Warning: Rant below. I felt the need to vent after seeing another pro-credit card hot take.
If you have been around this subreddit for any amount of time you will often come across people explaining how they are very financially savvy and recommend getting a credit card for a number of seemingly great reasons. I would argue that this is a really irresponsible, because it is just not true.
Credit cards are nowhere near as great as they are touted to be, in any category. And this misrepresentation of them causes real world damage to financially vulnerable people and families everyday.
​

"Credit cards help build your credit score!"

This is not a valid reason to get a credit card. In New Zealand the only credit score that matters is a bad one. There is no need to have had previous loans to secure lending, especially when getting a home loan. If you show good financial habits with your account logs, and you have the necessary income and deposit you will get approved. In fact, just having a credit card can greatly reduce the amount they will lend you, even if you have a zero balance, because you have an open line of credit.
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I am protected from fraud, and insured when I go overseas!

Any debit card has the exact same fraud protection, and when you do go overseas, travel insurance is easy to purchase and often a one click purchase when buying a plane ticket. It is not expensive at all.
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The points! I get so many points! If I didn't have my card I would never have been bought XYZ

No matter how hard the banks try to convince you, your reward points are nowhere near equal to cash. Reward points can expire. Reward points are not legal currency. Reward points can only be spent at certain merchants, which are high margin and more expensive than other merchants which are not entered into a reward affiliation. Reward points cannot be used to pay many bills such as your rent or mortgage.
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But if I spend X amount I will break even and get free points!

Reward points are most certainly NOT FREE.
In order to maintain a points yielding credit card you must pay fees. The more points you earn per dollar you spend, the higher the fee. This means that all things being equal, you will ALWAYS be down in cash equal to at least the credit card fee if nothing else. Even if you 'break even' and spent 100 bucks on the fee, and made 100 dollars in points, you are zero REAL dollars better off, you have exchanged $100 for 100 points of limited utility.
You cannot invest points in stocks, or put it in your Kiwisaver. You can't use them to help with your house deposit. You can't even spend it wherever you want.
You should really think of points like, someone getting you a gift card for Christmas. Everybody knows that cash is superior than an equivalent value gift card, but the damn gift card companies have made grandma think that cash is not as loving as a gift card.
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The other thing to remember is you are not only paying for the card annually, you pay per transaction.

But not everywhere charges a surcharge! I only use my card when there is no extra surcharge!

You might not always be aware of it, but you actually still pay to use the card. Have a look at Noel Leeming vs PB tech. Noel Leeming charges no extra to use a credit card, so I guess it doesn't cost you any money to get your points? Wrong. Noel Leeming pays the credit card service charge, but they pass it to you in the price of the product because they have beefier margins than the cheaper places to buy identical products. If you are not familiar with pricespy.co.nz, get familiar real quick before you buy another item at Noels, JB or Harvey Norman.
PB Tech charges a service charge for credit cards payments directly, and you will notice if you take two items at their listed price PB will be lower than Noel Leeming, 9 times out of 10. Right now Google Nest mini for example, $85.43 at PB and 89.99 at Noel Leeming. That is a 5% difference in price, and that's how your credit card surcharge is hidden.
I know there are die hard credit card users out there. You truly believe you have cracked it. That the banker goes home every night and complains to her husband about how badly you owned them today. "If they could just miss one payment!" she pleads "then we might make some damn money out of them!".
The system is not setup that way, the bank will always profit in the end, they do their best to hide that from you so you think you are winning. They are smarter than you, they are like casinos in that regard. You can't beat statistics.
Conclusion
In any case, all I would ask is please stop being an unpaid credit card advocate. It is no skin off your nose. You don't get a commission, or a kick back. It doesn't get you a better price or into heaven the more people you convert. And you most certainly aren't helping others with pro credit card advice.
To "win" with a credit card takes a lot of things going right, and realistically a good amount of cognitive work.
For every person that "does well" with a credit card, there are many people that are completely ruined financially due to their monthly credit card bill. Some of those people would have gotten their first credit card because they have heard anecdotes from people about the free points, the great rewards. They remembered hearing about the awesome credit building power that a credit card unlocks. Even if you think that is true for yourself, I think we can all agree that people who aren't very financially aware will more than likely get no benefit from a card, and in some cases be much worse off because of it.
TLDR: Please don't contribute to someone else's decision to get a credit card. Please enjoy your 'very valuable' points in private and don't recommended highly dangerous financial products to people when you don't know anything about their financial circumstance or ability.

Happy new year!
A number of you have been asking for recommendations on good websites that welcome international users. Frustrating how so many places seem to be geared towards Americans, isn’t it? I’ve seen at least four threads asking this very question over the past few days. Instead of annoying everyone by spamming my referral links in each one, I might as well make a post listing the sites I use and/or have tried in the past.
I also figured that, with many people resolving to find ways to earn a little extra money in the coming year, this subreddit will be flooded with posts asking for recommendations. The FAQ has a good list, but it does not mention any age or geographic restrictions each of those sites have, so deciding where to start can be overwhelming.

Some things to keep in mind (especially if you’re entirely new to all of this)

• Create a dedicated email account for your GPT activities because you will receive a lot of messages. You may also need to have several throwaway addresses to complete various offers (which involve signing up for things that will give you tons of spam). Having a P.O. box and/or Google Voice number is a plus, but not necessary.
  
• Don’t register on too many sites at once or you’ll feel overwhelmed. Start off with one or two places, then add other ones later on, once you’re comfortable using the sites you originally started with. (Trust me on this; I made the same mistake when I started on my adventure back in mid-August.)
  
• Trial and error is the only way you can figure out how to establish a solid money-making routine for yourself, especially as all websites work differently for each individual.
  
• Although plenty of scams are out there, you need to be willing to do some research, take a few small risks, and see what happens. Only then can you determine if the site is worth your time and effort.
  
• Write down your referral URLs on a card and keep it handy in your wallet, or make a note of them on your smartphone in case you get an opportunity to promote the sites you’re using in real life.
  
• Many GPT and PTC websites have strict policies limiting registrations to one account per computer / internet connection / household. If you are going to refer your relatives or offline friends, make sure they don’t sign up on your computer, or the site will think you’ve created multiple accounts and will permanently ban you for that. Have them complete the registration process at their home.
  
• Adding to the above, if you and your relatives or real-life friends have accounts on the same money sites, make sure neither of you logs into your own accounts with each other’s internet connections. That means don’t use your account on their computer, and don’t let your friend/relative use their account on your computer. This can cause the both of you to be banned for multiple account usage.
  
• Using proxies / VPN is an easy way to get banned from many GPT and PTC websites.
  
• Don’t access your account on shared/public internet connections unless you’re sure no one has ever logged on to those sites and that your IP address is not known to be part of a VPN. Use this advanced proxy check to confirm the latter. Otherwise, you face an increased risk of being suspended from the site.
  
• Constant disqualification on surveys is normal and happens to everyone. Don’t give up on them so easily! Common reasons a survey suddenly terminates halfway through include: failing attention/human checks, providing inconsistent answers, speeding through questions, taking a break halfway through (rarely but can happen), quota already met while you were still answering questions. Some people here have said you’re better off answering surveys on Amazon Mechanical Turk because you almost never get screened out; however, there are requesters who post surveys that disqualify certain participants or outright reject all submissions to get free data (both of which will get them nasty turkopticon reviews anyway). Everything I know about taking paid surveys, I learned from Darkstar2 on ClixSense, a Canadian guy who has been at this for years and used to work in market research.
  

Please let me know if I have made any mistakes with age / location / payment requirements as listed below. Unless otherwise stated, most of these sites should work internationally, but not all of them may be accessible or have as many offers available in your country. Doesn’t hurt to try and see what happens.

Sites I use that have paid to me

website	countries	minimum age	withdrawal amount	payment methods
ClixSense non-ref	worldwide (with few exceptions)	16	varies but generally is $8 via PayPal	PayPal (non-verified accounts OK), Payza, Paytoo, cheque
Neobux non-ref	worldwide	not specified	$2 (increases by $1 after every cash out up to maximum of $10)	PayPal, Payza, Neteller
PollBuzzer non-ref	worldwide (?)	13	$1	PayPal (must be verified)

• ClixSense, a PTC/GPT hybrid, is my favourite money site. Users are paid to click and view ads as well as complete offers, surveys, and tasks. It also has a ClixGrid game, where you click on a square up to 30 times/day (60 for premium), view an ad for 10 seconds (5 for premium), and hope (if you’re lucky!) to win a few cents. I joined on December 1, 2012 and made a little over $20 in my first month. I earned $5 on my first week, reached $8 by week 2, and had $15 on Christmas. Upgraded to premium in my second month and made another $50. Altogether I earned $1000 in my first year alone. This ClixSense tutorial is a good introduction to the site, although it’s a bit Canadian-centric and some of the things mentioned (like casino search tasks and paid-to-call offers) may not be available to everyone.
  
• Neobux is the most reputable *bux-type PTC website. Other legitimate ones that follow a similar model exist, but many of them tank within two years, and known scammy owners tend to open new *buxes every now and then. Sites like Neobux are such slow earners that many people decide to invest money in renting referrals, though it’s possible to turn a profit simply doing CrowdFlower tasks because Neobux offers the best rate outside of CF’s own channel. Keep in mind Neobux has strict policies on inactivity (make sure to click all orange [self-sponsored] ads according to U.S. Eastern time each day!) and how many computers you can access your account from (best to stick to your home internet connection). Newly registered users who sign up and do nothing after 72 hours are permanently suspended; other inactive accounts are suspended after 60 days.
  
• PollBuzzer pays $1 for each question answered. All you have to do is click on the answer in your email. It’s that simple! Even though PB has not sent me a single question, 2 of my 24 referrals became successful conversions (refs who answered four questions), so I got $2 just for promoting this site. It’s worth providing your demographic info in case it ever feels like contacting you.
  

In addition, here are more sites that you may want to consider looking into. I don’t use them—or have yet to do so—due to lack of time and/or interest. Feel free to post more info about them in the comments.

Tried but do not use anymore (all non-ref links)

website	countries	minimum age	withdrawal amount	payment methods
Swagbucks	US, CA, UK, Ireland, AU, India	13	varies ($5 Amazon for 450 SB, $25 cash for 2500 SB)	PayPal, Amazon, gift cards
GiftHulk	US, CA, UK, Ireland, AU, NZ, FR, DE	18	varies ($5 Amazon for 439 HC, $5 cash for 599 HC)	PayPal, Amazon, gift cards

• Swagbucks is one of the biggest and most prominent rewards sites out there. Has daily poll, NOSO (no obligation special offers—click through offers path and enter captcha to get SB), videos, offers, surveys, games, CrowdFlower tasks, and more.
  
• GiftHulk is a newer site similar to Swagbucks. Has daily poll, a treasure chest where you can try to win things like extra keys, more hulk coins, or Fountain of Youth codes each day, as well as videos, offers, giveaways, and more. You can find FoY codes in this subreddit or the Red Flag Deals forum.
  

Have not yet tried but am planning to in the future

website	countries	minimum age	withdrawal amount	payment methods
CrowdSource	worldwide	18	N/A	PayPal
SkimaTalk	worldwide	18	N/A	PayPal

• CrowdSource is a crowdsourcing marketplace with tasks ranging anywhere between 1¢ and $30. Payments for all work successfully completed by 5 PM Pacific will be automatically deposited to your PayPal account by midnight of the next business day.
  
• SkimaTalk connects English-language learners with native speakers via Skype (microphone and webcam required). Its teachers come from various anglophone countries. Many of its students are from Japan (UTC+9), though SkimaTalk is expanding to Korea and Italy. Lessons are $9 for 25 minutes, of which teachers get $7.50; more established teachers can set different rates. Prospective teachers have to pass a screening interview and teach three free lessons before they can be paid. [see also: original discussion + /skimatalk]
  

Other (no plans to use them; these are listed for informational purposes only)

website	countries	minimum age	withdrawal amount	payment methods
slicethepie	worldwide (may not be available in some countries)	not specified	$10	PayPal

• slicethepie pays users up to 20¢/track to write music reviews. The actual amount varies depending on the quality of the review, but more meaningful and well-written ones are most likely to yield maximum pay. [see also: How to Write Meaningful Paid Song Reviews on slicethepie]

Not recommended

• Amazon Mechanical Turk: Your application will be rejected if you select any country other than United States, no exceptions. Any non-Americans who were fortunate to have an account in the past can only be paid in amazon.com store credit; shipping to other countries is really expensive. Definitely, absolutely not worth it if you need money but never shop on Amazon. If you’re looking for crowdsourcing marketplace alternatives, try CloudCrowd (see link above), Clickworker, Elance, oDesk, or Freelancer. Although I have not used any of those alternatives, I am sure someone here can vouch for them.
  
• InboxDollars: Only U.S. residents will receive PaidEmails and have offers to do, even though non-Americans can register on the site. Stick to ClixSense instead.
  
• Topline: Self-explanatory if you’ve been keeping up with /beermoney over the last two months. I actually do like passive methods; too bad they don’t work in practice. No alternatives to recommend.
  
• PaidViewpoint: The fact that it pays international users 7¢ less than its American counterparts for each trait survey makes it not worth recommending. Not to mention the $15 minimum, applicable PayPal transaction fees are deducted from these earnings, and referral system that only pays when a ref cashes out. I actually don’t have much interest in paid survey sites, and Pinecone isn’t accepting new registrations, so again, no other alternatives to recommend. (Other than maybe PollBuzzer. Also threw in referral link in case anyone wants to try PaidViewpoint for fun.)
  
• FusionCash: U.S. 13+ and Canada 18+ only. Great site for Americans, but Canadians are limited to making $599 per calendar year there, have less offers available, and do not get any paid emails or PTC ads. Also, earnings from successfully credited offers expire 180 days (6 months) after they are first posted to your account, so cashing out as soon as possible is highly recommended. ClixSense is a much better alternative.
  

Still have no clue where to start?

ClixSense for offers, Neobux for CrowdFlower tasking (no need to rent refs), and have PollBuzzer around in case it ever sends you any questions. They will be your new best friends! ☺
^{last updated January 2, 2015}