50 Things You Can Do to Get Free Money

If you’re looking for ways to get free money, make sure you incorporate these 50 things into your day-to-day lives. Unlike doing micro-tasks that can take some time, the following list only includes things you already do that you can get paid for, from shopping online to listening to your favorite music.

Everyone should set these up. And if you haven’t, it’s never too late to start today.

50 Ways to Earn Free Money that Everyone Should be Doing

I’m going to divide these methods to get free money into two groups:

• the first is a one-off way you can get free money,
• the second is a continuous way to earn free money or save enough cash that you feel like you’re getting free money in return.

One Time Cash Bonuses

The quickest way to earn free money is to sign-up for various products or services. The only catch here is while you’re technically given free cash almost instantly, you do have to wait a little longer to cash the money out, or reach the minimum payout amount.  The upside is that signing up for these services won’t be put to waste since you can continuously earn from them if you choose to do so.

1. Get $5 when you sign up to SwagBucks

Swagbucks allows anyone 13 years old and above to answer surveys and perform online tasks like watching videos. First-time users are eligible for a $5 bonus just for signing up.

Continue using this platform, so you can redeem your Swagbucks points for cash via gift cards (for Amazon, Walmart, iTunes and more) or PayPal.

2.  Get $5 when you sign up to Inbox Dollars

InboxDollars is similar to SwagBucks – it’s a platform that lets any person 18+ years old complete online surveys, read emails, watch videos, and other easy tasks in exchange for InboxDollars.

Get $5 for just joining, but if you want to continue earning free cash (exchanged for gift cards or Paypal), you can be one who of the thousands of people paid over $60 million to date.

3. Sign-up to Ibotta for a $10 joining bonus

Ibotta is a cashback app that pays people to scan their receipts. There comes a bit of preparation: you use the app before shopping and use it as your shopping list. Once you’re done, scan your receipts and earn the appropriate cashback.

This is a MUST-use app for any shopper. It’s been paying over $600 million cashbacks since its launch. You can use your Ibotta credits to redeem a gift card or Paypal account.

4. Join Rakuten for a $10 Sign-Up Bonus

Formerly known as eBates, Rakuten is a cashback app that has partnerships with many retailers. You can check the Rakuten app for your retailer and shop directly on the app to earn cashbacks between 2 to 10 percent of your total.

Joining the app and spending your first $25 gets you $10 as bonus. Once you’ve earned this, you can request your cashback via check or Paypal.

5. Get $10 when you join money-saving service Acorns

This auto-investment service is pretty awesome if you’re looking to grow your money. It also tracks your card purchases, rounding them up to the nearest dollar and using your “spare change” to invest in stocks, bonds or other similar investments.

You’re not going to get the money in cash, but the $10 you get for joining Acorns will be put towards your investment.

6. Earn $5 upon signing up for investment platform Stash

Stash is another investment app that simplifies your investing based on your chosen risk level, taking out the guesswork for you. Anyone who signs up gets $5 free placed into your Stash account for investing.

7. Sign-up to Dosh and get a $5 bonus

Dosh is another cashback app, which links your debit/credit card so you could shop from your favorite retailer directly from the Dosh app. You can earn 2 to 5 percent back from every transaction.

Get a $5 sign-up bonus when you join and link a new credit card. There’s a referral program and if you use this app continuously, you get to earn more cashbacks.

8. Seated gives away $10 for every new member who signs up

Seated is a restaurant booking app that pays you to eat out. You just have to make the reservation via the app and link your credit card. After dining, you’ll receive an Amazon, Lyft or Starbucks gift card with amounts ranging from $5 to $10.

New users that sign-up gets a $10 Lyft gift card after their first dine.

9. Buy Stocks via Robinhood and Get free $10

This famous investment platform gives you a free share of stock worth $10 when you sign up.

If you’re interested in growing your money via stocks, bonds and similar investments, Robinhood is a good platform with no transaction fees to buy stocks forever.

10. Get Free Webull stocks when you join

This micro-investing platform is similar to Robinhood. It opens up the world of investments to anyone regardless of income, and they even give away a free share of stock to whoever signs up.

And like Robinhood, you don’t have to pay transaction fees ever, and you can cancel anytime.

11. Find a Petsitter on Rover and get $10 free credits

If you’re looking for a dogsitter or catsitter, this app helps you connect to people looking for work. The first time you book on Rover, you get $10 free credits to use, so you instantly “earn” money for dog-sitting service just for joining the app.

Get Paid to Download and Run Apps

Downloading apps is pretty easy. If you let some apps run in the background and give them permission to access particular data, you can be paid for that valuable information. Just make sure that you are 100% OK with the permissions you give each app.

12. Let MobileXpression Run in the Background of your phone

This market research company pays people to give them access to phone data. In exchange, you earn credits weekly, which you can then redeem for gift cards.

13. Share Data with Nielsen Computer & Mobile Panel

Nielsen rewards people for sharing their internet usage behaviors. Users just need to download the app, register their device, and let it run in the background in exchange for points, which you can redeem up to $50 per year.

14. Get Paid to Let SavvyConnect Collect Data as You Surf

SavvyConnect pays people $5 a month per device, if they let the company collect data as you surf.

15. Earn Passive Income Effortlessly with Honeygain

Similar to other apps that let you earn money by giving companies access to your data, Honeygain can pay you up to $30 a month when you share 10 GB daily of your “unused net traffic.” Users take an average of 50 days to reach $20.

Earn Free Money by Moving Your Money

Another way to earn money is to be smart about your own and double your funds whenever you can. The following methods help you earn free cash if you’re ready to move around your money:

16. Open a new bank account and get up to $350 balance

With dozens of banks competing for your attention, many banks lure new customers with free money. The $350 example is just from a Chase account advertised recently, but you can find similar promotions both in local and national banks. Every bank has its own take (and criteria) for this kind of promo, so better check with your chosen bank.

17. Move your credit card debt to a new company and get up to $1000 free money

This has been a well-known secret for decades. Many credit card companies give away free money as a sign up bonus. You do need to spend a certain amount to be able to claim the bonus in points. Sometimes, you’ll receive cashback instead. The following are just samples of these deals:

• Chase Freedom Unlimited (get $200 after $500 purchase within a 3-month span)
• Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa Card ($150 after $500 purchase within the first 3 months)
• Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Card (same deal as Chase)

18. Refinance Student Loans in exchange for Cash

Like shifting to another credit card company, you can get cash signup bonuses for refinancing your student loans with other companies. Whether your student loan came from an online lender, bank or credit union, you can use Credible to compare and decide which new company could give you the most savings and sign up cash bonus.

19. Receive $20 when you refer others to load prepaid cards via NetSpend

NetSpend isn’t just a hassle-free way of loading prepaid debit cards. It can also earn you some cash when you refer other people (and they load up to $40 to their NetSpend card). Every referral you send the company earns you $20 bonus added to your NetSpend account.

20. Take Advantage of Employer 401k matching programs

Not everyone knows this, but if a company matches a percentage of your salary contributions into your 401k retirement plan, you’ll immediately double your savings. That’s $1 for every dollar you invest for your future.

21. Find Unclaimed Money Owed to You via Credit Karma

Many people forget about money owed to them by utility companies, financial institutions, and other service providers in the past. Credit Karma gives you a chance to search for anything owed to you in one big swoop, even from 5 or 10+ years ago.

Such funds are held by the state treasury department. To claim the cash, just fill out a form with your current contact details (address and phone number).

22. Double-check MissingMoney for more Unclaimed Money

Like Credit Karma, MissingMoney is a search portal where you can find money owed to you that you’d probably forgotten or didn’t even know existed. Unclaimed money is very easy to find – you just type in your name (or the names of anyone you knew).

23. Go Green with Arcadia Power and Get $20

If you’ve always wanted to cut your electricity bill, go clean and green with Arcadia Power. Not only will you be able to save money on power since renewable energy is more affordable, switching to Arcadia Power immediately gets you a $20 credit.

24.  Automate Your Savings with Trim

Trim is an app that lets you organize and monitor your subscriptions (such as Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, and so on). Once you’ve signed up and connected your accounts to Trim, the app checks which subscription is the least used and can be trimmed out of your budget. The app can even find you deals to reduce the prices of your plans.

25. Let Paribus Find Refunds Owed to You

This app was developed by Capital One Bank to track purchases and find out which stores owe a user refund. It tracks the prices of numerous stores and if you bought something from one store and the price goes down, Paribus will help get the difference in price back and refund you.

26. Get Free Money by Reducing Your Monthly Utility Bills via BillShark

This app is similar to Trim. It can help you save up to 25% from your monthly bills by negotiating the prices of your cable, internet, and other bills. Just upload your account info and BillShark will do all the negotiating on your behalf. You’d only be “paying” the service if the negotiation is successful.

27. Invest money with Stockpile

This online digital brokerage lets you invest money quickly and hassle-free. Just by signing up, you immediately get free $5 to invest. And if you continue investing via Stockpile, you have zero management fees, no account minimum and just pay $0.99 trading fees.

28. Buy Gift Cards instead of Gifts

If you’re lost as to what item to buy a friend, relative, or colleagues for their birthday or during Christmas and other events, gift cards could save you. And in most cases, the recipient would actually like the gift card better than just any ordinary gift.

The cool thing about this practice is that buying gift cards could save you money in the long run. If you buy from stores like GiftCards.com or GiftCardMall.com, check out promotions and sales. Every time you buy a $25 gift card for $20, you’ll be saving $5 instantly.

29. Budget Your Finances with CLEO or Digit

Join either CLEO or DIGIT and these companies will give you a $5 welcome bonus instantly. Add your accounts and manage your finances from their app and you get to receive cashback and other promos regularly.

30. Get Free Money from Transferring Prescriptions

Your maintaining medicine can be a constant monthly expense. Some pharmacies will actually pay you to be their customers. RiteAid and Safeway used to give away $25 and $75 gift cards for anyone willing to transfer prescriptions to their pharmacies. You may check CVS, Target, Walgreens, Walmart, and other local pharmacies for similar deals.

Earn Free Money Continuously

The premise of survey sites is the same. You register, answer surveys, and earn points, which you could then redeem for gift cards of your choice (or PayPal cash).

• 31. Earn up to $45/survey with Survey Junkie – Most surveys here are priced around $3 but they can be answered under 5 minutes. 13 or older are eligible, as long as they reside in the USA, Canada, or Australia.
• 32. Earn $3 for Every 15-minute Pinecone Research Survey – You can get payout right after your first survey.
• 33. Get paid up to $50 per survey from American Consumer Opinion – This long-running survey panel has millions of members.
• 34. Earn more from SurveySavvy and SurveyConnect – A single company owns these two sites. First is the SurveySavvy site that lets you earn from answered surveys. The second one is for those who have no time but is fine with giving SurveyConnect access to their online activities (it’s a download-set-and-forget app) that gives you money in exchange for your internet data.
• 35. Answer Unlimited Vindale Research surveys – There’s no limit on how many surveys you can apply for each day, so you can earn an average of $0.80/10-minute survey.

Cash Back Apps

The “free money” you get from cashbacks apps is a little different. The cash actually came from you. The following apps may have slightly different rules, but they work similarly. Users sign up for a free membership and then use the website (or app) as their personal shopping portal instead of shopping directly on a retailer’s website.

• 36. Get ‘Next Level’ Rewards with Drop app – This cashback app is for credit card and debit card users. You can save your top 5 vendors and shop from them via the app. Referrals get you $5/user. Plus it can be used alongside other cashback apps.
• 37.  Link Your Cards to get back up to 10% Dosh Cashback– Partners with major retailers and local shops. There is a welcome bonus and a $5 referral bonus.
• 38. Earn 1 to 10% Cashback with Pei – Aside from the $20 you get just by joining, you can also get cashbacks by shopping from over 50,000 restaurants and stores like Starbucks, 7-Eleven, Target, In-N-Out, Trader Joe’s, and so on. You can payout via BitCoin, PayPal or gift cards.
• 39. Turn Your Grocery Receipts into Cash with Fetch Rewards – Take a picture of your grocery receipts and earn points from the brands you purchased. About 250+ brands participate in the app and give out points for loyal customers. All points earned can be redeemed into gift cards.
• 40. Shop and get up to 40% cashback via Rakuten– Formerly known as Ebates, Rakuten has partnered with over 2,500 stores that let users earn cashback from purchases. Referrals are paid $25 a pop.
• 41. MyPoints Gives $20 Welcome Bonus and big cashbacks – MyPoints members get up to 40% back with every purchase at 2,000 top retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot & Amazon.
• 42. Join BeFrugal and Get $5, then earn Cashbacks whenever you shop  – This site boasts of the highest cashback rates, with 40% cash back at 5,000+ stores.
• 43. Book reservations with Seated – Doing so lets you earn back up to 30% from your bill.

Perform Quick Tasks

Some small tasks could earn you free money. They may not be a lot, but the good thing about these tasks is they can be done regularly, so your small change could come in regularly as well.

44. Watch videos and get free money from Viggle

You can use your smartphone, tablet, or PC when watching and you’d still earn redeemable points.

45. Sell Your Junk Mail to Small Business Knowledge Center

Forward your spam emails and junk snailmail to SBKC (Small Business Knowledge Center) and earn $20. SBKC buys your mail for research, but you’d still be able to keep your privacy.

46. Earn Free Money by Working Out 

There are apps like Healthy Wage, SweatCoin, Achievement, or StepBet that pay people to use their app while working out.

47. Sell Old Gadgets via Decluttr

Turn unused and outdated gadgets sitting on your garage into gold. Go to Decluttr and have your items evaluated if they can still be sold, or if you’re OK with the amount you’ll receive from them. You’ll then have to ship the item to Decluttr and once your items are accepted, you’ll receive PayPal or check the next day.

48. Play Games via Mistplay and earn easy money

This is a great time-waster when you’re stuck in traffic on the bus, train, or in your car. You can play quick video games and earn points. Unfortunately, this is only available for Android devices.

49. Give Access to Your Phone’s Screen Lock 

Earn up to $36/year if you let the S’more app display ads on your lock screen. This may seem like a pretty invasive idea, but you’ll soon realize that you don’t actually use the phone when it’s on lock screen, and what better way to make use of it than to earn points doing virtually nothing.

50. Review Products for SlicethePie

Slicethepie is the largest paid review site on the internet that pays you for your feedback on clothes, music, apps, and everything else in between. Something as simple as watching a trailer for an upcoming movie or TV show can easily earn you a buck.

Free Money for Everybody

The cool thing about the methods above is that they are absolutely FREE to join. Plus, anybody can incorporate these activities into their daily/weekly/monthly habits.

You don’t need to use everything. Just pick and choose those that are appropriate for your situation and enjoy the free money best you can.