Global Test Market is one of the world’s largest survey companies with 5.5 million active users across the globe. They’ve been around since 1999 and the overall reputation has managed to stay pretty positive.
However, recently as of this year the company has slide further downhill and many are starting to wonder if Global Test Market is a scam. There have been many complaints that it is a total fraud on Survey Police, but let’s take a more in depth review of the company to see what it’s about.
How does it work? What can you expect once you join?
Just like most other survey companies, GTM is completely free to join and start taking surveys so signing up isn’t of any particular risk aside from giving out your personal information.
The real question is if they actually pay out and if you can make legitimate money from them.
Once you sign up, you’ll be invited through email to partake in surveys. They send out frequent survey opportunities compared to other companies, but the issue is the likelihood you’ll be qualified to take them. You first must go through a screening process to see if you can take a survey before each and every one.
Because these surveys are looking for a particular demographic, and because there is such a large number of people (5.5 million) using Global Test Market, some people will be screened out of up to 90% of the surveys they’re offered. There’s just a lot of competition and only a certain number of people allowed to take each one. A lot of time is wasted for many just trying to qualify, before they even get the part where they are able to get paid.
When you do qualify for surveys, they’re normally approximately 10-15 minutes long. It does vary though and sometimes they can take almost an hour to complete. Obviously the more time it will take, the more you will be rewarded.
There won’t be an unlimited stream of surveys for you to take from Test Market, especially because you’ll get screened out of the majority of them.. If you want to broaden your opportunities for surveys, you’ll have to sign up to a lot of different companies.
Product test surveys
Sometimes, you’ll be asked to do surveys which require you to test out a product or service that requires actually testing out a free trial or sample. It may sound fun, but they require your credit card information first and will automatically sign you up for the service or charge you for more products unless you make sure you cancel your account.
It’s not worth getting paid a few bucks for a survey when the company ends up charging you more money than you made taking it in the first place.
Money – how much can you make?
Global test market pays in “market points” and gives several options for redemption. The most popular being PayPal, but there’s different options like gift cards, Pandora subscriptions and even charity donations. You can also request a check by mail, but it can take months to receive it.
Here’s an idea of how their point system works for PayPal cash outs:
$10 = 240 marketpoints , $15 = 360 marketpoints, $20 = 480 marketpoints
If you have a bank account, PayPal is much easier than a mailed check because anything you earn through PayPal can be set up to direct deposit into your bank account just like a check (only much faster).
Each market point is worth approximately $0.043 when cashing out with PayPal, but the monetary conversion will vary depending on what cash out option you pick as gift cards and donations don’t require as many points.
The real kicker with this is you need a minimum of 1,000 market points to even cash out, and with PayPal it’s a minimum of 1,200 points, which would equal $50.
The average survey is 22 points, and takes an average of 10 – 15 minutes. Remember each point is worth only a little over 4 cents, so the average survey earns you less than a dollar!
If you manage to do 4 per hour, that’s $4 an hour or even less when you figure in screening time.
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How long will it take to earn 1,200 points?
This will vary obviously, but the average user takes at least a few months to accumulate this many points. Some claim they earn it every month, others every few months and then the vast majority of people will never stick around long enough to accumulated the full 1,200 points.
Referrals
Another way to earn marketpoints is to refer others to Global Test Market. You earn 20 points per referral, which equals about $0.86.
Global Test Market complaints
As of this year, there have been many many complaints on Survey Police about how the quality of their service has gone way down. They lowered the market point worth by nearly 1 cent (went from 5 cents to just over 4 per point) and also increased the cashout threshold.
They’re screening people out of surveys after they’ve nearly taken the entire thing and have been shutting down accounts for “false information” with no proof and no explanation.
Their customer service is also known to be pretty horrible, with automated replies that don’t help or no response at all.
I would be hesitant to devote so much time to a company for so little money, especially if there’s a possibility they could shut down your account without explanation.
Final advice – Is it really worth your time?
[wp-review]While Global Test Market may not be a blantent scam like Get Cash For Surveys, their behavior in recent months has been slightly questionable, but having such the large number of active users that they do I can see there will obviously be some issues.
I’ve said this time and time again about various survey sites, but what all comes down to is asking yourself if all the time you spend is actually worth it.
You’re going to have to spend a lot of time doing extremely boring tasks that may or may not earn you $50 in a few months. For all the time you spend doing it, you could be spending your time more wisely earning a lot more money in the end.
I’ve been with GTM for a couple of years. What really irritates me is the requirement to reach 1000 points although the minimum reward is only about 160-170. Unfortunately many online survey companies have similar rules, even the big and well known ones like YouGov,
I would not call GTM a scam, however I do think they exploit survey takers.
Yeah I know, they definitely exploit their survey takers. You can work hard and spend many many hours trying to earn up those 1,000 points but if you could have easily earned that $50 in a short afternoon of doing some real work was it worth all the effort and months spent trying to reach it? Most people give up before they ever reach the 1,000 cashout. I just dont have the time for that and like to recommend people spend their time in a way that will pay off much better.