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Although I like to save money to get ahead financially, it sometimes gets to a point where there’s only so much you can cut back. Sometimes you need to make extra money, and this is one way to do that. In this Swagbucks review, we’ll take a look at why Swagbucks is one of the best (and easiest) ways to earn money online.
Swagbucks Overview
Swagbucks is a free online rewards program that will pay you for completing some basic tasks.
If you haven’t heard of Swagbucks, you should know they are not exactly a new company. Swagbucks and other survey sites have been around for a while now.
The company was founded all the way back in 2008 and is based in El Segundo, CA. According to the Swagbucks website, it has paid out more than $400 million to users.
The Swagbucks parent company is Prodege, a marketing company that is also based in El Segundo. Note that Swagbucks is completely free to join; all it takes is a little bit of your time to start earning money.
Getting Started
Swagbucks is a simple way to earn cash. As mentioned, it’s completely free to use, and signing up only takes a couple of minutes.
Once you enter your name, password, and email address, you’ll be off to the races! You can even sign up using Facebook to make it even quicker.
Swag Codes/Sign-Up Codes
Swagbucks has special codes you can use when signing up, which it endearingly calls “Swag Codes.” Swag Codes are really just promo codes that Swagbucks gives out in a variety of places, including social media and on its own site.
There are also sign-up codes that people like yours truly can offer to anyone who signs up. If you use my Swagbucks link, you’ll get $10 just for signing up!
According to this help article, sign-up codes and Swag Codes are one and the same. Usually, they will allow you to earn a small bonus like $5 or $10 for completing certain tasks, or to claim a discount.
Swag Codes can be entered either while signing up or at any time while logged in to the site. Note that while they can be entered while signing up, you don’t need a Swag Code to sign up for Swagbucks.
You may find sites that will list Swag Codes, but they are usually only valid for a few hours. As a result, I am not going to list them here because that would be nearly impossible to maintain.
How to Earn Swagbucks
It’s easy to earn money with Swagbucks. For instance, once you have logged in to your Swagbucks account, you will immediately see a list of online surveys and how much they pay:
As you can see, these might take a while to complete, depending on the survey.
There are several other ways to earn Swagbucks, too. You can earn them by doing any of the following:
- Taking surveys
- Shop online
- Watching videos with Swagbucks Watch
- Searching the internet with the Swagbucks search engine
- Playing games
Thanks to this long list, you can earn SBs in a variety of ways, including when holiday shopping or when doing online shopping in general.
The reason I included “other tasks” in this list is because one of the ways Swagbucks lists to earn is Swagbucks Discover; however, this page is essentially just a way to find tasks you can complete for some extra SB.
To make things even easier, you can set Swagbucks as your default search engine if you want an easier to earn SB points.
Some of the items here have pretty high potential earnings (I’ve seen some with several thousands), but many of those require you to sign up for paid services. But, if you happen to see something you wanted to sign up for anyway, it would be a good find, for sure.
What are Swagbucks Points?
Swagbucks points, also known as SB points, are the virtual currency for the Swagbucks platform. You can earn points in a variety of ways, including taking surveys, shopping online, watching videos, and playing games.
Once you have enough SB points, you can redeem Swagbucks rewards in several ways. These include gift cards, receiving money in your PayPal account, and donations to charities.
How Much Are Swagbucks Points Worth?
In general, one SB is equal to one cent. So you would need 1,000 Swagbucks to get a $10 gift. However, there are exceptions to this, which we’ll cover in a bit.
Is Swagbucks Legit?
Yes, Swagbucks is legit. That is not to say it’s some kind of get-rich-quick scheme, but in a way, that adds to its legitimacy.
By this I mean it doesn’t make any extravagant promises that it couldn’t possibly keep. Instead, it lets you “earn free gift cards when you shop online, watch videos, take surveys, and discover deals and promo codes.”
In addition, the site has a 4.3/5 on TrustPilot and just above 4/5 on Google Play. Its rating is a bit higher on the Apple App Store with a 4.4/5 and over 20,000 reviews.
One user complained about Swagbucks collecting his personal data, but if you understand how surveys work, you know that market segmentation is important. Your responses are much less valuable if the surveyor doesn’t know anything about your background.
For example, if you are a middle-aged man, are you the best person to answer questions about maternity clothing? Maybe not.
All in all, I cannot find any reason to believe Swagbucks is not legit. Whether you feel it’s worth your time is another question, and that’s what we’ll cover next.
Is Swagbucks Worth It?
The answer to this question depends upon your earnings expectations and how you think about your time spent on it. You won’t earn a ton with Swagbucks, but it’s an easy way to make money. Plus, a lot of times the tasks are things you probably do while online anyway.
But then again, I don’t see Swagbucks as a way to make a ton of money quickly. It’s more like a way to earn a little bit of cash that you can use to pay for your daily coffee or for maybe redeem points for small dollar-value gift cards for stores you frequent.
Related post: Apps That Pay You to Walk and Get Healthy
Ways to cash out on Swagbucks include:
Gift Cards
This is the basic way to cash out. It’s a nice option, in part because there will often discounts that allow you to get more for your SB:
As a result, cashing out via store gift cards can be the best way to maximize your Swagbucks. You can also find discounted gift cards for Amazon, iTunes, and many big-name stores.
PayPal
If you would rather exchange your Swagbucks for cold, hard cash, there is always the PayPal cash option. As you might expect, though, are usually not (if ever) discounted.
Nevertheless, PayPal gift come in a variety of denominations, like $5, $10 $25, and $50, $100, and $250.
Does Swagbucks Pay Cash?
While you can’t get a direct deposit into your bank account, Swagbucks pays cash by depositing money into your PayPal account. The other main way to convert your SB points into money is to redeem rewards for gift cards. Once you answer surveys and earn enough points, you can redeem them for PayPal or gift cards.
Swagbucks Pros & Cons
Like anything else, Swagbucks has its own set of pros & cons. Even though there is a lot to like about it, we can’t ignore the fact that there are some things that could be improved.
Swagbucks Pros
Here are the best things about it:
- Free to use (plus $10 bonus if you use my link!)
- Lots of ways to earn extra cash
- Simple to earn rewards
- Easy to use
- Apps for both iOS and Android
Swagbucks Cons
- Relatively low earnings per hour
- Users don’t always qualify for surveys
- Mobile apps can sometimes be glitchy
What People Are Saying
Many people who use Swagbucks have only good things to say about it. They praise how easy it is to earn real money, the fact that it’s free to use, and the fact that it is easy to use.
Some users have found the mobile apps to be a bit glitchy, and others say it’s hard to qualify for surveys.
Overall though, when browsing through all the reviews on the different app stores out there, you can see that the majority of reviews are pretty positive.
Swagbucks Review: Conclusion
Overall, Swagbucks is a pretty solid site/app. If you want to make money online, then using this service is a great way to do so.
You can earn a decent chunk of change by just doing some basic tasks, and many of them won’t even feel like work! For example, you can get paid for watching videos and playing games.
Swagbucks is one of the most extensive money-making platforms you’ll find anywhere, making it a lot of fun with a lot of opportunies.
No, it’s not perfect – some people can’t qualify for some surveys, and some have issues with the mobile apps.
Despite these issues, though, it’s worth considering, and I would recommend trying it out yourself before forming any opinions about it.
I hope you found this review helpful, and I hope you are able to make a nice amount of money on Swagbucks. It’s one of my favorite money-making apps, so I think you are going to like it.
Swagbucks Summary
Pros
- Free to use
- Tons of ways to earn
- Both Android & iOS apps
Cons
- Relatively low earnings per hour
- Mobile apps can be glitchy
- Not all users qualify for all surveys
Hey there. My name is Bob Haegele and I'm an expert at frugal living and saving money. I’m also an EV enthusiast and have recently become mostly-vegetarian. Another thing I started doing recently? Dog walking. I’m working toward financial independence making money via my own ventures. Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out my post on starting a blog.
