by The Dormouse

Created on: March 14, 2006   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

The short answer is, some are, and some aren't.

We've all tried the pay per click, pay to receive emails, do this survey and be entered into our prize draw ones, and none of them pay (or if they do, I've yet to find them).

However, there are some that do.

Best of all in my opinion is Global Test Market. I get sent several surveys a week, all paying between 3 and 100 points (you only need 1000 points to cash out, and these equate to around £30). If you don't qualify for a survey, you still get around 3 points. It only takes around 3 months to get to 1000 points, so I think they're a good company.

Also impressive is the ever-present Ciao (many international sites). Ciao used to be simply an opinion site, but they now send a lot of surveys. UK rewards tend to be around the £0.50 to £1.00 mark, and you can cash out at £5.00. They have also recently bought go-Zing (which I counted amongst the bad and ugly of internet survey companies, so it will be interesting to see what happens here).

Another UK based company is Pinecone Research, proving that there is such a thing as a free lunch, as they pay £4.00 of Luncheon Vouchers for every survey. They send about one survey a month. Unfortunately, you have to happen across a banner for this one - the last time I looked, you couldn't just sign up...

On the up and up are Test & Vote. I used to be constantly frustrated by this patchy site (and no, I've never been sent anything to test...), and infuriated that only one survey would appear every six months or so, and then you'd be bumped out after the first question with no reward. Now, however, surveys seem to be appearing about once a week. 40,000 will get you a £10.00 Amazon voucher, and with most surveys offering upwards of 5,000 points, it won't take long to get there.

Last, but by no means least, are the fabulous Quickwise. Surveys are short, and pay £1.00, whether you qualify or not. Cash out is at £9.00. I cash out about four times a year.

So you won't become rich, but there are some good payers out there, and by picking your sites carefully, you can certainly earn yourself at least an extra £150 or so a year.

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