E-bates

E-bates is a company that gives you cash when you do your online shopping by clicking through their site. You name it, you can get e-bates with it. Travelocity, Entertainment Books, Amazon, Target, Telefora, Sears, Sephora, Home Depot, Macys, Dell, Expedia, QVC, Verizon, etc. etc. etc. You also get paid for making referrals.

Three prong test:
1 - Do we have proof of payment?
2 - Is there a non-internet contact for the company?
3 - Online complaints

Results:
1 - YES
2 - YES
3 - There are some, but not enough to totally avoid the company.


1) I was first paid by E-bates on May 25, 2011. I was paid for shopping with both e-bates & Teleflora - plus there's a $5 bonus for signing up! They pay you directly through PayPal - and the minimum payout is ONLY $5 - not like many programs that insist you get $25 or $50. Here's my PayPal image.


2) E-bates is pretty good with responding to e-mails. I had to hound them to get credit for one of my referrals - but their "Customer Care" link on the bottom right of the page is great. They respond to inquires in a timely fashion, and are good about getting folks credit when it's due.

Barring that you can also find them on google maps with a mailing address and a phone number. See this LINK!

3) The BBB (Better Business Bureau) shows that E-bates has 89 complaints in the last 36 months. And there are various complaints on the web where people did not receive credit.

The trick is - keep TRACK of who you click through e-bates to, what date it was, and how much the total was. It also helps to jot down the e-bates confirmation number they show when porting you through. Many of the folks who complain online seem to think that e-bates should look up all of this information for them, instead of being prepared when they contact customer service. E-bates has thousands upon thousands, if not millions of users - so giving them all of the info up front exponentially increases your chances of getting credit for your purchases in a timely fashion. If you're not particularly good at this - E-bates has even made it easier recently - providing each user with a list of their tracking tickets!

Inbox Dollars

Inbox Dollars is a company that offers pays you for clicking on e-mails they send you, watching their videos, completing offers, referring folks, etc. etc.

Three prong test:
1 - Do we have proof of payment?
2 - Is there a non-internet contact for the company?
3 - Online complaints

Results:
1 - YES
2 - YES
3 - Few & far between.

1) I have been paid by Inbox Dollars many times. Here is a photo showing the checks they've sent me, as well as my current earnings. I find I usually make $50-$70 per year with Inbox Dollars. If you are more aggressive about getting referrals than I am, you might be able to make even more.


One thing I make sure to do every year with Inbox Dollars is purchase my Entertainment Book through them. They usually offer $8 back on that purchase. And I usually save HUNDREDS each year with my Entertainment Book.

2) Inbox Dollars is a CotterWeb Enterprises company. They can be located on the web - and provide a mailing address and phone number, as can be seen at their Google Maps Listing. You should always be leery of any company that does not provide an alternate form of contact, other than a "contact us" form on their website.

3) Most of the online complaints about Inbox Dollars revolve around the fact that it is slow going. True, it is not a "get-rich-quick" scheme. You'll probably max out at somewhere around $100-$150 per year. But hey, any extra money is good money right? Right! Other complaints state that folks weren't compensated for an offer. Some of the offers are tricky - you have to fill out a bunch of different stuff OR make a purchase to qualify. Always read the fine print. I have always found the Inbox Dollars support team helpful and great about crediting me for an offer, if I did all the steps correctly and they somehow missed it (which is rare).


The one thing I would advise against with this program is trying to make any money with the "cash tasks" ... they usually take at least a half-hour to complete, and the most I've ever been paid for one is $2. Which values my labor at $4/hour. Which is just kind of sad. Sure, if you're sitting in front of the TV with nothing better to do it might be worthwhile, but there's usually surveys out there with other programs that you can do in the same amount of time that pay a bit more than that for that much time spent.