Back in my university days and when I was saving for an overseas holiday I was always looking for ways to save a bit more.
One thing I stumbled across from recommendations from a savings forum I was a part of, was to complete online surveys and to be members of cashback websites.
Becoming members of these websites are not going to make you a millionaire, but what I did find was that throughout the year I was able to build up enough points or cash to redeem them around Christmas to help go towards gifts.
It is not something that is going to return a good hourly rate so I wouldn’t suggest spending hours a day on this but if you do get small pockets of time, it can be a nice little cash bonus.
Cash Rewards
This is a little gem that I discovered only recently. It is a cashback site rather than a survey site.
The way it works is once you sign up to Cash Rewards if you make purchases from a large selection of online stores you will receive a percentage of cash back.
It is great for getting an extra bonus on things you had planned to buy anyway. All you need to do is click on a store that you want to buy something from, sometimes you need to enter in a coupon code but the instructions are really easy to follow.
There is even a handy Google Chrome extension which you can add, so if you visit a website linked with Cash Rewards and forget to log in and purchase via them it will prompt you to do so.
They have so many stores here to choose from including Woolworths, Expedia, Bonds, David Jones, etc.
You might be thinking how can this work? It sounds too good to me true. Why would they give me money back?
In the case of Cash Rewards they earn a commission for referring you to the shop you bought from and they pass on some of this commission they earn through to you the customer.
If you sign up through my link here you will earn a $5 bonus to get you started.
PricePal
PricePal is similar to Cash Rewards and is also free to join. You will receive a cash back amount, which is either a percentage of your purchase or a set dollar amount.
Where they are unique is that PricePal have a tiered earning system, so the more you use their site the higher the cashback amount will be. They also have a handy App to use. You can sign up here.
Octopus Group
Octopus Group is the new kid on the block when it comes to the Australian survey market, so when you do get surveys they are quite generous with their rewards.
Whilst I wouldn’t say I get as many surveys on a regular basis as some others the cashout amount of $20 does come around relatively quickly.
Plus I like that they don’t focus on Points, the surveys you complete earn you cold hard cash. You can sign up here.
SwagBucks
In my experience this one gives the most regular opportunities to earn “SwagBucks” which you can convert to cash or gift cards.
Besides just surveys you can do things like search using their search bar, participate in polls, shop online via SwagBucks and play games.
The other great thing about it is that you don’t need a large amount saved up to redeem your money. It is free to join, and you can sign up here.
Pure Profile
This is one where you earn money by doing surveys. It is important to fill out your full profile as it gives you the best chance of getting surveys targeted to you.
On Pure Profile most surveys tend to pay about $3, sometimes up to $10. On the very rare occasion one might pay up to $25 (but this would normally take you an hour to complete and I have only ever received a handful of these).
What Do You Think?
The main ways I earn cash on WDYT is by clicking on emails. At the moment I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to completing surveys or signing up to their offers but this is a way to boost your income from this site.
Opinion World
There is never a shortage of surveys to complete with this site and I get several survey offers at least once a day, but it does take a decent amount of time to build up enough points to cash out, so it is a bit more of quantity instead of quality I find with Opinion World.
Other options
Besides these online survey options, you can also register to do paid market research or focus groups in the area. They are mostly in capital cities though so options here in Coffs would be quite limited.