You’ll be 'paid' in Swagbucks points (shortened to 'SBs') which can then be redeemed for gift cards or cash. The gift cards they offer come from over 1,500 retailers, including Amazon, iTunes, Currys PC World, and Tesco.
But if you want to know how to make extra money from Swagbucks, there’s an option to convert points straight into your PayPal account as cash. Or you can donate to charity if you're feeling generous.
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How much can you earn?
To give you an idea of what SB points are worth, a £5 Amazon gift card will cost you 849 SB and you’ll need to cough up 17,999 SB for £100 cash (via PayPal).
But they accumulate quicker than you might think, simply because there are so many tasks and activities looped into Swagbucks – many of which you probably do already!
What's more, Swagbucks often run sales on their rewards, meaning fewer SBs are needed to redeem the vouchers. For example, at the time of writing, £100 of PayPal credit was on offer for 20% off the usual price, at just 14,500 SB.
11 ways to earn Swagbucks
Here are some of the main ways to start accumulating your Swagbucks on the daily:
Make Swagbucks your default search engine
The easiest way to start earning is to switch your default search engine to Swagbucks (rather than Google or Bing).You’ll automatically start uh up points just for surfing the web like you normally do, but using their browser instead (in case you're worried about efficiency, it's run by Yahoo so don't sweat!).
You can expect to tot up around 10–20 SB points for every 10 to 20 searches, but the final total will depend on the search queries. After six months of everyday searching, this can equate to around £300.
Complete surveys and polls
Time-rich but cash-poor? Filling out a few short surveys each day through Swagbucks can be a really nice little earner.They usually take between three and 20 minutes to complete and you’ll earn around 40–100 SB depending on the survey. There’s also a daily poll to complete which literally takes two seconds and will earn you an extra SB.
Download apps and games to your phone
You can earn a really broad variety of points for downloading, installing, and opening certain apps on your phone, tablet or computer.Although you'll occasionally get rewarded for simply installing the app, you'll usually have to complete some kind of action – be it reaching a certain stage in a game or depositing cash.
Sometimes these opportunities will be available via one of Swagbucks' partners (Revu or Fyber), but you'll still be paid in Swagbucks – usually several hundred SBs, if not more, depending on the offer.
But as ever, we'd recommend sticking to the free apps at first. There's no point in paying to download or use an app just to earn Swagbucks, as you're likely to earn far less than you spend!
Shop online and earn cashback
Now, obviously, we wouldn't advise shopping online purely for the sake of getting more points (again, that just wouldn't make sense really, would it?). But if you're planning to buy something online, go via the Swagbucks website and earn some points (similar to mainstream cashback sites).Receive easy SBs from online stores like Argos, ASOS, Currys PC World, eBay, Just Eat and Wilko. So, before you part with your cash, do a quick search to find out if they're a participating Swagbuck earner.
For example, if you're planning a holiday through Secret Escapes, access the site via Swagbucks rather than going directly and you’ll earn 5 SB per £1 spent. As holidays tend to cost a fair whack, you could end up earning hundreds of points that you can turn into rewards or cash later.
Tell your friends
Get SB points stacking up while you sleep by getting your friends to sign up to Swagbucks with your referral code.Not only will you and your friend get 300 SB when they sign up (you'll get yours as long as they earn at least an extra 300 SB within their first 30 days), but you’ll earn 10% of your friends’ SB earnings for as long as they’re a member, too!
This is a great way to earn points passively – and your friends will obviously benefit too. Plus, you'll get another 100 SB if the person you refer adds the SwagButton to their laptop or desktop (using the special link available on your invite page).
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Watch out for Swag Codes
Download the SwagButton browser extension to receive notifications about 'Swag Codes' as soon as they become available (and get 50SB just for installing the extension!).
Swag Codes are simply code words or phrases that the company releases to create a bit of buzz around the site and get members back onto the homepage.
The notifications you get from the browser extension will tell you where to go to find the code – on the Swagbucks blog, Twitter or Facebook page – which you’ll then input into the 'Swag Code' box in the sidebar on the left side of the page. Super easy instant SB points!
Complete daily goals
On the left-hand side of the screen, you'll see a 'to do list' with eight different daily tasks that the site recommends you complete.
Not only will you accumulate points for each task you complete, but you'll also get bonus points for crossing off everything on your list in a day (or a smaller bonus for completing at least six of the eight tasks).
Similarly, if you activate the Swagbucks 'daily goal' option (you'll see the button in the header), the site will set you a target amount of SBs to aim for that day. If you manage to reach your goal, they'll stick some extra bonus points on top for you!
Again, though, don't spend actual money on the 'Deal of the Day' unless it's something you're genuinely interested in. The SBs you'll get in return are worth a lot less than the cash you'll part with!
Enter competitions
If you fancy yourself lucky when it comes to entering competitions, you can enter yourself into Swagbucks' regular limited-time giveaways (or 'Swagstakes').
Prizes can be anything from tech gadgets, like Apple products, to a bigger bundle of SBs – but note that this is a bit of a gamble, as you need to actually spend SBs to enter into each competition.
Play games online and on mobile
Your addiction to playing games on your phone is finally about to pay off!
Aside from paying you to download and play games, Swagbucks also host a few games of their own (you'll know which ones they are as they all contain the word 'Swag'...).
You can earn up to 10 SB per game just for giving it a whirl. But as some games rely on you getting to a certain level before you can earn any SBs, it (literally!) pays to be good at these things.
If general knowledge is more your thing, why not try Swagbucks Live – one of the few remaining live quiz apps that were once the next big thing (HQ Trivia, anyone?).
It's free to take part in the game and all you have to do is download the app. As with most live quiz apps, your goal is to correctly answer a handful of multiple-choice questions. Make it to the end and you'll win a share of the total prize fund (as much as $1,000 paid out in Swagbucks), but as soon as you get an answer wrong, you're eliminated.
From experience, some of the questions can be obscenely difficult, so we'd recommend you refer your friends to the app. Each time you get someone to sign up, you'll get a free 'rejoin' which will throw you back into the game if you're knocked out.
Sign up to services
Signing up to free trials and subscribing to services like TV and online gaming can come with quite a substantial reward.
However, as with cashback opportunities, you should only use this option if you're planning on using the service anyway. This is because some of them require you to shell out some cash of your own to sign up.
But if they're free (like a credit report or a trial of a streaming service), it could be worth your time since they tend to pay out a pretty decent number of points!
Watch videos
Yes, you really can earn Swagbucks points just by watching a few videos.
Now, it's important to note here that Swagbucks Watch isn't as widely available as it once was. Most days it won't be available to most users, but as it's still an option, we figured it's still worth mentioning.
And, granted, the payouts here aren’t that high – but you're getting paid to be entertained! The type of content you're sent to view varies massively, including everything from adverts to news content and viral clips.
If you're really unenthused by the content you've been sent, you can also do a sneaky and just have videos running in the background as you get on with other stuff and not actually watch it (it's not like you'll be tested on it!).
Expect to earn 2 or 3 SB per playlist (each of which typically lasts 15–30 minutes), and there's a limit of 150 SB per day up for grabs for this particular task.
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