PineCone Research remains one of the better paying and reliable survey companies, with a payout of $3 for each 15-20 minute survey. The hardest part is getting accepted, as they only accept applications intermittently.
Thanks to reader Tom, here is the most recent application link at Pinecone. (It probably won’t last long.) Looks open to all ages and sexes. Only one person per household can sign up.
I’ve already shared my thoughts on Pinecone and paid surveys in general here. I call them Bored Money – not terribly efficient but you sometimes get to try some neat things. Here’s a quick list of other paid survey sites:
The three that I have been most active with besides Pinecone are NFO MySurvey, e-Rewards, and SurveySavvy. I like it them because they continue to give me the most paid survey opportunities, even if I only pick and choose which ones I want to do. I’ve gotten multiple checks and/or rewards from all of them.
Joining e-Rewards is usually indirect, I get offers to join from my airline miles newsletters from time to time. Not sure if they still work, but you can try these two links for Continental and Northwest airlines (must have frequent flier account number).
There are several other sites with which others have reported varying levels of success: American Consumer Opinion, Greenfield Online, Harris Poll Online, Lightspeed Panel, or SurveySpot.
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The Pinecone link didn’t work for me. (The page cannot be found)
Thanks for the note. Should work now.
I’ve used PineCone off and on and they are legit. Really can be quite the waste of time though. But if you have nothing else to do it’s easy change.
I love them. They are easy and I always get paid.
Contiguous 48 states? What the heck?
I have been using your2cents.com. $1-3 cash for most surveys, plus I have had a few trials with $5-10 plus free products.
I have been using survey savvy and mysurvey with not much luck for almost a year. I try the surveys and I hardly ever get past the initial screening questions. I guess I’m not who they are looking for to take their surveys. I haven’t gotten any money yet for my time.
I used Pine about a year ago, but then stopped receiving surveys after I was slow to respond. I was getting $5 per survey with that account. Would it be possible to be grandfathered in or to use my old id and password?
Hey Jonathan,
I just received my Discover More card that has 0% APR on balance transfers (max $75 fee) till one year.
But just realized Discover doesn’t transfer money into a checking a/c which was the whole purpose of getting one. I don’t have any debt..just want to earn higher interest. HELOC transfer is not an option as that is under my wife’s name and she will use it for her’s.
Can you please share the workarounds? Sorry this is not related to this thread..but really need help.
Thanks,
Vic
I’ve recently quit Pinecone. What a waste of time! They kept sending those freeride (for them) surveys to “determine the target market”.
There could be 10 of those and only 1 real for which they now pay only $3. No thanks
I agree with Albrecht: they send way too many “test surveys” to see if you qualify for the “real survey”. The test surveys take up time, and do not pay you for them.
Furthermore, the test surveys all ask the same basic questions…you would think they could get smart about keeping the answers around and just target you based on previous answers…
All in all, NOT worth it for me–better spend your bored money time chasing frequent flier miles or something…
@ VIc: I just got my discover more card too. Just call them and ask for a balance transfer check, you’ll get it in about 5 days, and then deposit in the acct of your choice. Be warned though, Wells Fargo doesn’t accept them.
Thanks Brian. I have my checking a/c with BofA and WAMU.
Do you know if anybody deposited Discover’s Balance Transfer checks in a checking a/c successfully? I mean it cleared, not got rejected.
Vic
I agree on Pinecone being a waste of time. It was ok when they paid $5 for each survey, but when they dropped it down to $3 it just wasn’t worth it anymore.
When I go through the pinecone link it takes me to — https://www.pineconeresearch.com/Signup/Signup_Form.asp.
However, if I clear the cookies on my machine and enter that link I can’t get to the referral page. I’m guessing that means their tracking a link-back to you to give you a payment (referral fee) for signing up a certain demographic.
If you’re getting paid to refer people to Pinecone through a link I hope you would disclose that fact.
So which is the Best Real Paid site now?
Actually, I don’t make a penny if you sign up for Pinecone. However, Pinecone does restricts sign-ups with special temporary links, and I am hiding the link a bit so that it doesn’t get spread around too fast. They kill it once they have enough sign-ups. Also, this way Pinecone can’t tell where I got the link from either, so they don’t disable it, also making it last longer.
I don’t find that getting $3 for a 15 to 20 minute survey is a great deal. I could work at McDonalds and make more per hour….
Yes, you are absolutely correct. But you can’t work at McDonald’s for only 15 minutes at a time while in your pajamas and watching football.
The McDonalds here doesn’t pay $9-12/hr.. and as Jonathan says, you can’t work at mcdonald’s from your couch.