The internet didn't just make life more convenient – it also unlocked ways to earn money that weren't possible before.
If you have a phone or a laptop, you don't even have to leave home to start making some extra cash. In fact, many companies have capitalized on this by creating opportunities to make money online.
InboxPays is one of these companies. Its offer is amazing in theory: you can get paid just by answering surveys, playing fun games, watching videos, checking your email – basically, doing things you're already doing anyway.
But does InboxPays really work? Is it a scam, or is it a legit way to earn a few extra bucks?
We wanted to find out for ourselves, so we checked the official InboxPays website, cross-referenced it against review sites, and dived into reputable forums to see what people had to say.
Unfortunately, we found a huge red flag that makes us not recommend InboxPays for making money online. It's a make-or-break factor – so make sure to read until the end, or you're going to waste your time.
InboxPays: The Basics
InboxPays claims to pay users for completing market research surveys and paid offers. These are often delivered through email, hence the word “inbox” in their name.
Based on the InboxPays website, they've been around since 2005. As of 2022, they claim to have paid out over $2 million to their members.
Who owns Inboxpays?
The company that owns InboxPays is A&A Marketing which is based in Illinois.
According to its website, its services include “market research, media buying, customer acquisition, and e-marketing.”
However, the majority of its business revolves around running GPT sites, which it calls Incentive Rabbit solution. This is how it describes the service:
“Incentive Rabbit is the core of our market research strategies. We have successfully developed a multitude of websites that appeal to a wide range of users.”
In simple terms, it runs websites like InboxPays that pay users in exchange for participating in market research on behalf of the companies that A&A Marketing works with. These are usually in the form of surveys.
Is the InboxPays business model legit?
Yes, paying people to participate in surveys is a legitimate business model that has been around for decades. Companies and advertisers need feedback from consumers to help them determine what products or services to develop next.
In the old days, they would have to hire a research company to conduct surveys and focus groups. But with the advent of the internet, it's now easier (and cheaper) to just offer an incentive for people to participate in surveys online.
This is where GPT (Get-Paid-To) sites like InboxPays come in. They act as a middleman between the companies and the consumers.
In theory, it's a win-win situation. The companies get the feedback they need, and the users get paid for their time.
Unfortunately, as we'll discuss later, InboxPays doesn't always live up to its promise.
How to earn money on InboxPays
After you sign up for InboxPays, you'll start receiving emails that contain tasks you can complete to earn money.
There are several ways to get paid on InboxPays, including:
1. Completing surveys
The bread and butter of InboxPays, and pretty much every other GPT site, are online surveys. After signing up, you'll be asked to complete an extensive profile survey. You'll need to fill out your demographics, interests, and even buying habits.
Based on your profile, InboxPays will match you with surveys from their partners. This means you don't have any control as to how many and what surveys you want to participate in. It's all up to InboxPays.
If you get matched to a survey, InboxPays will email you a link to the survey. This can be in the form of a short quiz, a longer questionnaire, or even a phone or video interview.
The more niche the survey is, the higher the pay. For example, a survey about your everyday shampoo usage will probably only pay a few cents, while a survey about a new car you're thinking of buying could pay a few dollars.
Still, don't expect to earn much. The average InboxPays survey pays $0.5 for short ones, and $5 surveys are already on the higher end – they're usually rare, too.
2. Paid offers
InboxPays paid offers are basically advertisements for products or services. To earn money, you'll need to do things like download apps, sign up for free trials, or even buy products.
The site claims that you can earn as much as $75 from a paid offer, but realistically, expect around $0.5 per offer.
3. Reading emails
No, InboxPays won't really pay you for reading emails. Instead, you'll receive sponsored emails that contain links to external websites. Again, you'll need to complete a task on that site to earn money.
These tasks pay even less than paid offers at around $0.02 to $0.03 per email.
4. Spinning the wheel
To switch things up, InboxPays also has a “lucky wheel” that you can spin to win cash prizes. To get a spin, you'll need to complete a paid offer or survey first.
The wheel itself is just a fun way to add some excitement (and maybe encourage you to do more tasks). The prizes aren't anything to write home about, with most payouts being in the $0.50 to $1 range.
You might get lucky and hit the jackpot for $25, but that's about it.
5. InboxPays referral program
Websites like InboxPays rely on their massive user base to attract advertisers and partners. That's why they offer referral programs to encourage users to spread the word.
For every person you refer to InboxPays, you'll get 10% of their lifetime earnings. If you invite tons of them, that can add up and help you hit the minimum payout quicker.
6. Clipping coupons
This is actually something we like about InboxPays. If you shop online, you can use InboxPays to get cashback and discounts on your purchases.
Specifically, InboxPays has a database full of coupons from their partner companies. All you need to do is find a coupon for a store you're thinking of shopping at and click on the link. It's an easy way to save money on your everyday purchases.
The only downside is that the selection of coupons is pretty limited. You might not find a coupon for the store you're looking for.
How do you cash out from InboxPays?
This is where things get more complicated. Unlike more famous rewards sites like Swagbucks, InboxPays doesn't have a ton of options when it comes to cashing out.
The only way to get your money from InboxPays is through PayPal. There's no option for claiming your rewards through gift cards, direct deposit, or anything else.
Their minimum cashout is also one of the highest we've ever seen among GPT sites.
You need to accumulate $50 before you can transfer your InboxPays earnings through PayPal.
It only gets worse from there. InboxPays imposes serious restrictions on its payout process:
- You can only cash out $50 at a time. So if you have $95 in your InboxPays account, tough luck – you can only withdraw the first $50.
- A full $25 of your earnings must come from paid offers and the Spin Wheel game. In other words, you can't just read emails and cash out.
- You're capped at $25 from reading emails. So if you've earned $40 from reading emails, the other $15 won't count towards your $50 cashout.
- Your referral bonus doesn't count towards the $50 minimum as well, so we're not sure why they even bother advertising it.
These requirements make InboxPays one of the hardest GPT sites to cash out from.
When you consider the fact that InboxPays users only earn $0.5 per task on average with no consistent way to make money, it can take months or even years to reach the minimum cashout.
And, you can reach $50, but if you don't satisfy the other strict conditions, your money is stuck there until you do.
In addition, PayPal also charges steep fees for transferring your InboxPays earnings. By the time you're done, you might only end up with $40 or $45 even if you had $50 in your account after working hard for months.
InboxPays: Pros and cons
To recap what we have about InboxPays so far, let's break it down with a quick list of pros and cons:
PROS
- Can use coupons to get cashback on online purchases
- Paid offers and surveys delivered to your inbox
- Free to join
CONS
- Very low earning potential
- High minimum cashout
- Restrictive payout conditions
- Only pays through PayPal
- PayPal transfer fees can eat into your earnings
So far, InboxPays doesn't look like a very rewarding GPT site. But do actual users have to say?
InboxPays user reviews and complaints
InboxPays has a 1.6/5 star rating on TrustPilot, which equals a “Bad” rating from the site. They've also never claimed their TrustPilot profile even though they've been operating since 2005.
While an unclaimed review profile isn't necessarily a red flag, it does help establish a level of transparency and trust between the company and its users. Claiming a TrustPilot profile requires companies to do the following:
- Provide proof of identity
- Have a physical address
- Be reachable by phone or email
- Sync their verified Google My Business account
- Have third-party confirmation of their domain name registration
All of these add up to create a more trustworthy and transparent company in the eyes of consumers.
Here are some complaints from real users of InboxPays on TrustPilot:
“I tried one offer and gotten my email spammed with offers stating “you won” or “hurry to redeem” or “you got (blank) amount of money”, another scam.”
“I also have “earned” money in my so-called account and can’t access it.”
“I have over $1,000 (collected over 6 years) and it keeps telling me that my PayPal address is incorrect”
“Ive completed over 70.00 in offers and surveys but they have yet to “approve” the offers so I am not able to cash out I've been waiting 3 months and written 12 support tickets about the issue.”
These are seriously concerning complaints and should be enough to make anyone think twice about signing up for InboxPays.
But by far, the biggest red flag we uncovered about InboxPays is their BBB red alert.
Both A&A Marketing and InboxPays have been flagged for a “Pattern of Complaint.”
Essentially, this means that the BBB has received enough complaints about InboxPays to warrant an investigation and public warning. The full list of complaints is as follows:
- Consistent non-payment of earnings
- Accounts being suddenly “blocked” or “terminated” right before cashout
- Customers unable to reach customer service through any method
- Failure of InboxPays to respond to any of BBB's attempts to reach them
On top of that, the pattern of complaints started as early as March 2015. So this isn't a new problem; it's been going on for years. And InboxPays has yet to do anything about it since their alert is still active as of August 2022.
Final Verdict: Is InboxPays worth your time?
InboxPays is a GPT site that's been around for over 15 years. In that time, they've managed to rack up a long list of complaints about non-payment, scam accusations, and failure to respond to customer service inquiries.
On top of that, they've also been hit with a BBB red alert for the pattern of complaints.
Even without those issues, the insanely high minimum cash out and restrictions on payout make InboxPays a very unappealing GPT site.
There are much better options out there, so we recommend you steer clear of InboxPays.
Aidan has been writing about personal finance for over 6 years. Prior to this, he worked as a Corporate Finance Analyst where he specialized in Due Diligence, Company Valuations and more. He is a CFA charterholder.
