Make Extra Cash

The Best Apps To Make Money Fast

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Table of Contents  
  1. It’s Never Been Easier
  2. Plenty of Time

    In the past, if you wanted to make some extra money, you’d take a part-time job or maybe do something like babysit or mow lawns. But making money in those ways meant that you had to be on someone else’s schedule which wasn’t always convenient when you already had a regular job and other responsibilities.

    Your phone is with you 24/7 so why not use it and your spare time to increase your bank balance? You can with these 17 money making apps.

    It’s Never Been Easier

    The internet has given us countless ways to make money that we can do on our own schedules, whenever we have extra time.

    And a lot of these ways don’t require much time at all, just a few minutes here and there when you’re eating lunch at work or watching television in the evening.

    Using money making apps also don’t typically require much effort either, and some of them will pay you for things you’re already doing like food shopping or shopping online.

    And the best kind of money is money for doing (almost) nothing.

    So whatever you need extra money for, to pay off debt, to save for retirement, or just to blow on something fun, there are apps out there that can help you do it.

  1. Survey Junkie
  2. Do you have strong opinions? If you do, Survey Junkie will pay you for them. Companies want consumer’s opinions to help them improve their products and services.

    Before the internet, companies would gather this information using focus groups, but now they can get the same information using online surveys through sites like Survey Junkie.

    For each completed survey, you’ll earn points that can be redeemed for cash via PayPal or gift
    Cards.

    Survey Junkie

    Want to get paid for your opinion? Survey Junkie lets you share yours to help brands deliver better products and services. After creating your profile, they'll start matching you to online surveys you can take anywhere.

  3. Prize Rebel
  4. Prize Rebel is similar to Survey Junkie; users can earn points for answer surveys, watching videos, and referring new users to the site.

    Each completed task earns points, surveys pay the most, at 50 to 200 points. Each point is worth one cent.

    Points can be redeemed for cash via PayPal or gift cards to several retailers.

  5. Ebates
  6. We spend a lot of money shopping online. Drunks alone account for $30 billion of online shopping.

    The average American buys $447.57 worth of stuff while drunk.

    The amount people spent varied by drink: Gin drinkers splurge the most, spending an average of more than $82. Whiskey drinkers wound up spending almost $40.

    Beer drinkers were the only other group to spend less than $40, and people drinking red or white wine spent about $42 and $46, respectively.

    Don’t you love that this study even broke it down according to the preferred drink?! I have totally done this.

    I bought Guy Fawkes masks and was going to use them to single-handedly take down the church of Scientology.

    It was red wine, so I guess I spent $42. I don’t remember cause I was drunk.

    Whether you’re drunk or sober, you can save money online shopping when you use Ebates.

    Ebates has partnered with more than 1,800 stores, and when you use their portal to shop with a participating store, you’ll earn cash back.

    Some of the recent deals include up to 10% back with Amazon, up to 14% with Bloomingdale’s, and up to 8% back with Sephora.

    Every quarter Ebates will send you a check or deposit your savings into your PayPal account.

  7. Swagbucks
  8. Swagbucks is similar to Ebates, a shopping portal that gives you cash back. One Swagbuck is equivalent to 1% cash back.

    There are hundreds of participating stores and retailers. Some of the recent deals include 10% back at Walmart, 12% at Macy’s, and 5% back at Best Buy.

    If online shopping isn’t your thing, there are other ways to make money with Swagbucks including watching videos, taking surveys, doing internet searches, and playing games.

    swagbucks review

    Your cash back can be redeemed for cash via PayPal or gift cards.

  9. Shopkick
  10. Shopkick is a receipt scanning app. You’ll earn points, called Kicks, when you buy eligible items, scan the receipt, and upload it to the site.

    There are other ways to earn Kicks, and some of them don’t even require you to spend any money!

    You can shop through the Shopkick portal, enter certain stores, and scan barcodes on selected items.

    $1 is 250 Kicks. Receipt scanning earns 100 to 500 Kicks, walking into a store is usually worth 25, and scanning barcodes will earn between 15 and 50.

    Your Shopkick points can be redeemed for gift cards from stores like Amazon, Walmart, and Target. Just 500 Kicks will net you a $2 Amazon gift card!

  11. ShopTracker
  12. Of all the apps to make money on this list, ShopTracker is probably the easiest. The app tracks your Amazon purchases for market research.

    Each month you’ll receive a short survey. For answering the questions and having the app downloaded, you’ll receive a $3 Visa gift card every month.

    That’s all there is to it. You can earn $36 a year for about 15 minutes of your time.

  13. Honey
  14. There are coupon codes out there for just about anything you want to buy online, so an excellent way to save money is to search for one before you make a purchase.

    But it can be a lot of trial and error. There are a lot of codes that are already expired or don’t work for whatever reason so this little exercise can be frustrating.

    Winners never quit and couponers never lose.

    Tweet This

    Honey will take the frustration out of searching for coupon codes. It’s a browser extension that finds valid codes when you get to the check out page on more than 30,000 online shopping sites.

    All you have to do is install the extension, sit back, and start saving. And a penny saved is, of course, a penny earned. Honey can save you more than pennies.

    Honey

    Andrew wants you to stop searching for coupons. Instead, let Honey do the work for you on 30,000+ sites. Create an account, shop like you normally do and start saving.

  15. Earny
  16. You do your research to find the best item at the best price and pull the trigger. And then. You see the damn thing on sale a week later! Very frustrating but Earny can help.

    When an item goes on sale after you’ve purchased it, you might be entitled to a refund of the difference either from the store or from the credit card you bought it with.

    But it’s kind of a pain to go through the process of getting the refund so even if we know it’s available, we can’t’ be bothered.

    Being bothered with getting the refund is what Earny is all about.

    When Earny finds money for you, it will be credited back to the credit or debit card you used to purchase the item or given to you in the form of store credit.

    However, sometimes a phone call or a form is required to receive this refund.

  17. Seated
  18. Did you know you can make money by going out to eat? Well, you can when you make your restaurant reservations through Seated.

    Each time you complete a reservation, meet the required spending minimum and upload your receipt to the App, you’ll get up to 30% back in the form of gift card for Amazon, Lyft, Starbucks, and Nike.

    Seated is currently available in New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Austin, Denver, Providence, and Seattle.

  19. HealthyWage
  20. Some 45% of Americans go on a diet each year and most of them give up after just a few weeks.

    But money is a great motivator so why not get paid to lose those extra pounds? That’s what HealthyWage does.

    There is a calculator on the HealthWage site. Enter how many pounds you want to lose, how many months it will take, and how much money you want to bet per month on yourself to do it.

    Enter your gender, height, current weight, and waist circumference. Based on this information, you’ll see how much money you will win if you meet your goal.

    I put in some fake numbers (I don’t have weight to lose) and my winnings after my bet would be $169.40 which would be a 56.33% return on my investment in six months.

    There aren’t many investments that give you that kind of return and you get to control whether you win or not. Pretty cool!

  21. Gazelle
  22. Do you have a collection of old electronics like smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers cluttering up your house?

    A lot of us do and while that’s better than tossing them in the garbage (when these items end up in landfills it pollutes the environment with contaminants like lead and arsenic) getting money for them is even better.

    Gazelle lets you turn those items, working and non-working into cash and gift cards!

    Find your device on the site, answer some questions about it and Gazelle will give you an offer. If you accept, you can print a prepaid shipping label and send it off.

    You can be paid cash via PayPal or a paper check or with an Amazon gift card. If you take the Amazon option, you’ll get an additional 3% on the price.

    Gazelle

    Gazelle pays you cash for tech gadgets you no longer use without any fees (even if it's damaged). Get paid via check, Amazon gift card, or via PayPal. Answer a few questions about your device, and Gazelle sends you a free, pre-paid shipping label.

  23. OfferUp
  24. If you have stuff to sell but don’t want to ship anything, Craig’s List was your best option because the buyers are local.

    But if you’ve ever sold stuff on CL, you’ve probably dealt with your share of flakes and maybe even downright creeps.

    OfferUp lets you sell locally, but you can see profiles of potential buyers which includes ratings by other sellers and their transaction history.

    You do also have the option to ship items so while selling locally is more convenient, selling nationally gets you a much bigger pool of potential buyers.

    All you need to do is take a photo of your item, upload it to the site, write a description, and name a price.

    You can sell nearly anything on OfferUp including household items, books, cars, and even event tickets.

    OfferUp is free for both sellers and buyers, but the site does offer paid options that help your items get more notice from potential buyers.

  25. Poshmark
  26. If you have clothes you don’t wear or like to shop at thrift and discount stores; you can make some good money selling on Poshmark.

    You need to have an eye for fashion though; not everything sells well. Peruse other “shops” on Poshmark to get an idea of what’s hot.

    ways-to-make-money-posmark

    You set your prices, and again, you can look at other seller’s pages to see the going rate for things. You can access your earnings whenever you want; there’s no minimum.

    The money is deposited into your checking account, or you can opt for a paper check. All sales under $15, the commission is a flat $2.95. For sales over $15, Poshmark gets 20%.

  27. Billshark
  28. Remember when VCRs first came out, and they were costly but after, a few years you could get one for like $10? Yeah, how come that hasn’t happened with stuff like cable and wireless?

    I pay more now for my combined cable and internet than I did a couple of years ago. Sucks man.

    If you feel like you’re paying too much for cable, your cell phone, satellite TV and radio, internet and home security system, Billshark can get you a better deal.

    Billshark will negotiate lower rates for these services, and they have an 85% success rate. The average customer who gives them two bills to lower saves as much as $1,500!

    I’ve used the service twice, and it’s saved me about $400 per year.

  29. Trim
  30. Since Seated is inexplicably no longer available in New Orleans (please come back, all we do down here is eat and drink!) Trim is my favorite app to make money or save money as it were.

    Did you sign up for a free 30 day trial of something? Do you have a Pandora subscription you don’t use?

    Are you paying a monthly fee to a gym you never go to? You really should cancel them you know, they cost you money.

    But you’re lazy(me too), and it’s a pain to cancel that stuff. But money. Trim is the personal assistant you need.

    trim review cut costs

    Trim goes through your credit card and bank statements and looks for those kinds of monthly recurring charges. When it finds one, it will message you asking if you want to cancel it.

    If you do, Trim will cancel it for you.

    Trim has saved me $70 a month, $840 a year! That’s a lot of money, and Trim put it back in my pocket.

  31. Acorns
  32. We drill into your head over and over that you need to start investing. It’s the best way to grow your wealth.

    If you still haven’t done it, Acorns might finally convince you because investing happens in the background every time you spend money.

    The Acorns app rounds up to the nearest dollar for each purchase you make on a linked debit or credit card and invests that amount for you into a recommended portfolio.

    You can make additional contributions too, but if you don’t feel ready for that, you’ll at least be investing something in the meantime.

  33. Worthy
  34. LMM encourages everyone to invest in the stock market, but some of you are hesitant. Stocks are a great way to grow your wealth, but they aren’t without risk.

    Bonds don’t typically make investors as much money as stocks, but they are less risky.

    If you want to invest but aren’t ready for stocks, you’ll love Worthy. Worthy is an app that invests your money in bonds and pays a fixed annual interest rate of 5%. Do you know what the average savings account pays?

    The average interest rate on savings accounts is a 0.08% APY, but many of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. pay low rates, around just 0.01% APY.

    Investors can buy bonds directly on the site, schedule a recurring monthly purchase, or by rounding up purchases made on a linked debit or credit card (the same way Acorns works).

    Not a bad deal! You can use the account as an investment account or just as a savings account with an awesome interest rate because you can deposit or withdraw money any time.

    Plenty of Time

    Americans spend nearly 24 a week online, an entire day each week! To say nothing of the amount of time we spend watching television. And I know what you guys are doing on there. You’re looking at cat videos and porn! Those are the reasons the internet was invented.

    By no means are we suggesting you give up those habits, but you need to spend a few of those hours you’re online using apps to make money. You’re not going to buy a house earning money on these apps, but you’ll be surprised how fast the cash and gift cards start to add up.

    So give it a try, the cat videos and porn aren’t going anywhere.

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Candice Elliott - Senior Editor Candice Elliott is a substantial contributor to Listen Money Matters. She has been a personal finance writer since 2013 and has written extensively on student loan debt, investing, and credit. She has successfully navigated these areas in her own life and knows how to help others do the same. Candice has answered thousands of questions from the LMM community and spent countless hours doing research for hundreds of personal finance articles. She happily calls New Orleans, Louisiana home-the most fun city in the world.
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