Free Money: 40+ Legit Ways To Get It

Thanks to the world wide web and some handy apps, you can earn free money.

Is that even a real thing? Yes, with the disclaimer that you will need to put in a little effort. We can call it “free-ish” money.

This post contains 40+ ways you can get free money now, and we promise that they are all legit. However, they are not a way to ‘get rich quick’, because let’s be real, those don’t exist.

Apps that Reward Your Purchases

Get extra cash and boost your bank account for the things you already buy using the following apps:

Rakuten

Rakuten offers up to 40% cashback when you shop through their portal. You automatically get $10 signup bonus credited to your bank account just for signing up. The $10 bonus is unlocked as soon as you spend $25 with Rakuten enabled, and it takes two minutes to sign up.

You can collect the money you earned at the end of each quarter. Rakuten pays out via your PayPal account or a check.

Fetch Rewards

You can earn extra free cash for shopping at any grocery store. Fetch Rewards partners with common brands to offer you money for buying certain products. It’s easy to get started:

• Download the Fetch Rewards app
• Scan your grocery receipts
• Earn points based on your purchase, similar to being able to earn cash back
• Redeem these points to buy gift card and other rewards

Ibotta

Ibotta if you link your account and use it when you check out.

Earny

Earny works in a similar fashion to Paribus. They will monitor your online purchases and look for a price drop. If one occurs they will work to issue you a refund or offer you a script to get it yourself.

Earny is an app and a Chrome extension making it effortless to get free money.

Other cash back apps to consider:

• Drop App – Earn points and redeem for cash. Free $5 sign up bonus
• Honey App – A browser extension that finds coupons for online purchases

Earn Money Now by Taking Surveys

Taking a survey is an easy way to make money online. You can take them during commercial breaks, while waiting in line, or sitting at your kid’s baseball game. Taking online surveys is basically like getting free money for your opinion. You can start earning money immediately on the web taking surveys.

Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie claims to be the most popular online spot to earn cash for your opinions. The reward for taking paid online surveys vary.

Each survey offers points and has an anticipated amount of time. 1,000 points translates to $10. You can use this information to decide if the survey is one you would like to complete.

Survey Junkie allows you to cash out once you’ve hit 1000 points or more. You can redeem your points for gift cards or cash straight to your PayPal account.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks claims to be one of the best-paid survey sites. Each online survey has a different pay-out. You can earn up to $50 for a survey, but even Swagbucks says this is rare. On average you can expect to earn about 40 to 200 points per survey. 100 points = $1.

Swagbucks offers rewards for more than just surveys. You can earn cash by watching videos, taking a poll, shopping online, and using their coupons to earn more points. If you sign up now, you’ll receive a $5 signup bonus.

You can redeem your points for cash deposited into your PayPal account or put onto a Visa gift card. Who would’ve known answering survey questions from home would help you get a free gift card?

Other paid survey sites to consider:

• InboxDollars – Earn cash for participating in surveys, video games, and coupon clipping. Inbox Dollars also lets you earn extra money by watching tv and watch videos.
• PrizeRebel – Earn cash or gift cards rewards for taking surveys. These can be redeemed for cool rewards including paypal money and amazon gift cards.
• Vindale Research and Pinecone Research – Offer longer surveys that allow you to earn more money.

Get Free Money for Moving Your Body

If you have a goal of getting off the couch and moving, why not get paid for it? There are several apps that will pay you to walk, lose weight, and move.

Sweatcoin

Sweatcoin will pay you to walk. Yes, you can earn money right at home while you’re exercising. The only catch is they pay you in cryptocurrency known as Sweatcoins.

As a regular member you can earn 5 Sweatcoins per day for 5,000 steps. 20,000 sweatcoins can be exchanged for $1,000. You can use these Sweatcoins to buy gift cards, get cash or give to charity. Free cash straight to your savings account sounds like a sweet (or sweaty) deal!

Achievement

This company will pay you to complete any and all kinds of exercise. You log your exercise of choice and earn points. You can also log what you are eating and your sleep schedule to earn even more points. Exchange these points for money. Achievement uses this information for medical research studies.

Other apps to make money through exercise:

• StepBet – Set fitness goals and bet on yourself
• HealthyWage – Get paid to walk.
• Rover – Get paid to walk dogs.
• Walgreens Rewards – Link the Walgreens app and activate the fitness tracker to earn free cash for Walgreens purchases

Make Cash Online by Selling Stuff

I think it’s safe to say we all have some extra stuff around the home we do not use or need. I know for a fact there are some things stashed away in our hall closet that only serve as a dust collector. Make extra cash quickly by selling your stuff with one of these online platforms.

Decluttr

Do you have extra tech laying around? Sell it on Decluttr and get paid the day after your items arrive. Decluttr accepts cell phones, CDs, games and more. What better feeling than to make extra money from things you no longer use. The process is simple:

• Search for your item on their website
• Get an instant valuation based on the condition
• If this sounds good, sign up for Declutter
• Ship your items for free
• Choose to receive cash via PayPal or Direct Deposit

Poshmark

If your closet is the place brimming with unused items, then Poshmark is the platform for you. It’s a social marketplace for all things fashion. Open up a Poshmark closet and list your clothing, shoes, and accessories. When an item sells, Poshmark makes it easy to ship with their pre-made label. The earnings will then go into your PayPal account.

Ebay

Open up your own online shop with Ebay. Here you can sell anything and everything as long as you can ship it. It doesn’t cost any money upfront to list up to 50 items per month. You pay 10% of the final value fee when your item sells. Shipping labels can easily be printed at home and EBay helps you price your item fairly.

Facebook Marketplace

Maybe you have a rug that is too big to ship? You can easily sell your items locally using the Facebook Marketplace. From thriving house plants to used cars, Facebook marketplace is an easy way to make free money from the items that are too much of a hassle to ship out.

Craigslist

Craigslist is a thriving local hub for you to sell stuff you have around the house. You can easily make a listing and receive inquiries via an anonymous email.

Please note that Craigslist can be risky. If you can, avoid meeting people at your home. Otherwise, be sure to have someone with you when you sell an item. If you feel uncomfortable from the start of a conversation, end it. Safety takes priority over free cash though.

Other places to sell your stuff online:

• Gazelle and Swappa – Sell your new and lightly used tech
• Etsy – Sell art or high-end crafted items you made
• Ruby Lane – Sell your verified antiques or collectibles

Get Free Money Off Your Bills

If you want to find ways to trim your current expenses we recommend using the Trim App. Trim automates saving money by analyzing your spending and negotiating your monthly bills. You read that right. Trim will make sure you’re getting the best deal on your cable, internet, cell phone bills and more by negotiating on your behalf.

Billshark is another app that works to lower your bills and cancel your unused subscriptions. Sign up with Billshark and they do the rest of the heavy lifting. By that, I mean they take care of the uncomfortable conversations to lower your monthly bills.

Get Free Stock

Start building your wealth right now and get free stocks.

Webull

Webull offers individual brokerage accounts and traditional IRA accounts. We like Webull because it is a commission free investing app. That means you aren’t paying any crazy fees to trade.

You can sign up today using our link and get your first free stock. If you invest more than $100 you will get two free stocks. Talk about earning free money fast!

Public

Public is a free to use investing app that offers commission free trades using their brokerage account. Public also allows you to invest in cryptocurrencies.

You can sign up today to earn free stocks, just for joining their platform!

Acorns

Acorns is an app that takes all the work out of investing. They will ask you to connect your accounts. Then, Acorns will round up each purchase made and invest that spare change. You can choose which accounts you want to connect.

You can start investing with Acorns today and get a free $5 bonus.

We would like to make a note that getting free stock is awesome, but you also need to invest seriously for the future. This means you will diversify your investments and look at opening a few different accounts. To get started investing, first find your why.

Free Money For Refinancing Your Student Loans

Refinancing your student loans is a major decision. You can earn money in the form of cashback, but we want you to be sure this is the right choice for your financial situation first. Here are a few things to consider:

• If you have federal student loans refinancing will wipe away all federal borrower flexibility. When you refinance your student loan, you create a new private student loan. This means you are no longer eligible for student loan forgiveness programs, income-driven repayment plans or forbearance/deferment in case of financial hardship. We recommend you only consider refinancing your federal student loans if you are in a financial position to pay off the loans in a period of 5 years or less.
• Refinancing your student loans can increase your monthly payment. If you choose a shorter loan term, which is typically matched with a lower interest rate, your monthly payment may increase. This can be a good thing as you save money on interest over the long term. However, if you need cash or to lower your payment then this would not be helpful.

If you have private student loans, then refinancing for a lower interest rate is a good idea. We recommend you start with Credible. Here, you can receive personalized prequalified options in one place.

You should also check out your options with top lenders like SoFi to make sure you get the best deal possible.

Receive Money Due to Financial Hardship

If you are having a hard time paying for bills, housing, or medical care look into the following assistance programs:

CARES Act

On March 27th, 2020 the US government signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES). This act provides several forms of financial relief including free money for small businesses. You can review the CARES Act relief on USA.gov.

Netwish

Netwish.org provides grants to vulnerable members of the community including children and the elderly. If you or someone you know is in need, you can fill out a wish request.

AuntBertha

AuntBertha.com allows users to search for free or reduced-cost services including food and medical care.

Find Unclaimed Money For Free

Every year money goes unclaimed or missing. Where is this money from? Employers, the government, insurance companies, and even assets from deceased relatives. Start your search and claim process for free unclaimed money using the following resources:

• Research government unclaimed money
• Begin a claim on MissingMoney.com to be matched as the rightful owner
• Look up your name on the National Association of Unclaimed Property

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could find missing money? Surprise!

Start Earning Free Money Today

Our hope is that one of these ideas stuck out as an option for making free-ish money today. Let us know in the comments what you tried!

Another method not mentioned yet is if you have a rewards credit card – you may be able to cash out your points. Using your credit card rewards you can make extra money you didn’t realize you had.

This doesn’t apply to those who have a balance transfer card, since they generally don’t offer rewards points. Also important to note, you shouldn’t go into credit card debt trying to accumulate more points to earn rewards.

One of the smart ways to handle the extra free cash you make would be to direct it to your debt, emergency fund or save up for investment purposes.

As you try out different ways to get free money or free stuff like free gift cards, please beware of scams. Not all free money opportunities are from legitimate companies or even people!

Increasing your income through a small side hustle, like the options listed here, is a great way to start exploring financial flexibility and freedom. If you’re curious about ways to make, save and manage money start with the FIRE guide.