This is the definitive InboxDollars review.
We’ve spent 100+ hours researching and testing the best survey sites.
Here’s how Inbox Dollars stacks up…
What is InboxDollars?
InboxDollars is a long-established website / app which pays you for completing a variety of activities, such as answering surveys, watching videos, reading promotional emails, and playing games.
This way of making money online is known as GetPaidTo.
Jump to…
This review is a joint effort between Niall Doherty (founder of eBiz Facts) and a hired freelancer named Hannah based in the USA.
Our process:
- We hired Hannah to sign up to InboxDollars and test out certain parts of the site.
- Hannah documented her work and tracked her progress.
- We searched online for additional information about InboxDollars and carefully noted our findings.
- We wrote a first draft of this review.
- We sent the draft to our Freedom Business Builder community and asked for feedback.
- We made our final edits and published the review.
Note: We may earn a commission if you decide to join InboxDollars via a referral link in this review. Read our full disclosure here.
InboxDollars scam?
A few of the most popular things people search for in relation to InboxDollars:
- InboxDollars scam
- Is InboxDollars legit?
- Is InboxDollars a scam?
- InboxDollars complaints
- Is InboxDollars safe?
We’ve spent 5+ hours using and researching the site to find out the truth.
InboxDollars has been around since the year 2000 and has partnered with the likes of Netflix, Target, H&R Block and Walmart.
They are also accredited by the Better Business Bureau and hold an impressive A+ rating.
However, users of InboxDollars give mixed reviews.
Many see the site as an easy and reliable way of earning a little money online, but we’ve also seen frequent complaints from users, more so than with other survey sites we’ve reviewed.
Common complaints about InboxDollars include:
- It’s difficult to qualify for surveys
One user mentioned applying for 38 surveys and qualifying for only 7. - Surveys tend to “dry up” the closer you get to cashing out
In other words, you might earn your first $15-20 quickly, but it can be a struggle to reach the $30 minimum required for a payout. - Accounts closed for no obvious reason
InboxDollars seems to occasionally kick users off the site without providing any explanation.
Given all that, we’re hesitant to recommend InboxDollars.
You’re much better off choosing an alternative from our list of top-rated survey sites…
🏆 Best Survey Sites 🏆
| Best Overall | |
|---|---|
| Dollars Per Hour | |
| Survey Quantity | |
| Payment Options | |
| Quick Payout | |
| Mobile App | |
| Outside USA | |
| Referral Program | |
| Sign-Up Bonus |
How does InboxDollars work?
First of all, please note that InboxDollars is only available to people living in the USA. 7
Once you sign up, InboxDollars pays you for completing simple online tasks.
Ways to earn on InboxDollars
Confirm your email and complete your profile
When you sign up to InboxDollars via this link, you’ll receive a $5 bonus for confirming your email address.
You can also earn an additional $0.50 by completing a to-do list on your dashboard.
That will get you to $5.50 in earnings in only a few minutes.
Answer surveys
As soon as you sign up for InboxDollars, you can begin answering surveys for money.
The official word:
Most online surveys for money pay from $0.50 to $5.00 and take 3 minutes to 25 minutes to complete. There are some online surveys that pay $10, $20, or even more if you match the demographic profile they are looking for.
(Don’t get your hopes up here. As you’ll see below, you’re likely to earn only $0.50/hour answering surveys on InboxDollars.)
Watch videos
InboxDollars partners with advertisers to bring you video content. When you videos on the site, partners pay InboxDollars and you receive a portion of those earnings.
Unfortunately, InboxDollars will only pay you $0.01 per video (or series of videos) watched, regardless of length.
Play games
As with watching videos, InboxDollars will pay you a tiny amount for time spent playing some of their free games.
They also offer up to 18% cash back on every dollar spent on premium games, which isn’t so much a way to earn money as it is to play some premium games at a discount.
Accept special offers
You’ll be pitched free and premium offers once signed up to InboxDollars, like a cash reward for signing up for a free trial of a product or service, or cash back for spending a certain amount at an online store.
This seems to be the best way to earn money with InboxDollars, but only if you’re smart about it. (See our InboxDollars hacks for best practices.)
Read emails
InboxDollars can send you regular emails, usually promoting some third-party product or service. For each one of these you open, you get paid $0.02.
Or join InboxDollars and get a $5 sign-up bonus »
How much does InboxDollars pay?
Imogen here is representative of a typical person taking surveys at InboxDollars…
Imogen Dodson
- Survey take at InboxDollars
- $0.50 average earnings per hour
Your earning potential on any survey site comes down to two primary factors:
- How much you can earn per hour, on average.
- How many surveys are available for you to answer each day.
If you can earn a high amount per hour and there are endless surveys available, you can earn a lot of money.
Compared to most other survey sites, InboxDollars scores poorly on both counts:
The scores there would be much higher, but you’re likely to be disqualified from most of the surveys you apply for. Disqualifications can even happen after you’ve spent 20 minutes answering a survey, which is frustrating.
Best case scenario, expect to qualify for a maximum of 5 surveys each day, and probably less as you get closer to the $30 payment threshold.
However, answering surveys isn’t the only way to earn money on InboxDollars. You can also get paid to:
- Watch videos
- Play games
- Read emails
- Accept special offers
As noted above, your earnings for the first three will be miniscule, to the point where it’s hardly worth your time.
You can occasionally earn some decent money from the special offers, but only if you’re smart about it. (See our InboxDollars hacks for best practices.)
Or join InboxDollars and get a $5 sign-up bonus »
How does InboxDollars pay?
Available gift cards include Amazon, Foot Locker, GameStop, Starbucks, Target, Uber and Whole Foods.
You also have the option of receiving a prepaid Visa card.
Note that you will be charged a fee when you cash out:
Inboxdollars charges a $3.00 processing fee per payment request but $3.00 is then deposited back into your account to get you started on your next payment request.
Some users are offered a fee waiver promotion when they go to cash out:
Or join InboxDollars and get a $5 sign-up bonus »
InboxDollars Gold Membership
InboxDollars automatically makes you a “Gold Member” after you receive your first payment (i.e. once you’ve earned $30 or more and successfully cashed out).
Apparent perks of gold membership include:
- Faster payment processing (3-9 days instead of 10-16 days)
- Double sweepstakes offers
- Exclusive monthly offers
- Double search rewards
InboxDollars WinIt code
Some of the most popular things people search for in relation to InboxDollars:
- InboxDollars WinIt code
- InboxDollars WinIt
- InboxDollars WinIt codes instagram
- WinIt code InboxDollars
- InboxDollars WinIt code today
WinIt codes are basically a way for InboxDollars to increase engagement on social media.
Almost every day they’ll post a new code on at least one of their social media channels:
The codes usually expires within ~12 hours. If you enter them into your InboxDollars account in time, you’ll earn some money.
The vast majority of the time, the reward for using a valid InboxDollars WinIt code is only $0.01.
InboxDollars WinIt codes are usually related to the day they’re posted.
For example:
- April 15th, National Tax Day
WinIt code = TAX - April 25th, National Telephone Day
WinIt code = HELLO - May 2nd, National Truffle Day
WinIt code = TRUFFLE - May 4th, Star Wars Day
WinIt code = FORCE
Or join InboxDollars and get a $5 sign-up bonus »
InboxDollars sign up
Signing up to InboxDollars is easy, but remember that you can only sign up if you live in the USA.
To sign up for InboxDollars, follow these steps.
- Click this link and you’ll arrive on the InboxDollars sign-up page with a $5 bonus offer.
- Enter your email address and choose a password, then click “Sign Me Up!”
- To complete your registration, you’ll need to click a confirmation link in an email InboxDollars sends to you.
Or join InboxDollars and get a $5 sign-up bonus »
InboxDollars login
To log into your InboxDollars account, go to the InboxDollars homepage and click the Member Login button at the top right of the screen.
You should then be able to login using your email and password.
InboxDollars Hacks
If you’re looking to maximize your earnings answering surveys, the best hack we can give you is to avoid InboxDollars and sign up for one of our top-rated survey sites instead…
🏆 Best Survey Sites 🏆
| Best Overall | |
|---|---|
| Dollars Per Hour | |
| Survey Quantity | |
| Payment Options | |
| Quick Payout | |
| Mobile App | |
| Outside USA | |
| Referral Program | |
| Sign-Up Bonus |
But if you’re determined to use InboxDollars to earn a few bucks, try the following tips.
Focus on offers
You’ll earn only about $0.50/hour answering surveys on InboxDollars.
But you can earn a good bit more by signing up for select offers on the site.
For example, you might see an offer on there to sign up for a free 1-month trial of XYZ service. You click through, complete the signup process – which often requires you to enter your credit card information – and InboxDollars subsequently awards you a few dollars for your efforts.
- Warning: you need to be smart about this. Be very selective and set reminders to cancel any free trials for products/services you don’t want to pay for.
Avoid any offers that ask for your phone number, otherwise you’ll soon be fending off endless calls for telephone marketing companies.
Don’t use your real email address
It’s best to use a junk or temporary email address when signing up for offers, so your regular inbox doesn’t get cluttered.
If you use Gmail, here’s an easy hack:
Say your email address is [email protected].
Any emails sent to the following addresses will also arrive in your inbox:
Use a version of your email address like that when signing up for any offers via InboxDollars.
Next, create a simple filter in Gmail so any emails sent to that particular version of your address skip the inbox and go to a special InboxDollars folder.
Then you can let all the emails pile up, or batch process them whenever is convenient for you.
Avoid “InboxDollars money generator”
InboxDollars money generator is a piece of software that claims to help you earn more money on InboxDollars.
We’ve researched this software and it clearly violates the InboxDollars terms of service, so definitely avoid using it.
Even if it does work, InboxDollars will not approve any withdrawal from your account when it’s so obvious that you accumulated funds illegitimately.
Or join InboxDollars and get a $5 sign-up bonus »
InboxDollars app
InboxDollars has an app for iPhone and another for Android.
Both have impressive ratings overall, but judging from the reviews, nobody seems to be earning significant money from the apps, just a few dollars here and there.
Or join InboxDollars and get a $5 sign-up bonus »
InboxDollars affiliate program / InboxDollars referral program
The InboxDollars affiliate and referral programs are how some folks earn BIG money on the site.
You can apply for the affiliate program here, but note that it “requires a minimum of 300 user registrations (US & UK only) per month.”
No details are provided about commissions.
The referral program, on the other hand, is far more transparent and accessible.
Essential info for InboxDollars affiliates
- You will be paid $1 for each of the first five “officially activated” people you refer to InboxDollars.
- For every person you refer beyond those first five, you will receive 30% of whatever they earn (their earnings from signup and profile surveys excluded).
- For more details, see here.
Keep in mind that it’s not necessarily easy to earn money as a InboxDollars affiliate. Becoming a successful affiliate marketer usually requires quite a bit of work up front.
Learn more about affiliate marketing »
Is InboxDollars worth it?
- NO if your main interest is earning money from answering surveys. (There are far better sites for that.)
- MAYBE if you’re smart and selective about signing up for the offers available on the site. (See our tips here.)
Sites Like InboxDollars (but better)
🏆 Best Survey Sites 🏆
| Best Overall | |
|---|---|
| Dollars Per Hour | |
| Survey Quantity | |
| Payment Options | |
| Quick Payout | |
| Mobile App | |
| Outside USA | |
| Referral Program | |
| Sign-Up Bonus |
We’re on a mission to review all the best survey sites.
Here’s our progress so far…
| Survey Site | Rating | Review |
|---|---|---|
| 1. PrizeRebel | 3.9/5 | PrizeRebel review |
| 2. Survey Junkie | 3.6/5 | Survey Junkie review |
| 3. QuickThoughts | 3.1/5 | QuickThoughts review |
| 4. Vindale Research | 3/5 | Vindale Research review |
| 5. OneOpinion | 2.9/5 | OneOpinion review |
| 6. Swagbucks | 2.5/5 | Swagbucks review |
| 7. MyPoints | 2.3/5 | MyPoints review |
| 8. PaidViewpoint | 2/5 | PaidViewpoint review |
| 9. Qmee | 2/5 | Qmee review |
| 10. Tellwut | 1.9/5 | Tellwut review |
| 11. Opinion Outpost | 1.8/5 | Opinion Outpost review |
| 12. Pinecone Research | 1.8/5 | Pinecone Research review |
| 13. InboxDollars | 1.5/5 | InboxDollars review |
| 14. NeoBux | 0.5/5 | NeoBux review |
| Full list of best survey sites » | ||
Your InboxDollars Review
Have you tried InboxDollars?
Please consider leaving a review below – good or bad – doesn’t matter so long as it’s helpful to our visitors. Thanks for your support!
Yo i cant belive one of my favorite sites doing this. Asking for my I.D. and videos of my face WTH. and when i did send them my I.D and video they still refused my cashout. used this site for years and cashed out no problem and then boom nada. Cant recommand Inbox anymore
Don’t waste your time. They closed my account and refused to compensate me for the multiple surveys I completed. The only possible option they provided was for me to provide a state-issued id to them verifying my identity. This requirement, of course, was after I had an established account with them. Go with Survey Junkie or Valued Opinions.
I have cashed out a few times, and now it is like pulling teeth to get any surveys at all. I can no longer upload receipts, more than half of their paid offers don’t work AND I completed a survey and was credited $40.00 that was pending and due to me in 15 days and was going to do my final cashout because this site is full of scumbags who never respond and they TOOK away my earnings saying that I had been DISQUALIFIED even though I had not been!!! These guys are crooks. Stay away from SurveyJunkie too because they froze me out of my account after my second cashout saying that I was lying and cheating the system which is complete bull. These companies are terrible. Stay away from InboxDollars. A friend I referred still hasn’t received her cashout after playing games and earning $50.00. These people never respond. They don’t want to pay you so they freeze you out of your account and try to prevent you from getting surveys.
About one third of their cash back offers don’t register and it is a pain to file a claim. Just had to verify my identity even though my claim clearly shows the purchase and my email. No reason for this other than the more difficult it is to complain, the less likely they are to have to pay out. Definitely not worth the agrivation and all the annoying emails they send. As soon as my final offers are done I am finished with them.
I feel like it’s such a scam. I took several surveys and never qualified such a waste of time. I played games to do the scratch offs. My balance has remained the same for months more of a waste of time. I hit $100 on the scratch off three times and never received that money. I sent in a claim for this complaint and still not a word for weeks.
My cell phone number changed – same phone, but with new number.
They responded that I needed to send them a copy of a government i.d. to confirm who I am before they will change my cell phone number on their site. As long as the cell number remains unchanged I can no longer participate in some certain activities including cashing out earnings.
Under no circumstances will they be getting a copy of my government i.d. because what they are claiming makes no logical sense.
They previously confirmed my phone by sending a verification number to my phone as part of the signup process. They also randomly have you reconfirm your phone such when you seek a payout, print coupons, or confirm a message within. All this does is confirm that the person using their website on a desktop has access to the phone being sent the verification number. It does not prove that the name you’ve given them is actually your real name since the cell phone does not share information about unlisted numbers with them. At best they can confirm that the phone’s location is near the home address entered as part of their site’s registration, assuming the phone’s geolocation is turned on.
Yet to change your email address all you need to do is send them a message with at least of the following details.
“For our team to change your email address, please provide 3 of the following items on your account.”
Date of Birth
Full Name
Mailing Address
Security Answer
The first three are publicly available. That means that anyone wanting to steal your accumulated earnings can simply change the email address with three easily obtain details and have your funds transferred to another PayPal account using that new email address.
Someone wanting to steal a user’s accumulated earnings is not required to provide a copy of government i.d., but someone simply wanting to change their cell phone number, with the money going to the same PayPal email address, is required to provide a i.d.
I’ve earned and cashed out over $200 and as thanks they treat me like a criminal.
Do not accumulate any large earnings – cash earnings out as quickly as possible so they can’t scam you. Fortunately they only stolen $11.
I abandoned the previous InboxDollars account using the old number and set up a new account using the new number. After accumulating over $12 in the new account they suddenly stop sending verification codes to your phone and then claim the only way to fix it is to send them a license. No, the only way to fix it is to send an actual verification number to my phone as you’ve done multiple times before.
This company is a scammer!
They have just earned themselves a complaint with attorney general of my state and the state they are located in as well as the FTC.
I have been doing surveys and completing offers from inboxdollars, a company run by prodege. On Monday August 2nd, I initiated a transfer of over $50 to my PayPal account from my inboxdollars account. While waiting for that to deposit I continued to do surveys and offers amassing another $62 in the meantime. Towards the end of the week I became worried something was wrong with the transfer because it was taking so long and contacted inboxdollars support to find out what was happening. They said it could take up to 10 business days to receive in PayPal. It’s never taken that long before but whatever. Anyway I was using the app to earn money even up until this morning, August 9th. When I came this afternoon I attempted to login and do some more work but instead find out my account has been deactivated. No reason given, no email. This is now up to $112 that has been stolen from me
I’m fighting Inbox Dollars now. I signed up for Solitaire Cube, downloaded the app, paid $10.00, played several games as the offer stated for $35.00 credit. They won’t pay me!! What do I do?
I have not received my money it’s been three weeks I sent my request in through my pay pal account still no pay I want to believe that this is a trustworthy company
it worked for me this week. does ur paypal and ur inboxdollars accounts use the same email address? and also…. my paypal had to have a verified bank account before inboxdollars would send. hope this helps!!!
I have had my InboxDollars account for several years. I had the same thing happen as another user, where, out of the blue, they deactivate my account (with money in my account). I sent a question to the help desk and after two requests, and SEVERAL DAYS, someone responded as they had to the other user who told her story below. They needed a government issued ID, with picture, country/state, name, date of birth, and expiration date. I replied back to this request asking why they needed this information after so many years of being a customer—I got no response. Why would I want to send them this when a) they are so SLOW to respond at all, b) don’t respond AT ALL to this particular question c) they have no contact information (address, phone number) in case there is a problem or fraud. I wouldn’t even know how to report them if they were fraudulent. They used to have a chat option–now all they have is a robot, which is TOTALLY useless. Their Help Desk agents don’t even know the rules–I can look it up myself, and get different explanations than what they give me. The surveys are ridiculous–you can attempt ten different surveys, and be declined AFTER spending the estimated time on them. They say you can get money for printing and using coupons–I’ve missed out on MANY of these, and they don’t respond to the Help Desk requests to correct.
I’ve used InboxDollars for several years and recently they deactivated my account with no explanation. (I had $36 and change waiting to be cashed out at the time.) When I emailed to ask why, this was the response after several days:
“As a standard procedure, our Compliance team is requesting your account to be verified by government issued ID. … You can cover or block out any sensitive information on your ID, as long as we can see your picture, country/state, name, date of birth, and expiration date. The photocopy will be stored on our secure system and be accessible only to our Compliance Department. We will promptly delete the photo after we review it.”
That seems sketchy to me and like an unacceptable security risk. What do you think?
Hi Beth. That does seem weird that the deactivated your account after so long with no issues. Personally I wouldn’t submit that kind of information for the sake of $36, though I don’t think there is any serious risk of doing so.
Let me know what you decide to do.
It makes me so mad to complete a survey and it tells you sorry you didn’t qualify. You spend 20 to 25 minutes on it and complete it then nothing.
Thank you all who responded to my message. I hope all of you and myself finally get some action on these problems. As for survey junkie, I do recommend it, I have honestly had no problems with them. I always get payouts and they do respond to you whenever you have an issue . Thank you all once again. Good night and God bless you all.