Review: National Consumer Panel – A Total Waste of Time
About ten years ago I applied to and was accepted into a program by National Consumer Panel lured by the prospect of earning great prizes in exchange for a little bit of my time each week.
Who doesn’t like great prizes?
I would use a scanner supplied by them to record my weekly purchases by scanning the UPC barcode of the things we purchased, and entering the prices. Our data would be transmitted back to NCP from it’s charging base which was connected to my broadband service. Participant’s shopping data, as well as results from panel surveys completed online would be used to give customer opinion and shopping trend feedback to retailers.
Here’s where the great prizes come in.
Each transmittal of data, and each completed survey would earn points. The accumulated points can be traded for products in their gift catalog. Although as a new member I didn’t have a feel for how fast I would accumulate points, there were some nice products in their gift catalog, and I was excited to get started.
After a few weeks, my wife and I fell into a routine of scanning the items each time we went grocery shopping. I would place the purchased items on the counter all around our kitchen. My wife would then read the items and their cost from the receipt as I entered each item into the scanner. I also spent about 20 minutes a week participating in online surveys.
For almost two years participating in the NCP program was part of our shopping routine.
Scanning all our groceries added about 10 minutes to the time it took to put groceries away, and even though life is very busy, it didn’t seem like much of a time hit. After all, we were going to earn some of those great prizes, right? Unfortunately, our points total grew very slowly, and over time that 10 minutes seemed more and more inconvenient. My wife began grumbling that we had to take the time to scan everything and my survey participation began to decrease as well.
We were losing interest in the program.
Last week, as we were scanning our groceries, my wife put down the pen, looked at me and asked, is this really worth it? I figured it was at least worth doing a little investigation to answer the question. I logged into NCP website, and looked at the gift catalog to see what we could get in exchange for our efforts over the last two years.
The best gift I could find for the points we had earned was a $50 iTunes gift card.
Estimating the time we had spent:
2 (years) x 52 (weeks per year) x 30 (minutes per week) = 3120 minutes or 52 hours spent on program activities.
That means we earned less than $1 an hour!!!!
I ordered the gift card, and immediately dug out the box and pre-paid return label to send the scanner back. We’re not participating anymore. What seemed like a great opportunity at the time, turned out to be a really big waste of time.
Have any of you participated in the NCP program, or anything similar? What was your experience?
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Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children, Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.
OUCH! Nope, I haven’t.
It reminds me of a lot of the online “surf for prizes” reward programs, where you watch ads and fill out surveys, etc. Not great, to say the least.
Your scanner looks totally different from mine! I’ve been a member of NCP for 6 years. I redeemed some of my points for an AeroGarden a few years ago, and I have enough now for a Wii. You get more points per week the longer you’re a member, so the points add up faster if you stick with it.
It’s not much of a return for the time I spend on it, but I don’t really mind doing it. I live alone and don’t shop much, so it doesn’t take me very much time. I can imagine that it would take a lot more time for someone shopping for a big family, but you only get points for one transmission per week no matter how many things you scan. Also, when you shop at big national chains, you have to enter prices for each item, but if you shop at local stores or smaller chains, you don’t — which drastically cuts down on the amount of time it takes to scan.
@Jenny – It reminds me a lot of Swagbucks – which I tried for awhile as well. I worked for months doing surveys and other activities to earn Swagbucks…..and earned $20 in Amazon gift certificates. While I did use them for an Xmas present it just wasn’t the time I put into it.
@Sara – Wow, sounds like you’ve earned a lot more points than I have. I did notice that the amount of points I’ve been getting per transmission have increased since I started, but at this point it’s just not enough for me to stay in the program. I’m glad it’s working for you, hope you enjoy your Wii!
Wanna know who benefits from Swagbucks? The person whose link you clicked to join. 🙂
@Jenny – True story, Jenny! Maybe that was my problem – I never got any referrals. You never think of Swagbucks as a MLM scheme.
Is there any online sites other then the ones you all have mentioned that are worth checking out. I try to look up routviews and scams on things I think might be Interesting But I Have not yet found any worth putting time into it to get decent returns . I am busy like most but during these tough winter snowy months at all my jobs I would like to try something out online. I’d even like to get into secret shoppers but having trouble finding a light company. Any suggestions at please let me know. Michelle
@michelle, here are some links to some secret shopping sites that I use. They are all free services (you don’t pay to use them):
https://www.gfkmysteryshops.com/GfK.smart.SASSIE/
http://www.beyondhello.com/
https://www.secretshopper.com/
http://www.bareinternational.com/
Hope this helps!
Try Opinionoutpost.com; you get points for taking surveys. Not a scam…you get 5-35 points for each survey you qualify for and take. I’ve cashed out my points for PayPal(and I have a PayPal prepaid MasterCard so I get $10 for every 100 points I redeem). I’ve been doing it since October and have made over $600. The surveys can be long, but this is the only “rewards for taking surveys” site that I have across that is legit.
@Ivory Shields – Thanks for the pointer, sounds like something I need to check out!
I was a member for about 28 months, but had a hardware issue (either the base wasn’t charging the scanner or the scanner wasn’t holding a charge) that prevented me from scanning. I called support and everything seemed good – they were going to send me a replacement set and I would return the defectives in the same box with a supplied shipping label. A few weeks go by and I receive an email and phone calls asking about why I haven’t sent my weekly scans, so I call support again and the next person I talk to said they will note on my account not to email or call for a short time because I am still awaiting replacement items to even be able to scan. Another few weeks and still no replacements, and suddenly I get an email saying I was being removed from the program for not submitting data. I call support and find out that the original support order got cancelled in their system somehow and now they cannot put a new one in because the system says I am no longer a member, lol. After a few phone calls trying to get it straightened out, I give up and just tell them to send me a box to return the defective equipment in and I will not rejoin the program. Over the span of 28 months, I had built up 90,000 points that I did get to redeem after the equipment was received from me – I opted for a Kindle WiFi which sells on Amazon for $79 when in stock. I am disappointed in their lack of support for a longer term member, but it doesn’t surprise me since the longer you are a member the higher the weekly scans net you in reward points.
@A – you racked up 90,000 points??? you must have been very diligent with your scanning as well as participating in their surveys to do that. One would think that common sense would have kicked in on their end and they would have figured out that they should have re-instated you….oh well, their loss, right? I hope you enjoy your Kindle!!!
I’m a new member of NCP (Just got my 3 month gift!) and it’s now easier than ever to scan. There’s an iPhone app!! I did get the scanner, but you need a landline to use it, so I promptly informed them of this. The asked me to send back the scanner and download the free app. Smooth sailing ever since.
It is a LITTLE tedious scanning all my purchases, but I’ve wasted worse time. (Like survey sites that claim to pay out, but never do. Even after answering HUNDREDS of surveys.) Besides, there are instant perks. They’re actually saving me 25% on my cell bill every month. That’s as good as money!
I’m happy participating with NCP. I hope to be with them for years to come.
@Jennifer – that’s interesting that being a member saves you 25% on your cell phone bill..I may have to check to see if that would be better than the discount I get from my employer, and if I’m eligible. I actually decided to stick with this a little longer – as the scanning DID get easier – I no longer have to enter the prices (unless it’s produce or fresh meat) – which saves a TON of time. Thanks for your thoughts!
I’ve been a member for about 8 months. We have a huge family..6 kids and us, so it is a big deal to stop and scan everything, but I do it, hoping we’ll win… My memory is terrific, so I just remember the cost of the item scanned, no writing or looking at receipts, and hubs doesn’t help, lol! also Many stores that don’t require you to put the amount of each item (Walmart and HyVee are a couple I use alot) I use the app on my android phone and on my husbands iPhone…. for being a super scanner, every 3 months I have the chance to win $20,000, and there are Multiple other categories to win under. I currently have 31,000 points and I bought a fishing game with some today (Christmas present) I don’t know if it’ll be worth it, but Someone has to win…right?
@Krysta -They must have changed things since I started – that’s cool that they have a phone app for scanning things. Walmart used to be one of those stores you had to put in the price….I was *relieved* when they became one that didn’t. Saves me a TON of time! Thanks for sharing….hope you win!!!
Well I just got an email today saying that I was accepted into NCP and would be getting my scanner soon, so I don’t know how it all works yet since I haven’t even started yet. But I do want to add something about Swagbucks. I have been a member of swagbucks for about a month and a half now, and so far I have received almost $500 worth of gift cards or PayPal cash. Sometimes I just get gift cards to the store I need and sometimes I get the PayPal cash. I don’t have no referals on there, so I actually have to make all the points myself. I have tried refering people, but no one signs up because everyone thinks it’s just another scam. I’m not very big on doing many surveys, so I usually only do about one a day on there, sometimes less than that. It is very good easy to get points on swagbucks without having to do any paid offers. Yea doing surveys helps, but I don’t have the time or patients for those, so I usually just do the other quick “sign up” offers, and doing just that I usually cash out a $25 gift card about every other day or two now. When I first started I was barely making a dollar a day, now I’m making $10 a day easy, without putting much time into it, just whenever I’m surfing around on the computer. I also just found out about a couple other sites that are similar and have started making $ on them as well. $40 cashed out on Perk and almost enough for $10 on gifthulk and instagc. Once you get the hang of doing those offers and know which ones to do and which ones to avoid, it gets pretty easy to get points.
I’m looking forward to receiving my NCP scanner and will give that a try. After reading some of these comments and this post, it kind of sounds like it might not be worth it, but I guess we will see. Thanks to everyone for all the input.
@Maria – you can cash in a $25 gift card every other day or two? Wow…I’m not sure how you’re doing it, I did Swagbucks for a year – doing all the “quick bucks” things and I only got 2 gift cards in a year. I guess it’s all about how dedicated you are! thanks for sharing!
@Brock – Well I’m a stay at home mom, so I guess I have a bit more time on my hands than working parents (even though taking care of 4 kids is a job in itself) so I usually spend a few hours on the computer and while I’m on there I run the different offers and stuff. I put in about 3 hours a day, so on an hourly basis, no it’s not much earning, compared to minimum wage work. But since I’m staying home anyway, and otherwise wouldn’t be making anything at all, it does help. As far as $25 every other day or two, yes that’s true, I cashed out $25 day before yesterday and then another $25 just about an hour ago. But before that it took me about 4 days because there was 2 days that I didn’t get on the computer at all. I run the apps on my phone every day, and that’s about $2 a day on its own, even if I don’t do anything else. All the apps require is just to turn them on and let them run until it says you reach the daily limit, then I turn on the next one. I found this one website that has a lot of very useful tips on how to make the most on swagbucks and a few other similar sites, because of that site I went from making 10 to 30 points a day to 800 to 1400 a day. If you google “swagbucks codes” I think it’s the first site that pops up… They also have a chat on there where there are people who can help you out and point you in the right direction on just about anything to do with swagbucks. No it’s not enough to replace a paying job, but it does help a lot if you stay home and would otherwise be making nothing, in fact I used my earning from there alone to buy Christmas for mine and hubbys 6 kids this year. If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have been able to get them barely anything. With Christmas just around the corner I haven’t had time to really try those other sites I mentioned in my previous comment, but from the looks of it, they work pretty much almost the same, so after Christmas when I have a bit more time, I’m hoping to be able to double or triple my earnings when I start visiting those sites as well. I am fairly new to all this since I just started doing this less than 2 months ago, but I would highly recommend that people who can’t work give this a try, it has given me a little extra spending cash without worrying about going into our bill money.
@Maria – Thanks for sharing….hey, as a stay home mom (which certainly IS a full time job!) finding a way to make some income at the same time is GREAT!
I’ve been a member a few years, and I’m waiting for the new gift catalog for 2015 (they extended the old one) I’m thinking about finding a prize and quitting soon after, most of my shopping trips even like 10 items take forever to scan like longer than it does for the cashier at walmart when I have to go to a regular lane because I have too much for the self checkout, the other day I went to the dollar general spent $95 had a receipt like a foot and a half long (granted I bought a lot of multiples of cheap things)and had to put it all in on my iPhone well all my stuff was put into my reuseable bags by how it fit, so nothing was in order on the list, it took me 20 mins and then when I got to the end I couldn’t submit so it was a complete waste! I am constantly getting emails that I scan consistently but don’t scan enough things. Also I have problems with a lot of stores- like Hot Topic (doesn’t use original barcodes and there’s are short like only 6 or 8 digits long) I go to Sally Beauty a lot and there barcodes on a lot of products do not exist and are only 6 digit numbers like nail files, or store exclusive products because they have to type in EVERYTHING by hand at that store so they only print in the 6 digits on there own stuff. I called support one day telling them my issue that my app won’t reconize 6 digit codes (like do I add zeros or something before them?) They told me to scan the only item that had a barcode and then at the end of the transaction say the total price- I had like 10 or 15 things that couldn’t scan and it took me from like a $20 bottle of acetone to a $50 or $60 purchase but sometimes I can’t even scan at Sally’s because all I buy are store numbered non barcoded products.
@Annie – Thanks for sharing…..although you’re having a very different (worse) experience than I. I know they’d like you to scan everything you buy (Gas, clothes, restaurants, etc) but I didn’t. I just scanned my weekly groceries. If I entered ALL of my purchases, it would be a complete waste of time. 😉
I used to get scolded for not scanning gas. Nobody in my household drives, I never did and the family car is in a state of disrepair so I walk everywhere or ride along with a friend/family member.
I’ve been with ncp for 6 months now. I love it! I use my phone, which works great! I have not only received many extra bonus points for being a super scanner but I received $20 for winning and I received a cloth shopping bag and a power bank charger! Both out of the blue! I am at 19,000 points and am waiting to purchase anything. Yes, it does take time to scan but is very fast with my phone and for me, in the end it’ll be worth it! So, I will definitely continue and I shop a lot so I absolutely love it!!!
I have been a member of ncp for 4 years I have 176,000 points almost enough to get a ipad over the years I have been asked if I would like to participate in special events from companies I received fifty dollars for a dog food diary and 40 dollars for another special survey I also do the RX diary which gives me an extra 600 points a month I love the program but people don’t understand that they are non-biased research program so of course they are not getting bad by companies to push their products
@Terasa – 19,000 points in 6 months? You must do the surveys too….I don’t take the time for those. I like the idea of using my phone to scan though….having the hand held unit is kind of a pain…just another thing that has to be plugged into my network.