E-Rewards is a legit survey site, but their E-Rewards Dollars are not the equivalent of real world dollars, because rewards offered are inflated in value. However, E-Rewards pays about $2.30/hr, which puts it on par with some of my favorite survey sites, but not as high as Toluna ($7/hr, read my review here). Customer service is excellent and reward redemption is hassle-free.
 |
| The above is the e-Rewards logo |
E-Rewards is a survey site that awards $$ for completed surveys, that can be redeemed for Delta Skymiles, Hilton Hhonors points, magazine subscriptions and discounts off purchases from a variety of retailers. Between $0.50 to $10 is awarded for a completed survey (longer surveys earn more), that's if you 'qualify' for the survey, which is determined in a short screening survey. Non-qualifiers are awarded $0.25, which is nice. The $ accumulated in your account during your membership year expires a month after your membership anniversary. Redemption is a painless process, and e-mail enquiries are answered courteously and promptly.
My Experience with E-Rewards
I signed up in March 2009 and was happy with my year-long experience. I received 105 survey offers, and qualified for 21 of them. About 12 surveys paid $4 or more each. So as of yesterday I had a gloat-worthy $100 sitting in my account. Oh yeah... Unfortunately, as I relate below, my $100 was not really worth $100...
A Closer Look at E-Rewards 'Rewards'
The rewards selection looks pretty good until you really scrutinize it. Many of the discount coupons require
a minimum purchase, e.g. '$10 off $50 purchase at Macys.com', '$10 off $40 purchase plus 6 FREE burgers at Omaha Steaks'. Not only do I not shop at these retailers, but I'd be wasting my E-Rewards dollars on coupons that often are obtainable elsewhere (online, newspaper inserts, mailers, etc). Exceptions were $25 off at Forzieri, 50 off at Neiman Marcus, $25 off at Zales, $25 off at FTD.com. Unfortunately, I don't shop at the first four retailers, and I already have a nice FTD discount coupon. The magazine selections were fairly good, and I might have picked Ode magazine for $20 E-Rewards dollars. However, I can get a year's subscription for $2 from all-freemagazines.com. So I started to realize that I might have a hard time redeeming my E-Dollars before they expired...
Delta Skymiles Rewards
Ahah! I could redeem 2000 Skymiles for $100 E-Rewards Dollars. I clicked on the link, filled out the request form, and there you have it. Redemption was a snap. I was $100 E-Rewards dollars poorer, and 2000 Skymiles richer. Alas, here's when I realized that $100 E-Rewards dollars isn't worth $100 dollars in the context of Skymiles (or anything else for that matter, probably). According to my calculations from my Delta Skymiles Review, 2000 Skymiles is worth a measly $8, so my $100 E-Rewards dollars are actually worth $8! Sigh....
Comparing E-Rewards Opinion Panel with other Survey Sites
Assuming I spent 10 minutes for each of the 21 surveys I did on E-Rewards, a quick calculation (60/210)x$8 = $2.30/hr. So it wasn't too bad compared with some of my favorite paid survey sites like Lightspeed ($2.50/hr), but nowhere near Opinion Outpost's $8/hr or Toluna's $7/hr. Will I continue responding to E-Rewards invites? Probably. Their surveys are interesting and short, and easy to qualify for. But now I'll know that their 'Your account has been credited $5.00' will mean I actually probably got $0.40 for my 10 minutes.
By the way, I've also compiled in one handy location, links with discounts and coupons to all the places where I shop online. Check out Where Gracie Shops!
xo Gracie
P.S. It would be AWESOME if you could click on any ad here - my sponsors give me a few cents per click. Thanks for supporting my blog!
It looks like this post is more than a year old so I am not sure if anybody else has read the post. Personally I found the information regarding e-Rewards informative. Not sure that e-Rewards will be worth my time!
ReplyDeleteHey there, thanks for your comment! I do get a bunch of people who read this particular post, but nobody seems to have been moved enough to comment, until now haha! Glad you found the information useful, but yes I do agree, e-Rewards is not for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI did this and got a few magazine subscriptions. Does anyone know if they auto-renew? Would they be able to? Since they don't have my billing info.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous! That's a good question, and also tricky to answer. I should think the mags will not auto-renew because they do not have your billing info. But they do have your address, so they will send cards asking you to renew, which you are of course not obligated to do.
ReplyDeleteYou did a public service by talking about your experience. You write well, and what I like is that you put the facts out there and people can make their own conclusions. Any way that you can get a job in mainstream media ? :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your compliments, Anonymous! I'm glad you enjoyed reading my review. I would love to get a job in mainstream media. Actually I would love to get any job hahah! I like the stay-at-home kinda work best :)
DeleteI have over $200 accrued in E-rewards,and would like to join choice rewards to try to get one or two free hotel nights.However I can find nothing in their information about whether there is a fee to join.Have you tried this at all?Thanks for all of your information,I did not realise my 'cash' would soon expire!
ReplyDeleteHi Rosemary, thanks for your comment! According to my calculations, your $200 E-rewards are probably actually worth $16. You should use your E-rewards points before they expire! I haven't joined Choice Rewards, and googling it brings up several different sites so I am not sure which one you are thinking of joining. Could you send me the web address and I'll go check it out. :)
DeleteThanks a ton for the info. With a regular job already the payoff for this doesn't seem worth the effort. So thanks for taking the time to write the article and saving tons of mine!
ReplyDelete-Chris
Hi Chris, thanks for your kind words! So glad you found my blog post helpful. And I certainly agree I wouldn't quit my day job for this haha.
DeleteFound your old post when I was doing some research on e-Rewards. I currently use it to earn Southwest and American Airlines miles. Thanks for the other survey sites, my wife may be interested in them!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! Nice blog btw. :)
DeleteVery informative -thanks for sharing this info! I received an invite to sign up for E-Rewards through the Babycenter website. I'm glad I saw your post so I have an idea what to expect. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure Casey! I checked out your baby blog - love it!
DeleteI purchased (sic) a coupon for NM Last Chance but was unable to download the coupon. I immediately E-Mailed E-rewards and was assigned a case number (for each E-Mail), but the only answer I received in the last month was a copy of stock questions and answers that had no bearing on my problem. I want a credit for the coupon, but guess that is a lost cause. Unhappy survey taker
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about that. It does sound like your erewards are gone :(
DeleteI found your site when I was looking for reviews on E-Rewards. I have accumulated about $100 but have found nothing to spend it on.. I guess I missed the boat when people were able to to exchange for gift cards..All I see now are miles or magazines..
ReplyDeleteToni thanks for your comment and I do agree their rewards are going from lame to lamer.
DeleteWhat a scam, you waste your time on surveys then when they tease you with getting something for your points you have to jump through more hoops to get a code for the other website. Then you find out it isn't a discounted "gift card" (which they make it look like) but a bunch of certificates that are good only for limited amounts at very few restaurants! It took them from July 2013 to May 2014 to get me the first card. For the next two redemption issues I had, they were only wiling to credit me with 10 lousy points in lieu of the 2 restaurant cards I had tried to redeem and never received the e-mail (that contains the redemption code) from them. What a scam.
ReplyDeleteLynn thanks for sharing your experience - what an awful experience that was. Which rewards site was that? Sounds like restaurant.com vouchers were the reward and they certainly can be complicated to redeem sometimes.
DeleteHello - I just got the email for Macy's e-rewards opinion panel. I suspect it is the same program. Thanks for your review, it was very clear and helpful. This program will not work out for me, but I am glad it has worked for some.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment and glad you found my review helpful!
DeleteI know this post is several years old, but there are a lot of new options for redemptions for eRewards. I've been using them for years and primarily used them for AirTran points, which helped me get to multiple free flights paired with rewards from my credit card. When they merged with Southwest, so did I. But, since SW is changing their routes, it's not as convenient for me, so I will probably buy a Starbucks card when I reach the next level for it. Overall, I've been happy with eRewards. I had no idea about any of the other sites mentioned here, though.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to comment and update! Much appreciated!
Delete