20 Cogs review: Is this a legit way to make money?
Are you thinking of trying out 20 Cogs and wondering if this is a legit way to make money from home?
I’ve created an account and given 20 Cogs a try so that I can give you my verdict on whether this task setting website is worth your time!
It’s kind of similar to survey sites, in that you will need to complete a set number of challenges and tasks before you can cash out. However the tasks are quite varied, and some involve you spending money upfront before you get anything back.
So here’s my 20 Cogs review, and if you want to check out other ways to make money from home you can head over to this article.
Note: 20 Cogs has changed names to cashback.co.uk. The principle of how it works is fairly similar – complete tasks to earn money and reach the threshold to cash out.
This post contains affiliate links.
How does 20 Cogs work?
The premise of 20 Cogs is simple. Sign up to an account and you will need to complete 20 tasks, or “cogs”, in order to cash out.
These tasks vary in terms of their cash value and the length of time they will take you to complete.
Once you have completed all 20 tasks you may need to wait for some to be validated, which in some cases can take 30 days.
However at this stage you get your money!
So 20 Cogs is a way of earning extra cash without a job from the comfort of your own home.
Some of the tasks that 20 Cogs asks you to complete will be signing up to survey sites and completing a few surveys for them, while others will involve taking out a subscription with a company or spending a certain amount of money.
If you don’t like the look of one task you can skip it and ask 20 Cogs to show you an alternative, which is good if you want to avoid certain tasks such as gambling.
Is 20 Cogs legit?
Yes 20 Cogs is legit, and it has a 4star rating on TrustPilot.
But I personally found it kind of annoying. This is because a lot of the tasks required taking out a subscription (which I now need to remember to cancel) and it involves handing over my personal details again and again.
I’m reasonably protective of my personal details and the vast majority of the tasks 20 Cogs wanted me to do involved handing over a LOT of information about myself and my household.
Most of them also required some spend upfront as well. This may include purchasing lottery tickets or buying a recipe bundle through Simply Cook (this was actually only a £1 for the delivery to be fair so not much).
Example of 20 Cogs challenges
So what are the tasks that 20 Cogs actually asks you to do in order to complete those 20 cogs and cash out?
Bear in mind that the challenges will change over time, depending on what brand partnerships 20 Cogs have so these examples listed here may not always be available.
They’re just intended to give you an idea of what you will be asked to do by 20 Cogs.
It varies from survey sites to signing up for a free trial of services such as Now TV (always remember to cancel your subscription before you get charged the following month).
Here are some examples of the 20 Cogs challenges you may be set:
- Sign up to 7 day trial of MGM Prime through Amazon
- Buy lottery tickets through Lotto Go
- Sign up to Nielsen and complete a survey then keep their tracking software on your computer for at least 48 hours
- Order a free Simply Cook tester box (pay £1 for delivery)
- Bet £5 through Coral
- Sign up for a 30 day free trial with ABC Mouse (a kids’ learning app)
- Sign up to Panelbase and complete at least one survey
Each of these challenges makes you a different amount of money. For example signing up to Panelbase earns you £1.50, whereas the Coral offer earns you £6.
How much can you make with 20 Cogs
Some people make as much as £200 with 20 Cogs but it depends what challenges you actually take on. The challenges don’t all pay the same!
Some pay as little as 50p while others pay £10.
If you want to reject a challenge, for whatever reason, you will be offered another which could have a final payout of more or less than the one you rejected.
So you can make more with 20 Cogs if you click through different challenges and only accept the ones that pay a little more (you may want to ignore the 50p ones as that is really low).
You can make extra money by referring friends to use 20 Cogs. You get 5% of whatever your friend earns plus £20 when they cash out, which means you can make up to £30 per friend.
Remember that you will need to spend some money to complete the 20 Cogs! Some of the tasks need you to take out a discounted subscription or spend money on things like betting.
This can add up to around £40 to £50 depending on what tasks you do. So this will eat into your final profit from 20 Cogs.
Is 20 Cogs a good work from home opportunity?
20 Cogs is a nice little boost to your income, but it’s not a replacement for a full or part time job. There are other side hustles which you can make much more money from.
You will need to complete all 20 Cogs and then may wait several weeks before that is approved, so it could take time for you to see your money. Then you’ll need to set about completing another 20 Cogs to receive more money.
For these reasons I don’t consider 20 Cogs to be a work from home opportunity, it’s just a way to make a little extra money if you need it.
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How to make £1000 a month extra
20 Cogs review: What did I think
I found 20 Cogs wasn’t my favourite site of this kind as many of the various tasks required an upfront spend and you have a wait for some of them to be confirmed.
Then you also need to make sure you remember to cancel the subscriptions you may be asked to take out before more money is taken from you (the price nearly always goes up in the second subscription payment).
Having said that it’s something a little different and you can definitely make over £100 with this site within around five weeks. The tasks themselves are quite quick (some longer than others) however you may have to wait four weeks to have confirmation that you’ve completed a stage.
So I won’t be a repeat visitor to 20 Cogs however I totally get why some people find this a cool way to make money.
You can do it in your own time, it’s legit and the payout once you’ve done the 20 Cogs is good.
My number one recommendation is to set up a separate email address so that you can field the correspondence from 20 Cogs and the other organisations you sign up to through them.
I’m not a huge fan of most survey sites in general however this one is quite unusual and the way the website is set up is very user friendly.
Should I try 20 Cogs?
If you want to make over £100 (maybe you need a little extra cash for Christmas or someone’s birthday) then I say give it a go.
All you need is an email address and some time set aside to go through all of the challenges.
Once you have completed your first 20 Cogs you can then go back and do another 20 to make more money. You can also refer friends to 20 Cogs via your own referral link, which can make you additional money over time.
Tips for making money with 20 Cogs
Definitely set up a separate email address
You will be signing up to services and online shops through 20 Cogs, so that means you can expect some spam emails off the back of doing so.
I recommend having a different email address so that these don’t clog up your main account.
Screenshot completion of the tasks
This is just in case you have any issues getting any of your cog tasks approved. Make sure you have proof to show that you’ve signed up/paid/done whatever was asked of you.
Set reminders to cancel subscriptions
For some of the tasks I was not able to cancel the subscription right after taking it out.
This means you may need to log back in to the relevant website a few days later to cancel your subscription before the next payment comes out. Set a reminder so that you don’t forget, otherwise this will eat into your final 20 Cogs profit.
Complete the full 20 Cogs in six months
If you don’t finish all 20 Cogs within six months then you get set back to zero, so be sure to complete it in time if you do decide to go ahead.
