Yes, you can answer questions for money. It’s almost all paid surveys, and it pays a few bucks at a time, not rent money.
That still counts when you’re paying off student loans. An extra $30 a month on a $25,000 loan at 6.52% gets it paid off 15 months sooner and saves about $1,261 in interest.
The short answer
- Survey Junkie is the plainest way to get paid for your answers. You can cash out once you hit $5.
- Swagbucks and InboxDollars pay for surveys too, plus videos, games and shopping.
- Read the bonus rules. Swagbucks’ $10 bonus needs a $25 purchase in your first 30 days.
- The live trivia apps that paid cash prizes, like SwagIQ, have shut down.
How answering questions for money works
Brands want to know what people think before they launch something, so they pay market research companies to ask, and those companies pay you in points for your answers. Here’s how it goes in practice:
- Sign up and fill out your profile. Age, job, what you buy. The more you fill in, the more surveys you match.
- Check for surveys when you have a few minutes.
- Expect to get screened out of some. A survey can drop you after a few questions if you’re not who they need, and that time isn’t paid.
- Cash out at the minimum. Don’t let points sit for months. Take the PayPal or gift card as soon as you can.
Bottom line: it’s spare-time money. Do it while the TV’s on, not instead of a shift.
1. Survey Junkie
If you only want surveys, start with Survey Junkie. I’ve used Survey Junkie on and off for years. It’s worth signing up for. I check what’s good when I have off time.
You can cash out starting at $5 (500 points), by PayPal, bank transfer or gift card. Survey Junkie says it plainly on its own site: you won’t get rich taking surveys. That’s about right.
2. Swagbucks
Swagbucks pays in points called SB, and 1,000 SB is worth $10. Surveys are the main thing, but you also earn for videos, games and shopping through its site.
The catch on the $10 bonus
You have to activate it in Swag Ups and spend at least $25 at a store through Swagbucks.com/Shop within 30 days of signing up. Were you going to buy something online anyway? Then grab it. If not, skip the bonus and just take surveys.
3. InboxDollars
InboxDollars pays cash for surveys, videos and games, and its sign-up box shows a $5 bonus. It works a lot like Swagbucks with a different look, so you can run both and have more surveys to pick from on a slow day.
4. Mistplay, if you’d rather play than answer
Mistplay isn’t surveys. You play new mobile games and earn points you trade for gift cards. It’s on both the App Store and Google Play now, so it isn’t Android only anymore.
One thing to know: Mistplay’s own fine print says its amounts are gift card values, not cash payments.
What happened to the trivia apps?
This page used to lead with live trivia game shows that paid cash prizes. Those are gone. SwagIQ, the big one, shut down.
So if an app promises big cash prizes for trivia, check that it still exists in the app store before you hand over your email.
Make the few bucks count against your loans
Small amounts only help if they actually reach the loan. Here’s what a steady $30 a month does.
Example: $25,000 at 6.52%, plus $30 a month
- Regular payment
- $284.12/mo
- With $30 extra
- $314.12/mo
- Paid off in
- 105 months instead of 120
- Interest saved
- about $1,261
How we got it: a $25,000 balance at 6.52% (the undergraduate rate for federal loans first disbursed July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027) on a 10-year schedule, with interest figured monthly. Your servicer’s numbers will differ a little.
Federal student loans have no prepayment penalty. When you send extra, tell your servicer to put it toward principal, or it may just push your next due date back.
Next stepPlug in your own balance and rate in our student loan payoff calculator
Want more ways to earn? ReferralWallet lists sign-up bonus apps that actually pay out, and beermoney.co rounds up survey and rewards apps. If you need bigger money than surveys pay, our guide to making money to pay off student loans covers gigs, selling stuff and freelance work, and the gig economy jobs list goes further.
Yes. Survey sites like Survey Junkie, Swagbucks and InboxDollars pay points or cash for answering market research surveys. Expect a few dollars at a time, and expect to get screened out of some surveys.
You can cash out once you have $5 (500 points), by PayPal, bank transfer or gift card.
Not quite. You have to activate it in Swag Ups and spend at least $25 at a Swagbucks.com/Shop store within 30 days of signing up. Skip it if you weren’t going to shop anyway.
The live trivia shows this page used to list, like SwagIQ, have shut down. Surveys and rewards apps are what’s left, and they pay smaller amounts more reliably.
As spare-time money, yes. An extra $30 a month on a $25,000 loan at 6.52% cuts the payoff from 120 months to 105 and saves about $1,261 in interest.
Sources (7)
We use primary sources wherever we can: Federal Student Aid, the U.S. Department of Education, the IRS, federal regulations and each company’s own site.
- Survey Junkie. Survey Junkie. surveyjunkie.com. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Swagbucks. Swagbucks. swagbucks.com. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- InboxDollars. InboxDollars. inboxdollars.com. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Mistplay. Mistplay. mistplay.com. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Federal Versus Private Loans. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Federal Student Loan Interest Rates. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can I make additional payments on my student loan?. consumerfinance.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
