Inbox Dollars Review (Scam or Side Hustle?)

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Inbox Dollars review

In this guide you’ll learn:

  • What is “Inbox Dollars”?
  • Is Inbox Dollars a scam or legit company?
  • How does Inbox Dollars work?
  • How much money can you actually make?
  • Some hidden tips/tricks to make more money than most folks
  • And much more!

Let’s get into it!



What's In This Guide?

 

Rewards websites are one of the most popular ways to earn extra cash by just completing online tasks. One of the best-known sites for making real money online is InboxDollars, but does it live up to the hype?

To help you decide if taking online surveys and completing other money-making activities is right for you, we’ve put together this InboxDollars review. Up next, we’ll let you know if InboxDollars is a worthy side hustle or if it’s really just a scam.

Read Also: What are the top survey sites to make money?

What Is “InboxDollars”?

Founded in 2000, InboxDollars is a popular cash rewards website that allows you to earn extra money from the comfort of your own home. InboxDollars was bought by Prodege, a market research company, in 2019. You have heard of Prodege if you’ve researched other paid survey sites because they also own Swagbucks, MyPoints, and ShopAtHome.

These days, InboxDollars has millions of members in the United States. However, in 2005, they expanded their reach abroad with the launch of two sister sites: InboxPounds in the UK, and DailyRewards in Canada.

How Does InboxDollars Work?

InboxDollars is surprisingly complex. They have so many different ways for people to earn money online, so explaining how they work is a bit tricky.

Most other online survey sites are paid by corporations to host surveys that people can take for a reward. However, InboxDollars offers many different earning opportunities on its site and each method of earning money works slightly differently.

Basically, InboxDollars is a membership-based website. Once you have an InboxDollars account, you can start to make money through their platform. InboxDollars members can complete many kinds of simple tasks for a cash reward.

InboxDollars is commissioned by a variety of companies to get your opinion on surveys, games, videos, and even free samples. In exchange for your time, InboxDollars gives you some extra bucks and they pocket the rest.

Regardless of the amount of money you make from a task, you can expect that somehow, InboxDollars is profiting, too. The site generally makes money either through a direct commission or through an affiliate marketing program. So, it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

As we’ve mentioned, there are a lot of ways to make money with InboxDollars. Here are some of your options:

Paid Surveys

While InboxDollars is not known as a major survey site, paid surveys are certainly a popular way to make money on the platform. InboxDollars hosts a variety of different surveys that you can complete in your spare time.

The surveys on the site can be quick and easy, or they can be more in-depth. In general, the more time you spend on a survey, the more you’ll get paid. Plus, you can take InboxDollar surveys on your web browser or on their Android and iPhone mobile apps.

Read Also: Best Survey Sites to Make Money in 2020

Watch Videos

If you love to watch TV and Netflix, then InboxDollars’ paid videos just might be what you’re looking for. Through InboxDollars, you can earn some rewards just for watching some short videos.

While watching these videos won’t make you rich, it’s a pretty easy task that you can do while waiting in line at a store or during a commercial break.

InboxDollars Coupons

Clipping coupons is a time-honored tradition for saving money. But, with InboxDollars, you can turn coupon clipping into a money-making event.

InboxDollars members can simply log in to their account and head to the Grocery Coupons page. From here, you can search for relevant coupons for all your shopping needs. Every time you download and print a coupon, not only do you save money, but you earn cashback with InboxDollars.

Read Also: Is Survey Club a scam? Here’s our review of Survey Club.

Play Games

InboxDollars hosts a variety of paid opportunities where you can actually make money for playing video games on your couch. Rewards for playing games with InboxDollars vary, but you usually end up with cash in your account or a nice gift card for your time.

If you choose to play games with InboxDollars, though, make sure that you pay extra attention to anything you’re asked to download. Even though InboxDollars is a good site that tries to keep you safe, you should always double-check that you’re not downloading a bad app onto your device.

PaidEmails

Okay, let’s be honest – no one likes junk email. InboxDollars, though, turns all that junk email into a chance to earn extra cash.

In InboxDollars’ PaidEmails program, you get paid just for opening and reading emails. All you need to do is opt into the PaidEmails service and open each email you receive to have cash credited to your account. It’s as simple as that.

Online Shopping

If you enjoy shopping, you’ll be happy to know that you can now earn cash back for your online shopping through InboxDollars. With InboxDollars online shopping portal, you get rewards in your account whenever you shop at retailers like Walmart, Target, and Lowe’s.

To date, InboxDollars has paid its members over $1.8 million as a reward for shopping through their website. How does it all work, you might ask?

Well, InboxDollars gets an affiliate marketing commission for sending you to a retailer’s site. Luckily for us, InboxDollars chooses to share a bit of that commission with its members by depositing some cash in their accounts.

Sweepstakes and Contests

InboxDollars will sometimes run sweepstakes or contests where you can win prizes for relatively little effort. These events used to be more common, but they still happen every once in a while. InboxDollars contests and sweepstakes usually involve creating a song or making a video for a chance to win big bucks.

Plus, every time you complete an activity (except surveys) that earns you cash, you work toward filling your “Scratch Off” bar on your account. Once you reach a new level your scratch off bar, you get entered to win an even larger prize, which is usually a cash reward.

Do note, though, that the “Scratch Off” bar has replaced the older “Spin and Win” sweepstakes that some longtime InboxDollars members know and love. For all new accounts created after 2019, members will only have access to the Scratch Off bar, not Spin and Win.

Rewards Search Engine

InboxDollars even tries to make you money when you surf the internet. If you ditch Google and use the InboxDollars search engine, you get progress points toward your Scratch Off bar for every four searches you make.

While you don’t directly make any money through the rewards search engine, you don’t really have to do much either. The best way to maximize this potential reward is to change your default search engine to InboxDollars’ Search Bar. That way, you automatically turn to it for your web surfing needs. Once you do, you can get entered to win upwards of $100 – just for looking things up!

Is InboxDollars Legit?

One of the main concerns with any cash rewards site is that it’s all just a scam that takes up a lot of time in your day but never pays. The good news is that InboxDollars is not a scam.

InboxDollars pays you real money for your time and offers a variety of cash rewards in exchange for every online task you complete.

InboxDollars has a Better Business Bureau (BBB) A+ rating. Plus, they have been a BBB accredited business since 2012, which shows that they are committed to resolving issues for their customers.

InboxDollars’ parent company, Prodege has also been a BBB accredited business since 2010. They, too, have an A+ rating from the BBB, so you can be confident that you’re in good hands with InboxDollars.

Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, InboxDollars has a 4-star rating with over 8,700 reviews on Trustpilot. However, like all cash rewards sites, InboxDollars does have its share of unhappy customers.

That being said, most unhappy InboxDollars members are upset that they don’t receive many survey offers, which is the top way to earn on the site. Unfortunately, limited survey opportunities are true for many survey sites, so this is not unique to InboxDollars.

Since most surveys are only open to people in certain demographics groups, there just may not be opportunities that you qualify for. This is, though, the reality for most cash rewards and survey sites.

Thankfully, InboxDollars’ long history of customer service shows that they are, indeed, a reputable company if you want to make money online. The key is to be realistic with your expectations of how much you can actually earn from a site like InboxDollars.

How Much Money Can You Make With InboxDollars?

Many people think that cash rewards sites can replace their full-time job or help them get their personal finances in order. Unfortunately, this is just not the case.

While you can certainly earn money on InboxDollars, anyone that signs up shouldn’t expect to make more than a few bucks a day, if that. Most of the surveys on InboxDollars pay between $0.25-$2.00 for between 5 and 30 minutes of your time.

However, it’s difficult to qualify for a survey and there’s always a chance that you’ll get disqualified halfway through. In these instances, you don’t receive any sort of compensation for your efforts.

InboxDollars videos generally pay just a few cents for a couple of minutes of your time, so they’re not going to help you strike it rich either. But, with their $5 sign-up bonus and a lot of time, you can get a decent payout with InboxDollars.

Keep in mind, though, that you need to have at least $30 in your account to request payment from InboxDollars. Plus, if you choose to cash out at $30, InboxDollars charges you a $3 fee. If you wait until $40 to cash out, though, there is no fee. So, it can be a few weeks before you ever see that money.

Once you do meet the minimum payout, you can choose to receive your reward through a number of different payment options. Your options include:

  • PayPal Cash. This is the best option if you simply want money that you can transfer to your bank account with the push of a button. However, Paypal may charge a small processing fee on your reward.
  • Check. If you so choose, InboxDollars will mail you a paper check for your reward. But, if you choose to get a paper check, you should know that it could take a few extra weeks to arrive.
  • Amazon Gift Card. If you’re a big Amazon shopper, you have the option to redeem your reward as an Amazon gift card.
  • ePayment. In addition to Amazon gift cards, InboxDollars offers the chance to receive InboxDollars eCards payments through Tango. Payment through Tango allows members to get eCards for a pre-set amount to a variety of retailers. You can also get a Visa credit card gift cards to spend nearly anywhere in the world.

Additionally, InboxDollars likes to reward its loyal members with a premier status after their first successful payout. Every member that receives their first payment automatically becomes a gold member with the website.

Read Also: Can you Make Money with Swagbucks? Find out in our review

As a gold member, you can expect faster rewards payments. While non-gold members need to wait 16 days for their reward, gold members get paid in just 3-9 days after submitting a request.

How To Sign Up And Get Started With InboxDollars?

Signing up for InboxDollars is, thankfully, very simple. All you need to do is go to the InboxDollars website and click “sign up.”

Once you do, you will create an account with your email address. You then instantly receive a $5 sign-up bonus just for joining the site.

After you create your account, you can start to make money. The InboxDollars platform is pretty intuitive, so you can simply navigate through all the different pages to see what tasks are available for you to complete.

Once you earn enough in rewards ($30 minimum) you can request a payment through one of InboxDollars’ four payment methods. It’s as simple as that!

What Are The Pros And Cons Of InboxDollars?

Inbox Dollars review survey site

There is no such thing as a flawless cash rewards website. Even a popular site like InboxDollars has its advantages and disadvantages. So, here are the pros and cons of InboxDollars:

Pros

  • Sign-up Bonus. Not only is it free to join InboxDollars, but you also get a $5 sign-up bonus just for making an account.
  • Well-Established. InboxDollars has been around for over two decades and has an established reputation as a legitimate website.
  • Many Ways To Earn. InboxDollars has 6 different ways for members to earn money for simple tasks. Plus, you can get points toward your Scratch Off Bar sweepstakes for using their search engine.
  • Easy To Use Website And App. The InboxDollars website and app are well-known for being intuitive and easy to use.

Cons

  • Low Pay. The vast majority of tasks on InboxDollars are low paying, with some offering you just a few cents for your time.
  • High Payout Minimum. $30 is a pretty high minimum payout threshold for a cashback rewards site. Some other websites have minimum payouts as low as $1.
  • Processing Fees. If you choose to receive your payout at $30, you lose $3 in processing fees. That’s 10% of your earnings. Of course, you can always wait until you have $40 in rewards to avoid the fee, but that sum can take some time to accumulate.
  • Hard To Qualify For Surveys. Many members report that they struggle to qualify for surveys on InboxDollars. So, you may not take more than a few surveys a week on the site.
  • Long Waiting Period. InboxDollars is one of the only sites that makes you wait 16 days to receive your money. Sure, this waiting period drops to 3-9 days for gold members, but other websites will process your payout immediately.

Read Also: Is Survey Junkie worth it?

What Are The Alternatives To InboxDollars?

Unsure if InboxDollars is the right cash rewards site for you? Check out these other great options:

Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie is an incredibly popular paid survey site where you can earn cash rewards for every survey you complete. Unlike InboxDollars, Survey Junkie only offers surveys, so you won’t be able to watch videos and play games on this website.

But, Survey Junkie hosts a huge number of available surveys, so you’re likely to find some that you qualify for. Once you have $25 worth of points in your account, you can claim your payout either through PayPal cash or gift cards.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is very similar to InboxDollars because they are both cash rewards sites that offer many ways to earn extra money. With Swagbucks, you can get paid for online shopping, taking surveys, surfing the web, and playing games, among other activities.

Each task you complete earns you SB points that you can later exchange for gift cards or PayPal cash once you accumulate $3 worth of rewards. Like InboxDollars, though, each task you complete won’t earn you many points. But, you can claim your reward quickly and without a processing fee when you use Swagbucks.

LifePoints

LifePoints is another cash rewards site that’s very user-friendly. Their website is very well designed, which makes it easier to navigate to find paid opportunities.

With LifePoints, you can get paid to take surveys and test products. Plus, you can even get paid to keep track of your behaviors in a daily diary entry.

However, LifePoints works on a points-based system where the points don’t have any set value. The value of your points depends on the type of payout reward you choose.

More flexible options, like PayPal, cost more points per dollar than gift cards. This can be a bit annoying for some users, but if you prefer gift cards anyway, it’s not much of a problem.

Bottom Line: Is InboxDollars Worth It?

All things considered, InboxDollars is a decent way to make some extra cash online. InboxDollars certainly won’t make you rich, but if you just want an easy way to pay for your monthly Netflix subscription, it’s a solid option.

InboxDollars’ main downfall is that it has a high payout minimum threshold and long waiting periods to receive your reward. So, it’s best to sign up for other similar sites in addition to InboxDollars so you can maximize your earning potential.