No.1: InboxDollars (If you’ve ever tried to figure out whether a survey panel is legit or a scam, you probably spent quite a lot of time roaming through Google, searching for reviews and wondering if they are trustworthy. You might have even stumbled across sites that are reviewing the reviewers themselves!
One way out of this hubbub can be to check reviews written by common users. And hope that they aren’t dishonest or bought. Another way could be to try and register with intermediary sites that act as a bridge between you and survey panels. They get a small commission, and you supposedly get a legitimate opportunity to make some extra bucks.
Yep, you heard that right. Not only are there hundreds of survey panels out there, most of which don’t host their own surveys but redirect you to the other places. There are also middlemen who purport to connect you to those survey panels. And now you need to figure out if one such intermediary, conveniently called Panel Place, is trustworthy.
But why should you even trust us? Sure, this website also makes small commissions off of particular survey panels. But we choose our collaborators carefully. If a panel is a scam or even on the verge of one, we won’t mince words. Even when it’s legit, you will always get the bad sides too, considering that no survey panel is perfect. Once you’ve got the whole truth, it’s your call to decide whether to drink that cup of tea.
This review will be the case in point. Take a few minutes of your time and read it, and you will see why we do or don’t recommend Panel Place.
Who Are They?
Take it from the horse’s mouth: Panel Place is a channel that you can use to connect to reliable and legit survey panels. In other words, panels that won’t trick you into giving them money or sell your personal information to third parties. And indeed, it seems that this promise works. They are doing business with users from over 40 countries across the world.
Their headquarters are in Singapore, and their phone number, postal and email addresses are listed on the website. Everything looks shipshape with their business – there are even scans of some payment proofs, for what it’s worth.
Why is this important? Well, suffice it to say that scammers usually won’t give you a way to contact them. One thing I don’t like is that they don’t have a file on Better Business Bureau. On the other hand, they have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages, which means they are open to user feedback.
How Can I Get Advantage of the Platform?
Becoming a member is simple. Just hit the Sign Up button in the top right-hand corner. The first step is to provide your email and country. You can opt out of getting marketing emails from Panel Place, which I strongly recommend if you are only there to test it.
Next, you need to enter your city, gender, name, birthdate, and choose a password. Verify your account from email, and you’re ready to roll.
An interesting thing is that you get to choose from eight areas of interest. Apart from paid surveys, there are also earning money (in other ways, I suppose), online jobs, social networking, productivity, finance, fitness, and online learning. It’s not obligatory, though – you can skip to the next step if you’re only here for surveys.
I selected a few different areas just for the sake of testing the platform. My choice were surveys, but also learning, productivity, and jobs. So, what I got on the next page was a list of various offers. Panel Place recommended survey panels such as Toluna, Opinion Outpost, Ipsos i-Say, E-Poll. Each and every one of these panels is legit, which I know first-hand since I’ve tested them and written about them. But I also got some nice and reputable education platforms such as LinkedIn Learning, SkillShare, Udemy, as well as tools including LastPass, Grammarly, MailBird, and more.
Nothing suspicious over there. But let’s see the flip side.
Whichever survey panel or “offer” you grab, you will need to register and fill out your demographic details all over again. Even though all of them are legit, it still seems like a waste of time. Also, all of those panels have their own ways of compensating you, and Panel Place doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Advantages
- Available in over 40 countries worldwide. Apart from the usual places like US, Canada, and UK, you can also register from a dozen European countries, Australia, Russia, Malaysia, New Zealand, China, Japan, India, and more.
- They only recommend legit panels. This is not to say that all of these panels are good or even decent. Nevertheless, it’s safe to trust them with your information.
- There are different kinds of offers. For those of you who are only there for surveys, this point doesn’t matter much. However, if you’re into online education, paid or free courses, apps, tools, and job offers, it’s a convenient repository of those. Spare a few moments to register and you will find out some offers that you may not have been aware of.
Disadvantages
- The platform is just an intermediary. As such, it doesn’t offer anything new. This is the most serious con of this panel. Even though they will ask you a few demographic questions, it still doesn’t mean that your offers will be an exact match. In other words, you will go through the process time and again. And when you finally get your hands on a new survey, you’re still likely to get disqualified, no matter the info you provided both to Panel Place and the survey panel at hand.
- Many users report that the app has many bugs. Just look it up on Google Play, for example. Some people have had trouble signing up via the app. Others complain of not being able to log in or getting the “black screen of death”. You can go around this issue by using the site on your desktop.
Final Thoughts – Is Panel Place Worth It?
This panel is legit, but I still don’t think it’s a very good one, let alone a must have. And for one simple reason.
Why spend your time on signing up there if you can get recommendations elsewhere? A simple, 5-minute Google search will let you know which survey panels are the best. Even better, it will reveal why they are good or bad, what are their downsides, and whether you’d better fare elsewhere.
However, if you aren’t just looking for surveys but also online courses, tools, jobs and other useful stuff, this place should be okay for ya.
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