We all have a bit of time to kill every now and then, particularly over holiday breaks and in the evenings. Make sure you’re turning it into cash!
Close the YouTube cat videos down. Instead spend your spare time earning £100s a year filling out online surveys or testing products.
There are a growing number of research companies out there offering rewards for your opinions, however they’re not always as ‘legit’ as they make out.
With this in mind, we’ve created a run-down of the trusted survey sites, personally tested by out users and us. We reveal how much you can realistically make from each site and share some helpful tips to maximise your profit.
Legit online survey websites
Each site has a limited number of surveys each month for each person. If you want to earn serious rewards it’s worth signing up to as many as possible.
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Pinecone Research£3 per survey, invite only.
Who are they? Pinecone are an exclusive survey and product testing company who are invite only.
Rewards: £3 per completed survey, free products to test and keep.
Amount per survey: £3.
Min. reward threshold: £3.
Our review:
Pinecone is the Holy Grail of survey sites and invites are rare so it’s well worth signing up while we have some invites on offer. The payout is huge and surveys don’t take too long to complete. You sometimes get sent products to test and keep too!
Note: There’s no guarantee that they will be open to new registrations at any one time, but we try to arrange a limited number for our readers each month. Check the link below. If we don’t, join our newsletter for updates.
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Toluna
Test, keep products and earn vouchers.
Who are they? A trusted opinion website working on behalf of leading companies. They want to know what you think about certain products, services and issues. In return, you get rewarded!
Rewards: Free products, Amazon vouchers and prize draws.
Amount per survey: 3,000 – 6,000 points (80,000 points gets you a £15 voucher).
Min. reward threshold: 500 for prizes, 80,000 for vouchers.
Our review:
You won’t be sent products to test all the time, but we have received a couple over the space of a few months. So it’s worth signing up just to get freebies
You can also answer surveys on the site to earn yourself points which equal vouchers. Each survey takes around 15 minutes to complete, so it’ll take around 4 hours overall to earn a voucher.
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SwagbucksVery popular with students, thanks to a wide variety of ways to earn rewards.
Who are they? Swagbucks are a reliable survey site who also offer rewards for playing games and watching videos.
Rewards: Cash, vouchers and prize draws.
Amount per survey: 70 points (40p).
Min. reward threshold: 1 point.
Our review:
We love Swagbucks, and we hear positive reviews from our followers about them too. We’ve found that completing surveys and polls every day provides the best return for your time, however you can also complete a much wider range of offers to bump up your earnings.
Surveys take around 10 minutes to complete, meaning you can earn around £2.40 an hour. Swagbucks also offers users the ability to complete surveys from multiple providers and give consolation points when you don’t qualify for a survey.
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The OpinionPanel CommunityStudents get £10 just for signing up.
Who are they? They are the UK’s largest research panel for students & grads. They offer interesting surveys and online focus groups for big brands and universities, with their research often reaching the media spotlight!
Rewards: Amazon and high-street, Bonusbond vouchers.
Amount per survey: £1-2 per survey, £30 – £70 for online focus groups.
Min. reward threshold: £25 for Students only. £1 for others.
Our review:
The OpinionPanel Community are a trusted site and their surveys take around 10 minutes to complete.
There is also mobile compatibility so you can complete surveys on the go.
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VivaticFrequent surveys.
Who are they? Vivatic is a site that allows you to earn money from not only surveys but a number of other jobs such as writing reviews & data entry.
Rewards: Cash.
Amount per survey: ~£1.
Min. reward threshold: £20
Our review:
Vivatic is a great survey site. Surveys take about 15 mins to complete so it could take you a little while to reach the threshold but the good news is that there’s plenty more extra money making opportunities that they have so well worth a sign up.
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MySurveyMake £3-5 per hour.
Who are they? A popular consumer panel who are always looking for new members to participate in market research studies for rewards.
Rewards: PayPal payments, Amazon and high-street vouchers.
Amount per survey: Around 100 points.
Min. reward threshold: 345 points (£3).
Our review:
Another one worth signing up for. We got lots of surveys sent from these guys, and they tend to match your profile and interests as a consumer.
The average survey takes about 15 minutes to complete, and gives you 100 points. So you could earn around £3-£5/hour.
Register below and wait for them to send you some surveys!
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IpsosMake £10+ a month.
Who are they? One of the largest (and best paying) survey-based market research companies around, working with trusted brands and research companies worldwide.
Rewards: High-street and Amazon Vouchers, plus prize draws for all members.
Amount per survey: ~£1.
Min. reward threshold: £10.
Our review:
A well-trusted panel. They send you surveys every week to answer by email. The reward threshold is relatively low, and most people will be able to cash out in under 10 surveys.
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Valued Opinions£10 voucher per hour.
Who are they? Valued Opinions are part of a larger market research group. They send out online surveys to members whose profiles match broad demographics and requirements.
Rewards: Vouchers (inc. Amazon, M&S, Sainsbury’s, John Lewis).
Amount per survey: £1 – £5.
Min. reward threshold: £10.
Our review:
First off, signing up with Valued Opinions automatically enters you into a prize draw for an iPad. From there, they use your profile to send you relevant surveys to complete.
The surveys are usually quite interesting, and can take anything from 10-30 minutes each, so within just one hour you could bag yourself a £10 voucher.
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Global Test MarketEarn £100 per year.
Who are they? This is a well know US survey site but they pay out cheques in £s.
Rewards: Cash, vouchers and prize draws.
Amount per survey: ~£1.20.
Min. reward threshold: 1000 points ($50/£32).
Our review:
Surveys take around 15 minutes each so you could be earning £4.80 an hour. Be aware that cheques do take a while to arrive in the post, and we’d recommend not wasting your time with the ‘prize draw’ surveys (unless you’re feeling very lucky).
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Survey Bods£3 upon sign up and profile completion.
Who are they? SurveyBods work with top companies that want your opinion.
Rewards: Cash and vouchers.
Amount per survey: 50p – £3.00
Min. reward threshold: £25
Our review:
The surveys usually take around 10 minutes and are pretty easy to complete. You have to be as honest as possible as they have a “strike system”. 3 bad surveys and you’re out (we like to see it as a challenge).
They’re a trusted site and well worth joining through our link for a £3 bonus when signing up. Make sure you complete your profile too. Plus their site is a lot more snazzy than a lot of the others…
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Opinion OutpostOne of the lowest payout thresholds.
Who are they? Opinion Outpost have shot up in popularity due to fast payouts and fun surveys.
Rewards: Cash and Amazon Vouchers.
Amount per survey: 50p
Min. reward threshold: £2.50
Our review:
You only need to complete 5 surveys to be due a payout and they take around 10-15 minutes each.
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iPollMobile compatibility & multiple payout opportunities.
Who are they? iPoll used to be called Survey Heads and are a US based company.
Rewards: Cash, vouchers & magazine subscriptions.
Amount per survey: 40p – £1.70
Min. reward threshold: £20
Our review:
It will take you around 15 minutes to complete a survey but the range of rewards are decent.
The only downside is that the amount of surveys tends to be quite low.
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HivingGood referral scheme.
Who are they? They run surveys on behalf of leading brands.
Rewards: Cash.
Amount per survey: ~50p
Min. reward threshold: £4
Our review:
Hiving reward you around 50 points per minute when completing surveys and you can withdraw as soon as you reach 4000 points (£4).
They also reward users for referring friends and give you points even if you are declined for a survey.
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PanelBaseEarn £3 just for signing up!
Who are they? PanelBase aren’t your average survey site. They don’t inundate you with surveys, but the ones they do send are very well paid and relevant to you!
Rewards: Cash, vouchers and prize draws.
Amount per survey: 50p – £10 (avg. ~£1.50).
Min. reward threshold: £10.
Our review:
£3 just for signing up to a site is a bit of a no-brainer… The surveys pay out higher than the industry average too which gives you the opportunity to earn some good dough!
However they do select their survey respondents very carefully so you may be sent slightly less opportunities than other sites. Just make sure you fully complete your profile to give yourself the best chance.
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MindMoverInteresting surveys on consumer products
Who are they? Mindmover allow you to share your opinions on everything from food to public transport.
Rewards: Cash.
Amount per survey: 50p – £1.50.
Min. reward threshold: £20.
Our review:
MindMover is a decent option but it can take a while to build up the points as surveys are sometime few and far between.
It takes around 15 minutes to complete each survey.
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YouGovEarn 50p per survey.
Who are they? This is a little different to others, focusing more on social issues and general interest topics. YouGov polls include topics such as politics, public affairs and commercial products. Great if you have big opinions!
Rewards: Cash and prize draws.
Amount per survey: 50p – £3.00.
Min. reward threshold: £50.
Our review:
YouGov is one of the more interesting sites to sign up to because of the kinds of surveys they conduct. Most are on current issues that are in the news and they encourage you to express your views.
Surveys can take up to 30 minutes but are not always that frequent. We received one or two a fortnight, so it can take a few months to hit the threshold. However, you get £1 just for joining and if you get your friends to sign up too you can quickly get lots more points and cash!
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SpringboardQuick, easy surveys with cash rewards.
Who are they? Springboard are a very simple survey site and their research covers all sorts of areas.
Rewards: Cash and prize draws.
Amount per survey: 25p – 75p.
Min. reward threshold: £25.
Our review:
Springboard isn’t one of the best sites if you are looking for money quickly. You get around 25p-75p per survey and we receive around 4 surveys a month, at most.
When you consider that the payment threshold is £25 it could take you while to reach your first payout. However, for the minimal amount of effort it’s worth giving them a go.
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New Vista LiveEarn £100 per year.
Who are they? A leading marketing research company who have chosen to conduct surveys online rather than traditional cold-calling and so on.
Rewards: Cash and prize draws.
Amount per survey: Around £1 a survey.
Min. reward threshold: £50.
Our review:
NewVista offers users cash for completing surveys where 1 point = £1. For some, it can take a while to reach the £50 threshold but the surveys usually take just 15 minutes (so ~£4/hour) and they pay well.
Make sure you answer questions honestly as NewVista are known for chucking in a few red herrings to make sure you’re actually thinking rather than speeding through.
