How to Cash Out your Swagbucks Balance

We’ve been posting a lot of free money deals from Swagbucks recently, and hopefully you’ve racked up a balance. How do you cash that out?

The basic ways to redeem Swagbucks are:

Each method typically gets you one penny per Swag point. For most people, the Paypal option is best since that’s straight cash. However, as per the terms, this option is only available if you have a verified Paypal account. The Paypal email might also have to match the Swagbucks email. If Paypal isn’t an option, use instead the Visa gift card option or merchant gift card option.

There are three ways to cash out for gift cards at a rate better than one cent per point.

  • Once a month you can redeem 2200 points for any $25 gift card, including Visa gift card and Amazon gift card and many more. This deal resets with each calendar month, and gets you an extra 11% value from Swagbucks. Using this method, you can cash out $264 per year at the this bonus redemption value (2200 x 12).
  • Aside from the once-per-month value redemption, Swagbucks also regularly has some odd brands on a bit of a sale. Check out the dedicated On Sale tab to find out what the current offerings are. Typically, they are small discounts for smaller merchants, and probably not worth it. The most interesting one is the Visa prepaid options which is very often (always?) on sale. The discount is slight though – 1% usually – and most people would probably prefer a straight Paypal payment.
  • Swagbucks occasionally releases top discounted gift cards at great rates. This doesn’t happen often, perhaps a few times per year, but I’ve had success getting Kohl’s gift cards at 15% off or even eBay gift cards at a 20% discount. These redemptions can be worthwhile if you see them when you have a balance to redeem, but they might not be worth holding out for.

Whichever redemption option you choose, it can take up to a week or so until the payment/gift-card comes through. And make sure to follow their prompts and confirm each redemption with the link in the email they send out when you redeem. Also, there is a limit of two prize redemptions per day.

Side note: Not all Swagbucks offers work out 100% of the time. If it doesn’t track, you can usually get the points adjusted after 30-days by reaching out to support. There was one deal when Swagbucks clawed back points in a way that was flat-out against their clearly stated terms. Decide for yourself if these deals are worth it for you, depending on how you value your time and how frazzled you get when things don’t work.

Final note: since 2022, the feds now require businesses like Swagbucks or Paypal to issue a form 1099-K for payment processing of $600 or more. If you redeem $600+ in Swagbucks throughout the year, you’ll get a form 1099-K from either Paypal or Swagbucks, depending which payment form you choose. I believe that if you cashout less-than-$600 with Swagbucks themselves via gift cards and another less-than-$600 via Paypal, you won’t get any tax form. But remember, the Paypal part combines with all other Paypal payments you’ve received throughout the year.

If you are signing up for a new Swagbucks account, I’d appreciate if you use my Swagbucks referral link. You’ll also get a $3 bonus at the end of the month if you earn 300 SB.
    Chuck
  • On July 3, 2022, 00:54
Tags: swagbucks

View Comments (108)

  • So just hypothetically here but if you needed to cash out but really wanted to avoid triggering the IDV thing, would you have a better chance with a amazon gift card vs paypal? This would be for the first ever cashout.

  • How is the SB taxed? Is it taxed differently between redeeming for gift card or redeem through paypal etc?

  • I recently saw that they added a term "No Prepaid Cards allowed" in some of the trial offers. Quite interesting. I guess they caught up .

    • You can use a virtual number CC where it expires the next day (or you manually deactivate).

  • Has anyone been able to change the phone number associated with SB or MP?
    They once asked me to verify something and I added a phone number thinking it was a one time deal. That number shows up nowhere in profile or settings.
    Now once in a while they again ask me to verify the code sent to that same old number. I want to change that number but cant seem to find where. Created a support ticket simply saying change my number from this to that, and they want me to do some sort of id verification. What non sense?

    Their customer service is garbage, they dont even read the ticket and just respond with some garbage

  • Can someone please help me with this? First time trying to redeem SB? The $25 Master card is now 2075 SB which is about 17% discount over the $25 paypal. Can someone please advise if there are any easy ways to cash that master card?
    I dont have any utility bills to pay.
    Last time I got some "Tremendous" master card from somewhere, I couldn't add it to CashApp to load money from it. Ended up paying my neighbor's internet bill with that : )
    Can the master card from SB be added to CashApp or anything similar, that will let me transfer money out form them?

    If the money can't be transferred out from them, then is is there any other use than paying bills/shopping online? Last time I asked the neighborhood pizza guy will he just punch in the numbers for the CC, he was looking at me funny.

    • You may not want to take my word as definitive, as I haven't personally tried it, but I believe it could be possible to load the electronic MasterCard onto Google Wallet on your phone and use it for purchases at grocery stores that accept Google Pay.

      • @guest_1500575 You are right, I think it was just showing me some one off 100DB discount, not sure where it came from, looks like it applied on the PP redemption as well and is now gone

  • For any sports bettors out there... I was able to use the MGC I redeemed to deposit to FanDuel.

    Easy enough to play it through once and withdraw.

  • I've been redeeming a $25 Visa (2175 SB) each month and using it to pay part of my internet bill (Spectrum) without issue.

    Now I'm trying to use a newly issued $25 MGC to do the same and payment isn't working. Used a different MGC (non-SB, physical card bought in Meijer) to pay ~$6 and drain that card's balance, worked just fine.

    Some comments below suggest these MGCs from MyPrepaidCenter have such issues. I'll try it on the utility bill when that arrives.

    • I used to pay my car payment with the VISA, but the Mastercards don't work. I load my Amazon balance with them instead.

      • Spectrum payment page just said that payment did not go through. No idea what the issue was. Used the $25 MGC to pay part of utility bill and had no issue there.

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