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Survey Junkie is one of the higher-paying online rewards sites out there. Since it pays so well, we’ve decided to put together a Survey Junkie review.
I’m going to give you the full breakdown. You’ll learn how much you can earn, whether it’s worth your time and find the answer to the question: “Is Survey Junkie legit or scam?”
Generally, I’m not particularly keen on taking online surveys as a way to make money due to their tedious work.
However, with over 3 million users across the globe and decent earnings, I couldn’t pass up a survey junkie review.
The best part?
It’s 100% FREE to join.
Table of Contents
What Is Survey Junkie?
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Survey Junkie is a free rewards program that pays you to take online surveys and is currently one of the most popular websites of its kind. The answers you provide are used to help companies improve their products and services.
The reason you’re paid is because companies pay Survey Junkie in exchange for the data you provide. Instead of keeping it all for themselves, they give a portion of it back to you.
All of the answers that you provide are kept completely anonymous, so there’s absolutely no way someone can trace an answer back to you.
Each time you complete a survey you receive a certain number of points. These points can be exchanged for cash prizes such as gift cards to popular retailers or direct deposits to PayPal.
In the past, Survey Junkie was known for spamming your inbox with survey offers. However, due to the massive amount of complaints that they received, they’ve refrained from doing this. It’s 100% FREE to register.
Pros & Cons Of Survey Junkie
Here’s a quick list of the pros and cons of what Survey Junkie has to offer:
Pros
- There’s absolutely no cost to join. Never register for a survey site that asks you for cash
- Points can be exchanged for both cash to PayPal and for gift cards
- Your information will go toward helping companies improve their products and services
- Answers that you provide are kept completely anonymous
- Potential for high earnings (depends on your demographics)
- Registration bonus of $.25 cents
- If you’re not eligible for a survey, you’re still given points
Cons
- Depending on numerous factors, the payout also has the potential to be quite low
- Sometimes you’ll be a few questions in only to find out that you aren’t eligible for a survey
- Minimum balance of $10 USD needed for Payout
- Only users from the United States, Canada and Australia can participate with plans to expand
- Can be time-consuming and tedious if you take low-paying surveys
In What Countries Can I Use Survey Junkie?
Right now Survey Junkie is only available in the United States, Canada and Australia, but with plans to expand to the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
The reason for their limited country selection is because they want to provide accurate information for their clients. Most of the companies they work with operate out of these countries.
If they were to allow anyone to take the survey, the data they provide wouldn’t be useful.
Users from the United States and Canada will make the most money, but this doesn’t mean that the Australians or other countries should back out. You can still make a decent amount of money no matter where you are.
How Much Can I Make With Survey Junkie?
The currency that Survey Junkie uses is a point system with 100 points equivalent to $1 USD. The amount you can earn depends on a number of factors:
- How many surveys you decide to take
- Your profile information
- Location
- Eligibility
How Many Surveys You Should Take
Survey Junkie wants their users to take only a few surveys per day. While you can obviously take more than this, it might not be worth your time since you’ll only be left with low-paying surveys once the high-paying ones run out.
The reason Survey Junkie doesn’t want you to do this is because users who take many surveys in one sitting tend to rush through them and provide inaccurate information.
In short, their main goal is to get quality survey takers so that companies are provided with the most legitimate information given. For this reason, we suggest only taking a maximum of 5 per day.
Furthermore, we’ve found that the more surveys you take, the higher the quality of surveys you’ll receive in the future. By consistently taking a minimum of 1 – 2 a day, you’ll be seen as a frequent survey taker and be rewarded for your efforts.
Your Profile Information
It’s important that you fill out your profile as accurately as possible. The surveys you are given are based on your preferences that you fill-out when you first create an account. Not only that, but Survey Junkie will check to see if your answers are consistent with one another.
If you end up providing different answers for similar questions, it is possible that they’ll take notice and either suspend your account or stop supplying you with new surveys.
Location
As mentioned above, users from the US and Canada will make the most money. However, Australian users can still make a decent hourly rate. If you have access to Survey Junkie, we highly suggest becoming a member since it’s one of the highest paying survey sites out there.
Eligibility
One of the downsides about Survey Junkie is the eligibility requirements for taking a survey. Although they provide you surveys based on your profile information, this doesn’t mean that you’re able to complete each survey successfully.
For example, sometimes you’ll be taking a survey a few questions in only to find out that you’re not eligible. This is because they might not want you to finish the survey based on the first few answers that you provide.
Thankfully, they tend to usually do this within the first couple of questions. If you end up being ineligible for a survey, they’ll tell you quickly as to not waste your time.
The great thing about Survey Junkie? You’re given a few points if you’re not eligible for a survey. According to their statistics, they typically find that on average users qualify for 1 out of 4 surveys.
So How Much Can I Earn?
In the past, Survey Junkie would claim that you could make $20+ per hour taking surveys online. However, they’ve changed quite a bit. Now they’re honest about their earnings, stating you can only make around $1 – $3 per survey.
For me personally, I’ve found that you can make anywhere from $5 – $12 per hour with Survey Junkie. If you want to earn at a rate closer to $12 per hour, stick to higher-paying surveys that can be completed in a short amount of time.
This means that you won’t actually be spending that much time on the site. There’s a limit to the amount of higher-paying surveys they provide.
If you end up taking every survey that comes across your way, you’ll be on the lower-end earning closer to $5 per hour.
For this reason, stick to the higher-paying ones, even if there’s only a few. Otherwise, it’s not worth your time. Logging-in once or twice a day to check for new survey opportunities is a great way to earn some cash.
Every once in a while I’ll find that I can take a 300 point survey ($3 USD) that will only take 10 minutes! Unfortunately, not all surveys are like this. Expect each survey to take anywhere from 5-20 minutes with the earnings of $1 – $3 per survey.
Keep in mind that it’s important to take surveys consistently. If Survey Junkie notices that you’re logging-in daily to take surveys, they’re more likely to provide with more opportunities to earn cash.
How Do I Get More Higher-Paying Surveys?
Want a higher payout? Take more surveys.
Even if you don’t earn that much at first, Survey Junkie will reward you for being a frequent survey taker. Take 1 – 2 surveys a day for a week and you’ll be given surveys that pay closer to the $3 range that only take about 10 – 20 minutes to complete.
This is how you get closer to making around $12 per hour, and sometimes I’ve earned at a rate of roughly $18 per hour.
Is Survey Junkie A Scam Or Legit?
The only thing that really bothers me about Survey Junkie is that in the past they would constantly promote themselves as one of the best survey sites on the web. As mentioned above, they’ve come a long way.
They no longer send spammy emails. They know longer say you can easily make $20 per hour. No more bombardment of free-trial offers in hopes that you’ll sign-up. In short, Survey Junkie is no longer “scammy” like it once was.
So is Survey Junkie legit, or is Survey Junkie a scam? From my personal experience, Survey Junkie is a real survey site. They’ve always paid me on time and have paid me the full amount. Expect around 1 – 3 days to receive your payment with a maximum wait of 7 days.
Furthermore, they have an A+ rating from the BBB, a great sign for any rewards site. Keep in mind that when looking up their reviews on BBB, Survey Junkie is listed as Blue Media Ventures, Inc.
If you’ve found that Survey Junkie is a scam and haven’t received any payouts, please let us know in the comments below.
How Do I Get Started With Survey Junkie?
Getting started with Survey Junkie is incredibly simple and it’s 100% FREE to join. In order to make sure you don’t miss any details, we’re going to break the registration process into 5 easy steps.
1. Register.
You can register for a free Survey Junkie account by clicking this link here. All you will need to fill out is your email and to create a password. You get a free $.25 cent bonus just for registering as a new user.
2. Fill out your online profile.
Although this isn’t required, we highly recommend filling out your online profile as the very first thing you do. It only takes a couple of minutes and gives you 50 points.
Furthermore, you’re more likely to have more surveys in the future by filling it out. Once you finish, be sure to also go to your Profiles section to fill out more information about yourself and receive even more surveys.
3. Take surveys.
As mentioned above, we suggest only taking surveys that are on the higher end. This is because a lot of the lower-paying surveys won’t be worth your time. By taking the highest-paying surveys you can expect to earn at least $9 – $10 per hour.
4. Redeem your points for cash.
Once your cash reaches a minimum balance of 1,000 points ($10 USD), you can exchange them for cash prizes such as gift cards and direct deposits to PayPal.
Last time I checked, you could either choose Amazon or Target gift cards. However, keep in mind that these offers may change. I’ve personally never had a missed or late payment from Survey Junkie.
What Are Some Other High-Paying Online Survey Sites?
Just because you run out of high-paying surveys with Survey Junkie doesn’t mean that you have to stop there. Here are 3 other high-paying online survey sites that we recommend.
1. Vindale Research
- Registration Bonus: $1
- Join Vindale Research
Vindale Research starts off with a $1 sign-up bonus. The great thing I love about this survey site is that I never tend to run out of surveys to participate in. Sometimes I can even take the same survey multiple times per day.
When you stick to the higher-paying surveys with Vindale Research, you can expect to earn anywhere between $10 – $15 per hour, with $10 per hour being more common.
Sometimes you’ll find that there are surveys that pay up to $50, but these are less common and usually take a few hours to complete. These longer surveys are usually given to more experienced users.
Read our full Vindale Research Review
2. PointClub
- Registration Bonus: $5
- Join PointClub
PointClub is one of the best online survey sites around due to their $5 registration bonus and high-paying surveys. It’s not uncommon for users to earn up to $15 per hour.
Unlike Survey Junkie, most of their surveys aren’t a waste of time. Furthermore, you never have to enter a survey only to find out that you’re ineligible a few questions in. Once you start it, you’ll always be able to finish it.
In order to maximize your earnings with PointClub, you’ll need to sign-in once a day. For every 5 consecutive days that you log-in your account, you get a 10% bonus on all earnings with a cap of 100%.
Read our full PointClub Review
3. Prolific Academic
- Registration Bonus: None
- Join Prolific Academic
Prolific Academic is by far one of my favorite rewards sites around. You get paid to participate in online research studies. Not only are these studies incredibly interesting, but you also get paid extremely well, with some studies paying you up to $30 per hour.
There won’t be a wide variety of offers studies available, but be sure to grab them when they are. You don’t want them to go away due to a limited amount of participants.
They also have a small bonus for each time you refer a friend. If you’re looking for a well-paying rewards site, we definitely suggest Prolific Academic.
4. Springboard America
- Registration Bonus: None
- Join Springboard America
Springboard America is probably the closest survey site it gets to when it comes to matching Survey Junkie’s payout rate. While they do have a lot of low-paying surveys, they also come equipped with plenty of high-paying ones.
The great thing about Springboard America is that just by completing surveys, you’re automatically entered into their prize drawings. Although they’re difficult to win, you’re at least given a chance.
I’ve found that at most, I can make a maximum of $18 per hour with Springboard America (sticking to well-paying surveys). However, a more accurate hovers around $12 per hour.
Like Survey Junkie, you can’t make a full-time living off of this. If you only stick to high-paying surveys that give you at least $10 per hour or more, you might be only to take one per day.
5. Swagbucks
- Registration Bonus: $5 – $10 (changes frequently)
- Join Swagbucks
Although Swagbucks isn’t the highest paying survey site around, I still find that sometimes I can still make around $10 per hour taking surveys.
Not only that, but Swagbucks also pays you for things you normally do on a daily basis. Earn cash watching videos, playing games, shopping online, clipping coupons, taking polls and more.
If you’re looking for more than just a survey site, Swagbucks is a good next choice. When you refer a friend, you earn 10% of all of their earnings for life.
Read our full Swagbucks Review
What Do Others Have To Say About Survey Junkie?
Just because we say that Survey Junkie isn’t a scam, don’t entirely take our word for it. Here’s a quick list of other sites that give Survey Junkie reviews:
- FullTimeJobFromHome gives Survey Junkie only 3 out of 5 stars. They state that Survey Junkie has become less scammy over the years. However, they find the lack of surveys concerning and prefer other survey sites.
- Opportunity Checker gives props to the survey site and states that you can earn quite a bit of money. In any case, use diligence and caution before moving forward.
Are There Better Ways To Earn Money Online?
In short, the answer is yes. There are much better ways to earn money online. Even though they can take a while to build up, you can receive much more than you would with Survey Junkie.
This blog currently earns money through advertising and affiliates. I started this site out of pure interest, trying to help those make and save money in weird and unique ways that most have never heard of.
With consistent effort and through the joy of writing, I was able to create a following and eventually earn a living through FFL – and you can do the same.
I even wrote up 7 steps on how to create a successful personal finance blog. While this article caters to personal finance, any topic will work.
As long as you have a passion for what you’re writing, you’re bound to be more successful than you think. You can also check out 5 reasons to start a blog.
It takes only a second to have a blog up and running. We suggest using NameCheap for domain registration since they’re reliable and affordable.
For hosting, we suggest Bluehost. They can get a year’s worth of hosting for $3.95/month and a free domain name for new members. Calculating this out turns out to be less than $50 per year to run a blog.
If at any time you need any help setting up a site or otherwise, feel free to email me personally – I’d love to help out!
Final Thoughts
Survey Junkie is great for those who want to make a couple of extra dollars here and there. I personally find it great for those who are sitting in the office and have a few spare minutes on their hand.
Remember, we only suggest that you take the high-paying surveys that take a minimal amount of time and effort. Otherwise, you’ll be making pennies on the dollar and will quickly get burnt out with lower-paying surveys.
Use other survey sites in conjunction with Survey Junkie to maximize your income. By placing all of your time into Survey Junkie, you’re not maximizing your survey income to the fullest.
Survey Junkie is definitely not a scam! While they may have been a bit iffy in the past, they’ve come a long way, and are now one of the more legit websites on the web.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our Survey Junkie review. If you’ve used this survey site and would like to share any of your personal opinions on the site, feel free to leave them down below. We’d love to hear about them. Thanks for reading and happy frugaling!
