Is Survey Junkie Legit? - Surviving After College

Product: Survey Junkie
Price: Free
Website: surveyjunkie.com
Summary: this program has drastically improved its platform within the past couple of years, but it still won’t earn you a lot of money. Check out how I’ve been earning money online since 2013, no surveys involved

Introduction – Is Survey Junkie legit or will they scam you?

Survey Junkie is completely legitimate 100% free (you should never pay to access survey sites). The only thing you are giving up is your time and personal information, so if you don’t mind the trade off then you don’t have much to worry about.

One thing to note – you’ve heard that online survey taking is a scam, it’s probably because there are a lot of scams that claim to be survey taking sites (see: Get Cash for Surveys). Programs like these will make you pay a fee for access to survey site lists, but are basically just portals to endless upsells for services that are entirely unrelated to online survey taking.

What’s unique about this survey platform?

Survey Junkie has come a long way in the past few years. The cool thing is you can actually earn quite a few points just by signing up (which is entirely free), filling out your profile and completing some interest surveys. These steps alone can earn you a few hundred points, and you only need 1,000 to cash out.

Joining and taking surveys is pretty self explanatory as they totally revamped their system and made it super easy for everyone. Here are a few notable features of Survey Junkie:

Incredibly user friendly platform and surveys

They’ve really done a lot to make their platform incredibly friendly for even the most basic internet users. The surveys are well designed, easy on the eyes and easy to take.

Completely customize your profile for better matched survey opportunities

The more time you spend completing your full profile, the better your chances of surveys that will be a match to you. This eliminates all the time you might otherwise spend trying to qualify for surveys that aren’t catered to your demographic.

Low cash out minimum

The cash out minimum is $10, which is 1,000 points. This is relatively low compared to other platforms.

Your points are in your account immediately after you complete surveys

This is better than other companies that have a waiting period before you will see any points.

You get points for surveys even if you don’t qualify for them

If you’ve ever taken online surveys before, you know how frustrating it can be spending 5-10 minutes taking the initial questions only to get kicked out for not qualifying. The good thing about Survey Junkie is even if you end up not qualifying, they will reward you some points for your time. It isn’t the full amount you would get for taking the survey, but it’s better than nothing at all.

Information not shared with third parties

Translation – you shouldn’t get a ton of spam email like you would with some other survey companies (Although I’d still recommend using a different email address for online survey sites).

Can cash out with PayPal or Amazon gift cards (and others)

What are the Cons of the program?

Even with the customized profiles, you still might get surveys you don’t qualify for which can be wasted time
The participation points given for surveys you don’t qualify for is pretty low
Takes awhile to accumulate the $10 minimum for cash out
May still get excessive emails, so be sure to use a designated email address for online surveys

Will you earn the big bucks with Survey Junkie?

While you definitely can earn some easy cash (or gift cards) by completing some surveys here, you aren’t going to make any income to replace a job. It is more of a fun sort of hobby that happens to earn you a few extra bucks here and there. As long as that is your mind set when signing up for a program like this, you shouldn’t be disappointed.

So what sort of rewards are possible?

You can choose to cash out directly with PayPal or gift cards, like from Amazon.

PayPal can be connected to your bank account or you can choose to pay for many things online directly with PayPal, so it is basically like a cash payment.

Gift cards are another option, like from Amazon for example. Amazon sells basically everything so you can’t go wrong with that either!

The endless pry for information

Updated 10/13/17 – They no longer operate like this, the sign up process is seamless and you aren’t directed to join countless additional survey companies, it is all directly within Survey Junkie. They also don’t sell your info to third parties so you won’t have to deal with endless junk mail.

One of the problems I ran into when taking online surveys is they never stop asking for your information. For every new survey company you sign up for, you’ll need to provide all your personal details all over again, including full name, email, phone number, birthdate, address, as well as questions about your household income.

~~It makes me a little uncomfortable providing this information to companies who I know will turn around and sell my contact details (like phone number and email address) to others.~~

I didn’t really give it a second though when I first started, but soon my email was overflowing with 100’s of junk mail on a daily basis and my cell phone would ring several times per day with sales calls… (which only started after I gave my number out to these survey sites). Coincidence? I think not!

~~It got so bad I actually had to change my phone number.~~

~~This is why it’s important to open up a new email account specifically for your survey accounts. That way you don’t have to deal with the mass amounts of junk that’ll get sent your way.~~

As for the phone number issue, not all of the sites ask for it so I’d recommend shying away from the ones who do. As for the address, if you’re really concerned about privacy, you can always open up a P.O. box. But I haven’t had any issues with them sending junk mail to my house address.

Final Opinion – Should you Join Survey Junkie?

Survey Junkie isn’t a scam, it’s 100% free and you can actually cash out prizes for taking surveys. You can easily take surveys that are customized to your profile and earn rewards just for signing up and doing some basic tasks.

If you like to do this sort of thing for fun, then there is nothing wrong with that. But remember, no matter how legit a survey site is, it’s never going to earn you much money.