Get Paid $900 for Plasma Donation + Complete Experience
How would you like to get paid $900 to help others by donating plasma? If you complete your first donation with BioLife, you’ll earn up to $900 or more after eight total donations. In this post, I am going to share my entire experience with you. Please note that this post is not medical advice. The purpose of this post is to honestly share my own experience donating plasma for those who are considering donation.
What is plasma donation?
Plasma donation involves donating the plasma (or liquid portion) of your blood. If you’ve ever donated whole blood before, the process is pretty similar. The major difference is after the plasma is separated from the cells, the red blood cells and platelets are returned to you.
My Complete Experience Making 8 Plasma Donations in 1 Month
Registration and Appointment Sign Up
I have a friend who has donated plasma, but I never considered it until I saw an advertisement in the mail with a new donor bonus offer of $700 for eight donations. Registration was pretty simple through the mobile app. It only took about 10 minutes and I was able to make my first appointment for the very next day. The available times were all very flexible.
1st Appointment
The first appointment is the longest appointment taking about two hours because it involves document verification, the pre-donation screening and a brief health exam. A regular appointment only takes around 45 minutes to one hour. The nurse who did my screening and exam was extremely nice and personable and was able to answer all of my questions. I received a welcome packet and my MasterCard debit card which is how I received all payments (discussed more later). Another benefit of this being a longer appointment was that I was able to skip all of the lines, and this made me feel like a VIP and that they were truly being respectful of my time.
The Typical Plasma Donation Process
After the exam, I was off to begin the typical process that regular donors go through during each donation. When I stepped up to the counter, I scanned in with my designated fingerprint and had my arms checked. My finger was poked to check my iron level. I stepped onto a scale to record my weight. My blood pressure, temperature, hematocrit and protein levels were all checked. All of these numbers were used by the medical historian to calculate how much plasma I would donate before proceeding to a phlebotomist.
My calculated donation amounts were all between 896-904 mL each of the eight times. I think it is worth noting that my first donation was not completely successful, but they did not penalize me at all. I still received the full incentive. By this, I mean that I did not donate the full amount of plasma that was calculated for me in a reasonable amount of time so the phlebotomist stopped the machine early. Everyone is different and I learned that I should only use my right arm for subsequent donations.
2nd Appointment
This was my first appointment “being on my own” and going through the entire pre-donation process from start to finish on my own. There was no line and I was able to walk up immediately to a kiosk to complete the pre-donation screening. I zipped through vitals to a phlebotomist, used my right arm this time, and spent a total of about an hour in the chair. I donated the full amount and felt completely fine after the appointment.
3rd Appointment
It was interesting that this appointment was quicker than my second appointment but I donated a little more plasma at this appointment. The entire donation process was quick again because I did not have to wait at all.
4th Appointment
During my fourth appointment, I experienced waiting for the first time. I decided to schedule my appointment for right after class, and this happened to be a popular time since it is around the time that people get off of work in the early evening. I had to wait for about 10 minutes before I was able to begin the donation process including the pre-donation screening. Overall, the total time I spent in the clinic was very similar to previous appointments because the line moved quickly even though it started out longer than at my previous appointments.
5th and 6th Appointments
My fifth and six appointments were some my fastest appointments of the eight total. By this, I mean the time I spent actually donating plasma decreased and I continued to improve my time to around 35 minutes! I will go into detail about the exact time I spent in the chair in the next section about my 8th appointment.
7th Appointment
For this appointment, I decided to track how long it took to complete the entire check-in process. It took a total of 9 minutes from the time I walked into the building until the time I stepped into the line to wait for an available phlebotomist. This included completing the pre-donation screening and the vitals check. I again spent between 35-40 minutes actually sitting in the chair and donating plasma.
8th Appointment – Moment-by-Moment
For this final appointment, I donated a total of 904 mL of plasma. Below is the total breakdown of the 33 total minutes I spent donating plasma. I spent about an additional 5 minutes in the chair to have the fluid returned to me including saline, for a total of about 39 minutes. Note that this is my experience and there is no guarantee that yours will be the exact same. Most people on average spend around 45 minutes to one hour in the chair.
Amount (mL) | 0 | 169 | 344 | 520 | 687 | 844 | 904 |
Time | 5:01 pm | 5:06 pm | 5:11 pm | 5:18 pm | 5:23 pm | 5:30 pm | 5:34 pm |
How Compensation Works for Plasma Donation
One of the best things about this program is that payment is immediate. There are no waiting periods between the time you donate and the time you get paid. After every appointment, my payment was already credited to the card. It is important to note that you are paid on a MasterCard debit card which is NOT a gift card. This is an important distinction because the debit card can be used at ATMs for withdrawal and money can be transferred from the card. It was also very easy to register the card.
After my eight donations, I transferred my complete balance of $715 to my regular bank account. There were no fees to do this, but this can vary depending on the amount of money that you want to transfer from your card. I have attached a screenshot of my balance before I transferred the funds. You can see the different payout amounts, and it shows that I received some extra bonuses on top of the original bonus offer I took advantage of at the time as well. Read more about the BioLife Debit Card.
How Typical Compensation Works
Once you are registered in the system, you’ll receive emails with information about the compensation program. The four tiers include bronze, silver, gold and platinum. At the platinum level, you can typically earn $90-120/week consisting of two donations. Twice a week donations are required to advance to the next weekly payout level. To maintain the achieved payout level, you must donate at least one time every week. You can also get referral bonuses of between $50-200 per friend that you refer!
My Overall Thoughts on Plasma Donation
I will admit that I was nervous about plasma donation at first since I have only ever donated whole blood before this experience. However, considering that there are a lot of patients who depend on plasma weekly, the entire experience was enjoyable and I feel good about it. I donated twice a week for four weeks, so I made $715 in a total of about 12 hours. This time estimate includes travel time to and from the donation center. I will definitely consider donating plasma again. BioLife always has offers for new and previous donors for bonuses so I will be on the lookout for those programs.
Learn More about Plasma Donation
If you’d like to learn more about BioLife Plasma services, click here to be taken to the Plasma Donation Step-by-Step guide or click here to view locations. BioLife Plasma Services is licensed and regulate by the FDA. See complete eligibility for donation. As of the date of this post, the current deal for new donors is up to $900 in the first month. Simply click on the image below and it’ll take you to the offer page. The expiration date is unknown as of the date of this post. If it has expired by the time you see this page, there are plenty of new deals that can be easily found on the BioLife Plasma homepage.
Please be sure to post any comments or questions below. I would love to hear about your experience with plasma donation!