is ncp influencers legit reddit?

But is National Consumer Panel legit or a scam to stay away from?

Well, let me reveal right away that there are both very satisfied and very unsatisfied members of this panel.

I can tell right away that it is legit but whether you will be one of the happy or unhappy members depends a lot on your expectations.

So in this National Consumer Panel review, I will go over all the details so you will know exactly what to expect and can easily see if it will be worth it for you or not.

National Consumer Panel is a joint venture between Nielsen and IRi – these are two of the leading market research companies in the USA.

So there are some legit and reputable companies behind and it has been around for around 30 years so it is a legit panel.

So you do not have to worry about that part. But this does, however, not mean it will be a good panel for you to join as it is very different from most survey sites where you can get paid to give feedback and share your opinions.

So let's go over what opportunities you have as a member of National Consumer Panel.

The main thing National Consumer Panel does is to collect data about shopping habits. This is quite similar to what NielsenIQ Homescan Panel does if you know that panel.

This data is used to help manufacturers improve their products and services. So to get as much data as possible, you will as a member be given a scanner you can use to scan all purchases when you go shopping.

It can be a handheld scanner or you can use their mobile app.

From feedback, I have seen from members, there can sometimes be technical problems with the scanner.

And also, you are responsible for the equipment so if you at some point do not want to be a member anymore, you have to make sure to return the scanner.

The app, therefore, seems like the obvious choice to me. You can start using it sooner and you do not have responsibility for any equipment and do not have to carry a scanner around when you go shopping.

But anyway – once you have found the scanner method you want to use, you will use the scanner to scan the barcodes on all the products you buy during a shopping trip.

You also need to provide information about products that do not have barcodes like, for example, fruits, vegetables, baked goods, and more.

In addition to this, you need to give information about which shop you went to if you have shopped online, and some more general information.

All this data will once per week be sent to the National Consumer Panel and be used for market research.

The data is valuable info for manufacturers and retailers and they will use it to improve and therefore they are willing to pay for it.

So this is the reason you can get rewards for participating and doing this.

This is the main way to use National Consumer Panel and you have to use this option as a member. If you do not scan for a little while, they will start contacting you to ask if you still want to be a member.

So you cannot be inactive too long to stay a member from what I have been able to find out.

Below you can see a short video where National Consumer Panel itself describes how it works:

As a member of National Consumer Panel, you are also encouraged to take part in surveys.

This is a way for the panel to get more data and ask follow-up questions about your shopping habits and a way for you to give feedback.

You will also earn rewards by participating in these.

I have not been able to find any information about how many points you get for the surveys. But it usually depends on the length of the survey.

But in general, you should not expect to earn big money by taking the surveys on National Consumer Panel but mostly take them if you would like to have your opinion heard.

There will, at times, also be special studies you might be invited to participate in that can earn you extra rewards.

A great thing National Consumer Panel offers is sweepstakes with high rewards. When you participate regularly on the platform, you will get entries into these sweepstakes. They are held weekly, monthly, qúarterly, and yearly.

They actually have some really great prizes in these sweepstakes.

The biggest reward is in the quarterly sweepstakes where one winner gets $20,000. That is a really big reward so if you are lucky it can be very lucrative to be a member.

The other rewards range from $25-$500 and also include products you can win.

So overall, some really great sweepstakes options. But, of course, you have to be lucky to get any of these.

As a panel member of National Consumer Panel, you sometimes get access to special discounts from the panel's partners.

They, for example, offer discounts for AT&T Wireless Plans and Accessories.

It is not worth joining the panel just for this, but as an extra bonus, it can give some good savings at times.

Click to Check Out the Best Get-Paid-To Sites

So now you know what it takes to be a member of National Consumer Panel and how you can earn there.

But how do you then get paid for your efforts?

Well, it is honestly a bit complicated.

For every week you participate, you will earn points. Exactly how many points you get for scanning is a bit unclear. Some people report that it is around 20-50 points per item you scan. Others say it is 150 points per week when you first start.

The reason for this unclarity might be that the points depend on how long you have been a member. Because National Consumer Panel clearly states that the longer you are a member the higher rewards you get.

As for the surveys and special studies you will earn additional points depending on the length. And you will also get a bonus on your birthday as well as when you have been a member for 3, 6, and 12 months and every yearly anniversary after that.

You can then use these points to choose gifts from the National Consumer Panel gift catalog that has a lot of great gifts.

It is, however, important to notice that you cannot get paid in cash.

With the number of rewards, you can choose from it is almost as good as cash, but if you only want to participate on platforms that pay in cash, then you should instead check out the best PayPal survey sites.

The rewards start at around 8,000 points so you have to collect this before you can get a reward from their gift catalog. You can, of course, also collect more and save for bigger rewards.

It is difficult to say exactly how much you can earn by being a member of National Consumer Panel.

The longer you are a member, the better opportunities and rewards you get.

But no matter what, it will not make you big money.

It can be fun to participate in and a great way to give feedback but it can also take quite a bit of time and effort to scan all your purchases. So you need to be aware that it will not give you a great hourly rate for your efforts.

But as a way to earn a bit extra, it can be a different way to do it, and if you are lucky, you can win some really great prizes in the sweepstakes.

But overall, it will take some patience to earn and get paid from NCP.

A tricky thing about National Consumer Panel is that it does not just allow anyone to become a member. First of all, it is only a panel for the US.

If you do not live here but are interested in a similar option, then you can instead check out Nielsen Homescan as it is similar in some ways but available in more countries.

Even if you live in the USA, you are not guaranteed to be able to become a member. You have to apply and be accepted.

Whether you will be accepted or not depends on your demographic group (meaning where you live, how many you are in your household, etc.). Sometimes they are looking for specific groups but have too many of others.

If you do not get accepted, you get on a waitlist.

But if you are interested then why not give it a try? They are often looking for new members so it might very well be that you are in a group they are looking for.

If you should need support from National Consumer Panel, then you have several options. You can write them an email, send them a message on Facebook, or you can call them.

On their website, they have a phone number you can call which is a nice and fast way to get help if you need it.

I have heard different opinions about their support. Some people complain on their Facebook page that there are technical problems or similar and that the support is not very responsive. Others mention that the support is really helpful.

What I can see is, however, that when someone posts on their Facebook page, they are very fast at getting back to them.

They get back to people whether they leave a positive or negative review.

This is a very good sign and shows they are aware and they care about what the members say.

It does, of course, not mean that it will be the best site for you to join as it depends a lot on what you expect. But no matter what, it is good to know that their support does pay some attention if you join and need help.

National Consumer Panel is definitely a legit panel and a bit different from many other panels where you can get paid to give feedback.

But whether it is worth joining for you depends a lot on your expectations.

So let's finish this review by summing up the pros and cons so you can get a better overview before deciding if it is for you or not.

Pros:

Cons:

Overall, I think National Consumer Panel can be a different way to give feedback and get some rewards at the same time.

You just have to do it for fun and to earn a bit extra as it will not make you huge money unless you win the quarterly sweepstake.

If you decide to join, I would clearly recommend opting for the mobile app option once you are a member as this is a lot more practical and will, in my opinion, save you a lot of time compared to having to use the scanner.

Just be aware that they do not always accept new members, but if you think it sounds like an interesting panel, then why not give it a try?

If you instead want to join sites where you can earn some extra money more effectively by doing small online tasks, you can check out the best survey and Get-Paid-To sites here.

Your data is valuable.

So valuable, in fact, that market researchers are willing to pay through the nose for it. And if someone’s willing to pay for it, that means we can sell it.

Indeed, that’s exactly the business model that most rewards apps follow.

These kinds of apps allow consumers to earn cash back and rewards by sending across valuable data regarding their spending habits to researchers. This gives us a great opportunity for us to get free money for next to no effort.

We’ve talked a lot about the best rewards apps already on Frugal For Less, but one we haven’t yet covered is the National Consumer Panel (NCP) mobile app. That all changes today.

In this NCP Mobile app review, we’ll be covering:

And much more besides.

Ready? Let’s jump right into it.

NCP mobile app is essentially a barcode scanning reward app for US shoppers. It’s similar to receipt scanning apps like Ibotta except that, instead of scanning your receipts, you have to scan the barcode of each individual item to earn rewards.

The app is owned and run by NCP (National Consumer Panel), which is a partnership between two of the biggest US market research companies: Nielsen and IRI.

NCP has been collecting consumer behavior data for retail companies and manufacturers since way back in 1923. In the past, they did this by sending out scanners to their panel in the mail and getting them to manually scan each barcode.

Thankfully, these days, most of us have smartphones, which means this is no longer necessary. Now, panelists can scan these barcodes and do everything else they need to do from the NCP mobile app.

The NCP mobile app uses your phone’s camera as a barcode scanner so that you can scan items that you’ve purchased and then submit them to earn reward points. Here’s the process, broken down into 7 steps:

First thing’s first, you’ll need to download and register for the app. Registration is only open to US citizens over 18 years old, and not everyone is accepted. We’ll talk more about this later in the ‘how to sign up’ section of this post.

Once you’re on the app, you’ll see a welcome screen which displays your level and a big ‘new purchases’ button. Hit that.

You’ll then see a list of a huge number of stores. Most of the places you’ll regularly shop at will be listed on there, like Walmart and 7-Eleven. Select the store where you’ve purchased a product from.

The app then loads up your camera and asks you to scan the barcode of that product. This part is pretty easy as the scanner seems to work quite well and is straightforward enough to use.

The app will then ask you to provide some extra information about the purchase. This will likely be things like what and how you paid for it, whether or not it was discounted, and where you’ll be using it – all the usual stuff you’d expect market researchers to want to know.

This is probably the most time-consuming part of the process and makes what should be a 2-second job into a 2-minute job. Most complaints about the app focus on this aspect.

Now you just need to submit it and wait for it to be accepted. Your reward points won’t be credited straight away, it could take a few days, but they will be there eventually.

Occasionally, the app will let you take a quick survey to earn some extra reward points. In between barcode scanning, this can be a great way to earn some extra points without having to spend money on products first.

The NCP mobile app doesn’t pay out in cash or PayPal deposits so, technically, you won’t make any real money using the app. However, points can be redeemed against gift cards and items with a real cash value.

The longer you’ve been using the app, the more points you’ll earn per transmission. At the start, you’ll earn 150 points each time. This increases year on year and, by year 5, you’ll earn around 280 points each time.

Seeing as a $10 gift card costs 6,000 points, it will take you around 40 transmissions, at the start, to earn the equivalent of $10. By year 5, it will take roughly 21 transmissions.

How long it will take you to do this number of transmissions is anyone’s guess. It depends on how frequently you shop and scan barcodes. That being said, if I had to guess, I’d say you could probably aim for around $100 worth of rewards per year.

I always find a useful way to look at this question is to compare the potential earnings against the time costs and other expenses.

The only expense I can really see with this app (besides actually buying the products, but you’d be doing that anyway) is the cost of electricity. The app will use a lot of power on your smartphone, which means you’ll have to recharge more frequently.

According to this Forbes article, though, charging your phone only costs around $0.12 per year in electricity. This is such a small amount that we can totally discount it and assume that 100% of what you earn through the app really is extra cash in your bank account.

In terms of time investment, though, it’s a different story. It will take you probably around 2-3 minutes to complete a transmission. Therefore, to complete the 40 transmissions it takes to get a $10 gift card, it will take you 80 – 120 minutes. That’s a lot of time.

If you’re looking for a full-time income, this app will be a disappointment. If your expectations aren’t that high, and you’re just looking for a nice way to earn a little extra back on your purchases, then it’s definitely worth your time.

You could save up points all year using the app and redeem them to get Christmas presents each December. You could also use the app in conjunction with other rewards apps to boost your monthly income by up to a few hundred dollars.

If 150 points per submission seems a little slow, there are also bonus points available. These can boost your total point count much more quickly.

Here are the different bonus points available through the app:

Now that we’ve covered how to earn points, let’s move on to rewards.

When I first checked out the NCP Mobile App rewards catalog, the available options seemed like a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping you’d be able to redeem them for PayPal credit but this wasn’t something the app offered.

However, after checking out their rewards catalog a little more, I’ve decided that the reward options really aren’t that bad.

Here are some of the rewards you can choose from:

The only way to get actual cash (besides selling the gift cards you earn) is to use your points against cash sweepstakes entries and hope that you win. There are weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual sweepstakes with different cash prizes.

Here’s a list of some of the sweepstakes on offer:

Now let’s move on to the million dollar question…

The short answer is yes, NCP Mobile App seems to be legitimate. How did we arrive at this conclusion? Let’s take a look.

Here are the three main factors that seem to show that NCP Mobile App is not a scam:

According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Nielsen (their parent company) has been awarded an A+ rating.

This rating is an indication of how trustworthy and reliable NCP is, and is based on the number of complaints received and how well those complaints have been resolved.

However, it’s worth remembering that hardly any organizations are completely unbiased, and the BBB has faced criticism in the past for giving A+ ratings to downright shady businesses.

That being said, the rating still goes a long way towards proving that NCP Mobile App is legit.

According to this article, NCP is affiliated with CASRO (the Council of American Survey Research Organizations), an association which aims to ensure research organizations meet strict professional standards through guidelines and enforceable rules of ethical conduct.

This should give users some added peace of mind that their data is being handled responsibly.

Survey and reward apps have a bad reputation as many companies out there mislead customers and don’t deliver on promised rewards.

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like the NCP Mobile app is part of this crowd, as the vast majority of customer reviews are positive.

Many reviews talk about successfully receiving the rewards after redeeming their points, there are relatively few complaints, and the complaints that are raised are mainly about user interface and design, rather than more worrying things like not receiving rewards.

Speaking of complaints, let’s take a look at what some other user reviews say about the app.

The NCP mobile app has an average rating of somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars on the Google Play Store. This is based on over 12,000 reviews from users, which is great, as the more reviews there are, the more accurate it’s likely to be.

Of course, ratings can be manipulated so, sometimes, the best way to find out if a rewards app is worth your time is to read through the review comments on the app store – the good and the bad.

Except that you don’t need to because I’ve already done it for you! Let’s start with the good.

I read through dozens of reviews and found that most of them were positive:

As you can see, a lot of them mentioned the fact that having the scanner integrated on the phone was a big improvement from the manual scanner, and many also praised the rewards/point ratio.

There were relatively few negative reviews, but they did come up once in a while. Here are a few of them:

The themes in the examples above came up time and time again. The main 3 issues that users seemed to identify were:

Some users had trouble with getting the scanner to recognize barcodes. Others had no difficulty with this but felt that having to scan each individual barcode wasn’t ideal and that a receipt scanning function would improve things.

Many people complained that the app wasn’t very user-friendly or intuitive, which slowed down the scanning process and made using the app a little frustrating.

Many users mentioned that the app automatically times out a little too quickly when scanning items, forcing users to have to reopen the scanner frequently and further slowing down the scanning process.

I’d personally recommend this app to any savvy shoppers looking to earn some rewards for their purchases.

Barcode scanning apps aren’t for everyone, but if you don’t mind putting aside a little time after shopping in order to earn a gift card or two every few months, it’s definitely worth downloading.

You can earn points a lot faster with NCP than with many other similar market research apps, and they also seem to be more legitimate than a lot of other options.

Just make sure that you’re actually interested in the rewards in their catalog before you invest time into it, otherwise, all that scanning will be for nothing.

If you’ve made up your mind and want to start using the NCP Mobile App, read on and we’ll show you how.

To use the app, you first have to be a panel member. Whether or not you qualify to be a panel member depends on if the company is looking for market research within your demographic at the time you apply.

To see if you’re eligible, you’ll have to provide a ton of personal information, such as your name, address, age, email address, and some basic information for all the other members of your household too.

There’s no way to be sure whether or not you’ll be accepted, but it’s free to apply so you might as well give it a go! Just download the app and follow the on-screen prompts to get started with the process.

In case you feel that NCP Mobile App isn’t right for you, here are a few alternatives that you could try.

1. Ibotta

Ibotta is one of the longest-running rebate apps on the market. Just like with NCP Mobile App, you earn rewards by uploading information about your recent purchases. However, there are a few differences.

Ibotta lets you scan receipts, whereas NCP Mobile App requires you to scan individual barcodes. If having to scan tons of barcodes each time is a sticking point for you, Ibotta may be a better app for you.

2. Shopkick

Shopkick is another cashback app with a difference. You don’t necessarily have to scan your barcodes to earn reward points. In fact, you don’t even have to buy anything at all. You can earn ‘kicks’ (Shopkick’s version of reward points) for simply walking into partner stores.

You can also earn cashback by linking up your cards with the app, shopping online, or submitting your grocery receipts.

3. Makeena

Makeena is another receipt scanning app, but this one has been designed to encourage healthy eating. Lots of the offers listed on Makeena are for fruits, vegetables, and healthy food products, helping you to earn cashback and lose weight at the same time.

That concludes our full NCP Mobile App review! I hope you learned something.

Good luck and stay frugal!

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