Review: Inbox Dollars

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for anything that allows me to earn money on the side.  I especially love anything that's super easy, and doesn't cost me a ton of time.  I love reading those articles people put out about "20 Fabulous Things" that will allow me to earn money in my pajamas.  Several such articles have sited Inbox Dollars as being a terrific tool to earn extra money.  So, I decided to try it.

Inbox Dollars is a company that pays cash rewards to individuals for completing certain activities.  Those activities include viewing email advertisements, playing games, taking surveys, watching videos, among others.  They give you $5 just to sign up. So, I downloaded the app on my phone so I could easily do this while in transit.

I figured this would be a great way to make money and kill time on my commute home.  I take two buses, and it can get pretty dull.  I thought if I could keep myself entertained, and make a little cash it was an all-around win.   Most articles I had read told me that I could make a couple hundred bucks a month doing this. So, I started off by checking all of the paid emails and taking surveys.  I made two cents per email.   Surveys paid various amounts.  Some a dollar, others a quarter or a nickel.  The app was pretty handy at telling me how many minutes each survey would take, so I would click on one that was listed and go for it.  I started to notice that I would have to answer a lot of questions at the beginning of the survey, only to find out that I wasn't even qualified to take it.  Then the app would send me back to the list to choose another.  Once I would finally find a survey that I was qualified for, it was relatively smooth sailing, though the questions at the beginning ate up a lot of time.  The survey itself might only take ten minutes, but the questions at the beginning to determine my qualifications would take another ten.  On my forty minute commute, I might make a quarter.  Compared to the $45 dollars an hour I make at most of my side gigs, this quarter wasn't very enticing.

Once my total earnings hit $10, I decided to cash out.  That was when I learned that I couldn't cash out until I hit $30.  I was disappointed, to say the least.  So, I kept going.  It didn't take long before I grew tired of the surveys.  I tried out the video watching, but it took a lot of videos to accrue any cash, and it was eating up a lot of my cell phone data, so I fizzled out on doing that.  At this point, I basically just click on the emails because it's really easy.

I finally got to $30, and am eligible to cash out.  There will be a $3 processing fee in order to cash out, unless I accept a "special offer" to wait another 30 days and attempt to get to $40.  If I make it to $40 in 30 days, they'll waive the fee.  Since it's taken me about a year and a half to make $30 on Inbox Dollars, I doubt I will make it to $40 on time.

So, I will probably just cash out, accept the processing fee, and throw in the towel.  Perhaps you can make decent money on Inbox Dollars, but I wasn't highly successful.  Perhaps I am not patient enough for the surveys, or perhaps I just prefer to spend my time doing something else.