Pinecone Research is a market research panel in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The survey panel gives consumers in these countries an opportunity to influence which products make it to the store.
When you sign up with legitimate online surveys, the extra income you earn can go towards paying your bills, increasing your savings, paying down debt, or funding your vacation.
This Pinecone Research review will show you how to join and make money by taking short surveys and testing products.
Pinecone Research Canada Summary
Pinecone Research
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Rewards Value
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Ways To Earn
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Redemption Options
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Payout Threshold
Overall
Summary
Pinecone Research is a leading market research panel operating in Canada, the U.S., and many other countries. Members of this survey panel earn cash by completing surveys and product evaluations. Pinecone offers multiple ways to cash-out and its minimum payout threshold of $3 is one of the best in the industry.
Pros
- $3 per survey (10-20 minutes each)
- $6 product testing offers
- Low-minimum payout threshold
- Multiple rewards redemption options
- Prompt payments processing
- Management by a credible firm – Nielsen
Cons
- Invitation-only panel
- Limited number of surveys
- Will not replace your day job
How To Sign Up For Pinecone Research
Signing up for Pinecone Research is a straightforward process. Using the links above, complete their sign-up form, and you are good to go.
To be eligible for membership, you must:
- Be a resident of Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Germany.
- Sign up using an invite link (like the ones above). Note that Pinecone is an invitation-only survey panel.
- Be at least 13 years old.
During sign-up, you will be required to enter basic demographic information about yourself, which they later use to tailor the surveys they send to you. Once registered, you are all set to start earning rewards.
How To Make Money With Pinecone Research
There are three main ways to earn rewards with Pinecone Research: Paid Surveys, Product Testing, and Sweepstakes.
1. Surveys: After signing up, you will receive invitations via email to participate in online paid surveys. For each survey you complete, you earn at least $3. This is better than what most competing survey panels offer for surveys of similar length.
The surveys you will receive from Pinecone Research take between 10-20 minutes to complete.
Once in a while, you may receive very short surveys known as “Household Questions” which are not paid but increase your chances of qualifying for more surveys and product evaluations.
2. Product Testing: Pinecone Research may send you products to test at home. After testing the products, you will be asked to provide feedback. Usually, you get paid for your feedback as well as get to keep the products – WIN/WIN!
3. Sweepstakes: Pinecone holds biweekly and quarterly sweepstakes that allow members to earn cash. Bi-weekly draws are for $500, while the quarterly sweepstakes have a grand prize of $4,500.
How To Get Paid with Pinecone Research
Pinecone Research provides a variety of options for getting paid. Rewards are earned as points that then accumulate and can be redeemed as cash or gift cards.
The main options available for redeeming your rewards are:
PayPal: Cash out your funds and receive them in 3-5 business days. This is my favourite payment option as it allows you to gain access to your money fast.
Cheque: When you cash out using the cheque option, the processing time is 3-5 business days, plus the time it takes for the cheque to arrive in the mail.
Gift Cards: You can choose to redeem your points for various popular gift cards, including – Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, iTunes, and more.
Prepaid Virtual Visa: Rewards can also be taken as a prepaid Visa, which can be used to make purchases online.
Pinecone Research will automatically send you the first $3 you earn as a cheque to confirm your home address.
Is Pinecone Research Legit?
I have written extensively about how to detect scam survey sites (unfortunately, there are lots of fake/scam surveys!). Pinecone Research meets all the main criteria I look for when trying to identify a legit survey company, including:
- A prominent privacy policy
- Low-minimum payout ratio
- Offer realistic rewards
- Free to join
Sign-up and start earning passive income from the comfort of your couch with Pinecone Research Canada or Pinecone Research U.S.
Pros of Pinecone Research
I have tried several survey sites, and some of the features I very much like about Pinecone Research and which differentiate them from some of their competitors include:
High-paying surveys: Pinecone surveys pay some of the highest rewards in the industry. At $3 a pop, they pay about twice what their close competitors pay for surveys of similar length.
In addition, when you partake in product testing, you can earn up to $6 or more.
Quick payments and low-minimum payout: There are survey sites that want you to earn $50 before you can cash out. Not so with Pinecone! You can redeem your rewards starting at $3, which means you can enjoy your money immediately after every survey.
Payments are also pretty fast, at three (3) business days when redeeming via PayPal.
Great reviews and free to join: Their parent company, Nielsen, enjoys an A+ BBB rating! When you check their user reviews on forums, Pinecone ranks among the best surveys available.
Joining the panel is FREE and does not involve any upfront costs. All you need is your phone, tablet, computer, and internet connection. After opening an account, you can also download their app from the iTunes app store or on Google Play.
Easy to qualify for surveys: It is annoying to spend 10 minutes on a survey only to be told you are disqualified or have been “screened out.” Pinecone Research does a pre-qualification such that you only get invitations to take a survey if it matches your profile. This increases your chances of making money every time you get a survey invite.
Great customer service: The customer service support at Pinecone is very responsive and quickly responds to inquiries.
Cons of Pinecone Research
Invitation-only: To join Pinecone Research, you need to register using a link like this one because you cannot sign up directly by going to their website. The reason for this is that they do not recruit new members 24/7 like most other survey sites.
Pinecone Research’s rating on the BBB has tanked in recent years.
How To Earn More Money With Survey Sites
The basic strategy for earning a tangible income from online survey sites is to sign up for several and then trim them down to a few (5 or so) that work for you.
Some of the best paying survey sites I know include:
- Swagbucks ($5 Bonus): Most popular site for earning cash doing simple tasks, including completing surveys, browsing the web, playing games, shopping, and more. Join Swagbucks.
- Survey Junkie: One of the top-paying surveys available in Canada, the U.S., and Australia. Join Survey Junkie.
- PrizeRebel: Complete surveys, watch videos, and refer friends to earn cash. Join PrizeRebel.
- LifePoints Canada (10 points): They pay you to complete short surveys. Join LifePoints.
There are several other well-paying gigs you can try out to earn passive income and get free gift cards. Read more about them in the links below:
- 15 Paid Survey Sites For Canadians
- Best Paid Surveys To Make Money
- How To Start a Money-Making Blog
- 11 Work From Home Jobs That Pay
Wrapping Up
Pinecone Research is one of the few survey sites that may actually be worth your time.
Paid surveys are one way to earn passive income while at home doing nothing. With your phone, tablet, or computer, and an internet connection, you can make money online by simply providing your opinions on new products, services, programs, and more.
While surveys will not pay you enough to quit your day job, they can go a long way in improving your finances as a whole.
Hi There! I appreciate your blog and am a current member of Pinecone Research. I’ve been happily participating and getting paid for a year or more now. I have been done out of 40 dollars of my rewards and wonder if you know who I can contact to complain? The agent at Pinecone’s page was going to help, then changed their mind and something doesn’t seem right about our communication, or the redemption of my rewards, this last time. I’d rather stay subscribed, but am not keen on the attitude of the agent I dealt with. Any idea who I can talk to, please? Thanks again for your helpful post!
You were able to contact them? They’re refusing to pay me for 9 surveys and will not accept my messages on their ‘customer service’ forms or emails. They are common crooks like most other sites. Look around and see all of the people complaining about Pinecone ripping them off, over the past few months. Sorry they got you for so much…
I am in the midst to join but my postal code is not being accepted. I am from Ontario, Canada.
I am trying to join Pinecone Research but each time I fill out the application and hit “Join Now” it goes back to the blank invitation. What am I doing wrong??
Pinecone Research is no longer honest.Been a Pinecone Research member in perfect standing for over a decade. Now they won’t allow me to redeem points, worth $27. Message keeps telling me, I’m not a member. Then repeated attempts to contact them result in failures. They won’t even accept my messages on their contact page or by email. Seeing others speaking of similar issues. DON’T allow your points to add up! Cash out every single $3 that you earn. They WILL turn on you despite your years of sincere & thoughtful efforts on their surveys. I’ll never get the $ that I earned. Beware. They ARE robbing people.
I’m sorry to hear this. I found they turned on me, too. Seems that someone crooked is on the team and we members can’t get past the gatekeeper. I lost a 50 dollar gift card, and had a runaround when I tried to cash it in, through the Pinecone level. The Rep was snotty, too. When I wrote in about it, telling me I should pay more attention to the expiry date on our rewards. According to Amazon, there isn’t one on these certificates. I need to find my original reward numbers, and Amazon says they’ll help. The issuer of the prepaid card messed with me too. Good luck. It’s a real insult when you’ve been a panelist and earned your rewards.Can’t trust anyone and it’s a shame since Pinecone was a consistent panel, up until this.
Actually, if you read their membership agreement before signing up you will see that you have to be 18 or older to be a member, not thirteen.
Please update the information in your site on Pinecone Research. Pinecone Research changed its rewards items and methods quite a while ago. They no longer issue cheques or offer PayPal transfer. You are given points for completing each survey which can be redeemed for merchandise, gift cards, electronic pre-paid Visa cards or cash by bank transfer only.
I have been a Pinecone member for almost twenty years and found it to be one of the best survey companies. I always go for cash rewards which have the most value to me. (I can get merchandise much cheaper elsewhere and get reward points with those purchases.)
I was very disappointed when Pinecone stopped issuing cheques. I will give my bank account number to anyone so the only option now is either to get a gift card or electronic pre-paid Visa. There are no gift cards that are that useful to me so I redeemed for the electronic Visa card. What a hassle! Technical glitches with the third-party company that offers these. I ended up having to call them directly to get the situation sorted out and even their technical rep was frustrated. Eventually got resolved but the “card” is just a set of numbers with a PIN. Fine for online purchases but I rarely shop online (hate to pay extra shipping and I like to be able to see the quality of the product). Was told I could print an use it instore if the retailer enters all the numbers but the retailer systems had problems with that too.
I still recommend Pinecone Research but am giving deep consideration to how best to utilize the rewards. Have also expressed my disappointment and unhappiness with the loss of the cheque option directly to Pinecone.
Love your site. Find it very useful. Thank you for all your efforts in this. It is appreciated.
My apologies. That should have read …..”I will NOT give my bank account number to anyone….”
Where or how do you get the Pinecone Research sweepstakes? I have never seen this before and cannot find them on the site.