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Like almost all paid surveys, Bizrate Rewards define themselves as a “leader” in the gathering of online consumer insight and feedback. They have been rewarding customers for about 15 years so far, and are still a running business.
Does this mean that Bizrate Rewards is a legit website where you can make money by taking surveys? Let´s take a closer look at how it works before deciding.
Bizrate Rewards Overview
One of the first things you should know is that Bizrate Rewards is owned by an online shopping website called Bizrate, which works as an intermediary between the shopper and numerous online retailers that let you purchase goods and products.
Alongside this main website, they also have Bizrate Rewards, a market research panel that does what most of the similar panels like Survey Club do: It lets you fill out surveys with personalized answers and opinions in exchange for points that can later be redeemed for gift cards.
Bizrate Rewards works with major brands, and their main objective is to gather information about how you behave as a consumer, what you like and what you don´t. They later offer all this data to these brands so they can get better at marketing.
On their website, they claim that over 27 million consumer surveys were completed solely in 2017.
Membership for Bizrate Rewards is completely free and available for those who live in the United States. It does not offer its services to people who live in other countries, unfortunately, so if this is the case, this survey panel is not for you.
Once you sign up for a member account, you will immediately be asked to take your first survey, which pretends to collect basic information about who you are, how old, and where you live, so they can offer you the opportunity of completing other surveys that are pertinent to your demographic criteria later.
This initial profiling survey will give you your first points and they will add up every time you finish a survey. You can later redeem this currency when you have reached a minimum of 5,000 points, which is the price for a $5 eGift card.
The only way through which you can acquire points that can be exchanged is by taking surveys; Bizrate Rewards does not offer any other method to gather points. These surveys will be emailed to you, up to two times a week, reflecting the number of points you can win if you decide to take them.
Related Reading: ViewFruit Review
Good Features of Bizrate Rewards
If you choose to fill out the survey, you can accumulate up from 100 to 5,000 points in one single activity, although this will greatly vary and will be determined by the length and type of the survey.
It is also unnecessary to go to your member account to know how many points you have so far, as Bizrate Rewards will send you a balance with every email they send your way.
Another great thing about Bizrate Rewards is that, contrary to how long most other paid survey websites take to deposit funds in your account, you will only have to wait a maximum of 72 hours before having access to the number of points you gained from a finished survey.
Inconsistencies and Disadvantages of Bizrate Rewards
There are many things about Bizrate Rewards that do not function properly and can even make the company look fishy.
For starters, they have a blog that has never been updated since the moment they launched it, back in 2015. In addition to this, they used to have an Android app and were about to present an iOS version when, suddenly, they abruptly discontinued both apps. Isn´t this a bit weird?
They also say that you can redeem your $5 eGift card in over 130 online stores that include Applebee´s, Old Navy, Magazines.com, Target, iTunes, Starbucks, Zappos and The Home Depot, but it seems that the only gift card you can get is from Amazon. This is not a trustworthy aspect at all.
Something else that Bizrate Rewards lacks is a refer-a-friend program. If you invite someone to be part of this survey panel, you will not be compensated with any extra points, and this is a bit disappointing considering referring friends can lead to a great amount of points on other similar websites.
Another thing is that if you happen to be inactive for over a period of one year, your account will be eligible for deletion. This means that if the last time you deposited points into your member account was in August of last year, you will have until July of this year to reactivate it, or the account, along with your available points will be terminated with no return.
Other problems with Bizrate Rewards include cases of finishing surveys only not to receive any points or any reward at all because the offers “have expired.” This is quite frustrating when you have spent over 20 minutes filling out questions that will give you not even one cent in return.
Receiving emails with surveys that end up in error or “quota reached” messages is also quite common, and getting “404 error” screens when trying to redeem rewards is also not rare. If this is a website that makes it difficult for you to redeem your rewards, it is also a website you want to stay away from.
Also, customer support is unresponsive and unreachable, making it impossible to fix the numerous issues Bizrate Rewards can build around your account.
Lastly, there is no possible way of making cash with Bizrate Rewards. You can only redeem their points for eGift cards (most probably only Amazon´s), so if you are planning on getting a mailed check or transferring money to your PayPal account, the reality of this website is far from what you are looking for.
Beware of Bizrate Rewards Scams
It seems that Bizrate Rewards is not only a website that you won´t make money with, but that can make you lose some, as well. Read the following content carefully and be aware of these events if you end up deciding to give Bizrate Rewards a chance.
There is a strange incident going around the internet that depicts an incredible amount of Bizrate Rewards users describing how they not only get charged service fees for every “free” magazine they get through the rewards, but that the amounts can vary from $2 to $100.
This means there is a possibility that you will be paying $100 for magazines that you might or might not have ordered at all.
Some users have experienced being charged on their credit cards without even filling out any surveys, just by signing up in the site, so it is very important to keep in mind that you should never, never give out your credit card details to any of these websites, and especially not to Bizrate Rewards.
A few of these cases have ended up with lawyers and fraud specialists making Bizrate Rewards revert the charges. If you happen to be receiving magazine subscriptions you did not sign up for, and see any extra amounts being charged to your credit cards, the best way to approach the situation is to get legal help. After all, you cannot be sure how long they will keep charging your card with subscriptions you did not ask for.
If, for any reason, you decide to use Bizrate Rewards to gain points that you can exchange for eGift cards or subscriptions, it is important to refrain from providing information like your credit card details.
Bizrate Rewards is not a site to be trusted because, even if some people have not had bad experiences using it, even one case of fraud should make you wary.
Conclusion: Is Bizrate Rewards Legit?
Bizrate Rewards closer to being a scam than it is to being a legit survey site.
Although the site might work for those few people who have managed to gather up the almost unreachable 5,000 points for a $5 gift card, most members have had really bad experiences.
And not only is Bizrate Rewards a bad idea, but also the main website for online shopping seems to have presented numerous issues from shipping delays to inability to return items, so it might be a good plan to keep away from the shop as well.
Customer´s experiences speak for themselves, and they should be more than enough to let you know what the site is up to. They might make it look like filling surveys and gaining points can lead to free magazine subscriptions, only to later let you know that they were not so free at all.
Only personal experience will let you decide with authority, but that does not mean that you should ignore what other people have gone through with Bizrate Rewards.
If there is a chance that you might end up using the site to try for some of the prizes, keep in mind all the time:
- You might not get any rewards at all
- Customer support might not be able to help you or even respond to your emails
- If you are ever asked for your credit card details, it is best to not risk it and give up on Bizrate Rewards altogether.
7 Comments
Paula DeVaney
I signed up to take the Bizrate surveys and once I reached 1,650 points every survey came back that I was not a good fit for the survey. Of course, this is after I had already answered questions that could be used in the survey - such as brand preferences or brand knowledge. They have been promising me a $100.00 gift certificate for months as soon as I reach a certain point level. Their emails always start with an offer to do a survey with 1000 plus points, but after a few questions they tell me that survey isn't available but I can take one of 250 points and as stated above as soon as I answer all their questions, I'm told I don't qualify for the survey. I'm calling BS on this. They use the answers, but offer nothing in return.
joseph keulemans
cannot get surveys anymore
Scott
I recently achieved (10,000) points, which entitled me to a $100.00 gift card. I then went through the process of redeeming my reward. Conveniently, it did not go through and all of a sudden I was charged back (350) points because one of the survey owners didn't like my responses. So now I am (350) points short of redeeming for the $100, and for some bizarre reason, I can no longer take any surveys to even try to make up the lost points. So DO NOT waste your time taking these surveys if you are hoping to be compensated, because you won't. Total fraud and rip off.
Scott
This is an update to my 4/3/2023 post. Nowhere on the website does it tell you what a point is equal to. They will tell you, but you have to email them and ask what the points are worth. So my bad for not checking first. After probably (9) hours completing (27) surveys, plus an additional (7-8) hours starting numerous surveys to be told either the survey was full or I did not qualify for the survey, and finally earing (10,000) points, I was finally awarded my compensation. It was a $10.00 gift card. So, just the surveys I did complete, I was paid $1.10 an hour or (.37) cents per survey. A (300) point survey may take (10-15) minutes. That (10-15) minutes would earn you (.003) cents. Woohoo! Unless you simply enjoy taking surveys and are not interested in earning any compensation, go on to the next survey service.
charles w rudolph
just found this sight..maybe because i am a new user but took me no time to get up to 5000 points that i promptly cashed in for a 5.00 amazon gift card..i use many survey sights that i might actually qualify for a survey to the end and get points..maybe 2 or 3 surveys out of the 10 i take..waiting to see how long it takes and if any issues come up regarding the gift card i ordered but so far so good..did not ask me for credit card info and certainly not taking any magazine offers
other sights offer..
charles w rudolph
well i left a previous comment that was positive..after waiting for 2 weeks for my reward..i can defnately say this is a SCAM SIGHT..i complained bout not getting my reward then was booted off for complaining..worst sight ever..dont waste your time..
Rose DiMaggio
Tried to get an answer to a simple question. Made mistake in answer and wanted it removed. They send me answers not pertaining to my question. Clients beware. I was trying to do right thing and no help. Not even an answer to if I only finished 4 or 5 questions before I decided I wasn’t going to finish, do they keep those answers, simple question. Would love an answer. Thank you