For those just out of college or starting fresh, a break in the form of traveling to another state or country is usually near the top of wish lists. Finding ways to fund traveling however, can be a significant barrier to actually realizing this. If you’re good with credit cards, though, a new promotion from Capitol One may be able to help you with your travel ticket.

Traveling in reach?

Capital One has rolled out a new Venture Rewards credit card promotion with a “Match My Miles” promotion that will match the number of miles you have accumulated on another airline credit card up to 100,000 miles.

You earn the additional 100,000 miles–the equivalent of $1,000–if you put at least $1,000 on the card in the first three months.

The offer is good for new Venture and Venture for Business primary account holders. Current Capital One cardholders who want to upgrade to the Venture Rewards card or swap their existing Capital One card will get the mile match if they get approved, said Sukhi Sahni, a senior communications manager with Capital One.

The company will continue the offer this until they’ve given away a billion miles or until May 13, 2011, whichever comes first–it’s a first-come, first-served proposition.

Miles on top of miles: How does it work?

If you have airline miles on one of 13 airline credit cards currently on the market, Capital One will match those miles for free if you sign up for their new card and use it. What’s more, you get another 10,000 bonus miles just for signing up.

Here are some other appealing features of the Venture Rewards credit card:

• There is no annual fee the first year, and $59 a year after that.
• You earn two miles for every $1 you spend on all purchases
• There is no limit to the number of miles you can acquire and the miles never expire.
• There is no foreign currency fee. That means you can use the card to make purchases abroad or online in another currency without having to fork over the 3 percent charge many card companies add on.

“But what’s neat about this card is how we’ve made the redemption process so much easier than other cards,” Sahni said. “You just book your flight, buy your ticket and call us and say, ‘Hey, swap this out.’ It’s hassle-free.”

What you can buy with your matched miles

The best way to calculate how much your miles are worth with this card is to drop the last two zeros on your miles–that’s the monetary value. For instance, if you’ve accumulated 53,000 miles, you’ve earned a $530 flight.

In addition to airfare, miles can be redeemed for gift cards, merchandise and charitable donations, as well as for any travel-related expense, such as hotels, rental cars and cruises. You can redeem your miles for vacation packages, too, and you can book a flight with any airline. There are no blackout dates and no requirement for advanced booking. You simply redeem your miles online or by phone and you get reimbursed for the money you spent. Cardholders can redeem within 90 days of the purchase posting to their account.

While you’re on the road, you’ll earn $250,000 in travel accident insurance for death of dismemberment if you pay for your tickets with your card. You can also get 24-hour help with passports, visas and immunizations when you’re planning your trip, and if your card gets lost or stolen, you can get an emergency replacement. You can even get medical assistance and legal referrals.

What’s the interest rate?

Your interest rate with the Venture Rewards credit card will depend on your credit score, but the rate will range from 11.9 percent for those with excellent credit scores to 19.9 percent. Of course you only pay interest if you’re carrying a balance on the card.

Although the Venture Rewards card doesn’t offer zero percent APR on balance transfers, it also has no balance transfer fee. So if the Capital One card is giving you a better interest rate than your other cards, that no balance transfer fee feature might look appealing. It’s not the best of the balance transfer offers out there but it might be worth taking a look at if you like the rest of its features.

Another advantage of the card is its free extended warranty and its free purchase protection. If you purchase something that comes with a warranty of three years or less, this feature will double the original warranty up to 12 months. The purchase protection feature, meanwhile, will pay you up to $500 each time an item purchased with the card is stolen or accidentally damaged within the first 90 days of the day you bought it.

The card will even reimburse you up to $3,000 for lost luggage when you pay the full costs of your travel with your card. You’re also covered against accidental damage or theft if you rent a vehicle for less than 15 consecutive days in the U.S. or less than 31 days outside the country–except in a few countries such as Israel, Jamaica, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The fine print

Despite the annual fee and despite the interest rate charges on balances, critics have praised the fast 2-for-$1 mileage return offered. They also like that you can use this card to get special seating at special events, such as games, concerts, films and the like.

Capital One acknowledges that in some cases it’s difficult to separate miles earned by credit card purchases from miles earned from flying; in those cases, Capital One will accept general airline rewards statements for those programs that accrue the card miles into the airline’s general rewards account, Sahni said.

So when is your trip scheduled? With a Venture Rewards credit card, it may be sooner than you think.

Jim Sloan is a freelance writer in Reno, Nev.

Photo: Capital One Financial Corporation

Source URL: Looking to travel? Capital One’s Venture Rewards card might be your ticket

Copyright Protected © 2011 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Take care of your credit, and credit card companies will want to take care of you.

Banks have put together some hard-to-find credit card offers to attract consumers with high FICO scores. If you’ve built a strong credit history, you can earn unusually high cash back rebates, travel perks, and low interest rates on balance transfers. According to CardRatings.com, five credit cards rank highest at offering great perks to consumers with excellent credit:

1. Discover More Card–Over the past few years, Discover Card has made some of the boldest moves to attract more consumers with high credit scores. Earn this card, and you can enjoy a zero percent balance transfer for 18 months with just a 4 percent transfer fee. During your first six months with the card, you’ll pay no interest on purchases while earning between 1-5 percent in Cashback Bonus rewards.
2. Simmons Visa Platinum–You’ve probably never heard of Simmons Bank, and they’re probably okay with that. Simmons saves its credit card invitations for consumers with the very highest credit scores. Apply via one of their credit card applications online, and you can surf your other debt to a Visa card with an APR as low as 7.25 percent and no balance transfer fee.
3. Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express Card–One of the best cash back credit cards on the market requires you to maintain a brokerage account at Fidelity Investments. If your FICO score tops 700, you probably already do business with Fidelity, anyway. You’ll need to ask for an invitation to Fidelity’s version of the American Express Card, which will drop 2 percent of everything you spend into a tax-deferred investment account.
4. PenFed Visa Platinum Cashback Rewards Card–Another perennial candidate for best cash back credit card, PenFed designed this Visa card to help military families manage their finances while earning rebates on everyday purchases. If you’re not in the service, that’s fine. Join an associated non-profit organization to show your support for our soldiers, and you’ll qualify for membership in this innovative credit union.
5. Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card–You’ve seen the television ads, but a high FICO score can get you invited to one of Capital One’s best-ever balance transfer offers. With no balance transfer fee, 0 percent APR, no annual fee, and no foreign transaction fees, this special edition of the Venture Visa card gives unprecedented flexibility to travelers who like earning bonuses without being tied to a single hotel chain or airline.

Earning the best credit cards requires strong FICO scores
Because you’ve got to have a high credit score to qualify for any of these credit card offers, follow these tips to improve your financial profile:

• Start small. A department store or gas station card can help you kick start your credit history. Build a solid track record by charging routine transactions, then paying your bill each month.
• Watch your percentages. Pretend your credit limit’s only about 30 percent of what it says on your statement, then keep your balance close to that pretend threshold on every account.
• Restrain yourself at checkout. Retail credit cards can pinch your credit score if you apply for too many, too quickly. To credit bureaus, you could look like someone whose identity has been stolen. Or, you could just look desperate for quick credit.
• Stay loyal to your first credit cards. Cancelling an account can reduce the history of your credit file. A high score often requires hanging on to the oldest card in your wallet.
• Track your scores. While you won’t see much change from day to day, many websites now offer free FICO score reports or similar free credit scores that update every few weeks. Just understand the distinction between a report that’s truly free and one that requires a paid membership to an affiliated service.

Over time, once you’ve earned one or two of the excellent credit cards on this list, you can rebalance your wallet to include just the accounts that give you the best rates and the best perks. Until then, use your credit cards responsibly and regularly to make yourself an attractive future cardholder.

Joe Taylor Jr. is an internal business consultant for a Fortune 500 company, who writes about finance, culture, and design. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Communications from Ithaca College.

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Source URL: Top 5 credit cards for consumers with excellent credit

Copyright Protected © 2011 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Time was when it was, “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Nowadays, young and old, male and female seem pretty focused on the subject year-round, although Valentine’s Day may well trigger many to seek out their perfect partner through an online dating site. But at what cost?

How not to get dates

When I was on the dating scene, in the days before the web, I had a tried and tested five-step process for attracting new partners:

1. Meet friends at appropriate bar/club
2. Pick from a distance the person/people I wanted to chat with
3. Drink bladder-bursting quantities of beer in order to build up Dutch courage
4. Eventually, stagger across to the object of my desire, and slur–in a haze of foul alcohol fumes–some corny chat-up line
5. Receive a withering put-down/slap/false phone number

Yes, it was tried and tested, and it almost invariably failed.

How to get dates

If I were in the market for a new lover now, I’d save a fortune in bar tabs, and do my liver an enormous favor. Because I’d almost certainly try online dating. And why not? It sure can work: the last two weddings I’ve attended have both been the result of Internet encounters through matchmaking websites, and one 2010 study suggested that 17 percent of new marriages over the previous year had come about this way.

But what I would save in beer, I could easily spend on dating site fees. Because online dating can be quite expensive.

Putting a price on love

It’s not easy to be completely accurate about how much different sites charge, because rates can vary, promotions may come and go, and optional add-on services could add to basic costs. However, last year, ConsumerSearch estimated likely charges for some of the biggest players:

• True.com–$50 a month
• eHarmony–$50 a month
• Match.com–$35 a month
• SpeedDate.com–$30 a month
• Zoosk.com–$25 a month

The problem with these numbers is that they’re not really comparing like with like. True.com, for example, may is one of the most expensive sites listed here, but it carries out background checks on members to make sure they don’t have criminal records, and are honest about their marital status.

By many measures, Match.com is the leading paid-for dating web site with more and longer visits by members than others. And it also keeps winning awards. Meanwhile, SpeedDate.com offers something different: series of three-minute webcam/voice/instant messaging encounters. And Zoosk has a huge membership base, largely thanks to its Facebook tie-in.

Going for a big site clearly has its advantages, but the sheer haystack weight of numbers can make finding the needle who is your true love a problem. You do, however, need to avoid going to the other extreme. Internet research company Experian Hitwise found that there are 1,400 significantly active matchmaking websites in the U.S., but another 2,000+ that are “seldom used.” Being alone on a lonely hearts site must make you feel really, really lonely.

Free love

Of course, you don’t have to pay anything to find dates. PlentyOfFish, for example, is free, and claims not only to be the world’s largest dating website, but also that it receives more than twice as many average monthly visits than any other dating site.

But not all free sites are completely trustworthy, and, assuming you don’t want your personal details to be sold on to third-party companies, you should probably at least check the organization’s privacy policy before you sign up. It could also be revealing to do an Internet search with the site’s name plus the word Complaints.

Having said that, don’t be put off by general complaints. It’s likely that just about every dating site–whether paid-for or free–is going to have plenty of people who’ve had bad experiences with members lying about their age, interests, attributes, earnings, education, looks, weight and pretty much everything else. C’est la vie, as the French say. You just have to come to terms with the fact that in cyberspace just as in the real world you have to kiss a whole lot of frogs before you find your prince/princess/drag queen/whatever.

Love’s labors lost

Good luck with your online dating search. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, you could always try my five-step process. You’re unlikely to end up with the person of your dreams, but at least you’ll be too drunk to care.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Peter Andrew has been writing about–and for–business for more than two decades. For the last couple of years, he has found himself increasingly specializing in the U.S. financial sector.

Image: nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Source URL: Logging on for love: What’s the catch with online dating sites?

Copyright Protected © 2011 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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By Peter Andrew

I’m not expecting any sympathy, but it’s not easy writing product reviews. That’s because it’s rarely possible to rank different features in a way that’s meaningful to everyone.

Take televisions as an example. I badly need a new one, and recently started reading TV reviews. All I’ve discovered so far is that there isn’t a perfect model, or certainly not one in my price range. One has a brilliant picture, but slightly lower sound quality, or vice versa. Another is great except for occasional motion blur during action sequences. Yet more are good, but ugly, and don’t fit in with my living room decor. When I eventually come to make a choice, I’ll have to decide which of these factors are most important to me personally.

And it’s the same with credit cards. I can tell you all about the Chase Sapphire? credit card, but whether it’s the best for you will depend on your individual needs and wants. What I can say for sure is that it is a good all-rounder, and that you should almost certainly include it on your list of potential cards.

Not for everyone

But let’s begin by identifying those who should think carefully first before including it on their list of possibilities. If your credit score’s going through a down patch, the chances of your application for a Chase Sapphire card being accepted are remote. This is a premium product that’s reserved for those with great credit.

In fact, it’s a good idea to check your score before you apply for any card–or any other sort of credit. Just submitting an application can drive down that score, so you don’t want to make ones that are bound to fail. You’re entitled to a free copy of your credit report once a year, but there are other ways of obtaining a free FICO credit score.

Rewards that really reward

One of the things that makes Chase Sapphire so attractive is its credit card rewards program. To start with, there’s an introductory offer that awards you 10,000 bonus points (worth $100) just for spending $500 on the card during the first three months after your account’s opened.

But this program keeps giving, especially when it comes to travel. Perhaps most importantly, when you book through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards? travel agency there are no restrictions or blackout dates. And you get double rewards points when you use that service.

But you’re free to make your reservations using the card elsewhere, and then use the Pay Yourself Back service to receive a credit on your statement. And you’re not restricted to travel. You can also redeem your points for cash back, merchandise, gift cards or anything else you want.

Two more things: your points should never expire, and there’s no cap on the number of points you can earn.

Attractive APR

Cards with good rewards programs tend to charge higher APRs. But if you compare Chase Sapphire with other big-name rewards cards, its standard APR is very competitive. At the time of writing (check Chase’s web site for current rates, terms and conditions), it’s 12.24 percent. And the card charges no annual fee.

You should bear in mind two caveats. First, that APR is tied to the prime rate, and is likely to rise if that goes up. Secondly, you must make at least the minimum payment in full and on time each month. If you’re late, the APR is likely to rocket up to 29.99 percent on new purchases and stay there. If you’re unlucky enough to go past 60 days overdue, that high rate could apply to pre-existing balances, though it should return to normal (only on that old debt) if you make on-time payments for six months in a row. These penalties are pretty standard across the industry.

No balance transfer fee offers

Some credit cards offer an introductory zero percent balance transfer APR and/or no balance transfer fee. Chase Sapphire isn’t one of them.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should rule it out if you have a balance that you want to transfer. You’re going to have to pay a three percent fee (or $5, whichever is the greater), but the rate from day one should be the card’s standard 12.24 percent APR. So if you’re currently on, say, 19.99 percent, you still stand to save money.

Decisions, decisions

So is the Chase Sapphire card right for you? Only you can say. But it’s well worth thinking about.

Peter Andrew has been writing about–and for–business for more than two decades. For the last couple of years, he has found himself increasingly specializing in the U.S. financial sector.

Source URL: Chase Sapphire credit card — what’s not to like?

Copyright Protected © 2011 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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I never really paid much attention to the rewards programs offered by different credit card companies. I was raised to use credit cards only for emergencies and not for everyday use, so my sole criteria for getting a card was that the interest rate be as low as possible.

But then a friend of mine told me he was planning a trip to China, and was going to pay for his plane ticket through the rewards he was earning on his credit card.

“I’m paying for everything with my card,” he said. “All my monthly bills – the rent, the groceries, the phone bill, everything. Then at the end of the month, I just write a check to the credit card company instead of eight or 10 checks to all these other places.”

And it worked. After several months, my friend and his wife were able to get the tickets for next to nothing–all thanks to the judicious use of their credit card.

The fine print of rewards cards

Even if you’re not planning a trip to China, this approach can work for anyone, provided you keep a few things in mind as you decide which rewards credit card programs works best for you:

• Rewards cards usually carry higher interest rates than non-rewards cards. That means if you’re not paying off the balance every month, your interest payments will quickly exceed your rewards.
• Look for rewards that you’ll use. The points you earn aren’t as valuable if you have to buy stuff you don’t use, or can’t get cash rewards.
• Consider getting a card that offers cash back instead of points; according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, cash-back cards tend to be more generous with rewards.
• Check to see if the card you’re considering has an annual fee. Will you earn enough points to just the annual cost of the card? According to the FDIC, some credit cards with rewards don’t carry annual fees but some do.
• Avoid unnecessary spending. You might be tempted to buy something you don’t really need just because you’re on this mission to earn points. Don’t let points accumulation cloud your good judgment and convince you to buy something you don’t need.
• Read the requirements closely. Find out if there is an expiration date for your points, and check to see if you will be charged transaction fees that could wipe out your savings from rewards.

Rewards cards: options and hazards

There are a dizzying variety of cards available out there, increasing the chances that you’ll find a card that fits your needs or spending habits. For instance, some cards will put money into a retirement account every time you accumulate a certain number of points. Another provides discounts on travel when it’s booked on the website Travelocity. You can also get tickets to Disney attractions or passes to the NFL Draft event.

It also pays to assess just how much you have to spend to achieve your rewards goals. For instance, with one card that rewards two miles of travel for every dollar you spend, you might have to charge $30,000 to get a $400 ticket. You can do it, but it might take more time than you have.

While shopping for rewards cards, it’s important to realize that you can also damage your credit rating by applying for too many lines of credit, so try not to get more than two. And keep in mind that some offers are only introductory, lasting over for the first six months you have the card.

How to find a rewards card that fits your lifestyle

There are a number of card-comparison websites, that can help you pick which reward card is right for you. For example on CardRatings.com, they typically ask what kind of rewards you are interested in, how much you spend each month and whether you pay off your balance each month. Then they provide a listing of cards, displaying what kind of credit score you’ll need, a brief description of the perks you could qualify for, and a link to help you apply for the card.

Also, check out our own list of the best rewards credit cards if you’re looking for great cards to start out with.

Jim Sloan is a free-lance writer and a higher-education communications specialist. He previously worked as an editor and writer for newspapers and magazines. He is the author of two books, and his stories have been selected for a number of anthologies. He has a degree in journalism and environmental science from the University of Maine.

Source URL: How to use rewards credit cards

Copyright Protected © 2010 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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If you are searching for a genuinely legitimate paid online survey, you’re at the right place. The following is a recommended list of popular online marketing firms that are offering free paid surveys and is a nice resource for people looking to make some money online from home or earn a little bit of extra cash on the side by filling out short survey questionnaires. After much research with a lot of trial and error, I’ve compiled a list of what I’ve found to be the top paid online survey programs that compensate participants with either cash or gift card rewards for completed surveys.

If you’ve already conducted an online search via Google.com or Bing.com for the best paid surveys, then you’ve probably already noticed that the vast majority (95%) of those search results invariably lead to some rather scammy looking links or to websites that try to convince you to fork over a membership fee for exclusive access to some secret list of paid surveys. It’s a sad and rather sobering sight to see, but the Internet is littered to the brim with such misleading resources and self interested clutter. Don’t buy the marketing hype or misleading online promotions that suggest that you must actually pay money to gain access to some super secret list. If a survey company starts asking you to pay an upfront charge, run away as fast as you can – lest you unwittingly succumb to the online scam. There is absolutely no reason that you ought to ever pay for such services as they can be legitimately and freely obtained online without cost.

Is It Really Possible To Make Money Online By Taking Paid Internet Surveys?

For starters and particularly for those of you easily misled or swayed by delusions of dancing dollar signs in your head, let me be very clear – the paid online survey websites listed below are not scams, gimmicks, or get rich quick schemes. No one is going to become a millionaire or earn enough money with these surveys to retire. Paid surveys can help you supplement your full time day job with some extra spending cash to pay the bills (up to anywhere from as little as $25 to as much as $200 or more per month), but that’s the extent of their financial usefulness. If you’re a stay at home mom, a full time student, a retiree, or even a working professional who wants to kill some time on a regular basis by knocking out a few quick surveys for some free money, these compensated surveys will definitely appeal to you. But those of you looking to turn online survey taking into some type of part time job are much better off working as a blogger and directing your efforts towards blogging to make money. At the very least, part time blogging has a greater potential to turn a simple hobby into a full time and sustainable online job than survey taking ever could.

However, in terms of earning a little bit of honest cash on the side, free paid survey offers are verifiably legitimate sources of income. Paid survey websites work by referring to their members survey inquiries provided by real companies. Most of the referring retailers are owners of consumer brands that you and I are probably already familiar with – brands that range from popular grocery food products and recognizable household goods, to manufacturers of popular electronic devices and automobiles. The retail companies rely on these regular survey samples to design and market their products, and are very willing to pay a small amount of money to compensate individuals for their survey taking time. Along with the usual assortment of survey inquiries based on your previous history of consumer usage and experiences, occasionally you also get lucky with a specific request to try out new and untested products. I enjoy it immensely when survey companies send out actual consumer products for me to review in person – items that include everything from experimental trial shampoos to shaving razors, to snack crackers and ear phones. After examining and trying out the products, you are expected to rate your experience on a sliding scale based on a variety of determinative factors.

The pay out rate for each online survey varies depending on the subject matter and the length of time that each is expected to take. The easy $1.00 surveys can take as little as 1-10 minutes to complete, while the more difficult but more lucrative $20 – $25 health care and fitness related paid surveys may take as long as an hour or longer. Depending on your personal demographics, you may or may not qualify for a large number of the potential paid online surveys out there – as it all depends on what the marketing companies are looking for at any given time. But if you want to fully maximize your online survey income potential, I highly recommend that you sign up and register for as many legitimate survey sites as you can. The more survey programs you have a relationship with, the more likely you will be able to maintain a steady flow of survey taking opportunities to make money from. As always, be sure to use a spare email account, lest you get overrun by survey emails (although you can always shut the survey messages down at any time by request).

Reviews Of Recommended Paid Online Survey Sites (All Are Free To Join):

1) NFO My Survey – The MySurvey Consumer Panel website is one of the very best free online survey providers out there and one that I highly recommend for aspiring paid online survey takers. Not only is their website very accessible and easy to navigate, their online surveys pay quite well. Since I joined as a panel survey taker years ago, they’ve provided me a consistent stream of paid survey opportunities on a wide array of interesting topics, including numerous fun product review solicitations that were mailed to my home for me to try out and opine on. Though the company utilizes a point system for dishing out reward incentives, the points are fully redeemable for cash checks and gift cards. The company also allows participants to earn additional money through referrals of their own.

2) Synovate – The Synovate Global Opinion Panel pays cash for completed online surveys and offers actively engaged participants the opportunity to receive a fairly steady burst of paid online survey chances on a regular basis. The Synovate survey company’s payout rate is quite competitive but dependent on the survey’s subject matter. Keep an eye out for those lucrative health care related surveys as they pay $10 and up. Synovate does provide product review opportunities as well and I’ve received my fair share of fun experimental bathroom products to review.

3) Ipsos I Say – Ipsos is a pretty big name in the marketing research world. While they focus primarily on in home product reviews and consumer product surveys, they still generally provide a reasonably balanced mix of of survey opportunities for their participating members. If you are interested in receiving freebies and getting free survey test products in the mail to review, you might want to give Ipsos a try. In regards to these in-home freebie products, you are generally free to keep the products regardless of whether you actually fill out the accompanied survey or not.

4) Survey Savvy – I really like Survey Savvy as the company is one of the best paid Internet survey sites in the market today and offers its participants a pretty lucrative referral program for their friends and family members. The company pays its members money for both personally completed surveys as well as completed surveys made by referrals. Payouts are dependent on the length of time and subject matter involved, but for friend and family referrals, you can earn $2.00 for every survey your direct referral takes and yet another $1.00 for every survey taken by their referrals. Based on the way Survey Savvy has things set up, online participants have multiple tiered opportunities to rack up income pretty quickly.

5) Global Test Market – I’ve been using Global Test Market to supplement my part time survey income for some time now. The company offers a fairly consistent number of survey taking opportunities for both American and international survey registrants looking to maintain a consistent stream of paid survey jobs. Even if you don’t qualify for a survey offer that is sent to you, you still get to accrue reward points simply by looking over it. Participants earn Global Test Market Points for completing surveys, redeemable for a variety of reward incentives. Like all of the survey companies reviewed on this list, Global Test Market is completely free and not contractually compulsory (you’re not forced to answer all surveys if you don’t want to).

6) Greenfield Online – If you are trying to find a legitimate paid online survey company that will provide you a significant number of survey gigs at a consistent pace, Greenfield Online is definitely for you. Greenfield has access to a lot of offers and provides payment in a variety of forms, including cash checks and free entries into their regularly renewed prize drawing. Here’s my little advice for registrants of Greenfield Online – stick to the cash payment only surveys and consider skipping the ones that only offer prize drawing entries. Cold hard cash beats raffle drawings any day. Sure you, might get lucky, beat the odds, and win the lottery, but your chances are slim to none that you will.

7) My Points – Want to get paid for reading spam emails? Then give MyPoints a try. The company is legitimate and at any time you want the emails to permanently stop, simply unsubscribe. MyPoints is not really a paid online survey provider per se, but they do offer survey opportunities as part of their reward earning system. The company offers a very large variety of ways to earn bonus points for future prize and merchandise redemption. If you are determined to make money online, I recommend trying out MyPoints as a resource. You can earn points by completing surveys (SurveyMail), reading e-mail advertisements (BonusMail), or even by signing up for online trial offers. If you don’t want to sign up for any unnecessary services, I recommend that you simply stick with the Survey Mail and Bonus Mail opportunities to earn reward points.

8) American Consumer Opinion Panel – The American Consumer Opinion Panel, or ACOP as it’s commonly called, is a personal favorite of mine due to the speed at which the company issues out compensation checks for completed paid surveys. Depending on the type of survey completed, ACOP participants can expect to be paid anywhere from $4 to $20 depending on the length, qualification requirements, and subject matter of the survey. If you desire to be paid more and reap anywhere between $25-$50 for each opportunity, you might want to consider signing up for ACOP sponsored online focus group reviews whenever those rare offers present themselves.

9) Lightspeed Consumer Panel – If volume of surveys is the most important factor to you, then definitely consider signing up with Lightspeed. The consumer survey company offers a tremendous number of paid online survey opportunities, paying out reward points for each completed survey. Reward points are fully redeemable for cash payments, gift cards, and other merchandise based prizes. For the professional survey takers out there who can speed read and crank through a large number of surveys in one sitting, Lightspeed has the potential to be quite a lucrative part time income cash cow for super active participants.

Source URL: Get Paid To Take Free Online Paid Surveys

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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