Swagbucks UK review: A legit money-maker?

Swagbucks allows you to make money online by watching videos, searching the internet and completing surveys. But is it really that simple? Take a look at my Swagbucks review to see why, although I have made over £1,500, there are a few things to look out for.

Swagbucks UK

Looking for a way to make money from home? Well, there are plenty of sites out there, but which are worthwhile and which sites do you need to avoid? Swagbucks is a site that I’ve been using for over six years and I can share what it’s all about.

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a Get Paid To (GPT) site. That means as well as getting paid to complete surveys, you’ll also be paid to complete tasks such as watching videos, joining new apps and earning cashback when shopping

Is Swagbucks legit?

Swagbucks is owned by a company called Prodege, LLC, an American company based in California. Prodege, LLC also owns several survey sites, including MyPoints, ShopAtHome and InboxDollar and has over 100 million customers.

How does Swagbucks work?

The whole idea of Swagbucks is to earn as many SB (Swagbucks) points as you can. The Swagbucks website lists a whole range of ways you can do this. When you have enough SB, they can be exchanged for rewards such as an Amazon gift card or PayPal cash.

Now, there are plenty of ways to earn an SB point, so I’m going to take you through some of the best.

Answer

Ok, so Swagbucks is more than a survey site, but an online survey will often be your biggest earner.

There are two main sections – Gold and Peanut Labs.

Gold is where you’ll find the largest number and the best paying surveys, although pay can vary wildly, so make sure you choose wisely. Look for the paid survey that pays the most in exchange for the least amount of time.

If you start a Gold survey and are screened out, you will receive 1 SB, up to a maximum of 5 per day.

Peanut Labs aren’t exclusive to Swagbucks and you can find their surveys on other sites. Because of this, the points tend to be lower.

Shop

If you’re familiar with cashback sites , this works exactly the same way. All you need to do is find the store you want to shop at, click on the link and make your purchase. The rates aren’t usually as good as TopCashback and Quidco, but it has a couple of advantages. You’ll find stores not listed on other sites and your SB is usually credited much sooner to your Swagbucks account compared to rival cashback sites.

Discover

This can be a very big earner when it comes to Swagbucks rewards and can be a great way to make extra cash.

You will find a number of free trials that will reward you with SB when joining – such as signing up for your credit report. 

You can also earn extra SB for downloading gaming apps. You will then need to reach a certain level before your SB is awarded. These can be a fun way to earn points… although some are far easier than others.

Casinos and bingo sites feature quite heavily too. I know people are often keen to give these a wide berth for various reasons, but they have always paid out for me.

One that you should avoid is the free gift card offers. Swagbucks will pay you up to 800 SB and you will be entered into a competition to win a £250 voucher. Don’t do it. The site that Swagbucks links to requires a lot of information and there is a strong chance of spam here. And one of the terms of you receiving your SB states:

Must enter valid sign-up information, including credit card information to earn SB.

I am a member of several affiliate sites; some have these offers listed. They pay very generously, telling me something isn’t quite right.

I am a member of several affiliate sites; some have these offers listed. They pay very generously, telling me something isn’t quite right.

Search

A fairly simple way to earn SB. All you need to do is use the Swagbucks search engine when looking for something on the internet. But when I say simple… SB are awarded randomly, so you could win them on your first search or your 20th.

You can earn twice per day, and on average, a search win will pay between 4 and 7 SB. But you can find the odd 50 out there. Why not take a look at other sites that pay you for searching the web?

Collector’s Bills are offered once a month. These are searches on steroids. Over the space of a week, you can collect bills when you search that are worth between 5 and 25 SB. And if you collect them all, you gain bonus points.

Play

There are a couple of games that you can play from your computer that will randomly award you with 2 SB. Generally, I find that you will earn for every 2 to 3 games you play, up to a maximum of 18 SB per day.

Swagbucks Watch

There are certain videos that you can watch that will reward you with SB for your effort. However, over the years, the amount you can make from this has reduced drastically. In fact, it’s something I don’t really bother with anymore. You can see other sites that pay you for watching videos and TV.

Swago

The Swago board usually appears twice a month. It’s basically a bingo board with squares that you need to fill in by completing certain actions. The more lines you complete, the more SB you can earn.

Most of the squares are fairly easy to complete and you’ll finish them without realising.

Magic Receipts

Swagbucks now allows you to earn SB when you buy certain items and scan your receipt. Just visit the Swagbucks’ site to see what products are available and at which stores. Spend as you usually do and send in a copy of your receipt. Within a day, your SB should be added to your account.

Even if you don’t buy a certain item, you can still send in copy of your ‘magic receipt’. However, you will only get paid 2SB for doing so. You can also take a look at some other great receipt scanning apps.

To Do List

Each day you have eight tasks you need to complete for a bonus, which pays between 2 and 7 SB. These are:

• Daily Poll – 1 question for 1 SB
• Daily Search – You need to be rewarded from a search
• Add a Magic Receipts Offer – Snap a photo of a receipt
• Deal of the Day – A case of just clicking the link
• Daily Activity – Log in to the Swagbutton or the mobile app
• Daily Discover – Earn through cashback or the Discover part of the site
• Attempt a Gold Survey – Earn 1 SB from being kicked out of a Gold Survey
• Complete a Gold Survey – Fairly self-explanatory

Daily Goal

At the top of your Swagbucks page, you will see something called ‘Daily Goal’. This is split into two parts and has a target number of SB for you to earn. If you reach your target, you earn bonus SB. The more often you hit the targets, the larger the target becomes, although the bonus SB also increases.

But there’s another reason to hit the Daily Goal. Swagbucks has a ‘Winning Streak‘ reward that gives you a bonus when you reach your Daily Goals for consecutive days and weeks.

And these bonuses stack, which means you can earn 625 SB, on top of the bonus SB from the Daily Goal.

Member recognition

If the Daily Goal bonus doesn’t encourage you to earn more SB, then the member recognition scheme may well do. As you earn, you’ll move up ‘levels’ and be given added benefits, such as a rebate on your next gift card redemption.

Referral scheme

Swagbucks runs a very generous refer a friend scheme. When a friend joins, you will earn 10% of everything they earn, for life. Actually, I say everything, but a couple of things are excluded, including earnings from Swago and the Daily Bonus/Winning Streak.

Even with those exceptions, it still can be a very good earner, especially if you have lots of friends looking for an extra income.

Apps

There are also several apps that can help you earn extra Swagbucks.

Swagbucks App

This is a miniature version of the main Swagbucks site. You can complete your To Do List, surveys, shop and watch videos. Not quite as much is listed on here compared to the desktop version, but still very useful if you’re out and about.

Swagbucks Answer

A little limited, there are only three things you can do from this app. Answer surveys (although they seem the same as the other app), complete the daily poll and upload receipts. That’s right, Swagbucks will reward you for taking photos of your receipts. But don’t get excited, they only pay 2 SB and they can be quite picky about the ones they decide to accept.

Swagbucks Live

Swagbucks Live is a general knowledge quiz that pits you against thousands of others for the chance to win prizes. It’s free to enter and can be quite fun to play. Although the questions do seem to be aimed more towards USA members.

What can you exchange SB for?

It’s all very well earning all these points, but what can you exchange them for?

Well, you’ll be pleased to hear that Swagbucks has probably the most comprehensive list of gift cards I have seen from any survey site.

The most popular cards are:

• Amazon (check out other ways to earn free Amazon gift cards)
• Cafe Nero
• iTunes
• John Lewis
• Mastercard
• Marks and Spencer
• Starbucks
• Tesco

And if you’re looking for cash rewards, you can opt for PayPal cash. However, this tends to be a little more expensive compared to Amazon vouchers.

Denominations range from £1 up to £100, although they are not available for every card.

The prices of cards tend to fluctuate as Swagbucks tends to have ‘sales’. This means you can get a certain gift card at a better price. But the bigger gift cards (£20+) tend to be better value than the smaller ones.

How much are Swagbucks points worth?

I have found that the value of points does seem to change. You’ll currently get £5 for 625 Swagbucks. However, I have seen it as low as 500 Swagbucks.

How much money can you make with Swagbucks?

No Swagbucks review would be complete without looking at how much you can realistically earn. However, this is a difficult one to calculate. But, if you find the right offers and surveys, expect to earn £6-7 per hour.

I average around £40-50 a month from this site, which helps to keep Christmas covered.

My Swagbucks UK review conclusion

So, the surveys can be a little hit-and-miss and other parts of the site aren’t really worth doing. Despite all that, I quite like Swagbucks and it’s one of the few I find myself revisiting.

This is a good sign when you consider there are other survey sites where you can earn more per hour.

Swagbucks generally has more earning opportunities, so you can still increase your earnings, even when you can’t be bothered to complete surveys. The trick with Swagbucks is finding the activities that you enjoy, taking a short amount of time and paying well.

Below, you can see that I have earned over 211,000 Swagbucks over the last five years. That’s over £1,500 worth!

Click on the button below to find out more.

Swagbucks

If my Swagbucks UK review doesn’t do it for you, take a look at my top paying survey sites.

How to earn more Swagbucks

How much you can earn from Swagbucks depends a lot on how clever you are when it comes to making the most of their offers.

Personally, I would stay away from watching videos unless you’re trying to reach the daily goal or complete a Swago board.

“Discover” can be a great way to earn some big points. For example, you can download and play games for up to 7,500 Swagbucks or join free trials.

Check surveys regularly. You can often find 5-minute surveys which pay as much as 100 Bucks. There are also some ‘userzoom surveys’. They are listed as paying 100 SB for 20 minutes. However, they usually take between 1 and 5 minutes.

I tend to stick to surveys that take under 10 minutes unless they pay more than 150 Swagbucks. And generally, I stay away from surveys at the weekends. There aren’t as many and they don’t seem to pay as well.

If you don’t answer any surveys for (roughly) a week, for a short period, your earnings will be boosted by 50%. Although I find this happens at weekends when there aren’t so many surveys available.

Unless you’re desperate to complete the daily bonus, I would steer clear of surveys at the weekend. There’s not much choice, and they don’t seem to pay well.

FAQ