Best Paid Survey Platforms For Each Payout Method

There is no point in completing paid online surveys if you aren’t sure you’ll get rewarded. It’s best to check the available payment methods before you start putting some work into the platform. I have selected the best survey platforms for each of the popular payment methods. 

The criteria I used are payment time, payout threshold, and the level of support you can expect if anything goes wrong. The payment methods themselves are also ranked in terms of what you should prefer. The reasons for this rating are explained below.

PayPal

PayPal is one of the most popular online payment platforms. It supports more than 200 countries and 25 different currencies. These facts alone should be more than enough to choose a payout in the PayPal system for your paid surveys. But it gets even better.

PayPal has much lower banking and currency conversion fees than traditional banks. Paying online with PayPal is also very easy, so in most cases, you won’t even need to transfer the money to your bank account.

This has one significant benefit – less taxes. Depending on your country, you might need to pay taxes for your earnings from paid surveys. It might not be much, but it seems so unnecessary for such a small side hustle.

The idea goes as follows. Keeping your funds in PayPal helps to avoid taxes because, technically, you earn money abroad and spend it immediately. No money reaches your account, so there is nothing to be taxed. Of course, take it with a grain of salt, as tax laws vary from country to country.

Lastly, PayPal is superior in terms of location coverage compared to gift cards and even bank transfers. The money can reach you instantly, no matter what country you are in. If the survey platform is reputable.

Bank transfers

Although compared to PayPal, bank transfers are inferior survey payouts, they are still very reliable. Most survey platforms pay in 2-3 business days after you request it. It can take even longer in some cases for the payment to go through, but you receive money nobody can take away.

There are a couple of conditions. A paid survey provider might not support your country, so be sure to double-check before starting to complete surveys. Your bank might have some charges or currency exchange rates, so check them in advance.

The biggest advantage of bank transfer payout is the trust it gives in the platform. Most online scams, paid survey ones included, operate with crypto or gift cards. If a platform offers payouts in bank transfers or payment card top-ups, it’s a good sign the provider is trustworthy.

Gift Cards

If you don’t live in Western Europe or North America, you might find PayPal and bank transfers quite difficult as payout methods for paid surveys. Transfer and currency conversion fees, regional restrictions, and intrusive compliance questions are the main culprits. You can get around them, but it’s much easier to simply choose gift cards.

Gift cards (or gift vouchers in the UK) are prepaid stored-value money cards. In simple terms, it means that you receive an already paid amount you can spend on a particular store. All survey platforms these days send online cards, which means you receive them to your email instantly.

Since this is considered a gift and the money has already been paid, you won’t need to worry about any taxes or transfer fees. The only drawback is that you are limited to one store, and the card might expire if you don’t use it quickly. 

This is easily solved by choosing a card from a frequently used store. There’s plenty to choose from – Amazon, BestBuy, Spotify, Netflix, Xbox, McDonald’s, Walmart, and many others are readily available on survey platforms.

Survey platforms for gift cards, bank transfers, and PayPal payouts

Pawns

Pawns.app is the best survey platform I have ever tried. There are plenty of surveys; the payout threshold is only $5, and it works almost anywhere. As with everything else, the survey questionnaires vary highly, from cosmetic products to opinion surveys.

One survey, on average, is valued at around $1, which is a lot compared to the pennies that other platforms pay. Pawns allows participants to cash out using gift cards, bitcoin, or bank transfers, but it shines the most with its PayPal coverage.

It worked flawlessly for me in the US. No questions were asked by PayPal compliance. I simply pressed a button, and the $15 dropped into my PayPal account.

While other payment options on Pawns are limited to certain regions, I haven’t found anyone online complaining that PayPal isn’t covered. If you don’t believe me, just read their TrustPilot page.

Its worth mentioning that Pawns also offers participants to sell their unused internet bandwidth. This is optional, and you can participate only in surveys as you wish. However, I can assure you that you can make around $8 or $9 per month simply by pressing a button on your devices.

Branded Surveys

Branded Surveys is one of the most popular survey platforms online. The daily polls they provide are a reliable source of extra income, as you can expect them frequently. The payout threshold is $5, although the surveys are rarely priced close to 1$.

You can earn more with this platform if you are more active. They have a system of rewarding participants who log in and answer surveys more frequently. It isn’t difficult to do because surveys are about well-known brands.

This platform works with participants from the US, UK, and Canada. They have all the major payout methods available – gift cards and PayPal. However, I found that simple transfers are reliable enough for there not to be a reason to use others.

Wrapping up

There are many more payment methods and survey platforms to try online. Not all of them are trustworthy, and you might risk losing your time or money. I recommend starting with these platforms and payout methods.