I first started completing on-line surveys at the back end of last summer after reading a thread on Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert site. Surveys appealed because, at face value they offered a simple means of increasing my household income easily around my home life. Whilst I was acutely aware I could not rely on them as a regular, additional income they have provided me with anywhere between £50.00 to £100 a month without even leaving my house. I must confess, I was skeptical of sites that promised work and yet withheld earnings until a threshold had been reached but I adopted the attitude, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I signed up with approximately twenty sites and over the course of a month separated the wheat from the chaff and whittled down to just five who offered me surveys on a regular basis.


*** Vivatic In Brief ***
I stumbled upon Vivatic by accident whilst trawling Google for survey sites. Company information is held quite close to the chest although I can tell you they are based in London and are a division of MarketingVF Ltd, Reading, Berkshire. Apart from surveys Vivatic also offer a variety of other paid work which includes market research, data entry, proof reading and freelance writing although in six months with Vivatic and despite the fact they usually advertise in excess of ten jobs on a daily basis I've never been able to access anything other than surveys so for the purpose of this review I will only be focusing on surveys.


*** Registration ***
At first glance, like other survey sites, Vivatic's main page is a little cloak and dagger, requiring registration before information is released and even then it all seems a little vague. Registration is not much more than your name, email address, password and agreement to Vivatic's terms and conditions. Once registered you need to supply your Paypal account details and home address as well as answering a few simple questions that include number of children, marital status and personal interests from a selection of fourteen possible answers in your personal profile. The whole process takes about two minutes. One aspect that appeals is Vivatic do not require individuals to complete reams of personal information before being offered surveys and Vivatic automatically credit your account with £1.00 upon completion of registration.


*** The Surveys ***
Vivatic are actually the host for various partners and companies which include Populus and New Vista Live. On average I spend between half an hour to an hour every day completing surveys depending on their availability. Generally surveys vary greatly in content and time to complete but not usually in payment. Survey contents can include anything from car insurance, health, holidays, supermarkets, mobile phones, airlines, brand packaging, personal shopping habits and the like. Admittedly some surveys have more relevance or interest to me than others and some take notably longer to complete due to the length of time individual pages take to load but most surveys can be finished in fifteen to twenty minutes.

Payment is almost always 85pence or £1.00, sometimes just 65pence although I have found this to be a rarity. The majority of the surveys I have participated in require an 80% completion with the last 20% of questions relating only to personal circumstances such as age, date of birth, number of dependent children, household income or general demographic questions.

One thing I have noticed using Vivatic compared to other survey sites is that screening out of surveys is particularly quick. It's fairly obvious you will be screened out by the initial questions you are asked. From personal experience screening out happens in the first 10% of questions although frustratingly on occasion I have been screened half way through a survey. Annoyingly there is nothing you can do to avoid this and it's one of the downsides of the site, although this type of practise does not seem exclusive to Vivatic. Most surveys automatically enter you into a price draw (whether you are screened out or not). Do they actually exist and does anyone ever win? I can't answer but I can tell you I have never won or seen any confirmation regarding anyone who has, so I tend to take this with a pinch of salt.


*** Earning Potential ***
For the first couple of weeks after my initial registration I found surveys to be few and far between and I was regularly screened out of any that were available. Nowadays, it's not unreasonable for me to earn anywhere between £10.00 to £17.00 per week. For almost five months now I have been regularly drawing an average of £10.00 per week, in fact I actually get annoyed if I don't make my weekly £10.00 threshold although I appreciate that not everyone will earn as much and some may potentially earn more. Vivatic do send email alerts when new surveys become available however, I have found them to be a little slow and relying on emails often results in survey quotas being full before you have a change to complete. To maximise my earning potential I visit the site on a daily basis several times a day and with all but a few exceptions I am now rarely screened out of the surveys.


*** Payments ***
Vivatic, like most other on-line survey sites operate a payment threshold before your earnings can be withdrawn, a low £10.00 which is incredibly easy to achieve.

Vivatic stipulate any funds you wish to withdraw must be requested by 12noon every Monday and that payments will be made the following week but in my experience Vivatic actually pay two weeks after a payment request. All payments are made via Paypal only every Thursday and are subject to a 2% admin fee/commission (capped to 65pence) which Vivatic will automatically deduct before your earnings clear in your account. What this actually means is that for every £10.00 requested Vivatic will deduct 20pence which is unavoidable and annoying considering they are making interest on all your earnings before you reach their threshold as well as receiving payment to host the surveys. That said, they are reliable. All of my payments have cleared before lunchtime and I always receive an email acknowledging that my funds have cleared. It is worth mentioning that it is the individuals sole responsibility to declare any earnings made through Vivatic who accept no responsibility for tax or national insurance deductions.


*** Support ***
A clear disadvantage to the site is there is next to no support. Email submissions usually result in a useless automatic response with a list of user questions and answers. Occasionally I have completed surveys and Vivatic have failed to credit my account so as a matter of course I now take a note of the survey operator and unique reference code. I have recently written to Vivatic regarding the non payments and am awaiting to hear back although in honesty not expecting a response.


*** Drawbacks To Vivatic ***
There are of course some downsides to Vivatic. The first and most obvious being you can not rely on Vivatic to provide a regular income. There are no guarantees that surveys will be available or that you won't be screened out. At times it is just a case of "luck of the draw" and if you fail to access your account for three months Vivatic will terminate your account resulting in a loss of earnings if you haven't already requested payment. The final downside is unfortunately Vivatic do not offer referral opportunities like other sites for recommending new members and so there are no financial benefits for personal recommendations.


*** Overall ***
In honesty I did begin to question the reliability and credibility of the site after I first registered but then gradually surveys appeared more frequently and I began to earn a reasonable if not surprising regular income. One of the main benefits with Vivatic is that I have the freedom to work hours that suit me (obviously the more time I put in the more I can potentially earn). With Vivatic I am not constrained to simply completing surveys at home, I can work anywhere as long as I have my laptop and internet access. One of the main benefits with Vivatic is that you can complete surveys anytime of day and night, so long as they're available and you could work around a full time job to earn a little extra pocket money. I can not lie though, completion of several surveys a day is tedius (even on some of the more interesting ones) and after a while they do become boring, so anyone interested in making reasonable money would just have to stick with it.

Vivatic's website is fairly bog standard although incredibly easy to navigate and simple to use. Your account balance is clearly displayed as are any payments already made and payments requested along with the date that they are due to be paid. The site has proved to be very reliable and out of five surveys sites that I regularly use Vivatic is the one that I reap the greatest financial benefit from. For anyone looking to make some extra pocket money I really would recommend Vivatic as there is money to be made from this site all be it relitvely small.


Vivatic
3 Wilkin Street
London
NW5 3NL

www.vivatic.com