As songs go, Money For Nothing by Dire Straits hit #1 in the United States and Canada in 1985, listing as a top rock track on the US Billboard in that year. And even though the song hit other charts and other positions across the world at that time, there wasn’t much that struck me about the song – I’m not a huge Dire Straits fan – but my brother loved that song in general and the band as a whole. For me, about the biggest take-away from Dire Straits was their name.
According to most definitions, the words dire straits literally mean to be in a bad position or situation. And if you’re online looking for ways to make extra money, chances are that financially, you may be in dire straits. Are paid surveys the way to take you out of that situation or debt you may find yourself in?
Many people view online surveys as a quick, easy way to make money. In fact, some people would even classify doing online surveys as making money for nothing and may seem very sceptical that it could be possible to earn money this way. They may even be downright derogatory and negative about earning money through online survey sites.
It needs to be said that not all surveys are created equal and that not all survey sites are equal either. Some offer rewards like airline miles and partner loyalty programs, some offer cash, and some only offer gift cards. Some surveys will be worth a bit more than others, depending on who the survey is for and what amount of market research is needed for that specific survey. Some sites will require a lot of personal information (like email address and credit card information) to match you up to available surveys and other sites may only require you to enter data per survey.
This review focuses on Bizrate Rewards, and whether this website will take you out of financial dire straits or not.
Bizrate
- A legit website that will reward you for answering their surveys
- Hard to become a member
- You won’t be able to earn real money from it
- A good site to earn vouchers and gift cards
In A Hurry?
Who are Bizrate Rewards?
The Bizrate Rewards program is a division of Bizrate Insights Inc., working to gather online consumer insights and customer feedback. Bizrate Insights has been operational for approximately 15 years and recorded over 27 million completed consumer surveys last year.
Bizrate Insights is a market research company with two main divisions: Insights and Rewards. Founded as Binary Compass Enterprises in June 1996, classmates Farhad Mohit and Henri Asseily used their original model of a research company from a school project they had authored as the basis for their business model. The company name was changed to Bizrate.com at the launch of their original panel in 1997.
In 2004, Bizrate.com changed their name again to Shopzilla. Fast forward a few acquisitions and a number of years later, and Shopzilla rebranded as Connexity in 2014. Then in 2016, Connexity sold the Bizrate Insights division to Time Inc (not Time Magazine), which was then acquired by the Meredith Corporation in 2017, and is now headquartered in Los Angeles.
According to the Bizrate Wikipedia page, “Bizrate Insights also provides industry research to analysts at Forrester Research and Internet Retailer for publication and studies.” Having used Forrester Research for insights on quite a number of projects over the past few years, this is quite impressive to me. Forrester is well-known for the accuracy of their statistics, facts and figures. But Forrester reports are also known for being expensive, which means they paid heavily for their data. Does Bizrate Rewards offer a rewards-based system that reflects this, or are their payout methods a little cheap? Keep reading to find out.
How do Bizrate Rewards work?
Bizrate Insights offers a number of survey options to choose from as a customer. These survey types are then converted into survey questionnaires and presented to the Bizrate Rewards members as paid surveys.
The Bizrate Insights Buyer Survey
A two-part survey questionnaire, the Bizrate Insights Buyer Survey discusses point-of-sale topics such as customer overall satisfaction, product selection, convenience, and checkout processes. Part 2 of the Bizrate Insights Buyer Survey is then emailed to selected consumers to measure repurchase intent, product satisfaction, customer support satisfaction, and reliability and delivery satisfaction scores. These are the paid surveys that Bizrate Rewards members complete.
Site Abandonment Survey
The Bizrate Insights Site Abandonment survey is designed for retailers and asks customers to provide feedback when abandoning a purchase. Some of the feedback requested includes information on site visit intentions (i.e. just browsing, price comparison, etc), point of abandonment, the reason for abandonment, future purchase intent, and open-ended comments to elaborate on those intentions. This data is for retailer-use only and is not offered to members of the Bizrate Rewards program.
Other Surveys
Bizrate Insights also provides customized survey types, which may or may not be offered to members of the Bizrate Rewards program, depending on customer requirements.
Reporting
Collected data is made available for insight reporting by firms such as Forrester Research.
Bizrate Insights consists of two divisions: bizraterewards.com (the survey site) and bizrate.com, which is the online shopping portal. For those considering signing up to Bizrate Rewards, you may be wondering: is Bizrate Rewards a scam? What’s in it for you, as the member?
Unlike most websites, Bizrate Rewards does not offer additional ways to increase your points balance to the minimum cashout threshold of 5,000 points. Members are emailed relevant and possibly qualifying surveys to complete in exchange for gift cards to well-known brands such as Walmart, Starbucks, Old Navy, Amazon, and Macy’s (to name just a few), however, one comparative review I read mentioned that the only rewards mostly available are for Amazon and that the minimum cashout amount of $5 is actually too little for most gift cards, which start at $6 in general.
How do you make money with Bizrate Rewards?
According to the Bizrate Rewards site, members are offered “the opportunity to share their opinions on interesting topics and major brands in exchange for rewards.”Signing up earns you 500 points towards the redeemable minimum amount of 5,000 points ($5). Yep, 1,000 points is worth $1, or $0.001 per point.
Also, remember that Bizrate Rewards do not pay out in cash. There is no way of making money here. As their name implies, rewards are all you’ll get here, but if you shop online often enough from the brands you choose to get rewarded with, then the cash value of all those egift cards may come in handy.
Bizrate Rewards are free to join and easy enough to sign up with. Simply enter your name and email address, then use the link mailed to you to proceed to step two of the signup process. In this step, you complete your password and other short demographic information by answering questions about yourself and your household, such as ages of children under 18 in your house, their dates of birth, gender, etc. Step three of the signup process completes your profile and preferences and unlocks the system for you to browse the member area and dashboard options.
At present, only members from the United States are eligible to join.
It must be noted that you will have to wait for paid surveys to be emailed to you by the Bizrate Rewards system. According to this review and the Bizrate Rewards FAQ page, a member could receive up to two paid surveys per week via email.
The more complete your profile, the better matched you will be for the surveys that will be sent to you. Also to be noted are that Bizrate Rewards claim they “are dedicated to rewarding our most loyal and engaged participants.” I’m not too sure what this means, but assume that the longer you remain a member, the greater the chance of being one of those most loyal and engaged members who could be invited to participate in more than two surveys a week? And what happens when you don’t qualify halfway through both those surveys every week?
Each survey awards anywhere between 50 points and up to 1,000 points, which will depend on the length of the survey, the topic being discussed and who and what the results will be used for. As an example, Forrester Research could require specialist information and feedback from a select few consumers, and that specific survey could be valued higher in points than a general customer feedback. The number of points each survey earns will be disclosed at the start of each survey, as well as in the invite email you will receive.
Bizrate Rewards does not offer a referral program. This means there is no passive income opportunity here.
Points do not expire, and egift cards already claimed do not expire (unless they have their own expiry date), however, should you not claim or use the Bizrate Rewards system for one calendar year, your accumulated points and your account will be deleted. To avoid this, remain active on the system and keep responding to emailed survey invites.
Points earned from completed surveys are approved within 72 hours, making this slightly faster than some, but not as fast as other sites to payout. Your points balance will be sent to you with every invite, as well as how many points each new survey is worth.
What kind of customer support can I expect from Bizrate Rewards?
This is a tricky one to answer. I have never personally had an issue that required customer support, but a number of negative reviews discuss the canned, system-generated responses sent out by the Bizrate Rewards support team system, and that complaints and issues are neither discussed nor resolved.
What’s the catch with Bizrate Rewards?
I wouldn’t exactly call Bizrate Rewards a scam, but one has to be wary of a business that seems to have so many negative comments and complaints out there. Moreover, when those complaints involve the mishandling of earnings and attempts to rectify this, it makes me wonder if I’m not next on the list of complainers with a similar issue.
What others are saying about Bizrate Rewards
If you’ve had a chance to follow any of the linked comparative reviews included in this review, you will have noticed that what others are saying is not very positive. One reviewer even noted that 90% of the reviews he read were negative!
In addition, it could take months to earn that 5,000 points, and when trying to redeem those points (even through a gift card), there are always technical issues preventing you from doing that. It seems that the first few surveys you are sent are worth more than the last few, so it takes a lot longer to accumulate and earn the last few points needed to redeem your reward. One member even went so far as to state that it took a year to earn 5,000 points!
Misleadingly, rewards such as $100 towards a magazine subscription are just that – towards a subscription – and that you remain responsible for the processing fees, on top of which, the subscription is automatically and without notice renewed and deducted from your credit card when the trial subscription is over. Having not yet received an invitation to a survey with this kind of reward, I cannot verify if this is true or not but have to remain aware of what others are saying their experiences have been.
As with any site, most of the time you will only be disqualified after answering questions that qualify you for the content of the survey you’re currently completing. This may mean that you could spend 10 or more minutes, only to be booted out or informed that the required quota is full and you will not earn points for it. When this happens, it’s generally because when you started the survey, you were still within the required number of answers needed. As you progressed through the survey, you perhaps took a quick break and then came back to complete it, only to discover that other members had done their part in the time you were gone and all slots are now filled.
It is important to remember that when completing online, paid surveys, you accept the link in your email as soon as it reaches your inbox. Also remember that this link is sent out to any and all members who stand a slight chance of qualifying for the surveys and that those members are aware of the fact that any delays in completing the surveys may result in them not being paid or rewarded for their time. The sooner you begin, the greater the chance that your profile will not be one of those excluded or disqualified.
Pros and cons of Bizrate Rewards
Pros and cons are there to weigh up your options and make a better decision about whatever choice it is that you’re facing. Invariably, when the cons outweigh the pros, you can rest assured that it probably isn’t a good deal to get into.
Pros
- Faster than some sites to authorize points earned
- Low payout amount of $5 in rewards
- Free to sign up (if based in the United States)
Cons
- Rewards promised (via cash or a gift card) are not always what they seem
- Takes a long time to earn the required minimum 5,000 points
- Not a great customer service record
- Overwhelming amount of negative reviews
Bizrate
- A legit website that will reward you for answering their surveys
- Hard to become a member
- You won’t be able to earn real money from it
- A good site to earn vouchers and gift cards
In conclusion
The negative reviews shared here do not mirror my experience so far from being a member of Bizrate Rewards, and perhaps I may even be one of those who have a positive experience in the long run. Who knows?
Would I recommend Bizrate Rewards to a friend or family member? Well, no, but if I were to mention it, I would also be sure to share my reservations. Again, this may not be the experience for every member, but enough members have complained to make it a worrisome pattern.
I am from South Africa and have been working with companies like Typeform and SurveyMonkey creating surveys for the past 5 years. Nowadays, I love reading, writing and looking after my children.