Program: Cashback Research
Website: cashbackresearch.com
Price: Free
Rank: 70/100 – this survey site isn’t any type of scam, and will pay you minimal profit if you are able to earn the $30 minimum required for payout. Like their slogan says, you won’t get rich but you will get paid – it’s true. The overall payment isn’t worth the effort, though, as you will most likely only make a few bucks.
View my #1 recommendation for making money online here
Cashback Research has been around since 2007 and currently has over 1.5 million members. With that type of history, you may think it is an awesome opportunity to earn some easy cash online. But is it really a great work at home “job” or all just hype? Let me explain the details within this review.
How do you earn money?
Cashback Research is a pretty standard survey company that pays money for taking mostly third party surveys. In other words, it’s basically a portal to other survey companies in which you will have to sign up with in order to take the surveys.
You’ll get paid $10 if you sign up with at least 12 partner companies (you can choose from their list). Chances are you’ve already heard of most of the companies on the list – Panda Research, Swagbucks, and Inbox Dollars – just to name a few.
You’ll also receive an easy $2.50 for filling out your profile surveys.
While those can get you an easy $12.50 – you’re going to have to earn at least $30 before you can cash out, and that last $17.50 can be very time consuming for most people considering each survey is only worth a few cents or maybe a few dollars at best. The $75 survey claim isn’t very realistic – the reality is you’re going to be working for far less than minimum wage.
How do you get paid?
The payment is either via PayPal or gift cards. You have to reach a $30 minimum to cashout your points.
Pros vs Cons of Cashback Research
Pros:
- It’s entirely free to join, and there aren’t any upsells
- You get $2.50 just for filling out your profile surveys
- It’s relatively easy to do
Cons:
Extremely low pay
Sure, companies may be willing to pay people for their opinions, but in 99% of cases it’s going to be a few cents or a couple of bucks. The earn up to $75 per survey! claim they like to use is highly misleading, because the vast majority of people are never going to be offered a survey paying that much, and even if they are they probably won’t qualify to take it.
The claim
The reality
Not an unlimited opportunity
While even if you’re willing to accept the fact you won’t get paid very much, another downside is there’s an extremely limited amount available to take. If you’ve never signed up for a survey company before, you may think from the advertising you could sit and take surveys all day long if you wanted to, but it just doesn’t work out like that.
I can’t speak for everybody, but I can only go by my personal experience and what I’ve heard others say. I have gotten rejected from at least 90% of surveys I’ve ever tried to take, and the surveys offered by Cashback Research were no exception.
The issue is, each survey is looking for a particular demographic, and often times you won’t fit it. For example, a survey about migraines may be looking for women in their 30’s who live in a particular area, or have kids.
No matter what your demographics are, you won’t be able to sit online all day and take an endless amount of surveys. There isn’t any type of auto screening before a survey is given, you have to spend a considerable amount of time, often times up to 10 minutes, to go through questions that most likely will screen you out from the survey before it even begins.
While certain people may have better luck than others, most will find it quite difficult to even find a few surveys they’ll be eligible for.
$30 is too high for a payment point
Because it takes so long to earn any type of money with this website, it’s unfair to set the minimum cashout requirement so high. Most other survey sites are set at $20, and in my opinion, they should have the minimum be much lower, or have no requirement. If someone takes the time to do surveys and earns $29, but never is able to earn that extra $1 to reach the limit, they will never get paid for their time.
Major spam
Signing up for CR and other companies opens the door to receive not only spam through your email, but sometimes even unwanted phone calls. Make sure you always use a special email for signing up with these companies, and avoid giving out your phone number.
Final opinion – Why I don’t recommend it
While Cashback Research isn’t a scam, I find it not worth the time or effort. Their slogan states you won’t get rich, and that couldn’t be closer to the truth. Most surveys are only worth a few cents or a couple of bucks, and most people find they’ll only earn a few bucks per hour, at best. Good luck trying to find that $75 survey! I’m sure it exists, somewhere, but more than likely you’ll never get it.
If you’re okay with only making a couple of bucks per hour and find it a fun hobby, then by all means go for it. But for those looking for a real income opportunity, this company is no solution.
Cashback Research Summary
Program: Cashback Research
Website: cashbackresearch.com
Price: Free
Rank: 70/100
Verdict – Overall a legit survey program, but you really won’t get paid much at all. Surveys are only worth pennies and you’ll get paid a few bucks per hour at best, far less than minimum wage. If you’re looking for a serious income opportunity CR is not the best choice.
Gina says
You’re such a great writer Wendy. You’re the reason I came across WA through your social anxiety post. So thank you so so much!
Anyways, I like to do so many money making things on the side like other online work, Swagbucks..etc. So maybe I’ll try this out even if it takes forever to get to the $30. Any money is worth making to build my online business! But thanks for the honesty.
Wendy says
Aww thank you so much Gina, I really appreciate it and I am glad I could connect with you through that post. I wrote it from my heart and it seems to have made an impression on quite a few people.
If you want to try it then go for it! 🙂
I’ve actually signed up for it in the past and couldn’t make nearly enough for the payout!
If these companies paid people no matter how little they earned, or at least set the bar way lower for payment, I think my opinion would be much more positive.. but the fact that most people, like you, have difficulty reaching the minimum payment and end up doing all this work for nothing makes them much less appealing.
Wow! Thanks for your great review! I was considering joining Cashback Research, but now I realize my time can be better spent on other online opportunities. Are you familiar with MySurvey? If so, what are your thoughts? Are there any survey companies that you do recommend? BY the way I love your site, very easy on the eyes!
I have never used MySurvey but I can check it out. I think PaidViewPoint and Swagbucks would be the ones I’d recommend the most.
I agree with you 99% about surveys – the other 1% I would only give the 60/100 Do people honestly do these and make $30! Surely not, not only is it time consuming it’s monotonous, boring, brain deadening and I hope your review manages to put people off. If more money was spent on market research then maybe figures would be more realistic.
Ahh harsh! But actually I understand where you’re coming from on the ranking because it is a waste of time in the end. I’m sure some people may be able to earn the $30 but 95% won’t! And I totally agree – it’s monotonous boring, brain deadening for sure.
Very interesting post, I have been wondering for years on different methods of making money online. Obviously some are scam, and obviously some are legit. However many of them, like you say, pay out very little money. Not great. Im glad you reviewed this service, ill make sure not to use it.
Thanks, Harry
Yeah I wouldn’t recommend it! There are a surprising number of people who use various survey programs to earn extra income or gift cards, but they all I can think is that they must spend so much time on it. My experience has been horrible and I’ve talked to many people who say the same… they just are not worth it!
Wendy – I am so glad I read your report about Cashback Research and the survey market in general. I am researching ways to make extra money from home. I am a single dad and need to find something I can do before the kids get up or after they go to bed. I have thought about something like this but had some concerns about the companies being legit and if I was really going to make any money vs. the time I would be putting in.
The affiliate marketing info you provided is also helpful. I like to write and blog so maybe I can look at that as an extra income opportunity.
Most survey companies will pay you but there are way better ways to spend your time. Affiliate markeing is a great thing for newbies and way more profitable than any survey website! Definitely check it out 🙂
Hi there Wendy,
This review reminds me a little bit about Amazon Mechanical Turk – you get paid pennies for trivial task. While waiting for approval, I actually attempted on some of the ‘task’ – reading a list of receipts to be exact.
Took me 20 minutes, with some errors to earn like 20 cents and I felt very counterproductive. Who would do this kind of thing for the long term?
Anyways, I digress. My main point is, if you have to spend that much amount of time online, you are better of producing content such as product reviews that have more potential to convert at a higher value.
That has always been my question when people talk about how great programs like this are. It just takes such an enormous amount of time and effort to make a few bucks, why not pull your effort into something that will actually pay off?
Well the earn up to $75 per survey claim they like to use is super-misleading but unfortunately a lot of these opinion based companies go down that route these days. The more traditional sites will always state what each top survey is going for on their site – usually no more than a dollar on the best of days. Great review!
Yeah very true! Maybe 1 out of 10,000 is $75… the rest are a few bucks if you’re lucky.
Hello Wendy. Oh No! I thought when I saw your article – yet another Survey Company offering to make you rich.
Of course it wasn’t and your review was fair enough.
So many people get involved in these type of ‘Make Money Online’ opportunities it’s a wonder there’s any left to try to make an honest buck.
I took a survey on the street only yesterday. It took about 5 minutes and I got a £10 ($15) voucher for my trouble.
This is the type of survey I like and will stick to and I advise everyone else to do the same.
Have a great day Wendy.
Robert Allan
Wow, nice! Yeah that is definitely the type of survey I’d want to do as well – something actually worth your time! I have never been offered a survey on the street, but then again I live in the boondocks lol
Wendy you seriously nailed it. You wouldn’t even believe the number of survey sites I am registered with. Funny thing is, you register with one and as you stated, somehow end up registered for a few partner sites. Have you ever tried the Swagbucks? I have it now and just wondering if its worth it. Of course I don’t expect to get rich but with their search engine add on I am able to occasionally score a E-gift card.
Yeah I have tried Swagbucks, I think it is one of the better GPT sites out there. Yes I think you could occassionally gather a gift card with the search engine add on, but the downside is you need to install the toolbar and who knows what type of spyware that puts on your computer. I’m just weird about that though, but if it doesn’t bother you then I would recommend signing up 🙂
Wow! What an informative post! I will definitely not sign up for Cashback Rewards. The amount of bonus cash offers are too little compared to what they will get. The advertisement from the company is very misleading too. $75 per survey? The reality which you have posted is really an eye-opener. Well, although it is not actually a scam, I think it is just a waste of time.
Yeah, I think there actually are surveys that are $75, so they can say it without lying, but it’s VERY misleading since they are few and far between. Even if you stumble across one, the chances you would qualify would be slim.
Wow, a lot of really great information here! Thanks for saving me valuable time – I will NOT be using Cashback Research as it does not sound worth it. I have a question though – what does the 70/100 ranking mean exactly?
Yeah definitely not worth it if you ask me. The ranking is simply the grade I assign to every program/product I review on this website. If a program is a complete a total scam, it gets a 0 , if something is perfect, it gets 100 (which I have yet to find!). Generally at home survey sites (if they’re legit) I rank anywhere between 70 – 80 points. This is because you can actually earn money and it’s not any type of scam (plus, they’re free to join)… but the headache and time you have to go through to get just a very minimal amount of money (literally just a few bucks) makes them time wasters. There are just so many more productive ways to spend your time, especially if you’re trying to make money!