The truth about Cash Crate
I recently heard about Cash Crate and thought I would check it out. Basically you get paid for filling out short surveys and giving your email address to spammers.
The sign up is simple enough. It only takes about 30 seconds and once you complete that, they take you to the below screen. Here you select which offers you would like to complete. You click the offer on the left and once you complete the offer, then you click the submit button. Cash Crate then verifies that you completed it and then adds the funds to your account.
All of the offers I have done so far are actually very short and easy to fill out. Only taking about 30 -60 seconds to fill out for each one.
The problem is that it is difficult to tell how much of the offer you need to fill out.
So for example, the “Running Shoes” offer above gives you the below screen…
I think this is all you have to actually fill out to get paid, BUT as soon as you press submit it takes you to this screen…
So, now they are taking you down a trail to get a $150 gift card, which you are going to have to jump through about 1000 hoops and sign up for credit cards and a bunch of other stuff to actually get it.
I wish they would have a screen that says, “you have completed this offer,” but they seem to just try to confuse people into filling out additional offers that were not part of the CashCrate offer.
But like I said above, I think all you need to fill out is that first screen with your email address in order to get your $1.00 for that offer. Others ask you survey-type questions, some want your physical address, etc.
Well, that just sounds too easy
A lot of companies run their businesses completely off of email lists. So, you are getting paid $1.00 to get added to their email list. It may or may not be worth it to you. But I can almost promise you that you are going to start getting a lot of spam in your inbox
How handle this
I have a few different email addresses that I use. One is only given to businesses. So, any time I sign up for anything that I think could possibly add my address to a list I use that address. That email gets hundreds of emails a day, so I only check it when I am specifically looking for an activation email or something similar.
My review of Cash Crate
It seems like a decent way to make a few extra bucks. I filled out about 7 offers (they have hundreds available) in 15-20 minutes. It would have been shorter, but I was following some of their deceptive rabbit trails.
After filling out the offers my my account shows that I have earned $2.90 and have $4.40 pending. As CashCrate verifies that I filled out the offers, the money moves from the pending earnings to July’s earnings. They say it can take from 5 minutes to a couple of hours for them to get approved.
They also have a generous referral program, so you get a cut of everyone who signs up from your referral link. I guess I will see how successful that is after I post this article.
I am going to continue using them, but only because I am not going to give them my personal email address.
I would love to hear from people who have used it so far. Is there anything I am missing?
(Added 08-27-08)
I have now been using Cash Crate for a little over a month and just discovered something that I need to let everyone know about. I just got off the phone with the phone company to try to get a charge removed from my bill for a service that I “signed up” for via CashCrate. Apparently I checked a box that said I agree to allow them to bill me. They then sent an email to confirm and I didn’t respond, so they charged me. I argued and they did reverse the fee, but make sure if you use CashCrate or some of the similar programs that you watch what you are filling out. It was MY fault, but there are obviously some companies trying to catch you not paying attention. For what it’s worth…
(Added 09-22-08)
ok, I am upgrading my warning on CashCrate – I now have 2 more stinkin things on my phone bill!! Unbelievable, I don’t think I missed these, I think they are just scammy companies… I can’t pass the blame on to CashCrate itself – but it is the companies that put surveys on their site… But either way, fighting to get these charges off my bill is not worth what I have made from them… I would not recommend CashCrate any more and if you are considering using them I would be VERY CAREFUL…
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I just started using them as well, and so far I’ve been able to make enough for the first payout – in only a couple of days of doing the offers in free moments.
Like you said, it can be confusing, but maybe worth it if you have a separate email address set up for this sort of thing.
@Pete
yea, it seems like a great way to utilize a few minutes here or there to make some cash… It could get pretty mind-numbing doing it for hours on end
just got my first check from them this morning in the mail for $14.65
I haven’t started using them yet. But I might set up a new hotmail account just so I can start using them. An extra $20 every so often wouldn’t go astray for me.
I am not sure if I have enough time for it though. I am busy studying, working at a part time job and also being an online entrepreneur with my wealth blog.
I will save the site and come back to it later.
Aren’t you getting hundreds of spam emails from them everyday? I thought I read somewhere they would send you hundreds of spams a day, however haven’t tried this myself so I might be missing something.
Sam
Fix My Personal Finance
http://fixmypersonalfinance.com/
@tiffanie
That is reassuring. Thanks.
@Sam
well, I don’t give them my personal email address, so the email address that I give them already gets a lot of spam and I don’t use it for personal emails.
But, I haven’t yet noticed an increase. I am SURE it will come, but it hasn’t really started yet. I just dig through that email account to confirm registration for some of the offers that require it.
To be honest I haven’t noticed a ton of emails from them. I know there is a setting so that you don’t receive newsletters and other emails from cashcrate – but you’ll probably still get emails from other companies that you’ve signed up with through cashcrate.
I just did a review of cashcrate on my site as well, and so far it’s done just fine for me – I’ve made $15 dollars now in only a couple hours, along with another $23 pending. not bad for just doing it in some free time.
@Pete
you know the question I am having is… For the pending funds, I wonder if they will ever tell you if you missed a step or that you need to fulfill another requirement to get the money – or does it just stay in your pending account forever?
Ok this is really interesting. Thanks for the info Bob. Will definitely try this out within the week. Will let you know how it works on my end.
Cheers!
Sam
This is a bad idea. To me it looks like an easy way to get scammed, like Columbia House or Amway.
Well, I am not sure… So far I have been making money, haven’t gotten many more emails than before, and haven’t gotten scammed (to the best of my knowledge anyway)
I have joined Columbia House and while they do have some strict rules you have to follow, I wouldn’t call them a scam.
And for Amway, well what are you doing for dinner? How bout you come over to my house, because I have found some products that will revolutionize your life
Good review: these are good points to know. But what about actually getting paid? Are there any other hoops you have to jump through for that? Special things you need to sign up for? Can Canadians participate?
@Money Energy
Since I just started, I haven’t received a check yet. But I do know at least two people who have received a check from them… I don’t think there are any hoops, but I will update this post if I find any… and I am not sure about Canadians – you probably aren’t eligible since you have great healthcare- don’t you?
Getting referrals is the best way to make money on CashCrate. There are tons of ways to do it…all you need is a little creativity.
too bad to hear about charges on phone bill. Might be worth it to sign up for one of those free voicemail phone numbers as well.
I agree. You should have signed up with the free voicemail service. I think its called simple box or something like that. Cashcrate is an awesome program, you just have to be careful.
Well, I would just have to say. How would you know if it is a bad idea if you have’nt tried it. If someone were to offer you a $50.00 check to eat a piece of liver and you never ate it before. Are you going to tell them it tasts bad?? Very Simple.. It works with little effort!
Cashcrate is awesome. It’s great if you have nothing to do, I used to do a lot of offers but since then I stopped and got into more better paying things.
My question is, if I sign up for this, are any of the sites going to cause a virus on my computer?
I also check the BBB site. Here is the link….
http://idahofalls.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=20&bbb=1096&firm=90007060
I do love cashcrate.
[img src="http://freejokes.zendfree.com/cashcrate.jpg" width=1]
do the cashcrate syrvey’s bill you phone line compony?
i have been using an e-mail i dont use regularly, and been putting my old numbers. if someone had those numbers, would it bill them?
I am not sure – all I know, is like I mentioned in the post – that I got 3 different charges on my landline phone bill for random wierd stuff… I did successfully get all 3 removed – but it was a hassle…
I’m curious to know how exactly does cashcrate send money to those who participate in the surveys? I keep reading about checks. What kind? Electronic checks? Paper checks? Paper checks sent to your home address or what? Do you need to have an online bank account or Pay Pal to use the money? Sorry for the amount of questions, but I am stuck at home in the house with no job or car and need to know how to get actual cash in my hands. The legal way of course. Thanks in advance.
Phil,
I get a paper check from them every month (even though I haven’t done a survey in months)… I tried to get direct deposit, but they don’t have that option…
why would you put your real info in there? Put fake info!!! It works with all the other sites, prizerebel, cashlagoon, rewards1, etc.
I have just signed up with cahscrate, and I wanted to know how far I need to go in completing the offers in order to be credited
I was wondering do you have to give them your real address to be able to get your check?
Since I have started using cashcrate.com, i have been getting phone calls from all over the world. Of course i just ignore them when i see a weird area code on the caller id but after awhile, it gets annoying.
I have stop using the site but the calls are still coming in. I would def not recommend this site to anyone.
cashcrate is okay but i really dont get it,i only have $2.00 and $17.75 on my pening,its been the same for about 2 days now…CAN ANYONE HEL ME???
I’ve been on CashCrate.Com for a few days now. And in my Pending Earnings I’ve gotten $201.50. It’s pretty neat.
CashCrate is an excellent way to earn extra money online. Once you figure out the referral program you could be making thousands of dollars each month!
Cheers
John
Nice review! I really enjoyed reading it, It actually made me think.
I tried cash crate for about two weeks and then all of a sudden I am getting phone calls from people all over the country. I finally quit answering any out of state calls. I filled out alot of offers and I didnt reach my available minimum. All I got from this website was alot of annoying phone calls from people trying to see me stuff. Def not a good idea
Excellent write up. I have to say that you did a great job with the screen shots and all that. Now I bet you get some referrals from this article considering you have hammered out all the details for the new users.
Keep up the great work.
Hi Bob,
I love how honest you are with your reviews, and your site. The time you took to come back and update this post with your experience is much appreciated. I would hate to go through this experience and you saved me the trouble. So thank you!
I have to admit, I’ve been reading your site for about two weeks now and keep coming back to search things I have already read, so I can read them again. I realized it was time I finally told you how amazingly useful your site is!
By the way, I am giving HubPages a try based on what you wrote in a separate post, and did use your referral link (signed up about a week ago), so you can use that as a test to verify that does indeed work.
Thanks again!
Sharon
thanks Sharon! Glad to hear it!