How to Get Free Money: 25 Legit Ways to Score Extra Cash

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free money

How would you like to get free money? If you’re in need of money today this post is for you.

While most people may think the only way to get free cash is to win money via the lottery, that’s not the case.

Thanks to the internet and smartphones, there are plenty of free ways to get some extra money to pad your bank accounts.

How to Get Free Money

Here are some tried and true ways to start earning free money online with little effort.

1. Get Paid to Take Surveys

One of the easiest ways to get free money fast is to take online surveys from reputable survey companies.

They are willing to pay you free cash just for sharing your thoughts, and then they use this information to improve their offerings.

When it comes to ways to get free stuff, you can even use survey sites to get gift cards or products. Plus, you can take these surveys on your mobile device.

There are many places to take online surveys for free money, but one of the best companies to consider is Survey Junkie as they have a high Trustpilot score of 4.3 out of 5.

2. Use Rakuten For Free Money

Rakuten is one of the most popular ways to earn free money. It is an awesome site for earning cash back on your shopping. Plus, when you sign up, you receive a $10 welcome bonus on the first $25 you spend.

And spending $25 through Rakuten is easy. All you need to do is go to the Rakuten website and click through to the online retailer where you want to shop.

There are hundreds of retailers in the program, including Kohls, Macy’s, Groupon, Walmart, and other stores where you’re probably already shopping regularly.

Once you spend the $25, they’ll send you your $10. That is free cash directly in your account.

3. Use Trim to Save on Each Month

Let’s face it, calling your cable provider is a pain. You have to sit on hold and talk to several people, maybe even speak with a manager. If you’re busy, you may not have the time to do it.

It doesn’t have to be that way, thanks to Trim. Trim can make that cancellation call for you and so much more.

While Trim doesn’t give you free money, it does help you effortlessly cut back and save money. Trim is a free tool that looks through your spending habits and finds ways to trim them.

It can help reduce your cable bills, find useless subscriptions, and even find cheaper car insurance options.

4. Sell Data From Your Devices

Thanks to apps, you can get paid for the smallest things in today’s world. Pawns App will pay you to install its app on your computer.

Then, you can get paid for sharing your internet bandwidth.

You can make up to $9.60 per month per IP address. They also include a $3 bonus for signing up!

5. Sign Up as a New Lyft Driver

If you haven’t noticed from the insane amount of ads online, ridesharing is very competitive. Seriously though, Lyft is making a huge push to get more drivers.

There is a big cash bonus to sign up with Lyft over their competition if you want to start driving as a side hustle.

At the time of this post, Lyft is guaranteeing $1,000 of earnings for all new drivers in the first month!

Driving with Lyft and other driving companies is a great side hustle, as you get paid weekly, make your own schedule, and work as little or as much as you want. Plus, you might meet some cool people along the way.

You may want to stick to earlier hours for safety and to encounter fewer intoxicated customers.

6. Rent A Room or Home

Airbnb is a great way to get free money from your house. If you are okay with people sleeping over, you can rent out a spare room for a steady revenue stream.

You can also rent out the entire house if you’re going on an extended vacation or have a rental property.

Just be sure to check your local city ordinances. Some cities have begun restricting short-term rentals, limiting your ability to get free money from your home.

7. Get a Rewards Credit Card

I’ve used this idea several times, and it works great. If you open a new cash-back credit card, some credit card companies will incentivize you to spend a certain amount of money in a specific time window.

If you hit that target, you’ll get a certain amount back. This is free money as long as you are responsible enough not to make your monthly payments and avoid ending up in credit card debt.

The “free cash” is rewarded as a signup bonus. You can usually receive your payout as a statement credit or a check. Plus, you can get credit card rewards every time you use your card.

But beware. You should only try this if you’re religious about paying off your credit card balance in full every month. Otherwise, you could easily spend more in interest than you’ll earn in cashback.

8. Rent Out Your Car

If you have a car that isn’t getting much use, consider using a car-sharing service to rent it out and earn free money.

Services like Getaround pay you to rent your car out to other people. Getaround will come up with a rate for the rental based on your car’s market value, location, time of year, and other data. Rates for renters are $5 an hour and up. You keep 60% of that.

That’s at least $3 an hour — enough to put a dent in your car payment every month if you can rent it out often. After signing up with the company, someone can rent your car for an hour or more with hardly any effort.

Getaround vets the drivers to ensure they have a safe driving record. It also offers insurance, including $1 million of liability coverage.

9. Refinance Student Loans

Have you thought about refinancing your student loans? If your credit situation allows it, you can save big by doing it.

If you’ve never refinanced a car, house, or private student loan, know it’s not that hard.

When you refinance, you’re replacing your high-interest rate with a lower interest rate. All the lender requires is a credit check and other financial documents.

Unlike refinancing a house, which is a very extensive process, this is easier to take care of and start saving money.

If you refinance for a longer loan term, you’ll pay interest for longer, which could mean you may pay more in the long run.

10. Open a New Bank Account

This is another way to get free money I’ve recently used, and it worked great! Many banks will offer you a bonus for depositing a certain amount of money when you open a new checking account.

Usually, you have to keep the free money in the account for a specific time period as well.

For example, I signed up for a Chase checking account recently. For signing up and keeping $1,500 in the account for 90 days, I was rewarded $300. I literally did nothing else other than not let the balance dip below $1,500.

The only thing I did have to do was follow up with Chase, as they had “forgotten” to add my bonus. Otherwise, it was legit free money!

It’s not just Chase, either. Other banks offer bonuses for opening new accounts with a certain amount of cash.

11. Open an Internet Savings Account

If you do not like dropping by the old brick-and-mortar bank, I recommend opening an online savings account. This is another easy way to make free money, as they typically offer much higher interest rates than Chase and other big banks.

Most online savings accounts earn 4% or more, while the savings rates at big banks are more like 0.1%! If your money is sitting in low-yield accounts, you’re literally losing money with inflation.

I’d recommend opening an online high-yield savings account so your money is working for you.

CIT Bank offers a higher yield APY than your traditional local bank for savings accounts. To open an account, you only need to meet their $100 minimum.

12. Donate Plasma

This method isn’t for everyone, but it’s a good way to earn free money and help other people. In college and shortly after, I donated my plasma.

You can make $200 to $300 per month in extra money by donating your plasma. I will say that for me, it ended when there was an issue with the needle, and it got a little sketchy. However, it is considered safe to donate plasma every few weeks.

Again, this method isn’t for everyone, as there are needles, blood, and pre-screening involved. Plus, it does take some time when you visit. But if you meet the requirements and don’t mind waiting while you donate, it can be a legitimate way to earn free money.

13. Sell Old Clothes

Do you have a closet full of clothes that you never wear? Don’t let them clutter up your house. Start selling them for money! A good rule of thumb is to sell an item if you haven’t worn it in a year.

There are plenty of places to sell your clothes, including:

  • Consignment shops
  • eBay
  • Poshmark
  • Thredup

This is easy money for items sitting in your house collecting dust. You’ll not only get free money, but you’ll also have less clutter.

Each time I buy a new piece of clothing, I make sure to donate or sell one or two pieces of old clothing. Give it a shot!

14. Sell Old Textbooks

Let’s get real, those college textbooks that helped put you in student loan debt aren’t going to get opened ever again after graduation.

Don’t let those textbooks just sit in your house, taking up space. Sell your books to get money and start paying off that debt!

15. Download the Nielsen App

You may have heard of Nielsen. It’s the company behind TV ratings. Now, it’s collecting data on the popularity of websites and online videos.

One of the ways it does so is by getting users like you to download the Nielsen app. The company will give you $50 a year to keep the app on your laptop, tablet, or smartphone. The app collects data on your internet usage to learn about trends.

While this sounds kind of Big-Brother-ish, Nielsen says it’s done with 100% anonymity. Plus, the app takes up barely any space and won’t slow down your devices.

16. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is one of the best-known GPT sites. It will pay you to watch videos, shop online, surf the internet, and take surveys. It literally pays you to hang out and browse the internet.

You earn points that you can later cash in for a huge selection of free gift cards. Or, if you don’t find any you like, you can always earn free cash by trading your points for a PayPal deposit.

Signing up is 100% free, with no membership fees or hidden terms. Plus, they offer an excellent incentive for referrals of new customers. Use your Android or Apple device to get started.

17. InboxDollars

If you want free money, InboxDollars is similar to Swagbucks. It will pay you for surfing the internet, taking surveys, completing questionnaires, and watching videos.

It’s super easy to use InboxDollars. And you can make $20 or more each month without much effort.

Once you sign up, you also get a $5 bonus, so it’s a no-brainer to get free cash.

18. MyPoints

MyPoints is another website that will pay you points that you can convert to free money for performing online tasks. They include everything from shopping online to taking surveys, to viewing videos.

MyPoints will give you points for these tasks, which you can later use to buy gift cards. For shopping, you can earn up to 25 points per dollar. There’s a free cash option as well.

Some of the gift card providers include Best Buy, Amazon, CVS, Starbucks, and other specialty stores. There are restaurants, too, so this is a great way to save money the next time you eat out. For example, Chili’s gift cards start at just 1,650 points.

19. Find Lost Money

Your previous bank, landlord, or a government agency may owe you money in unclaimed funds. You may be due a security deposit or refund, for example.

The business doesn’t get to keep your unclaimed property after an extended period. Instead, they report the unclaimed money owed to the state government.

It’s free and only takes a few minutes to see if someone owes you money. You can search at Unclaimed.org. Your state may have an unclaimed money or property website as well.

Basically, getting unclaimed money is like finding free money that is owed to you.

20. Child Care Assistance

Not every parent has the luxury of being able to work from home and relies on child care to work. Child care is expensive for most families, but those with small incomes suffer more.

It’s possible to qualify for childcare assistance. You will need to apply for aid from the state government. Aid programs vary by state.

21. Down Payment Assistance

States and select cities provide down payment assistance grants for qualifying first-time homebuyers. The grant money can also cover closing costs in many instances.

The program may cap the benefit at a specific dollar amount or a percentage of the home purchase price.

22. Food Assistance Programs

Food is another essential item. Getting food can skip the step of first receiving free money and buying groceries.

Going to a local food bank is one way to get free food when you’re family is hungry and cannot buy groceries. Another option is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The elderly and households with a disabled person can qualify for additional benefits.

Another program benefit is SNAP Education (SNAP-Ed) that teaches healthy eating habits and cheap meal planning. Being able to reduce costs is an indirect way to get free money.

23. Get Free Stock

Some free investing apps offer free stock shares to new members. These apps may require a minimum $100 initial deposit to get the free shares.

Each share can be worth a few dollars or, in some cases, over $100. Referring friends to invest can give you more free shares.

Webull has exciting promotions and gives away stock shares worth between $2.50 and up to $1,600. This investing app has free stock and ETF trades. Its stock research tools are good, too.

Another free investing app to consider is Robinhood. New members can get one free share worth between $2.50 and $200.

24. 401k Matching Contributions

If your employer has a 401k retirement plan, see if they offer matching contributions. If yes, consider investing enough each paycheck to earn the full match.

Your employer may match up to 6% of your annual salary, for instance. Earning the full match is like an instant pay raise.

You also have more incentive to save for retirement. The employer match can also mean you have to invest less of your income to meet your savings goals. As a result, you have more money to spend on upfront expenses.

Matching contributions are tax-deferred and do not count toward your annual contribution limit.

25. Sell Old Tech

You may have several old electronics at home that you will no longer use. These items can get a second life by selling them.

Some of the old electronics that sell for cash include:

Decluttr provides an instant price quote for many small electronics. You get a free prepaid shipping label to mail your items. Your payment options include PayPal and paper check.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it possible to get free money now?

Yes, you can get free money now. The survey sites listed above are a great way to earn points and turn them into gift cards and cash. Also, the cashback sites listed above are great to earn as you shop and offer instant sign-up bonuses.

How do I get free PayPal money?

Paypal is one way of being paid for taking surveys, playing games, and completing tasks. Sites like Swagbucks listed above payout using PayPal. You can then transfer the money from PayPal to your own bank account or use the money to pay for items where PayPal is accepted.

What is the fastest way to get free money?

Many of the sites listed above offer referral bonuses. This is a great way to earn points that can be turned into cash. Other ways include playing games and completing tasks. Another idea is to sell your old stuff.

If you have books, vintage items, Legos, or even clothes with tags on, local sites like Facebook Marketplace are great for finding buyers.

How do I get $100 today?

A few ways to get $100 today are by becoming an Uber driver, selling your skills on sites like Fiverr, walking dogs, or pet-sit and grocery delivery services. Bank promotions also have sign-up bonuses. When looking for deals like these, make sure they are legit.

Summary

As you can tell, there is no shortage of legit ways to get free money online. Start using some of these methods today to earn money to help with your personal finance goals, such as paying off debt or enjoying extra cash.

Start with the simple, mindless ones and work your way up to ones that require a little more time (which still isn’t much).

Doing these little tasks might just change your finances or help you enjoy life a little more.

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8 Comments

  1. Hi,
    I’m a student who’s about to stop schooling because of financial problem, I really want to school but my family lack financially. I badly need money to support my studies.. I hope I am one of the lucky ones…????????

    1. Check out some of the suggestions in this article as a way to help you financially! I wish you the vest of luck!

  2. I would like to get in to something like this. Thank you.

    1. Check out some of the links throughout the article on ways to get started!

  3. Sheila Jackson says:

    I just need some free money. I need a car. I need an apartment. I need clothes and food.

    1. Follow the links in this post and use the other information to see if you can get help. We also have a post on this site titled, “9 Sites Where You Can Get Strangers to Give You Money.” It might help you. In addition, we have other posts about ways you can earn extra cash, side hustle, and work from home. You could also go to the social services office in your community to see if you can get assistance with food, shelter, and health care.

  4. Jessica wade says:

    I just need some free money.

    1. If only it were so simple! You might try using the information and links in this post, though. In addition, we have more posts on this site about ways you can make extra money. 🙂