How to Get Free Money...
Without further ado, here are the companies giving out free money right now:
=> Automate Your Savings With Acorns — $5 :
Acorns is a simple savings and investment app that rounds your credit or debit card purchases up to the nearest dollar and invests the digital change.
You can connect the app to your credit or debit card and let it automatically round up all your transactions, or manually round up only the ones you choose.
Contributor CJ Reid does the latter, accepting roundups of less than $0.50, such as his $3.60 cup of coffee.
“Rounding up 40 cents here and 25 cents there moves me swiftly enough to $5 so that I can begin investing without putting myself into the red,” she says.
Once your round ups reach $5, that amount will be transferred from your bank to your Acorns account, and invested into your chosen portfolio.
“Acorns makes it easy to invest by removing the responsibility of choosing individual investments or worrying about trades,” Reid explains. “You don’t need any previous investment knowledge or history.”
And once you get the process automated, Acorns investments make your digital change work for you.
“With a conservative portfolio,” Reid says, “I turned $15 into $19 within a few weeks.”
=> Snap a Picture of Your Receipt With Ibotta — $10 :
Ibotta is an easy-to-use cash-back app that’s partnered with more than 50 retailers, just about anywhere you’d do any kind of shopping.
Before heading to the store, search for items on your shopping list within the app. Strawberries? Check. An ear of corn? Check. Add each cash-back opportunity to your list in the app.
Then shop.
When you get home, snap a photo of your receipt and scan the items’ barcodes.
Bam. Cash back.
Some cash-back opportunities we’ve seen include:
25 cents back for any item
25 cents back on strawberries
50 cents back on frozen fruit snacks
$1 back on a box of tea
$5 back on a case of Shiner Bock beer
Notice a lot of those aren’t tied to a brand — just shop for the staples on your list, and earn cash back!
=> Complete a Few Surveys — $5 :
A number of sites will pay you to read advertiser’s emails, sign up for offers and take surveys.
We’ve tried about a million of them (OK… we've lost count), but there are only a few we'd recommend.
MyPoints: This platform lets you earn gift cards for taking polls, answering surveys and other things you do online — a great way to cash in on long lines or an endless commute.
You’ll earn a $5 bonus when you complete your first five surveys.
=> Start Investing With Stash — $5 :
It’s no brilliant secret that investing can be a smart way to make money.
Sometimes, though, it feels restricted to a few wealthy elite.
But Stash is different. This app lets you start investing with as little as $5 and for just a $1 monthly fee for balances under $5,000.
Stash curates investments from professional fund managers and investors and lets you choose where to put your money — but it leaves the complicated investment terms out of it.
You just choose from a set of simple portfolios reflecting your beliefs, interests and goals.
=> Take This 10-Minute Survey — $25 :
JOANY is a health care concierge service. It helps people find and compare plans, seek out doctors and navigate complicated medical bills.
In order to best cater to customers, it needs you to answer some survey questions. It takes less than 10 minutes, with fewer than 50 (HIPAA-protected) questions.
If you meet these qualifications and complete the survey, you'll pocket $25:
You purchased health insurance for 2017 through your state exchange, Healthcare.gov, a broker or a plan, such as Oscar or Aetna.
You don’t receive health insurance through your employer or school.
You aren’t on Medicaid, Medicare or VA health insurance.
JOANY promises fewer than 50 questions and less than 10 minutes of your time. Most questions are multiple choice, making answering easy. Your answers are private and protected under federal law.
=> Clear Your Old CD Tower — $5+ :
Have a bunch of movies or CDs collecting dust on a shelf? Decluttr will pay you for them!
Decluttr buys your old CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and video games, plus hardware like cell phones, tablets, game consoles and iPods.
We talked to one user, Gil Flores, who sold about 100 DVDs and 75 CDs and made $275 — an average of $1.57 each.
=> Rent out Your Extra Baby Stuff With This App — $20+ :
Traveling with kids can be rewarding, but also very challenging. The goBaby app aims to make it a little easier on parents — while giving other parents the chance to make some extra cash.
Packing and hauling baby stuff across airports, planes, trains and automobiles sucks, and it might even cost you extra money.
Through the goBaby app, New York City-based mother of two Natalie Kaminski created a parent-to-parent marketplace where traveling parents could rent baby gear like strollers, car seats and other items from local parents with the same to spare.
This Airbnb-style exchange for baby supplies is available in New York City and will be launching soon in Boston, Miami, San Francisco and Chicago.
If you live in one of these cities, use the app to monetize the baby gear you already own!