Which survey sites and apps to avoid in the UK
Surveys are an effective way to make some extra money, of that there is no doubt. Each year I make hundreds of pounds from completing surveys online in my spare time. The good news is that there is a tonne of surveys available that you can complete either online or on your phone.
Many of these are a waste of time and should be avoided. Here is my list of all the survey sites and apps to avoid in the UK. Your time is worth more than that much more. Equally it is not as if you must settle for poor survey options there are much better ones out there, of which there is plenty of surveys to do. Check out some of the best here.
The thing is I used to use many of these sites, so either I have understood something clearly at last and seen better efficient ways of making money online with related sites, or these sites have got progressively worse. My gut reaction is both, but certainly more of the latter.
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Curious cat
Curious cat is one that I am ashamed to say is now pretty rubbish, a couple of years ago I made couple of hundred pound a year with this site. It is a mobile app, and its appeal because of that was great. You could complete surveys quickly whilst on the move, they would tell you the time it would take and the reward, and it was pretty accurate.
Now you just must look at their offerings on their app. They are offering an absolute pittance for your time, and your time is worth so much more than this. What is worse is if you do have luck getting on any good surveys, (the pizza ones offer the best return) Then chances are you will get screened out, often towards the end or after already wasting 5 minutes of your time.
The redeeming features last year was often surveys (the ones with a cat face) you could set it to watch an app and get a handsome reward a pound at a time – but they seem to have gone now.
You can cash out via PayPal and only need to get to a pound, but you will have to go on a soul crushing journey to be making any serious money.
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Atta poll
Atta poll is another that used to be fantastic, and now is remarkably similar to curious cat. If you used to get screened out which was usually quickly you would at least get a penny. Now again same old surveys that offer extraordinarily little reward for your money.
The most annoying thing I find about Atta poll, is you see it advertised blooming everywhere, because referrers get a measly forty pence when they share it with people. So, people flog this dead horse even though it is useless.
You can withdraw to PayPal for a small amount, but again your time is worth so much more than this survey app. It will be the same story of poor reward for your time, screen outs all over the place. They also been known to ban quite readily as well, so then all your hard, and I mean challenging work will go to waste.
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Qmee
Qmee is a survey site and app, that I used to love, it was one of the first that I used to make extra money online. It has been around for yonks. Probably has retained many loyal members, but they are now treating those loyal members with incredible disdain.
I will be honest the survey rewards for qmee sometimes, can be fairly good, but the amount you will have to fight through to get one that doesn’t screen you out at the end, or accuse you of cheating, it will certainly not be worth it.
Guess what again they have a promising referral program, so you will see it advocated by many online as well.
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Swagbucks
There was a time that Swagbucks was the GOAT of my online money earning life, the surveys I would sit for hours raking up those points to get Swagbucks that I would exchange for PayPal cash. They would have so many different surveys available, the amounts would be listed and had a good (not great) rate of pay.
On top of that they had lots of other really effortless ways of making extra money online and still do with games. (Although I much prefer inbox pounds now as their rate of pay and general service for earning from mobile games is better – Check my recent successes here)
Their support was also fantastic if I ever had a survey that booted me right at the end, I would submit a support request and get paid the full amount. Perhaps did this a little too much as then they clamped down.
I have not tried Swagbucks surveys for a while now, but the last time I did their surveys were so repetitive long, weakened rewards, so many screen outs, and you fail one of their stupid checks you get banned pretty easily.
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Branded surveys
This has and always will be a terrible survey site, the screen outs with this one is just utterly horrendous, so many of them. You would really have to plough through and grind to do these surveys.
I did get paid a few times with them but was not worth it.
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Toluna
Toluna is one that has dropped off my radar, I used to be on it daily, doing a decent number of surveys. Often you would get invited to big rewarding product tests or something similar but lately to be honest when I tried them the surveys were again littered with lots of screen outs. Then when you calculate the reward points for each survey, they turn out to be not worth it at all.
Often surveys reward you about 1600-2000 points. With a swift calculation this works out to be a measly twenty-nine pence – thirty six pence and this is not worth a 15-20-minute survey. On top of this you need to get to a staggering 190,000 (£35) This makes it not worth it
But do not despair some survey companies are worth it.
There are a few survey companies that are worth their time. I am normally happy if a survey company offers an hourly rate of £10-12 an hour. Sites such as prolific, and YLive, are certainly worth the time.
Prolific you do need to be quick with the studies when they come and need to ensure do not mess up the authenticity checks as otherwise will not get paid and potentially banned. But do not mind this because you are being paid a fair amount. Similarly, for YLive, you need to ensure you pay attention. All of their surveys pay £1 for 5 minutes and often their studies are less..
There are two further survey companies that are worth their time. Lifepoints, which does not have as good a rate of pay, but better than the list we have talked about earlier. Much less likely for screen outs, and some good higher paying options.
Panel base as well is a fantastic survey site, which has an excellent rate of pay, and also the opportunity for much bigger studies, can withdraw via bacs transfer or vouchers once reach £10
Ultimately surveys are a good way of making extra money online, they can be quick easy, done in spare time, whilst multiasking and switching off. But surveys alone can certainly be a slog.
Definitely look into some other methods into making some extra money online with often much better rates of pay and money for your time. Find what works for you, and this may be different at different times.
