5 Ways to Earn Money with Your Phone

As you may be able to tell, one of my favorite hobbies is earning extra money. I’ve found 5 apps for my phone that allow me to earn a little extra money during my downtime or while Toot plays independently. Now, these aren’t get-rich-quick schemes. You’re not going to make thousands of dollars from these. But you’ll make enough to cover dinner out with your husband every once in a while, and that’s worth it to me!

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1. FeaturePoints

FeaturePoints is an app that will give you points for trying out new free apps. It’s pretty easy to use. My BFF can use it, and she’s terrible at technology. Here are the step by step instructions:

1. Choose an app you want to try from the list.
2. It will take you to the app store for your device. Download the app. (They’re always free)
3. Open the app and use it for a couple of minutes. Completing any tutorials will usually do it.
4. Go back to FeaturePoints and check the status. It might be pending for a few minutes, hours or up to a day.
5. Once it’s processed and your points have been awarded, delete the app. Or keep it if you like it.

That’s it. Rack up your points and cash out in the reward section. You can get gift cards to Amazon or other stores, the app store of your choice, or even just have them Paypal the money to you. That’s what I do. You can also earn points by referring friends. You get 50% of whatever they earn.

I love FeaturePoints because of the low payout threshold. You can cash out with a $1 Amazon gift card or as low as $3 for a Paypal payment. I’ve made $100 so far on FeaturePoints. Use this link on your phone to get 50 points to start off!

2. Ebates

Ebates is probably my favorite way to earn money on my phone. You get cash back just for shopping online and buying things you’re already going to buy anyway. Everyone I know that uses Ebates is like “Why didn’t I know about this sooner?”

Not only do you get cash back online, you can also get cash back in stores. You just have to link your credit card to it.

I normally use it for shopping online because I rarely ever go to an actual store anymore. Too much of a hassle with a toddler when the UPS person will just bring it to me. I do a lot of my online shopping from my phone while playing with Toot on the floor. She’s not allowed to be near my precious laptop. She can throw my phone down the hall but DO NOT TOUCH MY LAPTOP. So mobile shopping is usually what happens in our house.

Here’s how to best use the app:

1. When you want to buy something, open the Ebates app.
2. Check out the 2x Cash Back stores they’re currently promoting to get max cash back. Find a store that would have what you’re looking for.
3. Hit the shop button, and it’ll take you to their website.
4. Buy whatever you want.
5. After your order is shipped, your cash back will be in your account!

Ebates has a very low payout threshold at $5! Plus if you use my link, you’ll get $10 cash back when you spend $25 at any store through Ebates!

3. Swagbucks

Swagbucks not only pays you to shop online similar to Ebates, you can also earn money from surveys, watching videos, and even searching the web. Swagbucks will also pay out in gift cards to Amazon, Starbucks, Target and more if that’s what you want. The payout threshold is $5 for gift cards and $25 for Paypal.

If you’re ready to try out Swagbucks sign up here. You even get SB points just for things like confirming your email address!

Ebates vs. Swagbucks: Which is better?

4. InboxDollars

InboxDollars is similar to Swagbucks in that you can earn money from surveys, watching videos, and reading emails. The cash out threshold is $30 but you get $5 just for completing the general survey about yourself. So you only need to get $25 more to cash out.

I started using InboxDollars a looooong time ago before smartphones were even a thing. Now there’s an app for that! You can easily watch videos or read paid emails while your kid has some independent play time or during naptime. Click here to sign up!

5. Nielsen Mobile Rewards

Nielsen Mobile Panel is something I totally forget about because you don’t have to do anything after you install it. They just give you money to have it on your phone. They do track what you’re doing on your phone for research so if you don’t like the idea of that, you should skip this one. But it doesn’t have the ability to read your texts or emails or know what your passwords are or anything like that. It just looks at what apps you use and when and how you use them.

Nielsen does the TV ratings but they also do research on other things like how you use your smartphone! They’ll pay you about $50 every year to study your anonymous info your phone sends them. You can redeem the points for gift cards and other cool stuff. I usually do Amazon gift cards. This is probably the easiest of the 5 apps to earn money. Sign up here.

Also check out the Ultimate Guide to Earning Extra Money with Zazzle

What are your favorite apps to earn money with?

Let me know in the comments below!

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