It’d be nice to have a little extra cash to spend (or stash) on a regular basis, so that’s why I keep diving into the world of side hustles and work-from-home gigs. My latest searches ultimately led me to a question I often see floating around the interwebs: Is Survey Junkie legit?
Survey Junkie is a free site that pays you to take online surveys. Taking their surveys is not a full-time job, nor is it a great way to get rich, but Survey Junkie is a legitimate program that can help you score some extra cash on the side. According to their site, Survey Junkie pays out $40,000 to members every day, and they have more than 20 million members to date. So why are people so suspicious of this site and questioning if it’s legit? And why all the negative Survey Junkie reviews?
To find out, I scoured the internet, read countless reviews, and even signed up for Survey Junkie myself to get an inside look. Here’s what I found.
What is Survey Junkie?
Survey Junkie rewards you for sharing your thoughts on a variety of products and services. They work with companies to better understand consumer behavior, needs, preferences, and purchase decisions through online surveys. While you get paid to take surveys and share your opinions, companies collect your answers for research purposes.
How does Survey Junkie work?
Survey Junkie gives you points for taking surveys and completing other activities. Right after you sign up, you’ll get easy points for completing “welcome activities,” like filling out your profile (50 points) and confirming your email address (25 points). Oh, and you automatically get 25 points for signing up in the first place.
After you complete your profile, surveys will pop up on your dashboard, and you’ll get emails with new survey matches. Each survey is worth a certain amount of points, and some take longer to complete than others.
Every point you earn on Survey Junkie is worth one cent. Once you earn 500 points (or $5), you can cash in your points and get paid.
Will Survey Junkie actually pay me?
Some online reviewers would disagree, but yes — Survey Junkie will actually pay you, as long as you have 500 points to redeem. You’ll have to verify your identity before you can redeem points, but you’ll get paid for your earnings in the end.
Survey Junkie lets you cash out by PayPal or bank transfer, but you can also get paid in e-gift cards to stores like Amazon, Target, Walmart, Sephora, Starbucks, and more.
TIP: If you’d rather get free goodies than cash, here’s a list of all the sites to get free samples without any surveys.
Why do people think Survey Junkie is a scam?
Survey Junkie reviews are off-putting (to say the least).
Some of Survey Junkie’s reviews are very scary. People have accused Survey Junkie of theft, credit card fraud, and other illegal activities.
Before we dive deeper, I have to mention this: you can’t assume all the reviews you read are true. People try to cheat Survey Junkie all the time and leave a nasty Survey Junkie review when they get blocked from the program. Plus, people are twice as likely to leave a review after a bad experience instead of a good one. So keep that in mind and take the reviews with a grain of salt.
After reading Survey Junkie reviews across multiple sites, these were the most common complaints from Survey Junkie users:
- You get disqualified from surveys often — either the survey fills up or you get rejected after taking the time to complete it.
- They ask you to send your photo ID to verify your identity.
- Technical difficulties and error messages pop up when you try to redeem points.
- You don’t — or can’t — get paid for the points you earn.
Now, I’m not accusing Survey Junkie of stealing anyone’s money, but that topic does come up in multiple reviews from angry users. I can say for sure that one of the above claims is valid … Survey Junkie does sometimes ask you to send a copy of your photo ID to verify your identity. I don’t know about you, but I’d never send a copy of my driver’s license without knowing who’s looking at it on the other end. This qualifies as sketchy in my book.
People don’t want to share so much personal information.
You do have to pass along an absurd amount of personal data to benefit from the program, but that’s kind of the point. You get paid for giving up all that info. Survey Junkie shares your profile information and survey answers with other companies so they can learn from your insights. Basically, the more access you give to Survey Junkie, the more rewards you’ll get in the end.
If you’re concerned about online privacy and how your information gets shared, I’m right there with you. If that’s the case, this might not be the right program for you.
Is Survey Junkie legit?
Yes, Survey Junkie is a legit program.
And no, you’re not being scammed. Survey Junkie is a real program that you can use to make some extra money on the side.
Survey Junkie is owned and operated by DISQO, a trusted company in the market research industry. According to their website, DISQO helps businesses improve their products by connecting them to valuable consumer insights. And how do they gather all those insights? You guessed it! DISQO uses Survey Junkie to feed their consumer data — and yes, this setup is totally legit.
The three founders of DISQO — Armen Adjemian, Armen Petrosian, and Drew Kutcharian — started the company in Los Angeles, California, back in 2015. The company now has over 500 employees, and many of them gave DISQO a near-perfect rating on Glassdoor.
DISQO is recognized in Deloitte’s Fast 500, a list of top-performing companies in the tech world. They’re also listed as a Top 100 Next Gen Workplace by the recruitment company Ripplematch.
Survey Junkie is accredited by the Better Business Bureau.
The Better Business Bureau (aka the “BBB”) doesn’t hand out accreditations to just anyone. Survey Junkie received an official business accreditation in 2017. On Survey Junkie’s BBB page, they have a customer rating of 4.32 out of 5 stars from over 1,700 reviews. This is pretty impressive compared to Survey Junkie reviews on other sites, and the BBB is hard to beat when it comes to credibility.
Survey Junkie doesn’t hide their privacy policy or terms of use.
You have to agree to Survey Junkie’s terms of use and privacy policy before you can even sign up. (They won’t let you move through the sign-up process unless you click that little checkbox.) Survey Junkie’s privacy policy is pretty straightforward. It clearly describes how the program works and what to expect, plus it provides a detailed explanation of how your information gets shared.
Granted, most people don’t take the time to read the fine print. I’m definitely guilty of clicking that tiny box just to get through to the good stuff. It’s become a normal practice to ignore those documents, but this might explain why so many people think Survey Junkie is a scam.
Is Survey Junkie worth it?
Yes, you can make extra money with Survey Junkie (if you keep up with it).
Survey Junkie says you can earn up to $40 a month taking daily surveys, but you have to stay committed in order to achieve this goal. If you can’t keep up with regular surveys, Survey Junkie may not be the side hustle for you.
If you’re ready to put in the work, complete as many surveys as you can and look for the ones with high point values. You can also participate in focus groups or product tests when they’re available — those activities are always worth a ton of points.
With some dedication, you could pocket $480 a year using Survey Junkie, and all you have to do is answer questions. Not a bad deal in my book.
But … Don’t expect to earn points on every survey.
It’s worth noting that on average, you only qualify for one out of five surveys, so you’ll only earn points for 20% of the surveys you take. Even then, the survey might fill up or disqualify you after you’ve already started taking it, and then you won’t earn the points you were originally promised.
During my Survey Junkie experience, I was matched to a survey worth 750 points. I spent 15 minutes completing the survey and answering very specific, personal questions about myself. When I finished the survey, I returned to my Survey Junkie dashboard. That’s when a pop-up message told me I didn’t qualify for the 15-minute survey I just completed. I only got three points “for trying,” but they still got to collect all my info.
Making money with Survey Junkie definitely requires some patience, but it can pay off if you stick with it.
Are there better ways to make money on the side? You betcha.
If taking time to fill out questions about yourself isn’t your jam, here are a few other ways you could earn some cash as a side hustle:
1. Make $21 – $24 an hour driving for Lyft or Uber.
I’ll just say it — driving for Lyft or Uber is one of the most flexible and lucrative side gigs of all time. The average Lyft driver makes $24 an hour, and the average Uber driver makes about $22 an hour.
2. Earn $250 a month typing for TranscribeMe.
TranscribeMe pays you to transcribe audio of various lengths. Beginner transcriptionists usually start at $15 an hour, but you can get paid up to $22 an hour as you develop your skills.
3. Make $100 a month selling your photos through Foap.
You can make easy money just by uploading your photos and videos to Foap. When someone buys a photo from your Foap portfolio, you’ll take home 50% of the profits.
5. Sell your old stuff on Facebook Marketplace for quick cash.
You may not want all your old stuff, but someone out there does. You can sell almost anything on Facebook Marketplace. I once listed an old dog crate for sale and made $50 in less than two minutes.
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