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Ipsos i-Say Review: Their Surveys Pay Cash, But Is It Worth It? (Aug. 2019)
By Ian | Negative Reviews
By Ian | Negative Reviews
It’s hard to find a survey site that actually pays cash or rewards points that you can exchange for items or gift cards. Read our Ipsos i-Say review to learn this survey site’s pros and cons and whether it’s legit or a mere scam.
I am not an affiliate for Ipsos i-Say. Many others who write i-Say reviews will earn a commission by convincing you to join, but I am not one of these people. What you’ll read below is my uninfluenced, unbiased review.
The punchline is this: Like most paid survey sites, Ipsos i-Say pays absolute crap. Earning enough for a payout frequently takes dozens of hours, and in the end you’ll average pennies per hour. The #1 site in this industry and one of Ipsos i-Say’s top competitors, Swagbucks, pays dramatically better.
If you joined both, I personally guarantee you’d find that Ipsos i-Say pays substantially less and has an inferior selection of offers and payout options. If you’re looking to join a paid survey website to make a part-time income online, Swagbucks is hands down the best survey site to join.
Some people don’t have time to read a lengthy review and stare at all of the screenshots. If you’re one of those people, here’s what you need to know:
i-Say is one of the legitimate survey websites out there as far as survey payouts go and the ability to cash rewards points in for money via PayPal, but there are several drawbacks. Their system can be extremely sluggish and frustrating at times, making you wait 1-2 minutes while it loads just to find out that you don’t qualify for that particular survey (“But here are 5 pity points so you don’t get too angry!”).
Also, most surveys that take 20-30 minutes pay less than 100 points, which means that you could spend a full eight-hour workday completing surveys and make less than $15, an hourly rate lower than $2/hour.
This problem isn’t exclusive to cash payouts, because even gift cards and charitable donations have the exact same conversion rate (1,000 points per $10). So in the end, even though they’ll pay cash and their surveys have higher payouts than many other survey sites, you’re still much better off with another service that doesn’t limit you to surveys but pays you for other activities online. You’ll make more money and ultimately be able to buy more things than you can with points or converted cash through Ipsos i-Say’s surveys.
Let’s take a moment to look at what i-Say is.
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i-Say is a survey site owned by Ipsos, an international market research and consulting firm.
i-Say provides a platform for consumers to provide opinions about everything from consumer brands to entertainment companies in exchange for points that can be redeemed for i-Say Rewards, such as gift cards, merchandise, cash via PayPal, virtual prepaid cards, and even charity donations.
The Ipsos i-Say website also offers a way for members to connect with each other by creating and answering polls.
Signing up with i-Say was quicker and easier than it is on other sites (although it’s always pretty simple). Click Join Now, fill out a few simple details about your household, verify your email, and voilà! You’re an “official i-Sayer”.
The website has changed since I last registered; the current version of this page may look different. Click to zoom
Then it’s off to select and complete your first i-Say survey. Once you’re an official i-Sayer, you’ll start getting invitations to surveys, and you can also log on to the site, go to the members’ area and check out the surveys available for you.
My first impression of i-Say’s members’ area was a surprising amount of initial surveys. Usually, two or three are available immediately, but upon logging in the first time I had almost twice that many:
The website has changed since I last logged in; the current version of this page may look different. Click to zoom
So what did I do first? Naturally, I completed the survey that had the highest point-to-time ratio, which was a survey that quoted two minutes and rewarded me with 45 points.
This was also the first drawback I noticed. Although the survey still took very little time, I immediately noticed that it was more complex than I was quoted initially and took about three times as long due to the large number of questions and survey setup (a lot of 1-7 “1 being strongly disagree and 7 being strongly agree” grids).
Still, I didn’t think much of it and quickly racked up my first 45 points – cha-ching! Off to the Rewards area to see what options I can begin working towards.
Some of the rewards members can exchange their points for. Click to zoom.
One of the things I liked most about Ipsos i-Say is that their rewards area wasn’t packed with a ton of sweepstakes or raffle entries. There were a ton of different redemption options, and you could even redeem points for several charity donations which I thought was a neat concept.
Most importantly, you can easily turn your points into cash if you have (or qualify for) a PayPal account.
Click to zoom
It’s also worth noting that Ipsos i-Say’s redemption rate was much better than other networks. 1,530 points can be cashed out for $15, whereas other networks like MySurvey require 1,100-1,250 points for a $10 payout.
Although i-Say’s interface is aesthetically pleasing (as you can see in many screenshots), it is extraordinarily sluggish at points and poorly programmed.
For example, the second survey I wanted to complete required me to enter my zip code multiple times, and after waiting 2-3 minutes for the page to finally load (this had nothing to do with my internet connection—I have way more speed than necessary for a site like this) I was informed that they no longer needed respondents for this particular survey and was given 5 points for the inconvenience.
I didn’t think much of it and clicked to take my third survey, which said would take about 15 minutes and earn 90 points. After about 10 minutes of waiting on screens to load and answering various, highly detailed questions (number of cars in the household, what types of products we had purchased within the last year across about 30 categories, etc…) I was told that the survey would only earn me 45 points. “Weird.” I thought to myself, but kept going anyways. I was prompted to enter my zip code (yet again) and after waiting another minute or so for the interface to load, I was told the survey would take approximately 20 minutes and earn me 90 points. What the heck is going on?!
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So to sum up that extremely confusing process, I was quoted an initial time frame and 90 points. After spending half of that time answering questions, I was quoted half as many points as before. Then, after answering one more question, I was quoted five extra minutes and the same amount of points I was initially offered. I had already spent 10-15 minutes answering all of these questions and waiting on the system to load, and NOW I’m finally allowed to start the 20-minute survey?! There’s something extremely off about this part of my experience with Ipsos i-Say.
Many other i-Say members aren’t saying the best things about the site either. Just take a look at some of the experiences people have shared on SurveyPolice.com:
There are a number of five-star reviews, but the majority of the i-Say reviews are one-star reviews, with reports of accounts being deactivated for the littlest or no reason at all, time-wasting surveys that ask numerous personal questions only to kick them out with 5 points as a consolation prize (almost as if they wanted members to participate without giving them points), slow payment processing, technical issues, and poor customer service.
I wouldn’t say Ipsos i-Say is a flat-out scam. This survey site showed a lot more promise than most of the products and services I’ve reviewed, particularly within the paid survey industry. They offer a surprisingly large number of surveys, a fair amount of points for completing their surveys, and a wide variety of rewards to exchange points for at a decent rate.
But as I got further into the process, I became increasingly disappointed with their system and the overall member experience. And as it turns out, I’m not alone; many other members have experienced the same. All the technical issues just aren’t worth the potential survey payout.
There’s really NO way that I can recommend i-Say to someone looking to earn money online. You’ll only average a couple of bucks per hour and spend much more time on each survey than you’re quoted due to their poorly programmed and sluggish interface. In the end, your time is much better invested in another part-time venture or just spending extra time with your loved ones. Life is too short to average less than $2/hour.
I've been in internet marketing for over 10 years, and I've purchased dozens of illegitimate products for the sole purpose of evaluating them and exposing the truth about these products to anyone who's thinking about purchasing it. I never let money influence my rating of a product and your success/safety is my absolute highest priority. Don't want to buy a product? Register for one of my 100% free internet marketing training courses>>
