MindsPay Review: Scam or a Real Get Paid to Review Site?

MindsPay is one of the biggest names when it comes to “Get Paid to Review Products” theme. That is why I wanted to review this site to see if you can actually be paid to test products.

The site claims it pays people for answering surveys, product reviews and being part of focus groups. Additionally, the site also allows advertisers to harness its member base to gain feedback on ads (of both the individual and campaign variety).

Let’s find out if this site is real or scam.

Who is Behind MindsPay?

As usual, the first thing I did to uncover the truth about this site was to do some research to find out how is behind the site. Sadly, I could not find much information. I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out who is operating the site, but there wasn’t much detail out there at all. I couldn’t even find a phone number for this company.

So, I went to the Better Business Bureau’s site to check MP’s profile where I saw something that made me very uneasy about this site. This is what I saw:

As you can see, it says that the address being used by the site as its headquarters is the address of a company called Mailbox Forwarding Inc.

Now, I don’t know if that’s the company that is operating MindsPay or what. If it is and the site is not hiding anything, then they need to be clear about it and state it on their “About” page. Funny enough, they don’t even have an “about” section on their site. An “About” page is one the first things a legit site backed by a real company puts up.

So, it seems like because of the address issue, the BBB has given MP a rating of C -, the worst possible rating you can get.

Participation

As is the case with any market research company operating legitimately, MindsPay doesn’t charge you money to sign-up. All the site requires is for you to answer a demographic questionnaire and submit your email ID.

However, in order to take surveys with MP, you need to use Internet Explorer. To my knowledge, this requirement has more to do with the manner in which their system works to compensate you for answering a survey. However, I can’t be absolutely certain as I’ve never experienced this with other survey sites.

One you finish signing-up, a one-time bonus of $3 is paid to you. After this, you need to answer certain simple questions concerning your buying and spending habits. The answers you give out help determine the kinds of surveys and product testing assignments for your profile.

You can also browse through MP’s website to search surveys you’d like to answer. Once a survey fitting your profile arrives, you are notified of the same via email. You can follow the link in that email to begin taking the survey.

You are also presented with a list of surveys available after you complete the registration process. So just select the surveys that interest you. On the arrival of newer surveys, the site sends out invitations known as PaidMails to members having a good chance of qualifying for that particular study.

The frequency of these invites entirely depends on you. During the registration process, you are given the option of deciding the frequency of email invites sent to you. Every email sent by the company will have @MindsPaymails.com as postfix.

Most surveys on the site can be wrapped in 5-15 minutes. The rate of compensation per survey ranges from $3-$25 or even higher at times.

Can You Really Get Paid to Review Products?

Sure you can! Product testing and reviewing is a big part of market research. Even universities conduct product testing studies. Here is a product testing study by the University of Colorado Denver.

That said, in all honestly, MindsPay’s version is totally different. They are not actually conducting market research studies here. When they say, you get paid to review products, they mean you get cash back for trying free and paid trials owned by their advertisers.

That is just cash back shopping and not a product testing research study. So, the site is being deceptive here. But to be fair, at the end of the day, you do earn some money when you try different products and services through them. I just don’t like it that they are trying to portray themselves as a research company conducting actual studies

Getting Paid

MindsPay sends out payments on the 15th and last day of every month. Payments are also released in multiples of $50. So in case the company owes you $58, you’ll get $50. You’ll be paid the remaining $8 the next time around.

A payment to your PayPal ID is done on either the 1st or 15th of each month. However, the payment is released only after the minimum waiting period of 30 days from the day of payment request submission is met and that too after phone verification.

Referral

Referring your family and friends can also earn you money with this site as it is the norm with many other survey sites such as InboxDollars. (In case you are interested, here is my InboxDollars review) . When a person you referred earns some money with MindsPay, you are paid 20% of that amount.

The best part being that this applies for life and not just the first payment. The policy also applies regardless of how your referral earns his/her money; it could be from taking surveys or even from product testing.

Your 20% credit also reflects the next instant your referral applies for a payout. In my experience, this is among the most generous referral policies I’ve encountered.

MindsPay.com: My Review

Starting off, MP allows members to join in for free and also pays them legally, which is a good sign so far. However, there are a couple of things I would want to point out.

Firstly, there is no doubt that the site houses a fair number of usual surveys that pay for your opinions. However, a sizable share of the site’s surveys seems to be oriented towards product trials.

What this means is that when you register for such a product trial offer, you are likely to be asked to enter the details of your credit card to be able to take part in the same.

Now, a lot of these sign-ups contain free trials, which is not a big matter of concern. But the catch here is that in case you miss reading the finer details or do not initiate cancellation for a service on time, there’s a good chance that you’ll be asked to pay the resulting charges. By the way, to learn more about this whole trial and cancellation thing, I highly recommend you read this PCworld post on dangers of free trials.

Most surveys will pay you $5 at tops, which is well below what one needs to pay for services like these. This means that unless you meticulously keep track of all your trial offers, you are likely to lose more money compared to what you are making.

Secondly, the site pays in multiples of 50 USD only. This can also be interpreted as the minimum amount for you to earn before requesting payment.

Now, although this is not really an unprecedented policy, $50 is still too high an amount in an industry whose average pay per survey is hovering around $1-$2. In case you decide to quit or are compelled by other reasons to do so before earning $50, you will have to forfeit whatever you have accumulated till then.

Is MindsPay Legit?

As you can tell from this review, there are lots of little things here and there that makes me vary of this site. Now, I haven’t been able to find any actual hard proofs that point to MindsPay being a scam.

So, I can not flat-out say the site is scamming people, but at the same time I can’t say its a legit site either, which is why I don’t feel comfortable recommending the site to you.

But if you want to give them a try, here is their registration page. And remember that as is the case with every survey site, the earnings with MindsPay are not going to be enough to pay your bills.