InboxDollars Review – The Comprehensive Low Down

InboxDollars is an online business that provides payments to users for receiving and responding to email adverts, surveys, games and other features. The tagline of the website is ‘the online rewards club that pays!’ The online business was founded by internet entrepreneur Darren Cotter in 2000, and they have been featured in the Inc. 5000 list.

Inbox Dollars Logo

According to the company’s own website, it has millions of active members using the website. Since 2006, it has paid over $25 million to members and counting through its subsidiary SendEarnings (launched in 2005). Profits and expansion have occurred in every year since inception with the company branching out to the UK with its InboxPounds service in 2012. Today it has over 30 employees.

After InboxDollars acquired SendEarnings in 2005, a new holding company – CotterWeb Enterprises Inc – has since owned and operated both entities. InboxDollars also acquired DailyRewards, a Canadian company, in 2014. The company has a number of corporate associations with large companies like eBay, Stamps.com, Netflix, Target, H&R Block, Walmart and PCH (Publisher’s Clearing House).

Some of the key features of InboxDollars are:

    • For reading and responding to each email advert, you get a set amount – anywhere from 1-10 cents per email
    • Another important method of payment is from signing up on commercial offers
    • Apart from emails, InboxDollars also pays you for filling up surveys (mainly through Toluna), playing games (through member sites like Winster), searching the web and shopping online
    • The initial redemption is a steep $30
    • Certain ads and affiliate companies will pay more than the low fixed rate depending on the offers involved
  • The website also runs an affiliate program through CotterWeb for promotion. Commissions are paid for new user registrations

Pros Of InboxDollars

Some websites, like eBay will pay you as much as $6 to sign up to their sites and place bids. Another website, Stamps.com, will pay you as much as $10 for signing up for their free trial program.  However, with the latter, if you do not cancel the free trial before expiration, then you will be billed monthly for their programs (in the case of Stamps, its $15.99 per month).

InboxDollars Homepage Screenshot

Some features of InboxDollars are quite unique and not found on other paid-survey websites. Apart from the usual payment or survey taking, the website also enables members to read emails, sign up for corporate offers, watch videos, play games and generally surf the web in order to earn income. (For the record, InboxDollars isn't the only site that will pay you for playing games and surfing the web. Swagbucks is generally regarded as the best in the business when it comes to that kind of free money. Click here to read my honest review of Swagbucks)

These methods are certainly less tiresome, monotonous and refreshing compared to just filling up random surveys all day. Some users (chiefly “premium” members) have mentioned how they received money from InboxDollars on referrals from offers. Additionally, some members have also stated how they earned  a proportion of money from InboxDollars’s “qualified surveys” and other features.

Here is a video of someone showing proof of payment from InboxDollars:

Complaints Against InboxDollars

Reading through emails provides a meager compensation of only 1-10 cents per email. Other payments include doing internet searches (1 cent) and logging in (2 cents). Many users have mentioned how after partaking in a survey for some time, only after a while (around 5-10 minutes) were they notified that they “did not qualify” for the survey and therefore their accounts could not be credited for taking up the survey.

Additionally, a number of surveys are extremely lengthy, taking upwards of 30 minutes or more for meager payments of only 12 cents. A number of former users have complained how after reading through and partaking in a number of offers, their efforts were not credited to their accounts – depriving them of the payments derived from them.

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Some users have also complained how after playing hours and hours of games on sites like Winster, their accounts were not credited, and upon contacting InboxDollars' customer support, were told that “it is not the company’s responsibility to determine playing time but the responsibility of their partners.” Some users have decried how after being inactive at InboxDollars for a few weeks or a month, their accounts were suspended and they were no longer able to receive paid emails.

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Only after resuming email reviews and other work did their accounts go back online and credits were returned back. For some people, this can be seen as a seriously alarming issue that either InboxDollars or its affiliates has deliberately planted to lure un-noticing members.

FAQ's

How does InboxDollars pay you?

Payout options include check, prepaid Visa, and InboxDollars eCard, and the minimum payout is $30.

How do I reactivate my InboxDollars account?

First, sign in to your inactive account. Then click the “Send New Activation Email” link. Check your email and click the link you receive to confirm reactivation of your account.

Is Inbox Dollars legitimate?

Yes, we are confident that the offers are legitimate and the company is reputable.

How long does it take to receive a check from Inbox Dollars?

Non-gold members' payout requests are honored 10-16 days after a request is submitted. Gold members typically receive payouts in under a week. Click here to request payout.

Conclusion – Is It A Scam?

We've researched and tested InboxDollars extensively and have come to the conclusion that they are the real deal, not a scam. Though InboxDollars’ business model differs from online panels in providing additional features and ways to earn money, sadly its facilities don’t translate into instant cash for members.

Apart from having to wait a great deal of time before earning your first payment of $30 after much toiling, you will be bound to commit your time to reading through InboxDollars' commercial partners’ emails, surveys and other offers in order to maintain your account and any chance of earning credit toward future payments.

On many forums and review websites, the typical rating awarded to InboxDollars is a meager 2 out of 5 stars. The single biggest problem relating to the website is the incredibly long time taken before the first $30 payment can be attained. Though it is in fact legitimate, the website has been labeled by quite a number of former members as a “scam,” or “spamming” website. We disagree…

The final judgment on InboxDollars is, while it is not a scam (you'll get your money), it will take a lot of time and energy to earn enough money to make it worth your time. It's still worth giving it a try.

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Featured image by geralt via Pixabay under CC0 Creative Commons.