What's up, guys? Welcome to my review of Future Talkers. The survey site is part of one of the bigger research companies out there: InSites Consulting. The mother company has been operating since 1997, and they claim to work with some of the biggest global brands.
That’s good to hear, but how does the actual experience of Future Talkers compare? Are you curious whether Future Talkers is legit? Read my Future Talkers review to find out!
Future Talkers: First Impressions
There are so many sites on the internet now, and hardly any of them try to distinguish themselves. Most of them include the word “survey” in their names and have websites that look pretty uninspired. I’m glad Future Talkers isn’t one of those sites. Future Talkers at least tries to differentiate itself from the competition.
The website of Future Talker looks pretty slick. It goes out of its way to look hip, stylish, and aspirational. They have a bunch of cool photos showing cool people doing cool things. The photos are most likely stock images, but hey, at least they don’t use pictures of people wearing suits and pointing at a laptop screen.
I also liked the name: Future Talkers. That’s basically what they call their members. By taking surveys, these so-called Future Talkers are able to affect the future business decisions of companies.
Okay, the site looks good. But what about the content? The content is there, but kind of lacking. It tells you how the site works and how you get paid. But the info is pretty basic. But then, that’s because beyond the slick design, the site itself is pretty basic.
So, first impressions are a bit lukewarm. The site is nice to look at, but not much beyond that. Now let’s move on to the meat of the matter, shall we?
How to Earn on Future Talkers
On Future Talkers, you get a cash reward for each survey you complete.
When a survey becomes available, you will receive a notification about its availability. Then you can log-in to the site and take the survey. The amount of money you make will depend on how long and complex the surveys are.
You will know outright how much these surveys pay. Joining is entirely up to you, but I suggest you take all the surveys you can.
I mentioned “surveys” but these can come in a variety of forms:
- Online surveys
- Online real-time discussion groups with a small group of people
- Online research communities with around 50 to 150 people discussing a shared topic over a longer period of time
- Individual blogging talking to a moderator one-on-one on a daily basis
- Online real-time interviews
And don’t try to game the system by pretending to belong to a demographic you think will get more surveys. Most current surveys sites use these fancy algorithms that spot inconsistencies between your answers. If you say in one question you don’t like a certain type of good, then suddenly claim you do in a later question, the site may flag your answers and disqualify you from that survey. That would be a major waste of time, so don’t go trying to catfish this site. Just be yourself, and take whatever survey gets assigned to you.
Earning Potential on Future Talkers
On Future Talkers, don’t expect to be doing a lot of talking (i.e. taking surveys). Even if you qualify for a lot of surveys, you’re looking at taking one survey a week at maximum, and one survey a month at minimum. That is very lackluster, in my opinion.
Plus, even if you do get to take a survey, there’s always that chance that you’ll get disqualified in the middle of taking it. You don’t have to take that personally - or, wait, should you? You get disqualified because the site suddenly decides that you’re not the correct demographic for the survey (either that, or they already reached their quota of survey takers, thank you very much). When this happens, you’re screwed. Go back to square one and hope you get another survey notification (and don’t get booted out of that one).
“Super Talkers” can get surveys once a day, but there’s no real info on how to become one. Numerous commenters on various forums also complain about not having enough surveys to make this site worthwhile. Basically, expect do to a whole lot of waiting on this site, and not a whole lot of anything else.
Payout Options
The site pays in cash, which is sent via PayPal. That’s fine by me, because cash will always be king, baby. But I also appreciate when a site has decent rewards programs. Because while I don’t usually redeem my earnings as Amazon gift cards or whatever, it tells me that the owners of the site are keen on improving the experience of their users. (Plus, other people like gift cards)
On Future Talkers, you get PayPal and nothing else. For what it’s worth, they do claim to be working on other rewards methods. But for now, PayPal’s all you get.
You will have to use the same email on Future Talkers as you do on PayPal. Yeah, I don’t like that. Here’s why: I don’t like using my PayPal address for anything but PayPal and some personal stuff. When I give that address to a survey site, there’s a chance my inbox will get flooded with survey notifications. Although to be honest, that’s more of a general rule for me. On Future Talkers, there’s no risk of getting my inbox flooded because, well, I don’t get a whole lot of notifications in the first place! But still, I like to keep both things separate.
The minimum payout varies from country to country - you’ll have to check their site for the complete list. But below are some common rates:
Philippines - $9.38
United Kingdom - £6.00
United States - $9.38
Canada - CAD $9.38
Australia - AUD $12.75
So the minimum withdrawal rates are on the high side, but it gets suckier: there’s a maximum amount. They are:
Philippines - $12.50
United Kingdom - £8.00
United States - $12.50
Canada - CAD $12.50
Australia - AUD $17.00
How does a maximum withdrawal amount work? Let’s say you’re from the United States. Let’s say you’ve got $13.50 in your account. You can only withdraw $12.50. That $1 will basically be stuck in your account until you can accumulate enough to make another withdrawal. This is such as sucky rule because it holds you earnings hostage.
Oh, and in case that wasn’t bad enough, you have to pay a 2% processing fee! Businesses usually pay 4.4% per transaction, so they’re making you shoulder a little less than half that amount. Most sites I use absorb the PayPal fees in their operations budget.
But wait, it gets worse! Future Talkers claims that if there’s an error between their site and PayPal, you’ll have to 2 to 4 days for the connection to reset. So not only do you have to deal with not getting surveys, the minimum withdrawal, the maximum withdrawal, you also have to deal with potential delays. That’s a load of crap!
How to Start
If you’d still like to give this site a try. You can register by following the link below, which takes you to the registration page:
Registration: https://www.futuretalkers.com/register
In addition to the registration form, you will have to answer profile questionnaires which ask for additional info. These questionnaires were designs to determine which demographic you belong to, and whether you’re suitable to take a particular survey. Like I mentioned earlier, make sure you provide your information completely and accurately.
Once you’re done, you will receive notifications about available surveys via email. I recommend adding [email protected] to your address book so it doesn’t get moved to the spam folder by mistake. Since you’ll be getting so few surveys to take, you won’t want to miss what little you get.
Also, before you go on, know that membership is free (a good sign, at least), and is open to residents of the following countries:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium (Dutch)
- Belgium (French)
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Guatemala
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Italy
- Luxemburg
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Romania Euro
- Russian Federation
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- South Africa
- Spain Euro
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Switzerland
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- Turkey Euro
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- United States
- USA
- Venezuela
Future Talkers is legit in the sense that they’re an actual company that will pay you actual money (eventually). But that said, but I’m not too excited about this site. Surveys become available too rarely, there’s a stupid maximum withdrawal amount, and you have to a PayPal processing fee. I can’t recommend this site.
Future Talkers Screenshots
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Your Turn
Now it’s your turn to share! Have you tried Future Talkers? What was your experience like? Was it better than what people are talking about?
Let’s hear your stories!
