Is Cashback Research a Scam? (No, BUT Still Not Worth It)

Cashback Research Rating


Cashback Research has some options to make money, but they are limited. Mostly it seems like a site that is meant to get you to sign up for other sites.

At first glance, Cashback Research looks like a legit survey site that is free to join.

But sometimes the first look at a survey site can be deceiving, so I have taken a closer look and tested the site thoroughly.

So is Cashback Research a scam or one of the legit and good survey options?

As you can probably figure out from the name of this article, I am not very impressed with the site. But let me reveal right away that Cashback Research is not a scam.

It does, however, have some aspects that are very poor, but also some aspects that deserve some credit. In this Cashback Research review, I will go through all these details, so you can see and judge for yourself.

Important Update: Cashback Research closed!

Cashbackresearch.com has closed, so you can no longer join or earn there.

As you can see in my original review below, it was not really a great way to earn anyway. You can check out the best free ways to earn some extra money online here instead.

What is Cashback Research and what does the site offer?

Cashback Research is a survey company that has its base in South Carolina in the US. From the info I could find, it looks like it started back in 2007, so it has been around for a while.

But the most important thing about a survey site and Get-Paid-To site (GPT) is, of course, what opportunities they offer and how you can earn.

So let's start by going over the options you can find on CashBack Research.

I have created a video that gives you an inside look and a guided tour so you can see everything for yourself. You can also read all the details below the video:

Recommended: Check out the Top Paying Survey Sites in Your Country Here

Option 1 – Cashback Research daily surveys:

Doing daily surveys are the main way to earn money on Cashback Research. When you log in, there is a section called “Daily surveys”, and here you will see a list of the surveys, you can try to take.

There are both red and black surveys. The red surveys are surveys that you are pre-qualified for, which means there are good chances for you to be able to take them. The black ones you do not know whether you will qualify or not, and just have to check.

I am, however, not impressed with the daily survey options on Cashback Research. It is only links to third-party providers, which means that you will just be taken to another survey site to take the surveys.

Many survey sites are using third-party providers, and it works well in many cases. It just seems that it is not very good options that Cashback Research has.

Also, you are not necessarily allowed to take the daily surveys. You will have to activate them first. You do this by signing up for one of the other survey panels Cashback Research recommends.

cashback research daily surveys limitation
You cannot get access to the daily surveys without first signing up for other survey panels.

These are panels they get a commission when they recommend. I do not have a problem with sites using these kinds of links, as it can be a way to pay for the cost of having a website, and I also use these kinds of links myself to help pay for the cost of having PaidFromSurveys.com.

I do, however, not like that they just provide a bunch of links without any further information, and that you are also forced to sign up to one of these panels to even get access to the daily surveys, which are also just links to surveys on other sites.

So not really any unique or good options for surveys on Cashback Research in my opinion.

Option 2 – Survey panels recommendations:

When you are logged into your account, you can see the list of survey panels I mentioned above.

As mentioned, this is just a list of survey panels you can join, and Cashback Research will then get a commission if you join. It used to offer you a bonus of $10 if you join 12 of these panels.

That is quite a lot of panels to have to join, and they do not provide any valuable information about the panels so you can see if they are even interesting for you to join. They are just trying to push you towards signing up to them.

If you are already a member of a few survey sites, there is also a great chance that there will not be 12 panels you can join, and then you will not get any bonus at all for joining any of them. So another option that is a better deal for Cashback Research than for you.

Also, last I checked they no longer give you a bonus for signing up for these sites.

In addition to this, some of the panels they are recommending are really not worth it, in my opinion. They are, for example, recommending a site like Survey Club that I would never recommend as I mostly find it a waste of time and it also promotes some sites that re not even real survey sites.

But you can also find some good sites on their list of recommendations like, for example, Swagbucks, Toluna, and LifePoints.

So if you do not have a lot of experience with survey and GPT sites, it will be very difficult for you to spot which of the recommendations that might be worth it.

This means the list of recommendations is kind of useless, in my opinion, and it is a clear drawback that it seems the promote some really poor offers also.

Option 3 – Bonus cash offers:

On the Cashback Research dashboard, you can see a yellow box called “Bonus cash offers”.

cashback research bonus offers box
The bonus offers are better to take on other survey sites.

These offers are not surveys, but other online offers. It will often be where you have to sign up for a free trial, and sometimes also have to pay. There can however be some good offers here that can be worth taking.

Many of these offers are however also offered at other survey sites where there, in general, are better opportunities, so if you are interested in taking any of these offers, I would recommend to check out some of these other sites for them instead.

No matter if you take such offers on Cashback Research or other survey sites, be sure to read all the conditions, so you know what you are saying yes to, and what you are getting out of it.

Also, just like the survey panel recommendations, you will find some really poor offers here, in my opinion. So choose wisely if you use any of these options.

Option 4 – Membership level bonuses:

Cashback Research has different membership levels. When you first join, you are automatically a bronze member.

There are also, silver, gold, and platinum levels. The membership level decides how much you get paid for the daily surveys. As a bronze member, you get $0.50 per daily survey. Silver levels get $0.55, gold $0.60 and platinum $0.65.

To upgrade from bronze to silver, you have to join at least 10 of the other survey panels Cashback Research are recommending.

So if you for example already are a member of several of the ones they recommend, and therefore are not able to join 10 or more of the recommended survey sites, you will never be able to go to a higher level than bronze.

To get to gold level, you have to sign up for at least 15 panels or achieve 5 payouts, and for the platinum level, you have to achieve 10 payouts, so it will take a while to get there.

The membership levels are mostly determined by how many other panels you sign up for, and that you can never go to more than bronze level, if you do not sign up for at least 10, is another proof that Cashback Research seems to mostly be about getting you to sign up for other survey sites.

Be prepared to have your inbox flooded!

When you sign up for Cashback Research, you also sign up to receive emails with updates. In the conditions on the website, you can see that it says that Cashback Research does its best to keep the content of the email relevant.

In my opinion, the staff is doing a really bad job at this, if they are actually trying. After I had been a member for 4 days, I decide to block the email address. At that time I had received around 30 emails.

If it had then been emails with great survey opportunities, it would have been great. But it was mostly just emails with links to get me to sign up for other survey panels or take some cash offers.

There was no real valuable information or tips about any of the offers or sites but just links to push me to sign up. I could maybe accept this in itself, but many of the links I clicked did not take me to the site it claimed it would.

Several times the links instead took me to spam sites claiming that I was the lucky winner of some amazing prizes to get my personal information. One time I even experienced my phone started vibrating and giving warnings when I clicked one of the links that took me to a spam site.

To be fair, not all the links were poor links, but when so many poor links are allowed in their emails, it is not mails I want to receive.

How do you get paid?

cashback research rewards

When you take surveys, join survey panels or take cash offers on Cashback Research, you get cash in dollars into your account.

Once you have reached the payout threshold, you can request a payout and get paid through PayPal or get an Amazon gift card.

You have to earn $30 before you can request a payout. This is a very high payout threshold for a survey site, and I prefer when it is a lot lower.

Most sites have a payout threshold between $5-$15, which is fair. On the fastest paying survey sites you can even sometimes get paid after earning just $1.

So $30 is too high in my opinion – especially when it is a site like Cashback Research where it can take a long time to get to that threshold. As I mentioned above, you also need to have achieved 10 payouts to become a platinum member. That will take a long time with a payout threshold this high and so few opportunities.

How much money can you make?

An aspect of Cashback Research I like is that it is at least honest about the earning opportunities.

In the words of the site itself: “You won’t get rich, but you will get paid!”

In general, paid surveys is not something that will make you rich, but it can make you some nice extra money. I would say that there are however sites that are a lot better and give better and more opportunities than Cashback Research.

Credit due where credit deserved

cashback research good sides

So far, I have been very critical of Cashback Research as I think it in many ways gives a very poor experience to you as a user.

But I also want to say that there are some aspects that the site needs credit for.

First of all, it does seem that it might be possible to make some money on the site. The approach is just not at all something I support, but it does not mean that it as such is a scam, and this is important for me to make clear. The site does have some surveys that seem to pay.

I also do appreciate that the site has a phone number on the website, where you can contact them.

This is quite unusual for a survey site, as it could quickly make them spend too much time on support. I have not tried to actually call the number to see if it is possible to get through, so I cannot say for sure if it works.

But that there is real contact info and an address is a good sign, as the outright scam sites never have any real info about who is behind the site or how to contact them.

As mentioned above, Cashback Research is not trying to oversell the earning opportunities by doing paid surveys. Most of the scam sites instead have a lot of claims about you being able to become rich very easily from surveys.

So overall, even though there are many aspects of Cashback Research I do not like and do not support, there are a few things that are good signs, and I also want to make that clear in this review, so you get all the details, before deciding if it is a site for you to join or not.

Who can join?

You have to be at least 18 years old to sign up, and you can only join, if you are from the US, Canada, the UK, or Australia.

Even though it says on the site that you can only sign up from these countries, you can actually sign up from other countries. It just makes even less sense as you will not have any opportunities.

No matter where you live, there are, however, sites with a lot better opportunities, in my opinion.

Can you get support?

If you should need support, Cashback Research writes on the website you can contact the support, and it usually gets back to you within 24 hours.

I have not had the need to contact the support, as I fairly quickly decided that the site is not for me, so I have not been able to confirm this claim.

But it looks like the support is fairly active on Facebook, and that people get quick answers here. So that is also an option if you need to contact the support at some point.

Final verdict – scam or legit?

I think it is pretty clear by now that Cashback Research is NOT a survey site I am excited about. That does not mean it is not legit but just that I think there are so many other better options.

But let's finish this review by summing up the pros and cons to give you a better overview before deciding for yourself if you want to join or not.

pros

Pros:

  • Honest about the earning opportunities
  • Pays through PayPal
cons

Cons:

  • High payout threshold
  • Sending huge amounts of emails
  • Many poor links in emails
  • Mostly just trying to get you to sign up for other sites
  • Low rewards for surveys

I must admit that Cashback Research quickly annoyed me when I became a member.

Mostly because it to me is annoying that the site seems to mostly just try to push you to sign up for other sites, but without providing any valuable information about why you should.

That does not make sense for you as a member to just be pushed like this, and also not for the survey sites that they refer people to, as many people will only join to get the bonus on Cashback Research (which you have to be lucky to be able to reach). And many of the sites and offer they recommend are really poor, in my opinion.

In addition to this, the few surveys you can take there give lower rewards than the same surveys do on other survey sites. Therefore, it is NOT a survey site I will use in the future and not one I recommend.

There are so many great survey sites that make more sense to join, in my opinion. You can, for example, check out the best survey sites in your country here. All of these have better rewards, more opportunities, and give a better overall experience, in my opinion.

If you have any comments, questions, or have any experiences with Cashback Research yourself, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.

4 thoughts on “Is Cashback Research a Scam? (No, BUT Still Not Worth It)”

  1. Yep…. that pretty much sums this site up for me. Thanks for sharing…. it’s good to know that my experience was in no way unique! I have also tried 20Cogs which is very similar and offers similar returns. And like Cashback Research, floods my In Box with no end of spam emails… not to mention the spam phone calls too! In retrospect I would set up a unique email address for this kind of thing and possibly even buy a new sim just for the mobile reference where asked. This is a good, solid and honest review that echoes across many other similar sites. Thanks again for the in-depth analysis – love the pros and cons at the end. Spot on! 🙂

    Reply
    • Thanks for the feedback and for sharing your experiences Sean. I have not yet tried 20cogs, but sounds even worse if they will also start to call you all the time. Luckily I have not experienced that with Cashback Research. 

      About the unique email to use for survey sites – it can be a good idea, but it depends on the site. Some sites that use PayPal will assume that the email you register with is the one you are using for PayPal and therefore pay out to that. So before using a different email, you just have to be sure how the site is paying out. Also, I usually do not have problems with spam email from the good and legit survey sites.

      All the best,
      Mikael 

      Reply
  2. Hello everyone, I signed up on Wednesday. I deleted on Sunday. I do not have a problem with the amount of emails, but I have a MAJOR problem with the large amount of links to other sites.

    Reply

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