Last Updated on February 29, 2024 by Eric Cantu
Everyone’s looking for easy ways to make money online, but is Swagbucks a legit site or a scam? Their ads have been on social media forever. “Get paid to take surveys online!” So how does it work and how much can you get paid? Are these surveys actually a “fun” way to make money online?
Is Swagbucks a Legit Site or a Scam?
While Swagbucks is not a scam, don’t plan on making any substantial money fast though. The “fun” surveys tend to be MIND NUMBING in my opinion and only pay you pennies for your time.
Let’s take a look at how Swaybacks works, what the “fun” surveys are like, and how you can spend days on the platform and only earn pennies.
What is Swagbucks and How Does it Work?
How much does Swagbucks cost to join?
Swagbucks is absolutely free to join. There is no free “trial” period. It is 100% free.
Swagbucks offers a way for its members to earn Swagbucks (1 SB = $0.01 USD) by completing tasks like surveys, polls, shopping online, surfing the web, and more. But as I’m about to detail, you should definitely think about how valuable your time is.
Just how much “fun” are these surveys anyway and how much can you make with Swagbucks? What’s your time worth to you?
If you’ve spent as much time researching “get rich quick schemes” as I have then you know that many of these “opportunities” are more focused on emptying your bank account than they are training you for success.
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Who Owns Swagbucks?
Swagbucks is owned and operated by its parent company Prodege, a provider of digital services.
Website:
www.swagbucks.com
Swagbucks Pros and Cons
Pros
If taking awesomely boring online surveys is your passion then Swagbucks is for you! Do you sense the sarcasm?
To be fair though, you can earn swag bucks for doing tasks that you are doing anyway like shopping with specific merchants or making searches online. So if you’re planning on buying something from a particular merchant anyway, you might as well go through Swagbucks and earn some cash back. It’ll only be a few cents on the dollar, but that’s at least something.
Also, there is no Swagbucks scam going on here. A scam would promise you something and never deliver. Swagbucks, while not exactly a big time money maker, is 100% legit.
While some have complained about not getting paid immediately from Swagbucks, or doing lots of work and then having the platform freeze on them, my research shows that these are the exceptions, and not the rule.
Cons
It is simply not worth your time to take long surveys for the amount of Swagbucks you’re promised. How many SB equal a dollar? The answer to that is 100. That’s right, 1 SB is worth $0.01 USD, or 1 penny.
Also, Swagbucks surveys are MIND NUMBING. They’re not fun. They’re not easy. And they take time too. Sometimes you’re spending over an hour for the equivalent of only a couple of dollars. Your time should be much more valuable to you than that.
It can take over a month for your rewards to show up in your account. For some surveys, you’ll see a disclaimer to be prepared to wait 4-6 weeks before you get paid. That’s no bueno.
You get paid in gift cards. You can choose to redeem your Swagbucks into a variety of different gift cards, but they’re still gift cards. Now, if you use PayPal, there is an option to redeem it for a PayPal cash card, which, if you use PayPal, is as good as cash.
Swagbucks is comparable to couponing. With couponing you save a little money here and there, right? Same with Swagbucks. You’ll earn a few cents here, a dollar there, and over the course of a year it can act like a piggy bank accumulating change.
Is Swagbucks Worth It?
In my opinion, no, but allow me to elaborate on that. These surveys are more than just a little boring. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that you may very well find yourself kneeling down and praying “Please God never make me log in and take another Swagbucks survey again!”
Swagbucks surveys aren’t exactly quick to finish either. Most surveys are 15 minutes and up, and in the video at the top of the post you see the example of a 75 minute survey for the whopping reward of 300 SB or $3.
But let’s say my tastes are different than yours. Maybe you find the act of taking surveys and some of the other tasks they ask of you to be relaxing. How much can you expect to make daily?
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A Daily Swagbucks Earning Routine
Here are a few daily tasks besides taking surveys that you can complete along with their value:
- Using the toolbar atleast once daily – 1 SB/day ($.01 US)
- Taking the daily poll – 1 SB/day ($.01 US)
- Download the Swagbucks TV app and have it running continuously daily – 40 SB/day ($.40 US)
- Download the EntertaiNow app and have it running continuously daily – 30 SB/day ($.30 US)
That’s a whopping $0.72 US daily.
But there are some who will see the glass half full and say, “Hey do this for 100 days and you’ve made $72!” This is true, and I do applaud the positive outlook.
So let’s say you make it a part of your routine to have your morning cup of coffee, complete Swagbucks daily “To Do” list, then take 2 short surveys. Depending on the surveys that morning routine could add up to 100-250 SB per day.
In addition, you take advantage of the “Shop and Earn” aspect of Swagbucks which allows you to earn SB by shopping with specific merchants. On top of that, maybe every month or so you receive a promotional email from Swagbucks and take advantage of a nice Hulu promotion or something similar where you get around 2000 SB for just signing up.
In that case, yes, by doing the tasks mentioned above, by the end of the year I would calculate that you’d have a decent amount of earnings for your time.
Swagbucks Complaints
I found that there are quite a few complaints of Swagbucks not paying out. It probably only happens every now and again, and there’s probably a good reason why it happened in each case. The problem is that when this happens a few times people start to question whether Swagbucks is a scam or legit.
Here are two examples.
Hey, I’d be upset too if I took a 20 minute survey and 18 minutes into it found out I didn’t “qualify”. And when that happens, you know what you get? 1 SWAGBUCK. That’s right, you just spent 18 minutes of your time for 1 penny. That would be enough to make me never do another survey again.
However, in all fairness, I feel the issues of Swagbucks not paying out or having issues with gift cards are isolated. I don’t feel like Swagbucks is intentionally ripping people off. There are multiple ways to redeem your SB including Amazon gift cards and even a PayPal cash redemption.
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Final Thoughts
Swagbucks is not a scam. However, it’s simply not a reliable way to earn any type of significant income online. Your time is worth way more than pennies on the dollar. The surveys are a tedious & time consuming.
Have you used Swagbucks in the past? Ever had any issues getting kicked off surveys or redeeming your hard earned SBs for gift cards?
Share your experience in the comments section below! Have any questions? Ask away! I always reply and I look forward to hearing from you!
You provide convincing arguments against joining Swagbucks and I like that you mention it will take time to build money. Reading through your website gives enough information to anyone on the site without having to search elsewhere, which is nice! My question would be if you are on any similar sites to Swagbucks, that in your opinion, are worth doing?
I appreciate the kind words. Thank you! In my opinion, survey sites are just a waste of your time. Every once in a while you may see a special offer from a company like Hulu offering so many points or swagbucks to use it, and if you were already planning on starting a subscription that would be fine, but those are so few and far between that I feel like it’s just not worth it. Even a kid could find odd jobs to do that would pay off better. If you’re stuck in the house and can’t leave, sure you could make a couple dollars. Other than that, I wouldn’t touch it. Thanks for the comment!
Swagbucks, at first sounded like a scam to me. But as I have been researching my opinion about it has changed. I like the fact that they have many ways for us to earn money. I get it that in most cases it’s just a few cents. But it’s exciting to start earning something online for the first time.
I honestly feel like collecting aluminum cans on the side of the road would be a more productive way to spend your time. I just can’t justify the time spend on Swagbucks for earning so little. Thanks for the comment!
Great article, Eric!
I remember seeing an ad for Swagbucks and thinking, “hey, I like taking surveys! Why not make some money too?” So I downloaded the app and, halfway through my first survey, it booted me out and said I wasn’t qualified. I didn’t stop, though. I thought the surveys were interesting enough to keep going a little longer and I didn’t want to just give up. (Most of them were boring, but there were a few where I had to watch ads and rate my experience, so that was cool).
I kept using it for about two weeks but then the surveys started getting really repetitive and they also kept booting me out, so I decided that I’d had enough. I made a few bucks, but mostly did it just for fun.
I’d say Swagbucks is fun for people like me who look forward to math exams, but if you have a phobia of forms and quizzes, then I can’t recommend it. But I have to say, I didn’t realize you could make money by doing other things as well. . .I might have to go back and check that out.
Anyways, thanks for sharing this information about this less-than-stellar way to make some US pennies.
Isaac
haha. nicely put. Thanks for the comment!
Do you think that the Swagbucks might go up in value as Bitcoin started like 0.01to begin then the use of them brought the price up some times more than the USD, there another cryptocurrency?
Like WESA tokens that are fluid and say they are going up but it’s confusing to deal with them, as far as the payout problems it puts to mind the play for real money games.
Swagbucks isn’t cryptocurrency, so no, it won’t go up in value. Thanks for the comment!
I’ve actually done some of these back in college but could never make enough money for it actually to be worth it. I can’t imagine doing these every day. These days everyone and their mothers are trying to make super-easy money without putting in any work. Great article on surveys here.
Keep up the good work!
Agreed. Thanks for the comment!
Hello Eric!
Just think if I had used my time to do a survey instead of writing a comment, I could have made a penny! I am positive the time I spent here on this site has given me much more value than that! Thanks so much!
I wish you the best!
Chad
haha much appreciated! thanks for the comment!
My time is definitely worth more then pennies! I have read other reviews on Swag Bucks where they actually said they made some decent money….um I don’t think so. I’ve done surveys before, and you can spend a lot of time on a survey only to find out at the END of the survey that you did not qualify to do that survey…..hmmm kind of fishy. Definitely a scam!
If someone is looking to make pennies for their time, Swagbucks is great. If you’re looking to make actual money, yeah NO! lol. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for adding to your voice to mine and that of others to say Swagbucks is a big SCAM. They have so many ads out there and people, including myself, have spent time watching their videos or playing games and made no money. The threshold they set will never ever be met by you, so you make no money in the end.
While technically they’re not an illegal scam, I definitely agree that it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to make any real money with them. Your time is worth so much more! Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for the thorough review. I also stumbled upon their ads on Facebook and try to sign up. I’m glad their site isn’t a scam, but I agree that their surveys are quite lengthy and not fun at all 🙁 Also, it seems I can’t get a lot of surveys due to not living in US/European countries. Do you have any other survey sites with PayPal as a cashout option? Thanks
To be honest, I’m not a fan of survey sites at all. I feel like just about anything you do would be a better way to spend your time. Your time is worth so much more than pennies! Thanks for the comment!
Hi Eric,
Swagbucks seems like a good start to making money online, but people are still trading time for money. Spending 18 minutes for $0.01 is very low for your time spent on the unqualified survey. No way!
Cheers,
Matt
Agreed! There are WAY better ways to make money online! Thanks for the comment!
I joined another online survey site and my opinion of doing online surveys matches yours exactly. The pennies that you can possibly earn is simply not worth the time you spend filling them in, it’s like trading your time for peanuts. And they are boring. I dont understand why people think this would be a good way to make money.
Agreed. I’ve had many people comment on my YouTube review that it’s a great way for teenagers to make money and I always reply that just about ANYTHING would be a better way to make money than this whether it be doing chores, mowing lawns, picking up trash… ANYTHING. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks Eric, I joined Swagbucks a while ago. Your review on them is spot on. Swagbucks is truly legit but it is a total waste of time. All I ever got from them was $5.00 and that was after months of doing so many activities on their site and through their site. I will not be wasting any more time with them.
Thank you for your honesty! As you saw in the video I’m just a few points away from $25 but I can’t see myself going through the process of attempting another survey, lol. Not worth it!
This platform have been going round for a very long time and I thought that it was maybe a solid option since I saw some of my friends doing the jobs that are available on the platform. I was thinking maybe I’m the one who is seriously missing out on all the goods, but it’s painful to see that this is not one that I would like to try at all. I have to show them what I have found out. Thanks for the eye opener.
Yeah, it’s definitely a painful way to earn money. Thanks for the comment!
Swagbucks is definitely a legit platform and while they offer quite minimal means of money generation, they do pay out. Also, the fact that there are quite a number of things to do to earn, I imagine it makes it an easy way to earn some money online for students. Thank you! Well written!
I don’t know if I’d agree that it’s “easy” (because I literally wanted to scoop my brain out with a fork after attempting some of these surveys), but, yes, for students already buying things online and making searches, it offers a way to collect some savings here and there. Thanks for the comment!
Hello Eric. Swagbucks is just a bad idea to deal with and its mode of making money is quite off-grid. Taking surveys as a means of income is not a good idea, and if any site is promising to give you any good amount of money from the survey, then its best to stay away. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the comment!
I like your honesty about the fact that you find the surveys boring.lol
ha, I couldn’t help it. They are MIND NUMBING!
Hey Eric,
Thank you for shedding some light on Swagbucks. It is definitely not for me. I would at least have to be learning some sort of earning skills for my own personal development to justify that kind of time.
As for those individuals who pursue Swagbucks, I believe they deserve more respect than being booted after spending time on the survey. Instead they gained nothing and lost time.
Yeah, a penny for potentially an hour’s worth of thoughts just doesn’t seem fair, right?