e-Rewards is a market research panel where you can earn “e-Rewards currency” in exchange for answering survey questions. It’s one of the first survey panels I have ever joined, and I occasionally use them today.
Founded in 1999, it’s operated by the very reputable market research firm, Dynata, and has more than two million members to date. It’s a reputable survey panel, butthe question is if it’s worth joining?
If you’re part of another company’s loyalty program of sorts, you may have received an e-mail invite, asking you to join this community. And, in exchange for joining, they may have said you could earn points for answering these surveys, in which you can redeem for the said retailer. It sounds good,butis it?
In today’s review, I will show you how e-Rewards work, if it’s worth joining, and how much you can expect to get paid. I will also talk about how you can join if you’re interested in getting on board.
If you want to earn loyalty points, let’s take a gander at what e-Rewards is all about.
How to Join e-Rewards
The problem with e-Rewards, unlike most survey sites, is that it’s by invitation only.However, just because it’s by invitation only, it doesn’t mean you can’t get in.
Generally, as long as you’re part of one of the following loyalty programs, you should get an invite sooner or later:
- Accor
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Choice Privileges
- Etihad
- Frontier
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Hertz
- Hilton
- Ibera
- IHG
- JetBlue
- Radisson
- Southwest
- United
- Virgin Airlines
For example, when I joined the IHG loyalty program years ago, I received an email about a month later after I signed up. The same happened when I joined Hilton as well. Seeing that these loyalty programs are free to join, sign up for one of them and just wait for a few weeks. Generally, the invites come in like clockwork. Just be sure to look for an e-mail subject asking you to join the e-Rewards panel.
e-Rewards Dashboard
Once you get accepted, the survey panel will look no different than any other survey panel if you have ever been part of one. This is what your dashboard will look like:
The company only focuses on surveys, paying you in e-Rewards currency, in which you can cash out for a variety of rewards, including gift cards, miles, hotel points and even free magazines. I will get into this more in detail later on in this guide.
For now, this is where you can earn your points. Just click on a survey of interest, complete it and then get rewarded for your time if you complete it. As with all surveys, just make sure it’s worth your time as some surveys can take 20-30 minutes. You wouldn’t want to complete a 30-minute survey to only make $1. My rule of thumb is as long as you’re earning about $1 per five minutes, you’re doing a good job.
As time goes, e-Rewards will email you survey invites, but you can log into your dashboard whenever you please as well. Surveys always seem to be there.
How Many Surveys Can I Take?
This question is always asked whenever I do a review like this, and the answer is tough because it will greatly depend on your demographic. Generally, your middle-aged female/male with two kids and a $90,000 income will do much better than an 18-year-old making $12,000 a year.
With that being said, I always say invites on my dashboard, butit doesn’t mean you will qualify for all of them. As a general rule of thumb, be prepared to qualify for about10 to 20% of them. Nonetheless, e-Rewards will keep you busy as it’s networked with Dynata, one of the larger research companies. With this sort of power, they have a lot of connections, meaning a lot of surveys for you.
The best way to receive more surveys is to make sure you complete your profile. The company uses a badge system, which rewards you with “badges” as you fill out your profile. Tiers include the silver, platinum and diamond member level. While the badges won’t earn you more money, per se, it can help you earn more survey invites.
e-Rewards Surveys
Most of the surveys you complete on the platform will range anywhere from $0.50 to $5+ in e-Rewards currency. Like most survey sites, these surveys can take you anywhere from five to 25+ minutes to complete. Just make sure you take a glance at the survey information before you click on it to make sure it’s worth your time.
In the beginning, however, they will make you answer profile questions if you don’t answer them at first. This can be annoying, but it is necessary to receive targeted survey invites.
The nice thing about e-Rewards is that they will give you a partial incentive, even if you disqualify, so technically, you will always earn at least something.
Well, how much can I earn?
Again, it depends, but on average, you should be able to earn $5 to $15 in e-Rewards currency a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. I can log in for an hour and easily make $10 to $15, but remember, this is in e-Rewards currency, not USD currency.
The Rewards
The thing about the e-Rewards currency is that $1 in e-Rewards cash does not equal $1 in value. Rather, every $75 in their currency equals about $25 in cash value if you were to cash out for a gift card. As for points, the value will depend on which option you choose as each company has varying point values. It’s more of a mind game because it makes you feel like you’re earning more when you take a survey, but in reality, you’re not earning nowhere near what you think. That $5 e-Rewards currency survey you may take, for example, is only worth $1.65 in gift cards.
To be safe, every dollar earned here is only worth $0.33 in rewards value. This isn’t always the case, however, as sometimes, the points can be worth more if your reward is on sale It’s annoying to do the math, but some companies do this to play more of a mind game with you.
When it does come time to cash out, e-Rewards offers a variety of rewards, most of which include gift cards, loyalty miles/points and magazines. At the time of this review, here’s what they were offering:
- Marcus Theatres gift card
- American Eagle gift card
- CVS gift card
- Burlington gift card
- Domino’s gift card
- Express gift card
- Fanatics gift card
- GameStop gift card
- GolfNow gift card
- Macy’s gift card
- eBags gift card
- Fabletics gift card
- Famous Footwear gift card
- JustFabgift card
- Sally Beauty gift card
- ShoeDazzle gift card
- Omaha Steaks gift card
- Red Lobster gift card
- Restaurant.com
- Starbucksgift card
- Magazines (more than 15+ options ranging from $5 to $30 in currency)
- Accor points (starts at 275 points for $20 in currency)
- Alaska Airlines points (starts at 500 points for $25 in currency)
- American Airlines points (starts at 500 points for $25 in currency)
- British Airways points (starts at 250 points for $12 in currency)
- Choice Hotels points (starts at 1,000 points for $30 in currency)
- Club Premier points (starts at 800 points for $25 in currency)
- EtihadAirways points (starts at 500 points for $25 in currency)
- Frontier Airlines points (starts at 500 points for $25 in currency)
- Hawaiian Airlines points (starts at 500 points for $25 in currency)
- Hertz points (starts at 150 points for $30 in currency)
- Hilton points (starts at 1,000 points for $25 in currency)
- Iberia points (starts at 750 points for $25 in currency)
- IHG points (starts at 1,000 points for $30 in currency)
- JetBlue points (starts at 500 points for $25 in currency)
- Radisson points (starts at 1,000 points for $25 in currency)
- Southwest points (starts at 250 points for $15 in currency)
- United points (starts at 500 points for $25 in currency)
- Virgin points (starts at 500 points for $25 in currency)
Keep in mind that this is subject to change, but over the years, it hasn’t changed all that much. Usually, most people who join are only interested in the loyalty points, which are transferred to their account. But, what you cash out for is completely up to you, of course.
Once you cash out, online vouchers can arrive in about 24 hours, whereas physical rewards, such as a magazine, can take up to six weeks.
What the Internet Is Saying
As in all of my reviews, it’s not always about me. It’s important to see what other people are saying, the main reason I include this section in all of my reviews.
In my research, here’s what I found about e-Rewards, both good and bad.
The Good
- free to join
- loyalty rewards can be earned if you don’t want to buy them
- lots of survey opportunities
- higher-paying survey options
- incentives even if you don’t qualify
The Bad
- lots of reports of people getting suspended (higher than average in comparison to other sites)
- you need an invite to join
- uses a wacky currency system
- no PayPal or Amazon
7/10e-Rewards is a mixed bag to me. It’s 100% legit and not a scam, but is it worth it, that’s the question.
The thing I like about them is that they are backed by Dynata, a very reputable market research firm. In fact, it’s one of the largest in the field, which generally means you can get a lot of survey opportunities. I have found many of their surveys to be much more enjoyable than some of the competitors. They seem to be shorter and I qualify for more. The only thing I didn’t like is that their rewards seem to be meh. They don’t have the typical favorites, such as Amazon or PayPal, so instead, you have to resort to one of the many I mentioned above. While there are someokaychoices, many people prefer the cash option, and I don’t blame them.
Even if you plan on taking the surveys to convert to loyalty points later, make sure you do the math. For example, IHG points are said to be worth $0.005 each. Doing the math, you need $30 in e-Rewards money to receive 1,000 points. Seeing every dollar is worth about $0.33, that’s $30 is actually $9. So, is paying $9 for 1,000 points worth it? Well, 1,000 points are only worth $5, so the short answer is no. The thing here is that your values will vary, so please do the math to make sure it makes sense.
In the end, e-Rewards is can go either way. I’m not going to recommend them heavily nor will I say to steer clear. They have a lot of surveys and you can earn some decent rewards such as magazine subscriptions and loyalty points if you don’t want to buy them, but other than that, if you’re looking for gift cards, you can do much better.
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