survey junkie review
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on Survey Junkie's website

Rating

4.6

Our rating
4.6/5

Sign up bonus

$5
after sign up

Pros

  • Some surveys open additional opportunities to earn more income
  • Your answers are anonymous
  • You are helping real companies make real decisions that will affect real people

Cons

  • Surveys can fill up fast
  • Time can be wasted pre-qualifying for surveys

Full Survey Junkie review

Survey Junkie was founded in 2011, according to the BBB. Some blogs date Survey Junkie’s creation back to 2005, but this is not accurate. SurveyJunkie.com was still a domain that was for sale back in 2005 all the way up until 2012 when the website first went live.

Survey Junkie has over 10 million active members taking surveys and earning extra cash in their free time.

You earn money through Survey Junkie by successfully completing surveys and earning points. Points are the currency of Survey Junkie. The more points you earn, the more cash and gift cards you can redeem.

What’s cool about Survey Junkie is that you are taking surveys that help real brands. The questions you answer in the surveys are used to make multi-million dollar decisions about new products and services and improve existing products and services.

You get to see your opinions and suggestions reflected in the products and services that you use every day.

Survey Junkie’s app allows you to take surveys and earn cash on-the-go. Based on other user reviews on sites like TrustPilot, this seems to be what most people use Survey Junkie for.

Instead of playing a game on your phone during your lunch break or commuting, you can use that time to earn extra income by taking surveys.

You can also install the Survey Junkie Pulse browser extension if you use a desktop or laptop to browse the internet instead of your phone. Installing this extension will help Survey Junkie send you more targeted surveys that pay higher point rewards.

Overall, Survey Junkie is a great service that I would recommend to anyone. Although I disliked a few things about Survey Junkie, my over experience was a positive one.

Continue to read the full Survey Junkie review. I go into details about my experience, the pros and cons, Survey Junkie alternatives, and features.

Survey Junkie is best for you if

  • You have free time to take surveys — Most surveys will not require your full undivided attention. This means you can still relax and watch TV or Netflix while taking surveys.
  • You want to make some extra money — Even just one hour a night can help you earn a few extra bucks a day. All of this will eventually add up and help pay for groceries, bills, and even gifts during the holidays.
  • You enjoy giving your opinion — Surveys will require you to give your opinion about a variety of topics. Brands use your opinion to help improve their products and services.

Ways to earn with Survey Junkie

You can only make money one way on Survey Junkie—by taking surveys. This may seem obvious given its name. However, this is different from similar services like Swagbucks and MyPoints. With these services, on top of taking surveys, you can also earn cash back shopping, watching videos, and playing games.

Survey Junkie does not offer incentives for shopping. You can’t earn points by watching videos, reading articles, or playing games. You can only earn points by taking surveys.

This is definitely not a bad thing. It means that Survey Junkie can focus all their resources on providing you with the best surveys. It’s the reason they are one of the best survey websites.

How to increase your earning potential

When you first create your Survey Junkie account, you’ll be asked some basic questions about your income, political affiliation, employment, and more. These questions are not mandatory for you to answer, but they will help you qualify for more surveys if you do answer them.

In addition to those initial questions, Survey Junkie will also give you opportunities to get higher-paying surveys by completing profile questionnaires.

A profile questionnaire is a short one to two minute survey that helps Survey Junkie build a comprehensive profile about yourself. Ultimately, allowing them to match you with relevant surveys. The information that you give is private and not shared or sold to any third party.

By completing these questionnaires, Survey Junkie can invite you to exclusive surveys that only you qualify for. Typically, these types of surveys have higher incentives and points associated with them.

For example, Survey Junkie gave me the option to fill out a few different profile questionnaires.

  • Technology Profile
  • Shopping Profile
  • Health Profile
  • Household Profile
  • Interests Profile
  • Travel Profile

Survey Junkie will pay you to complete these profiles, and they typically only take a minute or two. It’s important that you answer the questions accurately because Survey Junkie will use them to send you relevant and targeted surveys.

The more of these profile questionnaires you complete, the more surveys you will get. And the more surveys you get, the more points you will earn that you can then redeem for cash or gift cards.

I have also found through my personal experience and while researching other user’s opinions that it’s possible to make over $200 per month on Survey Junkie. It’s definitely not the norm, but it can happen.

If you manage to get into a target demographic, you will receive a lot more surveys that pay significantly higher.

That’s why it’s important to complete as much as the profile questionnaires as possible. Otherwise, Survey Junkie will not know which demographic to place you in, which means fewer targeted surveys.

Additional survey participation opportunities

During my time testing out Survey Junkie, I ran across an interesting opportunity while taking a survey that allowed me to earn an extra $25 on top of what I earned on the survey.

I was completing a survey about fast food restaurants. Based on my responses to the survey, in the end, I was asked if I would like to participate in an extra study that would compensate me $25. Of course, I answered yes.

I then received a message saying I would be contacted in a few days from a research firm that would give me a restaurant and product I would have to purchase food from.

Sure enough, two days later, a marketing firm called Shapiro+Raj contacted me and asked me to visit a nearby Arby’s. I was to order a 5-piece chicken tender, take a picture of it with my receipt, eat it, and then take a quick 10-minute survey about it.

I was then mailed a $25 check a few weeks later. Getting paid for eating food? I’ll do that anytime.

Although I haven’t seen this opportunity mentioned on any other Survey Junkie review, it happened to me, and it can happen to you.

Survey Junkie alternatives

Survey Junkie top features

Let’s take a look at some of Survey Junkie’s primary features that separate it from the crowd of survey sites.

Survey Junkie Pulse

Survey Junkie Pulse is a browser extension that gives you more opportunities to take surveys. Once you install the browser extension, all you need to do is continue browsing the internet as you normally would.

Based on your interests and web surfing preferences, Survey Junkie will invite you to more relevant survey opportunities.

All you have to do is look out for notifications from the browser extension, alerting you each time a new survey becomes available.

Since Survey Junkie Pulse uses your browsing and internet usage to send you relevant surveys, you’ll need to continue using the internet to get more survey opportunities. If you aren’t using the internet as often, you won’t get many new survey opportunities.

After using the browser extension for 30 days, Survey Junkie will award your account with 150 points, which is a nice bonus.

Mobile app

The Survey Junkie mobile app is available for Apple iOS and Android.

The mobile app functions the same way the desktop site does. You can take surveys, redeem your points, and edit your account settings.

The mobile app is best for taking surveys on the go. If you live in a busy city like New York City and commute on the subway, why not kill time by taking surveys on your phone?

Perhaps you just want to take surveys at night while in the comfort of your bed or while waiting at the doctor’s office.

The mobile app will also allow you to never miss out on new survey email notifications. For example, if you are subscribed to receive Survey Junkie email notifications, you can be notified about new surveys that you are eligible for.

However, sometimes surveys can fill up fast, and by the time you get home to your computer to start the survey, it’s already too late. This problem can be solved with the mobile app since you can immediately open the app and start the survey.

The mobile app is a lot more convenient and allows you to take surveys at any time.

Email survey notifications

If you sign up for Survey Junkie’s email notifications, you can be notified whenever a new survey is available. This is helpful because some surveys only allow a certain number of participants. If you start the survey even a minute too late, you may miss out on it.

Initially, I thought this was a trick to get me back onto the website. However, after clicking a few emails and getting the “yikes…” message, I finally got a survey that worked.

Typically, the email surveys you receive pay a lot of points, which makes them very popular amongst all the other survey takers. This means you have to click on the email and start the survey as soon as possible or else it will be filled quickly.

How you get paid

On Survey Junkie, you get paid points for taking surveys. You can redeem points for direct deposits into your bank account, PayPal, or several different gift cards.

You must reach a minimum of 500 points to redeem, which is equal to $5. On Survey Junkie, each point is worth $0.01.

When you’ve earned enough points and want to redeem them, all you have to do is hit the green redeem now button on the left side of the member’s dashboard.

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You will then go to a page that shows your current points, their worth, and a variety of redeeming options.

You can redeem your points however you’d like. I chose to redeem my points via cash through PayPal. If you do it through PayPal, you’ll need to agree to let Survey Junkie access some of your profile information.

Then, you’ll receive an email with a code which you’ll quickly use to verify your PayPal account.

A window should then pop up, showing you how much cash you will be receiving.

If this is your first time redeeming your points, you may run into the same problem I did. A message will pop up, saying, “We couldn’t complete your verification online. You must speak with our support team over the phone to complete this process. Please revisit this page during our normal business hours.”

This phone verification process is a slight hiccup, but not too much of a hassle. The phone call takes less than 20 seconds. They will ask for your first and last name, date of birth, and zip code. They are just confirming that the information you used to sign up with is accurate with what you tell them over the phone.

But, once you’ve verified your identity, you’ll be able to redeem your points.

How to get started using Survey Junkie

Ready to start earning extra money by taking surveys? Here’s how to get started with Survey Junkie.

Signing up

Signing up for Survey Junkie is easy and will only take you a minute. When you go to the website, you’ll see a join now button. Click on that, and you’ll have the option to sign up with Facebook or Google. Alternatively, you can just sign up using your email address.

Once you click the join now button, you’ll be taken to a page that prompts you to enter your zip or postal code and country. Survey Junkie asks for this information to make sure you only receive surveys that you’ll qualify for, so make sure you answer truthfully.

You should receive an email confirmation. Click the link in that email to confirm your email address. If you didn’t receive it, try checking your spam.

After you sign up

After you complete the registration process, you’ll receive 25 points just for signing up. You’ll receive another 50 points for completing your profile.

To complete your profile, you’ll be asked several survey questions about your income, race, education level, political affiliation, employment status, and other random questions about your lifestyle.

You are not required to answer any of these questions. However, the more questions you answer, the more qualified and targeted survey opportunities Survey Junkie can send you.

To give you an idea of the type of questions they are asking, here are a couple:

  • What’s the highest level of education you have received?
  • Are you a registered voter? If yes, what’s your political affiliation?

After you answer the basic questions, you’ll be taken to a page with more questions. You don’t have to answer any of these additional questions to earn your 50 points for completing your profile.

Earning money taking surveys

Once you’ve completed your profile, you’ll be taken to the member dashboard, where you’ll see a list of surveys that you can start taking.

To start earning money, you’ll need to start taking the surveys on the dashboard.

Each survey will display how many questions it is, how long it will take you to complete, and how many points you’ll receive for completing the survey.

Each point you receive is worth $0.01. That means 100 points is equivalent to $1.00. The minimum payout threshold is $5.00. This means you’ll need to accumulate 500 points before you can redeem your points for rewards.

You can earn an easy 150 points for installing the Survey Junkie browser extension called Survey Junkie Pulse. Just make sure you install it from your Survey Junkie members dashboard so that you are credited with the points.

Surveys are updated regularly, so check back often to maximize your earning potential.

On your member dashboard, you may notice that each survey has a different color diamond. All these colors have meaning.

Is Survey Junkie worth it?

Overall, yes, Survey Junkie is worth it.

I think it goes without saying, but you will not get rich by taking surveys. Survey Junkie even makes it a point to mention this on their website.

However, if you have some free time, you can certainly make extra side money by taking surveys.

About the author

Joshua Mayo is the founder of The Investor Post, runs a self-branded YouTube channel, and is an avid investor and entrepreneur.