Sejal P.

I've been on many, many sites that offer surveys, rewards, incentives, and partner with offer portal providers with sites like Trialpay, Gwallet, Peanut Labs, etc. I use the site in the most honest way, without using VPNs, adblock, tunnel services, or programs meant to offer an unfair advantage.

I say this because I've used the site for so long, I've been able to hear about things behind the scenes. I know that the staff at QR works hard. When their servers went down last year, their small IT team worked two whole weeks, barely getting sleep, just to get things back up and running. During this time many were giving the staff a hard time, just because they weren't getting paid instantly, like QR often does.

Quick Rewards offers something other sites all the big popular ones don't offer -- real people who genuinely care about their customers. When you email customer support, you're talking to real people who aren't speaking from a template or script. When they wish you a good day or week, they mean it. If you have a problem, they'll take time to make sure your issue is solved, and dare to trust you if you tell them you've spent an hour on a survey, only to be disqualified or have it crap out on you.

Quick Rewards also offers a strict anti-cheat system. It's impossible to successfully use even the best VPN programs on the site without being redirected to an error page. They do block certain countries, but only because their clients have told them about the serious influx of cheaters from certain international locations. I know this to be true, because employers on Mechanical Turk will block specific continents. It's not discrimination based on race or country, but by simple cheating behavior.

I've kept Quick Rewards white listed on my adblock, along with their clients, for about 7 or 8 years now. I've never had malware alerts from anyone other than 4th or 5th party sites, but by then I'm so far from both Quick Rewards and the offer wall provider, that it's not related to them anymore. If I run into these problems, the staff at QR is quick to respond.

Overall, the staff at Quick Rewards is laid back, but they will not tolerate cheating or exploitation of whatever loophole you've found. They do give people the benefit of a doubt, but if you exploit that trust, you really don't deserve to be on the site.

I will also point out something that sadly I can only go on hearsay about. There's been a movement to make Quick Rewards look bad. After some investigating, I've noticed that someone, or a group of people, are going around to different sites and leaving nasty reviews. Please note that these are from cheaters who've been banned. Many of us genuine members know who they are, and do our best to root for the home team when we can. Those who are active in their Facebook page know that the team at QR truly care about their people. The PR team and customer support team have done a great job cultivating a positive Facebook following. I can't say that about other rewards sites. I've even been attacked by nasty trolls on other sites. I've never had anyone outright attack me on their page, though.

So to all the haters, keep on hating. Those of us who've used QR know the truth. You wouldn't have anything to complain about if you weren't cheating the system.

I've been on and off as an Interpals member. I was active several years ago, tried returning, left, then came back more recently. Honestly, it hasn't changed as a site nor as a community, which is good and bad.

I'll start with the bad and try to sweeten it with the good.

CONS:

As a woman, I can tell you that other women can and will be spammed by 80% middle easterners, Indians, Africans, some obscure countries you've never heard of, all male, with photos that often look like mug shots (they aren't but I'm talking about the quality). Am I putting these countries or people down? Not at all. This is a rough estimate based on personal experience. During my first and second time trying to use the site, it was mostly middle eastern males. At the time, I actually did have photos up, and ironically it's middle eastern men and indian men roughly around 50 years old and above. Sorry, but I don't want someone the same age as my dad or grandfather hitting on me. I also had guys from various parts of Africa and the Carribean Islands sending me friend requests with no message. Like Facebook, that's just odd if you haven't sent me a message telling me why my profile interested you. Just the picture? Hell, I don't even think I'm average-level attractive.

In my current and probably last attempt at using this site, I chose not to upload any selfies. The sheer fact that I listed myself as female made the swarm show up. I only had middle eastern guys show up this time, but I preemptivly blocked certain countries from contacting me after one guy sent me a bunch of unsolicited videos. Just youtube and nothing bad, but what the hell can't someone just be normal and say hi? I blocked him and his country.

PROS:

It might sound like there are very little pros. However, after you configure your settings and filters, you can finally start sifting through the dirt to get to the gold. One thing that really, really helps is to write out a decent About Me section. Tell just enough about yourself and what you're looking for without offering up seriously personal information. There's a box labeled Requests. Fill this out and be specific about what you don't want people to do. A lot of people are actually dumb enough to use this site as a dating site. I thought this was a Penpal site, not Tinder's Rejects. Anyway. It is possible to make friends and find people willing to be friends and help you learn a language. The key is that you learn how to properly screen profiles and get that gut feeling for when something seem 'off.'

Now, if you want a more independent, alternative review, this Reddit thread is pretty open about more of the dark side of Interpals. https://www.reddit.com/r/interpals/comments/4gnfzs/interpals_review_why_you_should_and_shouldnt_use/