Best Paid Surveys Sites UK

You might be thinking it’s impossible to make £ doing web surveys but it’s not. On a good week I could make an extra £40-70.

Most of the surveys were for product testing and feedback. I’d fly through 3-4 of them a night while listening to a podcast or music. 

Long story short, I know some people may be interested in UK survey sites so I put together a list of the ones I used in order of popularity. SwagBucks was definitely my go to site but a few of the others are worth checking out as they have good rewards occasionally. 

Another one that is much more cognitively demanding is UserTesting which requires interviews and video feedback for product testing. From my limited experience you can also get free products to test. 

You should look out for this when choosing a survey site:  

• Very good reputation
• Very defined payouts (for certain points)
• Very low min. thresholds for getting paid

Let’s take a look at the best paid survey sites in the UK. 

Table of Contents:

• Best Paid Survey Sites UK 2023
• #1 Swagbucks
• #2 PrizeRebel
• #3 Branded Surveys
• #4 Pinecone Research
• #5 i-Say
• #6 PopulusLive
• #7 InboxPounds
• #8 Toluna
• Buying Guide
• FAQs
• Conclusion

If you are having trouble finding the most trusted, best survey sites UK and which paid survey sites are legitimate, your worries are at an end. 

If you are having trouble finding the most trusted, best survey sites UK and which paid survey sites are legitimate, your worries are at an end. 

I’ve curated them, organised by: reputation; rewards systems; minimum withdrawal thresholds; stages/levels of taking surveys; and payment methods.

Reputation

This survey site is probably mostly used by students. There’s a version in the US known as InboxDollars. You get rewarded for completing surveys as well as playing games and surfing the web. Get bonus points when you sign up for free. 

Pro Tip

Honestly, they may have fallen considerably in reputation in recent times. We’ll need to remove them from this guide in the future if they continue in this  trajectory (at which point, we can no longer consider them a legitimate survey site - and more of a scam one. Check Trustpilot reviews for more).

Reward Types

Get paid with vouchers and money.

Min. Withdrawal Threshold

The claimed amount is 20p to £1, with a minimum withdrawal threshold of £20. This means it isn't a particularly good option if you want fast, low value payouts.

Typical Completion Times

You need to use this 4 weeks before you get paid. Be warned that there’s talk that the customer service is poor and payouts can be blocked for this-that-or-the-other reason. If you’re inactive for over 6-months, any balance you accrue will be removed.

Types of Surveys

There’s a diverse number of ways to get paid, including reading emails, searching the web, playing games, taking surveys, or cashback.

Reputation

Get access to daily online surveys. These guys are well-trusted, with pretty good user ratings. They’re an ‘opinion’ website, used by big companies. You'll be asked questions about what you like or dislike about services, products and certain topics/issues.

Reward Types

Get paid in PayPal and high street/online vouchers, such as Amazon.

Min. Withdrawal Threshold

Before withdrawing, you’ll need to accrue 27,000 at a minimum, which is a bit more than a fiver. On average, you get paid 12,000-50,000 points per survey.

Typical Completion Times

Some claims are that it will take around 15 minutes to complete each survey, on average.

Types of Surveys

You can use the website or app to fill out different types of surveys about products, services and social issues.

How to Make Money Online UK

Here are a few of the most risk-free (other than the time investment, which could arguably be the biggest ROI risk):

#1 Master a Field or Craft

Mastering something difficult (and that you really enjoy) is the shortest route to making money in-person or online. It gives you the extra benefit of fulfillment, bringing you into a state of “flow” - whether you’re learning to be an artist or to do online stock trading.

Pro Tip

See the book Mastery, by Robert Greene (the audiobook is amazing). There’s no shortcut to generating value in a reliable way. This is something that only the master can achieve. 

#2 Matched Betting 

Rumordly one of the fastest ways to make money without becoming an actual train robber.  Apparently, students have made £100s using this strategy. It’s tax free and fully legal as long as you’re over 18.

How it works is you place a free bet which betting sites frequently offer period you match the bet of the betting site at the betting exchange period in essence, you were betting both against and for the bet.

One the outcome unfolds, there may be a certain margin remaining which the betting site will pay you. This can be up to £100. Do this with a multitude of betting sites and you could possibly multiply your earnings, without the monetary investment risk.

#3 Paid Web Searcher

What if somebody pays you for doing what you already do online? We call this the Homer Simpson approach to making money online. Lounge back in your recliner and take you out a doughnut without ordering or modifying your behaviours.

Seriously though, this is offered by Qmee.com. What you do is you install the browser extension, and you can begin earning rewards for searching inside Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, Google and eBay search engines.

There should be a cash reward associated with each search result. And there is no minimum that you have to have accumulated before you can withdraw. This may be a good option for somebody who is struggling to find employment and if the pennies really count.

#4 Start a Website!

If you're interested in this option, we’re running a simple email series that gets you online as quickly as possible, while avoiding traps that cause people to give up (and almost everyone does).

Forget cryptocurrency - many people are becoming wealthy through leveraging the many means of generating income through website traffic.

This really is the cornerstone to passive income (the secret is to know that web development gets incredibly complicated, so keep things as simple as possible! - best free website builders). 

In the email series, we also talk about how to go about affiliate marketing. This is where you can earn a commission on products you didn’t create yourself, by talking about them via blogs or on different platforms such as YouTube.

Pro Tip

Remember - most people know they can potentially make money with a website and affiliate marketing, but very few people go about it in an intelligent way, and so give up far too soon! See our email series for more. 

#5 Review Apps / Websites

Become a paid reviewer via a site like UserTesting.com. These platforms reward the average person for reviewing different websites (there are many different kinds that you’ll review). Each review takes 20 minutes of your time, which bags you around about £6.50 via PayPal. 

#6 Self-Publish on Amazon

If you are somebody who reads a ton, you may be surprised at what you can create story-wise.

The key to becoming a successful Amazon Kindle author isn't necessarily to be a masterful storyteller. 

How many times have you heard somebody say the Twilight author of old is a “terrible writer”?

Rather, you need to really understand the niche that you most enjoy, whether you’re a golden age sci-fi lover, a massive fan of shifter romances, or a Lit-RPG egghead - readers and fans of the genre reward writers who deeply understand why they read in that genre. 

Pro Tip

Before you spend a month creating a three-part Kindle book series, focus on building an audience in whatever social media you most enjoy. Show fans that you understand the genre well and talk about what they and you like to hear. Use YouTube or podcasting - something with maximum engagement.

Once you have an audience, you can sell your product during episodes. It’s tempting to go about this in the reverse order but not recommended!

#7 Online Freelancer Work

Do you already have any skills?  No matter, you may be underestimating the value you can add to businesses and independent creators.

Using websites like Fiverr and Upwork, you can get paid for providing services as diverse as social media posting, making/teaching music, doing voiceovers, tutoring English online, creating explainer animations, and working as an administrative assistant.

Pro Tip

Check out the book Deep Work by Cal Newport and also so The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Both of these will ingrain you with a philosophy of being the immaculate professional. 

While there are many people offering the services mentioned above, there are very few who are truly professional and consistent. 

Build up a profile full of stellar reviews and watch your earnings climb over time. The fantastic thing about this strategy is the more diligent you are, the better awarded.

(Just make sure to be intelligent about this and not backtracking in your earning progress, rather than continuously taking on very low paid jobs for ever!)

#8 Peer-to-Peer Lending

Possibly the future of banking - alongside crypto - p2p lending lets people loan/borrow money without a middle person. Because of the lack of the middle person, the borrower gets cheaper loans and the lender higher interest rates - so both benefit.

Ratesetter has been around since 2010 and has a policy of reimbursing lenders who receive late payments from borrowers, or who have their borrowers default. This is made possible through its Provision Fund. 

Pro Tip

Without savings, earnings are irrelevant. This is the first step to wealth. You should view p2p lending as having a typical savings account where you receive a higher fixed return of interest than you would typically have with a bank. 

Ratesetter boasts that none of its investors have ever lost money using it and they are under FCA regulations. Expect a return of up to 4%, depending on the period of lending. If you choose an ISA account, interest is also tax free.

#9 Explainer YouTube Whiteboard Animations

YouTube videos are too general a piece of advice. It’s incredibly saturated to the point that getting any kind of monetizable notice can be almost impossible - unless you go about it in a very strategic way!

Specifically, choose a whiteboard animation software such as Doodly, to create explainer videos in a niche you really enjoy and understand.

The key is to look for areas where people are very interested but where divergent information inside that niche hasn't yet been brought together.

People are already invested in the subject matter, all you are doing is putting it together in a very digestible form. Ironically, by piecing it together (which will require considerable thought on your part), you’ll become somewhat of - and be seen as - an expert in that niche. 

You can save a lot of time by using something like Doodly, rather than trying to animate it all - unless you already have animation skills (which isn’t very common).

Pro Tip

If you are interested in learning how to animate, Adobe has very discounted rates for students on their Adobe Animate software - here’s a free week trial with big student discounts. 

Related Read: 10 Proven Online Businesses in 2023

Best Surveys for Money UK

Top of our list is Swagbucks, PrizeRebel, and Branded Surveys. Swagbucks in particular provides a lot of opportunities to earn. You’re awarded points for answering daily polls. And if you want variety, also get paid to watch videos.  

This is streamlined, as you can carry out searches using Swagbucks as a search engine instead of going to another tab inside Google or Bing, etc. 

To cash out those points, head to the Rewards Store. 700 points awards you a £5 Amazon voucher. If you earn 1,300 SP points within the first month of registering, rather than getting paid the £10, you’ll be given £20. 

Swagbucks also has a much smaller minimum reward threshold than something like Branded Surveys, which requires you to accumulate at least £8 in points before being awarded those funds. 

Check for Customer Support

Customer service schemes are a highly automated enterprise. It's unrealistic to expect premium customer support when points and money are paid out in pennies, and the only real way to earn significant money is to be very consistent and patient.

What you want to look for is trust: a commitment that - if you fulfill your end of the bargain - the survey provider will one of their own. The most sensible way of going about this is to check the reputation of your provider. 

We've listed the most trustworthy survey enterprises, in this guide. To further verify this, have a look on Google, typing-in the provider name + “review”. This will bring up websites like Trustpilot.com, where you can get an immense number of user reviews, plus an overall rating. This will also give you an idea of what to expect if you join. 

How the Online Survey Industry Works

Big businesses test out ideas before investing large sums. This is known as market research and involves the designing, manufacturing and eventual marketing of a product or service.

In other words, they need to figure out whether people want to purchase it or not. In fact, market research is a big industry itself. 

Companies spend billions of dollars every year using focus groups, interviews, product testing and surveys.

This could be just to figure out what the best logo is, what flavour of snack is the most addictive - or what pop song is most likely to be the next smash hit. 

In order to streamline the process, many companies use online market research, particularly  surveys. These can be completed online or via email. 

They pay in return, of course. The rough cost of an email survey with 200 people is between £2,500 and £5,000. It could be double that amount if they were to do a physical mailing survey version. And phone surveys are the most expensive per survey - up to £15,000!

Who wins?

This is potentially a win-win scheme for both the consumer, survey-taker and company. The  company is better able to give the consumer what it wants, while the survey-taker is paid for the time taken to complete the survey - via rewards, discounts and freebies. And, eventually, the consumer will be given an awesome product (in theory). 

The main issue with paid online surveys is that the survey-taker may feel it’s in their benefit to lie. They know that the more surveys they fill out, the more points they’ll accrue, and the more monetary rewards they’ll therefore potentially get. 

Suspect Data 

Survey-takers may try to answer forms as fast as they can - rather than filling it out honestly - or use multiple email addresses, in order to go through the same survey multiple times.

They might also cheat when it comes to disclosing information about their demographic (perhaps a white female pretends to be a black male, for instance). All of this can distort the outcome of the surveys, but they may do so in order to be eligible for as many paid surveys as possible.

For the company, it may be worth a higher investment for in-person or phone surveys. If consumers are remunerated probably for their time, they're more likely to be truthful - and the company gets better data. Cheap surveys may attract dishonest people

How to Make the Most Money From Survey Sites

Use surveys as an emergency supplement. If the pounds and pennies are important - say, to buy yourself cans of beans while you continue on your brain-draining studies for a degree in Engineering.

Then you can find a lot of quick-hit surveys where they give you points fairly quickly. Once you finish that degree, you’ll earn in a month what took you a few years with surveys!

Sign up to All the Survey Panels

If online survey taking is new to you, you probably have only a vague idea of what a survey panel is. 

Hundreds of market research companies exist around the globe, offering consumers the chance to join survey panels. Opt-in and you’ll be contacted in the event of an online survey becoming available.

Once the survey is available, they get sent it, for completion, upon which the consumer is offered gift cards, cash, movie tickets and other incentives.

Because you can join up for more than one survey website at a time, and more than one panel, sign up for as many as they allow (as long as you have some interest in the product or service). 

This may be a little confusing at first, so you might want to begin with 3-4 panels, to become familiar with the process. After that, crank it up. 

Use Separate Emails per Survey

If you follow the above advice and sign up for lots of surveys and survey panels, you could easily get flooded and no longer be able to discern between all of your different obligations or opportunities, particularly with the need to do double opt-ins.

We recommend setting up an alias email for each individual survey you’re a part of. Link this to your phone, so you can quickly switch between the different accounts. And make sure none of them are the same as your personal email, as that inbox could quickly get clogged. 

Pro Tip

Keep in mind that some of these emails are very time-sensitive, and only open for 24-hours or even less. Having separate emails allow you to quickly figure out new opportunities. 

Watch Out for Scams and Fake Survey Sites

Scam surveys lure you in with an offer of some sweepstake, where you have to enter your postcode and email, for a chance to offer to win a gift card or something similar. 

They’ll even give you a free sample or something else that seems valuable, and they make money every time you sign up with your email address.

They don’t actually intend to pay you but, instead, they earn a secret affiliate income by having you double opt-in.

On the other hand, legitimate survey companies offer clear cashback and pointback schemes, you get a defined amount for a certain amount of accrued points. They’ll have strong customer reviews on review sites verifying that others have used them successfully.

Cash in When You Reach the Limit

It's good practice to cash in ASAP with paid survey sites, once you reach the minimum threshold of withdrawal remuneration. But maybe you are looking to save up a large amount so you can get one of the top rewards, because you have the time - so that’s one exception to the rule. 

Also keep in mind that some websites will restrict where you can dispense your points. For example they may only be valid for a set period of time or with a particular platform such as iTunes.

Don't Ever Pay to Join 

All the survey sites we've listed have no registration use costs. You can build up points without having to invest money. What they require is a time investment. If a survey site requires you to pay for a subscription, we would advise you to avoid it, whatever the reward guarantee seems to be.