InboxDollars Review – Earn Money Taking Surveys (and More!)

I am a dedicated audiobook listener. I spend hours each week listening to mysteries, romances, sci-fi novels, and business books.

Though I often multi-task during these audiobook jags, I’m also frequently just sitting on the couch or lazily completing a crossword puzzle while I listen. I started this review of InboxDollars because my audiobook time is something I could use to do something productive in addition to listening to whodunit.

I can earn a little bank while I’m listening to my stories–without having to leave the comfort of my couch.

What is InboxDollars?

InboxDollars is a get paid to site and app that gives you a chance to earn real money during your downtime by taking surveys, playing games, reading emails, conducting internet searches, or watching short videos.

The platform is owened by Protege LLC. They are the parent company for a significant number of these kinds of websites including MyPoints, Swagbucks, and ShopAtHome.

Here’s what you need to know about making money with InboxDollars:

Is InboxDollars Legit?

The first question most people ask about paid survey sites like InboxDollars is whether or not it’s a legitimate opportunity. After all, it can seem a little odd that a company is willing to pay you just to answer some questions, play games, watch videos, or surf the internet.

Rest assured, InboxDollars is a completely legitimate and safe, easy way to earn a little extra money.

That’s because there’s quite a bit of money available in the online survey game. InboxDollars is designed to help connect brands and consumers. It is a lead generator for companies looking for new customers.

The companies offering the surveys and advertising on the site pay InboxDollars, and the site shares a little bit of that revenue with active users.

That said, even though InboxDollars is a totally legit way to make some extra cash, don’t expect to get rich through the site. InboxDollars pays anywhere from 1¢ to $20 per activity, although the majority of the payments are on the lower end of the scale. Set your expectations to “earn some latte money” rather than “pay for that trip to Bali.”

See also: 5 Legit Paid Survey Sites to Make Some Extra Money

Signing Up with InboxDollars

When you sign up, you immediately pocket a cool $5 bonus just for opening an account. All you have to do is provide your name and email address, and confirm your new account via email, and voila, you get $5.

Get your $5 InboxDollars bonus when you use this sign-up link >>

From there, you earn an additional 50¢ by filling out a profile survey. The questions started off pretty typical: age, race, zip code, household income, job, and the like.

However, things got a little more personal after that, including questions about medical history. But every single personal question provided a “prefer not to say” option, which means you can opt-out of anything you find a little too invasive.

This initial profile survey took me no more than five minutes to complete, and I was an official InboxDollars member. Now to start earning money–on top of the $5.50 I’d already scored.

How to Earn with InboxDollars

There are a number of ways to earn money through the site, which means you can find the activity that fits you best.

Unlike other paid-survey sites, InboxDollars tells you exactly how much you will earn in dollars and cents when you take surveys or do other activities. Many other sites pay in points that are redeemable for cash, making it more difficult to determine if any particular activity is worth your time.

That said, some activities offer better earnings than others, so depending on which ones you choose, it may take you more time to earn a decent payout.

Here are the various cash-earning activities you can choose from:

1. Cash Surveys

Your member dashboard lists the available surveys for you to take, including the payout amount you can expect, and the amount of time the survey will take. There were 10 different surveys available when I signed up, and I could take several surveys on the same day.

You may not qualify for every survey, which you will not know until you have started answering the questions. In fact, one common complaint about InboxDollars is investing time into a survey only to be disqualified after answering several questions.

However, even if you are disqualified, you will receive a Spin & Win for every survey you attempt. The Spin & Win gives you the chance to win cash, a survey token (which increases your next survey payout by 25¢), progress toward your next Scratch & Win opportunity, or no prize.

It’s not a perfect recompense for getting disqualified from a survey, but it does ease the sting a bit.

Get started earning money with InboxDollars here. 

2. Games

This was my favorite of the InboxDollars activities. You can play a number of different free games and each game you play offers progress toward your next Scratch & Win opportunity. Games include Pyramid Solitaire, Monkey Bubble Shooter, Mahjongg Dimensions, World of Words, and Pet Hop, among many others.

I could easily play these kinds of games all day long–and for free–so I was happy to find this activity on the site and on the mobile app (more on that below).

When you play these free games, you earn progress toward your next Scratch & Win opportunity. Playing several rounds of World of Words earned me three Scratch & Wins, which netted me another 9¢.

These Scratch & Win cards can earn you up to $10, $25, or $100 if Lady Luck is smiling on you.

In addition, if you’re a dedicated gamer who is willing to put real money up, you can also open an account with GSN/WorldWinner Games through InboxDollars.

You earn money in your InboxDollars account for each dollar of real money that you play through these gaming accounts.

3. Completing Offers

Completing offers is possibly the most lucrative activity on InboxDollars. These are offers from a number of retailers, service providers, and even charities, that will pay you to sign up. However, the most lucrative of these offers require you to spend money.

For instance, the ASPCA offers a $25 payout to InboxDollars members who sign up for a recurring monthly donation of $19 or more–with another $25 promised on the second month the recurring donation is credited.

This could be a great way to earn cash back if the offers on InboxDollars are something you were already planning. If you had already made the decision to donate to the ASPCA, InboxDollars has given you a way to earn $50 while also doing good.

But even if you are not interested in spending money, you can still complete offers to earn. Some lucrative offers are for trial subscriptions or the like, which just means you will need to cancel your subscription or account before your credit card is charged.

Also, there are a number of 100% free offers to complete, that will allow you to earn without providing a credit card. As you might expect, these offers have the lowest payouts.

See if InboxDollars is right for you today. 

4. Shopping

Shop at your favorite online retailers through the InboxDollars site, and you can earn up to 5% cash back on anything you buy.

Again, if you were already planning on getting some new clothes, shopping for a hotel room, ordering contact lenses, or doing any other online shopping, starting at the InboxDollars site just makes sense. You were going to spend the money anyway, so you might as well get some sweet cash back for your trouble.

And if you use a rewards credit card, you’ll get cash back that way, too, making shopping through InboxDollars a no-brainer.

Just navigate to the Shopping page on the InboxDollars site, and click on your preferred retailer from there. InboxDollars will take you to the retailer’s site, where you’ll complete your purchase like normal. Your cash back will be reflected in your InboxDollars account within 30-45 days.

5. Coupons

InboxDollars provides printable grocery coupons to members. You earn 1¢ for every coupon you print and 10¢ for every coupon you use. I was very impressed with the coupons offered to me, as they were generally well-matched with products I would buy.

Start getting paid to find and use coupons here. 

6. TV and Videos

Another way to earn cash is by watching short videos on the site. The TV tab takes you to a page of videos sorted by topic. These include news, food, celebrities, entertainment, tech, and health.

Each video you watch earns you progress toward your next Scratch & Win. I watched three of the kind of entrancing recipe videos that are often shared on social media and thoroughly enjoyed watching each one.

The other option is to watch videos through the Video tab. On this page, you are offered 1¢ for watching three videos in a row. You have less control over what you watch, although the screenshots give you a sense of what to expect.

Clicking on these pay-to-watch videos takes you to a trusted partner site. You may also be asked to complete an activity when watching these videos.

7. Search the Web

If you need to do a little research, don’t start with Google. Go to the InboxDollars search engine and earn money while you answer your questions. You earn 15¢ per day, as well as Scratch & Win opportunities, by doing up to four daily searches from the InboxDollars site.

Also, if you search more than four days in a week, you can earn a 5¢ loyalty bonus.

Start earning money doing what you already do online. 

8. Paid Emails

InboxDollars sends members emails with special offers that they are likely to be interested in. Simply reading the email and hitting the confirm button will qualify you for Scratch & Win opportunities.

But you can also earn more by signing up for the promotional offer from the email.

9. Scanning Receipts

You can earn 2¢ for every receipt you scan into the InboxDollars app. 

While this doesn’t seem like a big earner, it is stupid simple and doesn’t require you to clip digital coupons like the Ibotta App. 

You can scan up to 60 receipts per month for an extra $1.20. I found that I could easily do this while listening to audio books and having a stack of recepts waiting for when I sit down.

They accept receipts from a list of 1100 reasonably sized retailers that you can find here.

10. Refer a Friend

You can earn 10% of the qualified earnings of any friends you refer to InboxDollar. You can refer your friends by submitting their emails, through social media, or by adding an InboxDollars banner ad to your website.

InboxDollars App

In addition to the desktop version of InboxDollars, you can also download the app for iOS and Android. The app gives you limited access to the site’s offerings, including Surveys, Cash Offers, TV, and the Search portal.

You can also play some of the free games on your Android phone via the app. However, this feature is not available for the iOS app.

How Much Can You Make?

Your earnings will vary significantly depening on which activities you do.

Games, while the most entertaining, are one of the lowest paying options because there isn’t a lot of advertising to do there. You can make up to $0.05 per hour doing games.

The most profitable options are cashback shopping, surveys, receipt scanning, and coupons. If you focus your effor there, you can definitely make the $15 a month it takes to cashout your earnings, participating in your spare time.

Getting Your Payout

So you’ve earned all this sweet cash–now what?

The first thing to know is that InboxDollars will not cash out your earnings until you have reached a minimum of $30. If you cash out when you have more than $30 but less than $40, the site will take a $3 transaction fee for your cash out. If you’ve earned over $40, the transaction fee is waived.

The good news is that you can request your payment in four different ways: via paper check mailed to your home, via PayPal, via one of 45 different merchant gift cards (including Amazon, Target, Macy’s, and Kohl’s), or via a Visa prepaid gift card.

It takes 10-16 days for your payment to get through verification the first time you request payment. After that point, however, you will be considered a Gold member. That means you qualify for faster payments in the future.

Should You Sign Up with InboxDollars?

InboxDollars does exactly what it says it will do. It gives you the opportunity to earn a little cash by performing easy-to-complete activities.

If you are someone who spends a lot of time surfing anyway, then InboxDollars can be a great option for adding a couple of bucks to your bottom line.

However, you do need to remember that you will give up some personal information in exchange for this easy money. And the earnings are relatively low, which means it can take a long time to reach your payout.

InboxDollars makes sense if you know you’ll have time to kill or you already have plans to spend money in a particular way. (I’m wishing I’d had InboxDollars on my phone earlier this year when I served jury duty).

Ultimately, InboxDollars is a good way to monetize your downtime, your internet searches, or your planned purchases–as long as you keep your expectations reasonable and know how much you are comfortable sharing with the site.

For me, having something to do that earns me money while I listen to my audiobooks makes InboxDollars a perfect addition to my listening habit.

Have you earned money with InboxDollars? Tell us about it in the comments!