What is 20Cogs?
20Cogs is a UK-based rewards site where members can earn money from participating in offers and promotions. Members who take part in 20 or more offers typically earn £200 or more.
And therein lies the catch: 20Cogs members can only cash out once they're participated in 20 offers. If you give up before you've completed all 20 offers, or 'cogs,' you cannot cash out.
Is 20Cogs a Scam?
20Cogs is completely legit, and not a scam. The service is generally well-regarded and has a 4.2 star average score on TrustPilot at the time of writing. The company has also paid out nearly £3 Million to its members in total.
20Cogs does get some bad press. This is usually because of the way the site works. Unless you complete 20 offers (cogs) you cannot earn any money, so you do need to put the effort it to reach 'cash out' stage.
How does 20Cogs Work?
The concept of 20Cogs is simple: You earn money by participating in certain offers and free trials, and by signing up for things. Here are some of the things you can do to add to your income on the site:
Sign up for free trials, such as 30 day trials of Amazon Prime channels or other streaming sites.
Sign up to subscription services for things like food boxes, cleaning products and pet foods.
Join other survey sites and offer sites.
Sign up to bingo, casino and gambling sites, usually placing and playing through an initial stake.
Completing each offer (cog) can pay anything from around £5 up to £30. There's also an initial sign-up offer, where you get a £5 welcome bonus for merely signing up.
How Does 20Cogs Make Money?
This is a wise question to ask! What's in it for 20Cogs, and what is their business model?
Essentially, this is all based on the principle of affiliate marketing. The companies participating in the offers will be paying a commission to 20Cogs when people sign up. Instead of taking all of this commission, some of it is passed back to 20Cogs users as their earnings. This is essentially how cashback sites like TopCashback work, also.
There's nothing suspect or scammy about this. It's a legitimate business model, and most of the companies participating are simply hoping to win customers in the longer term.
DOES 20 COGS COST ANYTHING?
Whilst joining 20 Cogs is actually free, some of the tasks involve incurring fees, which unless you see the entire process through and complete the full 20 tasks will mean you are out of pocket. Even if you do complete the tasks, this money comes out of your profit and therefore reduces your profit. Some of these are free or low costs trial subscriptions, and unless you remember to cancel at the right time, you could end up being charged for additional time too. There are even tasks such as joining an online casino or gambling site and you have to wager through a minimum amount before you can earn the reward. Sometimes the reward only just covers what you have to put in and so it really is a waste of time, but you have to complete all 20 tasks in order to be able to withdraw your money.