If you're looking for ways to earn extra money, you might have tried answering surveys from Panda Research.
If you’ve already done some surveys and are still waiting to receive your payout, it’s natural to wonder if you’ve been scammed. In this article, we’ll break down exactly why Panda Research has gotten such a bad rep.
What Is Panda Research?
Panda Research is a marketing website where you can earn cash incentives in exchange for your opinions when you answer surveys. It also offers coupons, discounts, and giveaways for its members.
Panda Research acts as a retailer or middleman between you and a partner company that wants a survey for feedback on their product, services, and brands for market research purposes.
It’s one of the oldest paid survey websites and a popular brand, but because of its high payout threshold (which used to be $50) and several complaints it receives, many have come to believe that it’s just a scam.
Even with mixed reviews, Panda Research is a legitimate paid online survey company by definition, but with long waiting times and unguaranteed earnings, you have to decide if it’s worth your time and effort.
How Do You Make Money From Panda Research?
Before concluding that a survey site is legit or a scam, it also helps to understand how things work in this industry. How were you supposed to earn from sites like Panda Research?
Brands conduct marketing research every time they develop new products and launch them, or they want to improve their offerings. They want your honest opinion as a consumer so they know what to improve or change or what products or services they should offer.
It’s usually free to create an account with a survey website. You need to create an account on Panda Research’s website, pandaresearch.com, which is easy and simple. You’ll give basic information about yourself and wait for the activation of your account.
As soon as your account is activated, you earn a $3 sign-up bonus. Then, Panda Research starts sending you email invitations to complete surveys that you’re qualified to take based on your background information. You can also browse through its website and look for surveys that you can take.
By having an account on Panda Research, you can do the following and make money:
- Participate in surveys. You can earn around $1.50 per survey you complete as long as you’re qualified to take it. Some longer surveys pay up to $50.
- Refer friends. You can also earn money from referrals. In every successful survey of your friend, you'll earn 10% of their earnings. You can also share referral links of offers and every time a friend purchases a product through your link, you earn 10% of the sales.
- Read emails from the advertisers. When you subscribe to Panda Research’s email program, you can earn up to $25 per payout from reading emails.
- Receive discounts and promotions. Panda Research offers special discounts, coupons, and promotions that may suit your needs.
- Enjoy special giveaways. You may also enjoy a special giveaway from their advertiser when you finish surveys or participate in offers.
These are the typical ways to earn from survey sites and Panda Research’s rates are on par with competitors. Some sites don’t give cash and use point systems instead, which can be redeemed through vouchers and gift cards.
How Do You Get Paid on Panda Research?
You need to have accumulated at least $30 in approved completed surveys before you can request a payout. It should be a minimum of $20 from offers and a maximum of $10 from paid emails.
Any amount exceeding the paid email maximum will remain on your account and will be eligible for the next redemption.
Panda Research pays every first or fifteenth of each month, but you have to wait for 30 days after you request a payout to receive your money.
What Do People Say About Panda Research?
In general, Panda Research receives dissatisfied feedback from users. It has a rating of 1.33 stars on sitejabber from a dozen reviews, but it has 4.0 stars on Knoji based on 40 reviews.
Panda Research received good feedback on the following:
- Good website user interface and usability
- Product and store features
- Big referral bonus
- Brand popularity
- Easy surveys to complete
Here are the common concerns:
- Unable to receive a payout. Most of the concerns are about accessing their payments. Some reviews say they’ve been waiting for years to redeem their payout, but they haven’t received them.
- No guarantee payout. It’s also a red flag that Panda Research says there’s no guarantee of a payout for every completed survey. There’s still verification from the partner company and their discretion counts.
So if you’re even slightly not qualified to take a survey, you’ll probably be just wasting your time. Some recommend that you stick with the short and low-payout surveys rather than the long ones that promise to pay up to $50 per completed survey.
- Fake surveys. Some surveys would ask for additional information such as credit card numbers, which is risky. You’ll also probably not get paid after completing their surveys.
- Lack of customer support. Users have been complaining about how hard it is to reach customer support no matter how often you send a ticket.
- Lack of payment options. You can only redeem your payout through PayPal.
These are valid concerns and, unfortunately, are also existent in other survey websites. For instance, some marketing companies may reject your answers on their surveys, especially if you’re not qualified to be a respondent because of your background, such as demographics, education, etc.
It’s also a common practice to meet a minimum amount before you can redeem your pay. So, if you’re taking longer to meet the threshold, you’ll be waiting longer to get paid.
Longer surveys may also get a while to be approved, so you won’t get paid until then. That would surely make anyone feel scammed.
So, it’s recommended that you stick with short surveys that won’t take much of your time and you’re more qualified to answer.
Who Should Sign Up For Panda Research?
If you want to earn extra money through paid surveys, you’re free to join Panda Research. You can make the most of your free time by sharing your opinion about a product, service, or brand.
Paid surveys are a good source of extra income, but if you’re in it for big earnings, you’re probably better off doing something else. Answering surveys takes time, and in the case of Panda Research, there’s no guarantee that all your completed surveys will be paid.
You have to meet some requirements so you’ll be qualified to participate in surveys and make money.
You need to be at least 18 years old and a resident of the United States. You’ll be asked about some information related to your demographics, including your occupation, how many you are in the household, whether you’re a decision-maker in the family, and so on.
You will also have to provide the following information:
- Complete name
- An active email address
- Valid phone number
- Mailing address
- PayPal account
How Much Money Can You Potentially Earn In Panda Research Compared To Other Survey Sites?
Panda Research promises to pay up to $50 per completed survey, but it doesn’t guarantee payment from its partners.
Most surveys would take 10 to 20 minutes to complete for $1.50 to $3 each, so you can earn $4.5 to $9 an hour. If you spend 2 hours a day, you may earn around $500 in 30 days.
But again, the downside is that there’s no guarantee about the payment because partner companies need to approve your surveys first.
Other survey sites also pay an average of $3 per survey. If you’re having doubts with Panda Research, there are more reliable sites you can check out.
Let’s take a look at some of them:
1. Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a legit site where you can earn money by taking surveys, watching videos, playing games, and more. It has an A rating in Better Business Bureau (BBB).
New Swagbucks members earn $10 as a signup bonus. Every completed survey pays between 1-350 Swagbucks (SBs) depending on the length and topic popularity.
For every 100 SBs, you'll earn an additional $1 that can be redeemed as PayPal cash or gift cards from Amazon, Lowe's, and Target. The higher the SBs you have, the more purchases and partner stores to unlock.
2. Branded Surveys
Branded Surveys is one of the most popular survey sites. It has a 4.5 out of a 5 stars rating on TrustPilot.
You get $1 as a signup bonus, then you earn points from every completed and approved survey. When you reach 500 points, you can choose your reward to get paid. Every 1,000 points are equivalent to $10.
You can also earn points on Branded Surveys by taking a daily poll and ranking on the leaderboard. You can redeem your payment through PayPal, e-gift cards, prepaid Visa cards, or charitable donations.
3. Prize Rebel
Prize Rebel is a paid online survey site that started in 2007. You can earn money or gift cards by completing surveys and sharing your options or fulfilling short offers.
Create a free account on Prize Rebel’s site. You’ll be asked to fill out a form with information that will be used to match you with the right surveys and offers.
Every time you complete a survey, you can immediately redeem your cash via PayPal or gift cards from some of the biggest companies, like Apple, Amazon, Google, eBay, and Visa. Each survey is compensated with a few dollars to $100, depending on the length and complexity. The longer the survey, the bigger the pay is.
4. PaidViewpoint
PaidViewpoint is another good alternative to Panda Research. It pays cash for every survey you complete. No need to gather up points or wait for survey answers to be approved.
Every survey you’re invited to participate in pays between $0.25 and $1.50, which takes around 5 minutes to complete.
There’s a limit to how many surveys you can answer in a month because market researchers want to have one answer from each respondent on their surveys.
At first, you’ll need to reach the $15 threshold before you can cash out your payment via PayPal. Then the second redemption would be a minimum of $10 and the succeeding ones will be $5.
5. Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie is a well-known community for paid online surveys. Download the Survey Junkie app on PlayStore and create your account for free. Fill out the information needed so that you’ll be matched to the right surveys.
It uses a point system, where you earn points for every survey you complete. One point is equal to one cent, so you’ll have $1 for every 100 points. You can redeem your rewards through PayPal, gift cards, or direct bank transfer.
As long as you’re 16 years old and live in the United States, you can join Survey Junkie. Users say you can earn around $2 to $5 per hour. The more hours you spend answering surveys, the more you can earn.
Conclusion
By definition, Panda Research is a legit market survey website that helps you earn a certain amount of money through answering surveys, making referrals, and reading paid emails. It’s one of the places to start if you’re looking to make extra money with your free time.
However, Panda Research receives mixed reviews from users, which is why many think that it’s just a scam.
Panda Research indeed has several things to improve on, especially with its customer service and easy payment redemption. Before you sign up with Panda Research and participate in its surveys, do your own research and see if this company matches your needs and appetite for risks.
Meanwhile, you can also check the other legit paid survey websites with better user reviews, lower payment thresholds, and easy rewards redemption processes, such as the ones we mentioned above.
Do you have experience with Panda Research? We would love to hear from you through the comments below! Your insights can help our readers make their decisions whether Panda Research is worth it to try!
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.
