# Do You Use Swagbucks? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 6, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590 "2012-01-06T03:38:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/21 "2012-01-06T13:13:43Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > That’s child’s play, son. Gotta switch your game up to xvideos and mammothtube. Eventually you might be able to handle motherless. I like xvideos and mammothtube too. Haven’t heard of motherless yet though. Thanks for the tip. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/22 "2012-01-06T13:18:03Z")
No, never, but ask me about Green Stamps! ---
**Author:** ![Sally\_Mander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Sally\_Mander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sally_Mander)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/23 "2012-01-06T13:23:31Z")
I’ve been using it for a couple of years. I never had to watch any videos or anything like that. I just use it like Google, searching for whatever, and every couple of searches gets me a couple of points. I use them to buy music from iTunes, mostly. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/24 "2012-01-06T16:34:28Z")
As much as it pains me to do so, I’ll defend Qin Shi Huangdi. The site is legit…it’s not a scam, it doesn’t put adware or spyware on your system, and it might take a while, but you can earn money in the form of Amazon (or other retailer’s) giftcards. I made over $200 worth in Amazon gift cards using it in less than a year’s time. You can essentially use as little or as much of their “services” as you want…most of them are for signing up for trial offers for other services/products (which will then charge your credit card if you don’t cancel,) or taking surveys…I never did any of that. I just did searches using their search site (they are just Google searches with more ads,) and using their videos. The second part was a real “money maker,” but I _sort of_ cheated…which is why I stopped, I felt guilty. I won’t get into the nitty gritty, but basically you get a few points for watching a video…not much, and you have to manually choose another (or reload the same one,) to get more points, up to (IIRC) 75 a day. Obviously, to manually do that requires more time and effort than it’s worth, but there are ways to have your browser do that automatically while you’re not even at your PC, say while asleep or at work, which is what I did. I’d set it up in the morning, go to work, and come back and be at my 75 point max, then turn it off. Doing this, I could work up to a $5 giftcard in less than a week, usually ~5 days if I did a few searches as well. So I figured $20-$25 a month for doing ten seconds worth of work a day was worth it for me…Hell, I even made a second account and had my desktop AND laptop running it, doubling my money for a time. Like I said, I stopped because while not _illegal_, it was certainly a morally grey area, and might have been against their terms of service (though in my defense, the site administrators totally knew that a lot of people did this method…I mean, did they really think someone was really so fascinated by a video about how to set up iTunes that they watched it a hundred times a day? Every day? For several months?) But so long as they still get money from their advertisers each time a video is played, they really don’t care. They could easy put in methods to stop it, such as not giving points for the same video more than once a day/week/ever. But there you go…just thought I’d set the record straight about it since everyone is assuming it’s a scam, or full of viruses, or something. (And AClockworkMelon, I think you’re going to Hell for suggesting someone go to motherless…that’s a special kind of evil! :p) ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/25 "2012-01-06T16:48:28Z")
Proprietary money? No thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/26 "2012-01-06T16:56:33Z")
need new option, No Idea what that is. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/27 "2012-01-06T17:01:30Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > So you can earn a five dollar gift certificate with only a few weeks worth of work? Wanna double your money? Come work for me. I’ll give you a five dollar gift certificate Each and every week!!! Limited time offer. Restrictions apply. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/28 "2012-01-06T17:16:23Z")
No, I don’t do it, and as others said it seems like too much work for too little reward. But given that the OP is a student, he may be more willing to put in the effort than I am. Still, there are other ways to make a few bucks without putting in as much work. For example, someone posted here that occasionally the Coinstar machines in the supermarket will give you discounted Amazon gift cards in exchange for the change you deposit in the machine. Like you could get a fifty-dollar gift card for every forty dollars you deposit. I’m still hoping that they do this again, as if I’m aware of it, I was planning to go to the bank, buy up rolls of quarters and empty them into the machine for the discounted gift cards. I just checked the Coinstar website and the only promotion I could find is for a ten-percent coupon at the Gap Outlet. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/29 "2012-01-06T17:24:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > someone posted here that occasionally the Coinstar machines in the supermarket will give you discounted Amazon gift cards in exchange for the change you deposit in the machine. Like you could get a fifty-dollar gift card for every forty dollars you deposit. Actually, every Coinstar machine gives a 100% “dollar to dollar” exchange of coins as Amazon, iTunes, or other giftcards. it’s only if you take it as cash does it take a 10% cut (actually, i think it’s officially like 8.9%, or it was the only time I ever used it for real cash a few years ago.) And, if I may brag a bit, the aforementioned $200 in Amazon cards I got from Swagbucks I combined with ~$150 worth of Amazon giftcards from using a Coinstar machine (I save my coins for a while before cashing them in,) and purchased a new laptop…the laptop was on sale for $699 (normally over $800), so I paid ~$450 out of pocket…there was also a Microsoft promotion going on where you got a free X-Box 360 with any laptop at $700 or more, though the lower cutoff was like $690, and it didn’t matter that I used giftcards, so a free X-Box that I then just sold on Craigslist for $200. So basically I got a $700 laptop for less than $300, partly in thanks to Swagbucks. And you know what’s funny? I now currently have $400 in Amazon gift cards from credit card rewards…it was $600, but I spent some of it…and I only had to spend $90 on the credit card to get that $600…someone help me, I’m addicted to getting Amazon giftcards! :p:( ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/30 "2012-01-06T17:31:51Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Actually, every Coinstar machine gives a 100% “dollar to dollar” exchange of coins as Amazon, iTunes, or other giftcards. it’s only if you take it as cash does it take a 10% cut (actually, i think it’s officially like 8.9%, or it was the only time I ever used it for real cash a few years ago.) I wasn’t talking about a dollar-for-dollar exchange of coins for gift cards, but one offering _more_ than a dollar in gift cards for every dollar of coins emptied into the machine. That sort of offer would cause me to buy up every roll of quarter I could get from the bank to deposit in the machine. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/31 "2012-01-06T17:41:28Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I wasn’t talking about a dollar-for-dollar exchange of coins for gift cards, but one offering _more_ than a dollar in gift cards for every dollar of coins emptied into the machine. That sort of offer would cause me to buy up every roll of quarter I could get from the bank to deposit in the machine. Ahhh, gotcha…in that case, I’ll have to keep an eye out for that promotion, too! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590/32 "2012-01-08T14:46:23Z")
Swagbucks is too low on the rewards/effort ratio for me at this point in my life, but if I was a kid, I’d totally do it. Hell, I’ve made thousands over the years online from all kinds of stupid shit, mostly surveys and the like, but anymore it’s just not worth the time to me. Back when I was earning a lot less, I figured if I was going to fuck around online and get paid for it… sure. That was just wasted time anyway. Hell, back in the day (2000?) I made some decent cash from one of those stupid adbar sites. All Advantage or some shit? I was in college at the time, so extra ramen money was always appreciated, especially once my dad started ignoring the divorce decree and shorting me on payments unexpectedly (I was working too, but again, figured why not get paid even a little to be online). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-swagbucks/608590.md?page=1)