Do it only if you like to watch random videos from YouTube anyway. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time considering the amount you are getting as a reward.
Discover offers
The idea of this method is that you will see different offers, and whenever you decide to purchase or subscribe to any from these, you’ll get SB’s. The amount of SB’s you’ll get may vary a lot.
For example, in some cases, you’ll only have to sign up for a newsletter or trial period. However, sometimes you are required to buy something.
I recommend to check for these offers regularly but to act if you can get a free trial period, or you need the service/product anyway.
I have personally used it a few times. So why not earn SB’s for something you would have done anyway?
Pro tip! If you had to subscribe to something you did not want, don’t forget to unsubscribe because usually, you have to link this with your credit card.
Play games
There are two options with games – you can earn SB’s either by playing Swagbucks games or as a cashback by making in-game purchases. If you love to play games anyway, I highly recommend the first options.
Shop through the Swagbucks
That is something I recommend because you can save a decent amount of money with it. If you are going to shop something anyway, do it through Swagbucks and receive SB’s.
How much SB’s you’ll get is depending on the cashback % rate and the amount spent on that e-shop. Each e-commerce site has a different rate; here are some of the examples:
- Amazon, Walmart – up to 11 SB per spent $1
- Macy’s – earn 11 SB pe spent $1
- Target, eBay, Nordstrom – earn 1SB per spent $1
- Hotels.com – up to 5SB per spent $1
- Expedia – up to10SB per spent $1
- Norton Security – 50SB per spent $1
I could continue this list forever, but I think you got the idea.
Pro Tips! Sometimes there might be super awesome coupons, if you have SwagButton, you’ll see them automatically. Furthermore, if you are planning to do some online shopping during e-commerce holidays (Thanksgivings, Cyber Monday, etc.), you’ll get a double discount via Swagbucks.
Invite friends
You can earn some SB’s by inviting your friends. They have to use your referral link to sign up. You will get 10% of everything they are going to earn forever.
For example, if one of your friends earns 100SB on a day, and the other one earns 300SB, then you will receive 40SB (10SB+30SB).
NB! I have heard that some of the people are experiencing issues while using AdBlock/AdBlock Plus. So whenever you are facing problems with Swagbucks, my first debug recommendation would be to disable AdBlock’ers.
Is Swagbucks legit?
That is a question that a lot of people ask. A short answer would be – YES! Swagbucks is an honest company, and they are not making any false claims or advertisements.
Swagbucks Review BBB
The company behind the Swagbucks system is Prodege LLC. I checked their rating in BBB (Better Business Burea) – it is A-. BBB ratings are in the range from A+ to F, so in my honest opinion, A- is a pretty decent score. Furthermore, they are accredited since 2010 and have been more than 13 years in business.
Besides, I could tell you guys about my personal experience. I’ve used it once in a while for over four years, and I’ve never had a reason to doubt their trustworthiness.
They have paid out over $320 million in cash and gift cards, and the number is increasing every day.
What about your personal information?
Even though you have to give them some personal details in the signup process and later on surveys, this information will only be used for market research purposes and to determine whether you qualify for a particular survey, if you feel uncomfortable sharing your details, you can skip the questionnaires and collect points with other activities.
How to sign up and start earning?
The sign-up progress is straightforward, and you have two options on how to do it:
- The first option – you can sign-up with your e-mail. You have to choose a password and then confirm it.
- The second option – you can sign-up through Facebook.
NB! Although there are advertisements that you will get $10 as a sign-up bonus, there are some things you should know about it.
Several conditions must be met before you’ll receive and can use the sign-up bonus. After registration, you have to buy something from their store within 30 days. In addition to that, you have to receive at least 25 SB’s for your purchase. If both these conditions are done, you will be rewarded with 1000 SB (an equivalent of $10).
NB! You can’t use Swagbucks in every country. Like I pointed out on the beginning of this post, you have to be from one of the following countries if you’d like to sign-up for Swagbucks:
- U.S
- Canada
- UK
- Ireland
- Germany
- Australia
- India
Is Swagbucks worth it?
Before we conclude whether or not Swagbucks is worth your time, let me be clear, that if you have severe financial problems, then Swagbucks is not going to solve them. Nor would it be a source of funds to cover your living expenses.
That said, Swagbucks is something with what you can earn some extra. To decide if it’s worth your time, it depends on your level of wealth and how much you are expecting to receive per hour/week.
Swagbucks is something where you don’t have to make an initial cash investment to start earning. You can devote your time, and share your opinion to get rewarded, and much more. It is one of the best ways for that.
However, if you are expecting to make hundreds or thousands of bucks per week, then this method is not for it. You can surely still benefit from this method like cashback offers and so on, but taking surveys is probably not for you. Frankly, none of the techniques on the Internet will make you thousands of dollars per week, unless you are ready to make at least a small initial investment. For example, start your own online business (e.g., affiliate blog).
In my opinion, regarding questionnaires, there are two types of people – the ones who love to answer surveys and the ones who feel like it’s a waste of time. I have always loved to answer surveys even if I am not getting paid (thesis questionnaires on Facebook, etc.), and if Swagbucks offers me a few extra bucks for doing what I’d love to do anyway, I am surely going to take it.
Plus, if you combine all their earning opportunities (web search, gift cards, etc.), then you might get a pretty decent amount of Swagbucks.
The more time you spend on Swagbucks, the more you get. But the effectiveness is also an issue you need to tackle. I have seen people who manage to collect a significant amount of SB’s fast, and then the ones who spent more than five hours and earn a few SB’s. So keep targeting activities that have the highest payouts.
If you feel that might be something for you, I recommend to try it out. There is nothing to lose, but surely, something to gain. If you don’t want to sell your time for SB’s by answering the surveys, you can use all the other advantages like cashback by buying gift cards, searching the web, etc. – where you don’t spend extra time or do anything else.
I’d also strongly recommend you to join Swagbucks Facebook and Swagbucks Twitter pages because they often share better offers and useful information in there.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Swagbucks
Pros:
- You don’t need any money to start
- Many different ways to earn or get rewarded
- Some of the earning ways don’t require you to do anything extra (that you wouldn’t do anyway)
- Many online stores are participating; thus there is a variety to choose rewards
- You can earn more by referring Swagbucks to your friends
Cons:
- Some of the earning ways require a lot of time to make just a few SB’s
- People from a few countries are eligible
- You are not qualifying to many surveys
- Swagbucks customer service is prolonged
Final Verdict
Swagbucks is definitely of the best survey sites out there. Thus I unquestionably recommend it to everyone. If you follow all the tips and activities mentioned in this article, it would be possible even to earn more than $50 per hour. Of course, you cannot receive that much 8 hours a day and seven days in a week, but why not to visit Swagbucks once in a while a grab those extra bucks.
If you are interested in making money from home, then Swagbucks is definitely for you. However, if you want to make a living by working from home, then you should read about the best ways how to make money online. Stay tuned, and good luck!
