There are countless hours that you spend standing in line, waiting for others, commuting on a bus/train, and doing many other unproductive things. Why not make a little money when you’re bored?
While online surveys and survey apps aren’t going to make you rich, if you like the idea of at least making a little money instead of completely wasting your time, you may want to give them a try.
But if you are struggling with money, don’t waste your time with these.
Below are a few of the top survey apps out there to make some extra cash when you’re bored.
There are a ton of other similar sites and apps.
However, I recommend focusing on just a few. Your rewards will accumulate more quickly, and it won’t clutter up your phone with countless apps.
If you have a lot of free time when you are home, I don’t recommend this as a way to make money. Starting a blog or selling a product has much more money-making potential.
But if you have little pockets of spare time waiting on something, at least make a little money for your time. Here’s how to make money from phone apps.
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Best survey apps for making money when you’re bored
Again, you aren’t going to get rich with these, but here are the survey sites I recommend trying out to make a little extra money when you’re bored.
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InboxDollars
InboxDollars is an excellent site to get started with making a little extra cash in your spare time.
With InboxDollars, you can earn money by:
- Taking surveys
- Watching videos
- Shopping
- Clipping coupons
- Playing games
- Referring your friends
While the amount earned is pretty small, it will grow over time as you use it in your downtime.
To cash your money out, you need to reach a $30 threshhold.
Once you exceed that, you can:
- Receive your money via PayPal
- Receive an electronic gift card
- Donate your earnings
- Receive a check
And best of all, you get $5 just for signing up.
Read our complete InboxDollars review here.
Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie is a pretty straightforward survey site. You earn virtual points for completing surveys. Additionally, you will receive points just for completing your profile and installing a web browser extension.
On your Survey Junkie dashboard, you will see cards like this:
You’ll want to pay attention to the number of points vs. how long the survey is estimated to take. I probably wouldn’t waste my time on a point-to-minute ratio of 5:1.
A point-to minute ratio of 5:1 on Survey Junkie is approximately the equivalent of making $3 per hour.
Looking at the surveys above, only the two outlined with a red box meet that requirement.
In fact, the one above, worth 255 points, corresponds to an hourly rate of $8.50. Not too bad for taking a survey to make extra cash in your spare time.
Other ways to earn cash on Survey Junkie
You will also be asked at some point if you want to participate in other activities on Survey Junkie to make money. These include:
- Product testing
- After taking a survey, free products will be sent to you to keep.
- You’ll be surveyed about the product after you have time to use it.
- You can earn around $5 to $50 doing this.
- Online focus group
- After taking a survey, you’ll participate in an online focus group with other similar people.
- You’ll share your opinions about a product or service.
- You can earn around $25 – $100 with online focus groups.
- In-person focus group
- Similar to the online focus group, except that you will meet in person.
- You can earn around $25 to $150 with in-person focus groups.
- Phone surveys
- After taking an online survey, a researcher will call you and ask you questions related to a product or service.
- You can earn around $5 to $100 with phone surveys.
How to cash out on Survey Junkie
Once you’ve accumulated enough points, you can cash out your earnings.
Typically, you need a minimum of 1,000 points to redeem your rewards. During promotional periods, this number may be lower.
You can always see your lifetime points and redeemable amount on your homepage.
Once you have enough points to redeem, you can select the following:
- Cash-out using PayPal
- Electronic gift cards (US only)
- Direct bank transfer via a third-party partner (US only)
While the payout for individual surveys can be quite small, over time, you can cash out a nice amount of money that you wouldn’t have otherwise.
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is similar to Survey Junkie, except there are other ways to earn other than just surveys. And instead of points, you earn SBs, but they are mostly the same thing.
Similar to Survey Junkie, you’ll want to pay attention to the number of SBs per minute when doing surveys.
Other ways to make money with Swagbucks
In addition to surveys, you can earn SBs by:
- Shopping online
- Watching videos
- Playing games
- Searching the web.
For most of these, it isn’t really worth it to do it just for the SBs. However, if you are going to buy something already or if there is a video that you are interested in that will give you SBs, why not get some extra rewards along with that activity.
How to cash out your SBs on Swagbucks
Unlike Survey Junkie, you cannot directly cash out money on Swagbucks. However, you can redeem your SBs for PayPal cash in increments of $25. Virtually the same as getting cash, but you have to have 2500 SBs to redeem it.
Otherwise, you can redeem your SBs for Visa Reward Cards and several popular gift cards (Amazon, iTunes, and several others).
Related: Ways to Convert Visa Gift Cards to Cash
Additionally, you can choose to donate your SBs to charity.
Other survey sites to make some extra cash in your spare time
While I recommend only using a couple of survey apps to make some extra money, here are a few others if you’d like to try something different than the ones above.
But again, don’t try to use too many at the same time. Focus on one or two for the best results.
Vindale Research
Vindale Research surveys can payout up to $50 per survey. The nice thing about Vindale is that the surveys show you exactly how much they will pay.
And the payouts are direct to your PayPal account. You don’t have to redeem for gift cards.
Click to get started with Vindale!
MyPoints
When you first arrive at MyPoints, it seems a lot like Ibotta, more of a cash back app.
However, once inside, it seems more like Swagbucks.
You can earn points by shopping, watching videos, taking surveys, playing games, and even printing coupons.
And you can get a $10 Amazon gift card as a welcome bonus when you make a purchase over $20!
Cashing out is similar to Swagbucks as well. There are a variety of gift cards available, as well as the ability to redeem for PayPal cash in increments of $25, $50, or $100.
Click to get started with MyPoints!
RewardSurvey
RewardSurvey is another survey site. The biggest difference is that you can only redeem your reward points for no-cost magazine subscriptions. So if you don’t like magazines, this isn’t for you.
However, if you do like magazines, you receive a $30 welcome credit just for signing up. So you can get a free magazine subscription without doing much.
Click here to get started with RewardSurvey!
Some things to consider when using survey apps to make money
While being able to make extra cash in your spare time is awesome, I do want to emphasize something and point out a few other things.
- You will not get rich with online surveys!
- I recommend creating a new email address just for online survey sites. These sites will send you a lot of emails, so it is best to keep it out of your regular inbox.
- Be careful with what you share. Don’t provide any personal identification numbers or other similar data. There are plenty of surveys so if you are uncomfortable with what you are being asked, just stop and move on to the next one.
- Did I mention that you won’t get rich this way? I just want to be clear on that point. I think it is a decent way to make a little extra cash in your spare time, but if you are looking to make more, online surveys won’t get you there.
Related:
American Consumer Panels Review
Forthright Surveys Review
Best Cash Back Shopping Apps to Save You Money
Best Personal Finance and Budgeting Apps
Best Investment Apps for Growing Wealth
Summary
If you have a long commute (where someone else is driving) or find yourself standing in line often, online surveys are a great way to make money when you’re bored. It is a great way to make something out of time that would typically be unproductive.
Have you taken or know others who have taken online surveys to make some extra cash? Was it worth your time? Please share your experience below in the comments.
