Is SendEarnings Scam or Legit: a Review by Survey Satrap

One of the most famous “get paid to read emails” sites out there is SendEarnings. I have been a member of this site since early 2006 (if I am not mistaken), and seeing lots of fake reviews about this site, made me want to write a detailed and real review in order to give you first hand account of what this panel is all about.

With that said, lets dive in and see if SendEarnings.com is a scam or a legit site worth your time.

CotterWeb Enterprises, Inc.

SendEarnings.com is one of the ventures owned by CotterWeb Enterprise Network. This site shares an uncanny resemblance with InboxDollars, not just in the way it looks but also in the way it functions.

So if you liked one of these, you are almost sure to like the other. The only point of different (at least to my eyes) was the email notification system of SE, which seemed comfortably better than that of InboxDollars’.

Here’s an important disclaimer before I proceed with the review. Send Earnings operates on the “Get Paid To” model, under which you get paid by the company for completing different tasks.

Some of these tasks can include taking trials, reading emails, answering surveys and shopping online. The company is able to pay you from the funds it generates through ads and by forging tie-ups with other companies (that want to expand their customer base) to offer some exclusive deals.

As for their standing with the Better Business Bureau, although there is no profile of SE there, the parent company, CotterWeb Enterprises, Inc., has a profile on BBB with an impressive A+ rating. Whats more is that CotterWeb has been a BBB Accredited Business since 03/14/2012.

There were about 93 complaints and issue from their customers in the last 3 years, but it seems like the company is committed to providing an excellent customer service as they have dealt appropriately with every single one of those complaints.

Membership

You can sign-up with SendEarnings for free. In fact, registering with the site earns you $5. The basic idea behind here is that once you are a member, advertisers will start sending you emails. All you need to do is open such an email and click on the links provided by the advertisers inside.

The pay per email ranges from 0.03 to 10 cents. Of course, there is the $5 bonus on sign-up as well. The site also carries a survey daily that allows you to earn another 50 cents (or higher).

Money can also be earned by reading emails. However, the pay with that is quite low at 2 cents/email. Frequency of emails is also lower at around 2-3 per day.

Just as with other similar sites like CashCrate or ProjectPayday, there also exist some other methods to make money. There are a host of popular trial programs from Netflix, Block Buster etc. that you can take up.

On taking the trial, you are rewarded different amounts for different offers. You can withdraw or cancel these offers afterwards but you must be aware of your different subscriptions. Scan the terms and conditions of trial offers to see if there are any long-term clauses before you enter details of your credit card.

The company has forged partnerships with big-ticket merchants like HP, Apple and many other similar ones. This allows members of the site to earn cash by buying stuff from those merchants.

For people already sold on buying something from any of these merchants, this should be very good news.

However, the best method of earning above-average amounts of money with this particular site is through the referral program. Whenever a person you referred earns something on SE, 10% of that figure is sent your way.

Obviously, the people who’ll derive the most benefit from this program would be the ones good at marketing affiliate programs using PPC, SEO and articles. For most average members, earning from SendEarnings.com through referrals alone would be hard.

In another similarity to InboxDollars, SE too shows nil tolerance towards cheating practices of any sort. Only one individual per household is allowed to join the site!

So, when the company sends you a check, your address should be registered to you and you alone. If multiple names are registered to a single address, the account is considered in violation. Worse still, all funds in the account stand forfeited.

I urge you to thoroughly go through the site’s terms and conditions. Many people are not in the habit of doing so but find it easy enough to start accusing a company of scam when it’s time to cash out.

Educating yourself and being well-versed with the terms should be top priority for you. For instance, I read one complaint where the user claimed unawareness about a $3 charge for payment through checks. For goodness sake, that has been mentioned in the terms of service in plain English!

I’ve been a member here for close to 7 years. I receive a few emails daily from the site and also a couple of surveys. This is also the place where I source majority of my weekly coupons for grocery as they carry considerably more value compared to other sources.

Coupons.com is still their main source but for each coupon you avail at the store, 10 cent is returned to you! Simply put, this coupon adds 10 cents to every coupon you print from coupons.com. I see absolutely no sense why anyone would see past that.

You can also earn 15 cents every day by using their search engine; it’s slow for sure but earns a steady income. I, on the other hand, stick to coupons, surveys and some specific offers.

For instance, let’s consider the Netflix offer from their stables. If you’re contemplating going for the instant streaming service from Netflix, you should register first with InboxDollars and then choose their offer for Netflix. That’s because InboxDollars credits you with $8 on doing this through them. With this offer, you are entitled to a month’s free usage from Netflix. After that period gets over, the credit from ID itself pays for the second month.

Gold Membership

In January 2008, the company introduced a category of membership, known as the “Gold Membership”. This was purely a strategy to reward the company’s most loyal users. You are upgraded to the Gold Membership category immediately after receiving your first payment via check.

A Gold Membership also gains you certain other benefits:

• Awarding of More Referrals
  Whenever new members join SendEarnings.com without referrals from existing members, they are pooled together in a group of members without referrals. Once you become a Gold Member, you are assured a percentage of this group of members.
• Payments are Considerably Faster
  Once you request for a check withdrawal, it’ll be done in 3-9 days post your request date rather than the 16 days it takes for non-Gold members. If you put in a check payment request anytime during a week, it is processed in the next week on a Wednesday after which it’s sent out via mail instantly. Once it’s processed, the payment should reach you in a few working days itself. However, be ready to wait a maximum of two weeks as the check’s time arrival depends wholly on the USPS.
• Awarded with Double Sweepstakes Entries
  A Gold Membership also doubles every sweepstakes entry you are awarded by the website. The likelihood of winning something is increased twice over by this!

Getting Paid

Among the bigger issues with the site is the long time they take to process a payout after your request. I gather that they do this to ensure payments arrive first from their respective partners, however; that still is a pretty lame excuse. You need to be ready to wait anywhere between 1-2 months for receiving your check.

The minimum amount for processing a payout is $30. The site also follows a different paying schedule than most others out there. This also means that you should definitely drop expectations of being paid within 30 days.

Here’s a look at how things work with this site, sourced from their own FAQ section:

Check payments are processed on a Net-30 payment schedule. For example, if you request payment any day in the month of January, your payment is processed on March 1st.

If the first of the month falls on a weekend or national holiday, payments are processed on the next working business day. Checks are mailed through the U. S. Postal Service and should typically arrive within a few business days.

The site asks that members allow up to two weeks for their check to arrive. Delivery time depends on many factors, including your geographic location, seasonal increases in mail volume, and totally dependent upon the U.S. Postal Service.

Different Reviews of SendEarnings

SE is a completely legitimate website although it has had its share of complaints. A few users reported how they didn’t get credited even after completing their trial offers.

However, most members eligible for payouts have successfully got their checks on request without any issues.

Pros

• It pays.
• Well established.
• Members from all countries can join.
• No limit to direct referrals count.
• Auto-upgrade to Gold Membership.

Cons

• Information is needed.
• Lack of forum.
• Payment by Check only available.

Does SendEarnings Pay?

Yes, the company is legit and it does pay its members without a doubt. I think it offers a wonderful opportunity to make extra cash by performing some very basic and simple tasks.

So by all means, go ahead and join the site. However, just make sure to keep a check on your expectations. The site is certainly not meant to replace your regular job. It only helps you earn little but meaningful amounts of money, which is certainly useful in this sluggish economy.

However, as I have mentioned in this review, the long delays in payouts are bothersome. If only they took care of that aspect and paid more attention to the well-being of members, I’d have no hesitation in recommending them strongly. But until then, although far from being a scam, SendEarnings is an average offering at best.