Swagbucks Review: How to Make Extra Money with Swagbucks

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Swagbucks Review - How to Make Extra Money with Swagbucks
Earn Cash Back and Rewards with Swagbucks

Are you looking for a legitimate way to make extra money online?  Did you stumble upon Swagbucks, but wanted to perform a little due diligence before signing up?  If so, you’re not alone.

Of the most searched Swagbucks related queries the following are pretty high on the list:

Is Swagbucks safe? real? legit? a scam?

As you can see, people want to make sure Swagbucks is the real deal and worth their time before signing up. 

In my Swagbucks review below, I hope to show how Swagbucks is indeed legit and how you can make extra money online with Swagbucks

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks.com is a popular online rewards programs that gives you free gift cards to popular retailers like Walmart or Amazon, or cash through PayPal for performing tasks online. 

The various ways to earn points include cash back shopping online, watching videos, searching the web, answer surveys and polls, and finding great deals.  It has paid over $340,544,497 in free gift cards and cash since inception. 

It has been around since June 2005 and is located in El Segundo, California and is a subsidiary brand of Prodege, LLC. a leading Internet and media company that operates multiple customer engagement brands.

Swagbucks BBB Review

Swagbucks has been in business for 13 years, accredited with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) since May 2010, and currently holds an A- rating.  They have an active customer service department and are very quick to respond to complaints. 

Swagbucks Trustpilot Review

Swagbucks holds an 8.3 score with Trustpilot which is high for a rewards or cash back website.

How Does Swagbucks Really Work?

Swagbucks is a rewards and cash back website that is free and easy to join and use online.  In a nutshell, you earn money by either shopping through Swagbucks search and earning cash back or by performing tasks online (surveys, searching the internet on Swagbucks search engine extension, watching videos, playing games, etc.). 

How Many Swagbucks Equal a Dollar? 

The cash back and rewards you earn are in the form of points called “Swagbucks”.  One hundred (100) Swagbucks equals one (1) dollar. 

What Can You Redeem Swagbucks For?

Redeem Swagbucks for Gift Cards

You can redeem Swagbucks for gift cards to popular vendors such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Starbucks, etc.

Redeem for Cash Through PayPal

You can also get cash back through PayPal. 

What is the Threshold for Payout?

There are Amazon gift cards as low as $3.00, so you just need 300 Swagbucks to be eligible for gift cards.  However, at the time of this writing, the smallest threshold for PayPal cash back is $25.00 or 2500 Swagbucks. 

Swagbucks 10 Dollar Sign Up Bonus

Swagbucks is absolutely free to join.  All you need to sign up is your name and email or a Facebook account.  Just go to Swagbucks.com (click here to earn a $10 welcome bonus), enter your information, and you’re all set to go.

Ways to Make Extra Money with Swagbucks

Once you’re signed up, you’ll be taken to a dashboard that gives you multiple ways to make extra money.  These include shopping, deals, watching videos, searching the internet through their search engine, paid surveys, and playing games. 

Earn Cash Back Shopping

This is the easiest way to earn Swagbucks.  If you regularly purchase items online, you should checking on Swagbucks to see if you can earn an extra 1 – 15%+ cash back buying things online you were going to buy anyways. 

This is how I typically use the site.  If I’m making a purchase online, I’ll check on Swagbucks and Ebates to see who has the better cash back offer for the store.  Then, when I check out, I’ll also use a cash back credit card as well to get points that way. 

Discover Deals

This is probably the second most frequent way I earn Swagbucks.  Under this section, you’ll find special deals such as sign up offers, free trial offers, etc.  I use this if there is some offer that piques my interest.

Make Extra Money Watching Videos

In my experience, their videos are not worth the time.  At the time of this writing, they are paying out 1-3 Swagbucks per 15 minutes of video.  I would highly recommend you don’t waste your time on the paid videos.

Get Paid to Surf the Web

Do you search the internet frequently?  If so, why not make a little extra money passively online?  To do this on Swagbucks, you can either go to the Swagbucks website and use their search engine or the site or add the Swagbucks button which is a browser extension.  The search engine is powered by Yahoo!, so you’re really just getting paid to use Yahoo! as your search engine of choice. 

In my experience, you’ll earn about 20 Swagbucks each day, but you’re earning that 20 cents doing something you would have done anyway.

Make Extra Money Taking Paid Surveys

I don’t often qualify for the surveys on Swagbucks, so I rarely try them.  The good things, however, is that if you try and find out you aren’t eligible, Swagbucks will typically still award you 1-5 Swagbucks for your effort.

Play Games for Cash

I’ve never used their games section to earn Swagbucks.  From what I can tell, they have a few games that you can directly make Swagbucks on, but all of the others are essentially cash back on in game purchases. 

Unless you are already playing one of the games listed, I wouldn’t recommend trying to make extra money using their games.

Swagbucks Tips and Tricks

I mentioned it earlier, but for the most part, the easiest and most consistent ways to earn Swagbucks is through their shopping and discover deals sections. 

The Swagbucks search engine is a good way to make passive income (~20 cents a day on average).  I highly discourage the use of the videos and games sections as they are huge time wasters with little earnings to show for it.

Is Swagbucks worth it?

The answer to this question depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. 

If you’re looking for a way to get rich fast, then Swagbucks is definitely not the answer. 

If you’re looking for a way to earn cash back shopping at stores you were going to shop at anyway or earn extra money searching the internet or completing paid, online surveys, then Swagbucks is totally worth it. 

What is your experience with Swagbucks? Any tips or tricks of your own?