Is Product Report Card a scam? Can you earn some money using this site or it’s just a waste of effort and time? These are just some of the questions I’m going to cover in this 2022 updated detailed review!
Product Report Card used to be a good site, but today it is not a scam but woah! So many negative reviews out there! In this review, you will learn about 8 red flags that Product Report Card doesn’t want you to know!
With that said, let’s get into business, shall we? 🙂
Product Report Card Summary Review
Name: Product Report Card
Website: productreportcard.com
Founder: Zac McGrath
Price: Free
Recommended?: No
Summary: Product Report Card is NOT necessarily a scam. It’s a website that will pay you, but TONS of members complain about the payments which either take a long time to arrive or they don’t get paid at all.
In this review, I will share with you 8 big red flags & also alternatives to Product Report Card.
If you prefer a video, you can watch our Product Report Card video review below.
What is Product Report Card?
Product Report Card is a market research company that allows you to earn extra cash from home by taking online surveys and doing some easy to do tasks.
Product Report Card is a partner of many renowned companies like:
- Gillette
- Ikea
- Microsoft
These big companies associated with Product Report Card are desperate for their customer’s opinions and reviews. So basically companies like Gillette , for instance, want you to test out some of their shaving products.
Gillette wants to test out their products because they want to know whether it’s worth it to invest in creating these shaving products or not.
Basically, these companies want to create products that their customer will buy and to avoid any costly investment mistakes they need their customer’s opinions.
These companies rely on market research companies like Product Report Card to find customers to test and review their products.
So in a few words, Product Report Card is a middle man between companies and their customers.
They get paid to find customers for companies and you earn some extra money from home by giving out your opinion & answering surveys or testing out products from home and reviewing them.
Product Report Card is similar to some websites I reviewed on my blog like:
Product Report Card was founded in 2001 by Softlayer technologies and they are based in Dallas, Texas.
So is Product Report Card worth it? Should you sign up?
Not before reading how it actually works, the complaints and the biggest problems & concerns that come with it!
How Does Product Report Card Work?
Product Report Card used to be only available for two countries which is Canada and the United States of America. It is however available now in 17 countries world wide in 2022!
However just because you can sign up does not mean you can earn big bucks instantly. The money you earn still depends on the surveys that is available to you due to your profile and country.
To sign up you need to be at least 18 years old. Product Report Card is 100% free, there are absolutely no membership fees unlike a similar website I reviewed called Shop Smarter.
The Sign-up Process
The sign up process at Product Report Card used to be VERY long and boring.
You had to go through 5 steps to sign up!
I really hate long sign up forms, personally I avoid any website that has a long sign up form 🙂
Here’s how the sign up form looks like today:
You think you would only need to give them your email address right? However once you give out your email and password you will be asked to add some info about you which includes
- Your name
- Email address
- Ethnicity
- Birthday
- Your origin
- Your country
- Street address & even the zip code!
- Financial Information
- Household Information
- Educational Information
4 Ways To Earn With Product Report Card
There are actually 4 different ways to earn some dollars which are the following:
- Complete Surveys
- Do Product Reviews
- Test & review products
- Participate in focus groups
Below I will give you more details on how you can earn with Product Report Card.
1- Complete Surveys
After you sign up and fill out all your profiles like I did, you will be able to receive survey invitation right to your email inbox. Your first survey should arrive within 24 hours.
You will earn around $0.20 to $4.00 for each survey you take, obviously the more surveys you take the more you will earn.
But there is a problem.
Not every survey you take will make you money, some of the many downsides of the Product Report Card surveys is the disqualification rate. Many members report that they get screened out during the surveys which is VERY frustrating and time wasting.
Some surveys are long, boring and low paying while there are some exclusive surveys that pay up to $10.00.
There are even some surveys that require you to purchase stuff but what you earn back is more than what you pay, but personally, I’d NEVER give out any of my credit card details to any survey.
You never know I have been taking surveys for years and I have seen it all when it comes to surveys.
I even review tons of survey programs and one common complain about some survey companies is when they ask for your credit card info they may charge you as MUCH money as they want without you even noticing it.
I’m not saying by any means that this is the case with Product Report Card surveys but you NEVER know. Information leaks are real and can be done by many experienced hackers.
Update 2022: Terms of Use and Disqualification Criteria
Product Report Card’s Terms of Use indicates the criteria for disqualification which I will list down below:
- You can be disqualified if you are too quick in answering the survey compared to others.
- If you have conflicting answers between multiple survey questions.
- The company deems your answer insufficient and does not make sense.
They also stated in their Terms of Use that they are not liable if the participant is not compensated and that it is the participating company’s responsibility to reward the participants.
These provisions in their Terms of Use seems to be abusable and I think that is why there are many complaints about the payment and rewards process.
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2- Review Products You Own
The second way to earn with Product Report Card is to review products you own. To be able to do this though you should have completed all the profile requirements so that Product Report Card will qualify you to review products & get paid for it.
You will earn around $0.50 to $1.00 for each product you review, luckily your product reviews don’t have to be long. Your reviews should be at least 500 words which is nothing!
When writing product reviews make sure they are honest by explaining what you like and what you dislike about the product you’re reviewing. Any biased reviews will be declined and NOT paid.
Companies pay you to test your products because they want to improve their products, so if you want to make sure your reviews are paid you want to focus on pointing out what you don’t like and maybe give tips and suggestions.
Note that sometimes you have to purchase the products to review but I don’t recommend you to do that because some product reviews gig don’t even pay the price of the product you have bought!
3- Test Products from Home & Get Paid
Above I talked about how you can get paid to review your OWN products, with Product Report Card you can also get paid to test products from home. The only difference here is these products are going to be shipped out to you to test and review.
You can even get keep the products you get for free.
Here you don’t have to write 500 word reviews but after you test the product that has been sent to you and you’re ready to review it all you have to do is answer some questions.
These questions are pretty basic & easy, they are actually more like the quizzes style where you have a question and 4 answer choices and you have to pick one answer.
Make sure you’re honest with your answer to make sure you get paid and to keep the product you’ve tested for free.
4- Participate in Focus Groups
Focus groups are where the big bucks lay.
You can earn around $150 to up to $350 per focus group study.
However, you need to know that focus group studies do take a lot of time to complete from 5 hours to 3 days that’s why the pay is good. But unfortunately, they are pretty rare to find and whether you find them or not depends in your demographic.
Other Ways to Earn
This is an update, I have just discovered that you can earn money doing in-depth phone interviews and online bulletin boards.
But in order to be able to do that you need to provide your phone number and verify it.
How Much Can You Earn With Product Report Card?
Your earning potential is minimal with Product Report Card.
Although there are different ways to earn with these site, however the earning potential is VERY low.
You won’t find a lot of surveys that are worth the effort or products that are worth reviewing for the money. The focus groups who pay the most are VERY rare to find and you may never find them depending on where you live.
How Does Product Report Card Pay You?
I have read a lot of reviews online that say you can get paid via Paypal or through pre-paid debit cards.
But in my account, there is no Paypal option or pre-paid debit cards.
I’m assuming that the current reviews published online are old or something but I don’t know if you have the option to get paid via Paypal do let us know in the comments section! 🙂
Here are the payment methods available so far.
As you can see the payment methods available for me are 3:
- Check
- ACH Direct Deposit
- Amazon (I’m assuming Amazon gift cards)
The minimum cashout limit is $25, in order to cash out you need to have at least $25 or more in your account.
A Quick Note!
Note that it takes 30 days for your rewards to be processed.
Some rewards may take less than 30 days it depends on the reward.
For example, the focus group rewards to take 30 days in order to be processed because according to Product Report Card they are complex to proccess.
8 Reasons to Avoid Product Report Card!
While there are different ways to earn with Product Report Card and it’s not a scam, there are many complaints about it and negative reviews popping up lately online.
While there some positive reviews online the negative ones overweight the positive reviews online.
Based on my personal opinion and what the members are saying below I give you 8 definitive reasons to avoid Product Report Card!
1- It’s VERY Slow to Earn!
As noted above it’s VERY slow to earn money with Product Report Card, there are many members that don’t even receive survey invitations or products to review.
It’s worth mentioning that how many surveys, products to review and focus group invitations you receive depend on your demographics.
If you’re from Spain for example don’t expect to receive as many survey invitations as someone living in the US or Canada.
This is definitely not Product Report Card’s problem it’s just the problem of the industry. Advertisers prefer to invest in some specific countries because that’s where they will make the biggest profits.
Source: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.productreportcard.com?
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2- It Takes A Long Time To Get Paid
While it takes 30 days for your rewards to be processed according to some members it takes a long time too to get paid!
In fact, I have read a complaint from a member that took him 6 months to get paid!
As you can see this member has finally reached the $25 threshhold when he requested a payment it took him 14 days just for the payment to be processed and 6 months to have their payment!
That’s a lot of time to wait for a $25 payment!
3- You Might NOT Get Paid!!
Well while some members took them up to 6 months to get paid.
There are some members that DID NOT get paid at all!
Look at the screenshot below:
Source: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.productreportcard.com?
Imagine spending all your time answering boring surveys and at the end of the day, you don’t even get paid for your efforts. Isn’t that so frustrating? Of course, it is!
Below you can read some complaints of members that DID not receive their payments from Product Report Card!
4- Over 60 Product Report Card Complaints on BBB!
Just a few months ago Product Report Card used to have a B+ rating on BBB.
I don’t know what happened to the company because now their BBB rating went down to B. The reason why the rating has decreased is because of the complaints Product Report Card has been receiving lately.
Now there are over 60 complaints on BBB.
I took screenshots of some of them for you below.
5- Your Account Might Get Closed!
On the Product Report Card terms of use page, they clearly say that your account might get terminated without any prior notice. Here’s a screenshot of exactly where they say that. Feel free to click the link above to read it on their site.
This sounds like a big red flag, personally, I would NEVER work with a site that has such a policy.
What if I work for months on this and then all of a sudden Product Report Card terminates my account without any notice?
I’m sure this is a rare occurrence but there is a member online that has had his account terminated exactly like how it’s written in their terms of use page. Below you can see a member complaining about getting his account closed without any warnings!
6- Some Focus Group Studies Ask For Too Much Info
The focus group studies while they pay pretty well, they ask for way too much private information.
For example, you may come across focus group studies that require to do stuff like:
- Installing apps on your phone & your computer
- Install browser extentions
Product Report Card may connect you with some companies that are not well known so I’d not risk installing some risky browser extensions that may track everything I do online.
7- Their Affiliate Program Sign Up Forum Is Too Long
Most reward sites allow you to sign up for their referral programs to earn more money promoting their site. Referral program is a VERY good way to increase your earnings.
Product Report Card has an affiliate program but it’s sign up page is literally the longest I have ever seen. They even ask for your tax number and website details.
Honestly, I’d have signed up for their affiliate program and pasted my affiliate link here but no way I am filling up that long form! 🙂
8- Product Report Card has No Mobile App?
Looks like Product Report Card has no mobile app for smartphones. I have looked everywhere and I could not find any app.
That’s a bummer because nowadays everyone has a smartphone and 98% of the survey websites offer mobile apps for their members.
Update 2022: Ratings and Reviews
Listed below is the link to recent ratings and reviews of Product Report Card:
- BBB – 1.82 out of 5 based on 17 customer reviews, C rating, Not Accredited.
- SiteJabber – 2.39 out of 5 based on 34 reviews
- Trustpilot – 4.4 out of 5 based on 4,903 reviews
Their rating on Trustpilot seems to be pretty good right? However it is polarizing to see the difference of rating between the two other sites. It is up to you to decide whether or not Product Report Card is worth it.
Product Report Card Pros & Cons
Pros
- Good customer service (they are pretty reliable)
- Free to join the website.
- Different ways to earn.
- Easy to use website
Cons
- Low earning potential.
- Product Report Card asks for too much info.
- No mobile app for smartphone users.
- No Paypal payments (the fastest way to get paid online)
- complex affiliate program sign up process
- So many members complaints online
Is Product Report Card A Scam?
Product Report Card is NOT a scam but I don’t recommend it for the 8 reasons I have shared with you in this review.
I’ll wrap up the 8 reasons why I don’t recommend Product Report Card below:
- Low income potential.
- The payments & rewards take a long time to be processed.
- Some members didn’t even receive payments.
- 61 complaints on BBB (Better Business Bireau)
- They may close your account for no reason.
- They ask for too much private info.
- No referral program.
- No smartphone app.
Is Product Report Card For You?
Product Report Card is for you if:
- If you have time to waste in answering surveys.
- If you have lots of products to review.
- You’re comfortable sharing your personal info with third-party sites.
If you’re looking for some good Product Report Card alternatives have a look below!
Product Report Card Best Alternatives!
- SWAGBUCKS ($5 sign up bonus)
- INBOXDOLLARS ($5 Sign up Bonus)
- YOUGOV (Earn up to $30 per Survey!)
I hope my honest Product Report Card review was useful, don’t forget to add your comments below if you have anything to say and share this review with people that might find it useful! 😀
I filled out a survey for migraine meds I take and some I previously tried. For that I was getting $5 Amazon. That would have been fine, I got through the survey, but it then said there was an issue and fill inmy password. I did not! I will not so you can see I will not get anything for maybe a 7 minute survey through them. Bad company, just junk and will never do it again. Thanks for what you said I agree it’s not worth the hassle they put you through.
So. I hear what you’re saying but hear me out.. I know the payments are low and slow.. but I don’t bother with the ones that are just surveys.. I pretty much only use my account for the product testing. And for that, it’s pretty awesome. I haven’t tried to cash out or get paid yet but I’m not too worried about that.. I have received TWO literally amazing and expensive products to test from them and I only signed up like MAYBE a couple months ago, if that. Not only do I get to keep these products (both worth $75+) but I get $5 for it.. even if it takes a long time to be paid, those products are more than worth it, to me. I will continue to use and recommend them. Just my thoughts..
Hi Nicole, thanks a lot for sharing your experience with product report card!
People are always looking for ways to make money online and that can cause a lot of people, out of desperation to join programs to turn out to be a scam. Thanks for clearing up the doubts that people might have, i am happy to know that it is not a scam However, you are right, the income potential is really low. Thanks so much for sharing.
Yes, the income potential with Product Report Card is definitely low!