The Paid Online Survey Center

SURVEY SCAMS

The Paid Online Survey Center lists free-to-join online survey companies that not only pay cash for survey participation, but pay the most cash the most often. Here, you won't see any "free iPod" scams or sweepstakes drawing entries where nobody wins. You will get paid for your efforts, which is all you really could ask for in an online survey company. Below, we blacklist the companies that we found to be either cheap or unscrupulous...or both. We have always found it questionable when online survey websites list the good sites without listing the bad ones for comparison. We take a more meticulous approach, providing evidence whenever we can. Without further ado, we present our comprehensive online survey blacklists:

Blacklist: Pay-to-Join Sites

free paid surveys

Certain online survey sites scam people by charging them sign-up fees for access to a list of the best survey panels to join. But, you could easily find the information on these pages for free (say, by coming to The Paid Online Survey Center regularly). As such, many pay-to-join sites are in terrible standing with the Better Business Bureau, and if you read the FAQs at certain survey companies' websites, you'll see disclaimers such as the following:

If you paid money for a list of survey sites, please be aware that Your2Cents is not associated in any way with companies that charge fees to join online panels or to obtain lists of survey sites. We suggest you contact the seller of the list and request a refund. --Your2Cents.com

Translation: pay-to-join survey sites wrongfully charge people. They also claim that you can make hundreds of dollars a month. We must remind you that online surveys present only supplementary income. The following sites are in very bad standing with this many legitimate survey companies:

Want to join a real online paid survey panel? Go to our Paid Surveys page for a list of FREE online survey companies that actually pay!

Blacklist: Free-to-Join Programs

online paid surveys

The following online survey companies are free to join, but paid us less than $10 per month. Although you don't have to pay to join their panels, these companies might waste your valuable time by paying out so sparsely. What didn't work for us may in fact work for you, so you may try them out anyway.

  • American Consumer Online Panel (ACOP)
  • Dataintelligence ONLINE - We have belonged to Dataintelligence for 3 years and haven't accumulated many "datapoints," since they rarely even give surveys. Most of the time, we get "rewarded" with sweepstakes entries, and we never win. We like getting paid for our efforts.
  • Global Test Market - We belonged to this panel for 2 years, yet haven't seen a dollar from our efforts. You need 1000 points to claim a check, and you can get paid up to 50 points per survey. However, we didn't receive many surveys, and qualifying for 50 points means falling into the exact demographic they want.
  • Greenfield Online - Greenfield provides only 1-3 surveys per month, and many of those reward you with sweepstakes entries. They also do not send e-mail notifications for certain surveys, which means you have to log on to check for new surveys, which may be closed by the time you find out about them. To learn more, read the Scam.com forum discussion.
  • IPSOS I-Say - You are entered into a sweepstakes instead of compensated with cash or prizes. Anybody with a basic grasp of probability knows that it is damn near impossible to win a sweepstakes drawing
  • Lightspeed Research - Much like Global Test Market, Lightspeed Research requires you to have a humongous amount of points before qualifying for a cash reward.
  • Livewire Research - They ask for your social security number, which we have never had to do before.
  • Mindfield Online - Surveys didn't come frequently and didn't pay much. It took us 14 months to reach the $10 minimum payout.
  • Nielsen Net Ratings - They install what appears to be spyware onto your system. You should never have to install something you don't want to install just to get paid.
  • Online Surveys - They pay you in sweepstakes entries. If you don't see how ridiculous a payment that is, please slam your head against your desk.
  • Opinion Surveys - Completed surveys lead to entries in a $50,000 sweepstakes. If you have ever won a survey panel's sweepstakes, you should be teaching me about surveys.
  • PlanetPanel - They only "paid" us with sweepstakes entries. Enough said.
  • SpiderMetrix
    This is mainly for international survey panelists.
  • The Net Panel - A win-free-stuff survey company, but the chances of winning are slim to nil, as with all sweepstakes drawings.
  • Winning Surveys
  • Your Health Survey - Unless you are incredibly disease-ridden, you won't qualify for many, ifany, surveys, in our opinion.

Want to join a real online paid survey panel? Go to our Paid Surveys page for a list of FREE online survey companies that actually pay!

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