Survey Programs

Joining survey programs is a great way to boost your points balance. They are time consuming and you’re only really earning a few dollars an hour in terms of hourly wage. I enjoy doing surveys myself anyway, so I’m happy to do them to earn more points for a free trip. Another useful factor in doing the surveys is to help keep your loyalty accounts active because it counts as an activity.

There are generally three types of survey programs. There are those that you can earn straight up cash. Generally that cash is either sent to you by mail or moved into your PayPal account. There are survey programs that are directly associated with a loyalty program, so you earn points that go automatically and directly into your loyalty points account. Finally, there are surveys where you earn their currency and then you can transfer that currency into other loyalty programs. This is my favourite because it gives me the most flexibility.

Before deciding which survey program to join, I suggest that you visit the Survey Police website. This is like the TripAdvisor of Surveys. In today’s blog, I will focus on the some of the Survey programs that I have joined that I find useful to my needs.

E-Rewards: This is hands down my favourite program. You earn E-reward dollars which can be used to transfer to other loyalty programs. Depending on which country you live in, you will have a different list of transfer partners. Since I am Canadian, my account shows the following transfer partners:

• Flying Blue Miles (Air France)
• Air Miles
• A+ Rewards (AirTran Airways)
• Alaska Airlines
• AAdvantage (American Airlines)
• American Eagle Gift Cards.
• Avios (British Airways)
• Emirates Airlines
• Etihad Guest
• Frontier EarlyReturns
• Golfsmith
• HawaiianMiles
• Hertz Gold Plus Rewards
• Iberia
• IHG Rewards Club
• National Post
• MileagePlus (United Airlines)
• Dividend Miles (US Airways)
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
• Forzieri.com gift cards
• Starbucks Cards

As you can see, there are a lot of valuable transfer partners. I usually wait until I get $100 E-rewards to trade in for 4,000 IHG Rewards Club. There was one time I wanted to top up my Air Miles account to trade in for a reward, but it is not a very good bang for your buck. I now started redeeming for AAdvantage points to keep my account active (since points expire every 18 months of no activity). Since I do not fly on American Airlines frequently, this is a perfect way for me to quietly add points to my balance. Keep in mind that there are instances where if you exchange more E-rewards dollars, you can earn a higher ratio of points. Just remember to do your calculations to see what works for you.

AskingCanadians: I like this program because it gives you the choice of earning HBC Rewards, Aeroplan or Petro-Points. The only catch is that you can only choose one program that is pre-set, but the points do go directly into your account, so there’s no hassle once you have selected the program you desire. If you want to change programs, you just need to inform Asking Canadians about the change. When I signed up, it was for HBC Rewards because I was preparing to buy furniture for my new place so those points came in handy. But then I changed to Aeroplan because now I want points to travel with.

Air Miles Research Now: This one should be a no-brainer for Air Miles collectors. The points go directly into your Air Miles account, so there’s no hassle. This is probably even more useful today because of the 5 year expiry policy newly implemented by Air Miles. I find it quite sad that they used to have no expiry policy and now they implemented one. It is going to be more difficult to earn enough points quick enough to redeem for anything significant.

I also joined Ipsos i-Say to earn Amazon.ca gift cards which can always be useful.

I do want to emphasize that doing surveys will not earn you a lot of money, but if you do have free time, I would treat it more like freelancing or a part-time job on the side.