Need some extra cash during lockdown? Download these apps that pay you real money and watch your money grow!
I’ve always been quite savvy with saving or earning money online, whether that’s by doing surveys, taking part in mystery shopping or even just offering my freelance services through People Per Hour. I fell out of the whole game when working 9-5 because although the extra cash for little to no minimal effort would have been worth it, I just got too lax with it and then stopped altogether.
Since being furloughed, I’ve made my way back to earning money online, often by dedicating no more than half an hour a day to the task. This has of course been easy when sat at home all day, but now that I’m part-time working from home, I’ve still managed to find time in the evenings.
With many of these things, what you earn is down to how much effort you put in. I will do an entire blog post about all the different techniques I use, but today I wanted to focus primarily just on apps that pay you real money.
This is because downloading and using an app is super easy to get your head around and in some cases you can leave them running in the background whilst you go about your day. Some apps are also genuinely fun to use also, so many may be more inclined to earn money playing games on their phone as opposed to sitting at a laptop and filling in surveys.
Here are some genuinely legitimate apps I’ve been using lately to earn some extra cash.
Read more: Four ways to get a grip on your finances this year
GET PAID TO GAME WITH MISTPLAY
Mistplay is probably one of the most popular gaming-and-earning apps out there and it’s easy to understand why when you see how many games there are to play and how quickly you earn. You log on and choose a game from their offering, and these are divided between Mistplay Favourites (which have the highest earning rates), New releases and different game type (slots, fantasy, puzzle etc). You earn units as you play games, which can then be exchanged for real money and other rewards such as Amazon gift cards. Unfortunately they don’t yet add money direct to Paypal, but you can earn a prepaid Mastercard (for £5, £10 and £25). This is a little tricky as far as I’m aware, if you want to save up your money for a big purchase, you’d have to order multiple prepaid cards rather than just top up one, however it depends what you use it for and it’s not that much of an inconvenience.
I also like how you can earn units not just by playing the games but on things like if you log on a certain number of days in a row, playing a game for one hour after 11pm and other badges.
I would also note that you tend to earn units quicker when you first download games, which makes sense as it’s always easy to level up at first and gets trickier later on. So you have the option of either sticking with a game you genuinely enjoy, or download and try lots of other ones now and then.
TOP TIP: If you download and play POP! Slots at the moment, once you get going you can set it to auto-spin and just leave it to play in the background whilst doing other things. You can also collect points within the game for prizes like a suite at top casinos in Vegas, so whilst you play you’re earning points for real stuff via the game AND money by playing via Mistplay. Just remember to delete any games you no longer use to avoid clogging up your phone.
TAKE SHORT SURVEYS WITH ONEPULSE
OnePulse is technically a survey-taking app, but it’s by far one of my favourites. The surveys are never more than five or so questions long and can often be completed within a couple of minutes. What’s great about this app is that rather than getting points for surveys, you get actual money – but this does depend on your experience. I’ve been using it on and off for a couple of years and I have 34171 XP, putting me at level 28, and receiving 34 cents per survey. The more XP you have, the more you earn each survey and the more surveys you have access to. However, it’s pretty easy to level up as there’s always a never-ending abundance of short surveys you can complete for insight purposes (i.e surveys you don’t get paid for). Sometimes I give myself just five minutes and can get through ten or more in one sitting. The payout minimum is $20.00 (and again, it’s all in dollars, but you can still cash out directly to GBP into your Paypal). The only downside is that it can be easy to miss a paid survey – you get a notification on your phone but if you don’t pick it up and participate within five minutes, all places are gone. However, it’s another way to slowly but surely get some extra cash and probably the app I’ve come across with the shortest and easiest surveys to do,
GET PAID TO WALK WITH SWEATCOIN
It may take a while, but if you’re a pretty active person, you could earn real money just by walking via Sweatcoin. Simply download the app and have your phone on you when going for a walk or on a day-to-day basis – unfortunately, it does not yet connect up to trackers like Fitbit etc. These sweatcoins can then be used to purchase cool prizes or, eventually, $1,000 in cash. You need to earn 20,000 to get this cash, but as long as you have the app running in the background, you’ll get there one day! I have been using the app on and off for two or three years now and have 1,203.50 sweatcoins in my wallet through basically no extra effort on my half as I often forget I even have the app.
The only downside is that your earnings are capped each day – but you can extend the caps when you upgrade your account. There are five levels:
- Mover – entirely free and allows you to earn up to 5.00 SWC (sweatcoins) per day
- Shaker – costs 4.75 SWC per month and caps at 10.00 SWC per day
- Quaker – costs 20.00 SWC per month and caps at 15.00 SWC per day
- Breaker – costs 30.00 SWC per month and caps at 20.00 SWC per day
- Trouble Maker – this is the only level that isn’t free: it costs £1.19 per month and caps at 50.00 SWC per day
I’ll leave it to you to work out which level is best for you! The slog can be long on a day-to-day basis (but again, why not download the app for free and just leave it in your pocket to build points with no extra effort on your part), but if you’re trying to get fit? It can be done quicker.
There’s also ways to boost your earnings, such as a 2x boost you can activate for your most active time of the day (i.e when you go for a run or a workout – or even a walk down the shops!).
I will note that when I first began using the app, the things you could buy with your earnings weren’t great, however now there are travel experiences like a trip (everything included, even flights!) to Finland to stay in a cosy igloo and see the Northern Lights. This costs 18,559 SWC (cheaper than the $1,000 cash option). I only need, er, 17,395.5 to get there! I think that works out at about 350 days if I hit my daily cap every day…?
TOP TIP: To stop yourself feeling overwhelmed, start off with just a few apps and go from there. These five apps are a great place to start, but there are plenty of others I use in addition to these – try them out and see how you get on as although survey apps follow the same type of concept for example, you might find you get on easier with some more than others.
UPLOAD YOUR RECEIPTS WITH HUYU OR RECEIPT HOG
I’m going to mention two apps here because they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Overall, I find Huyu has a much nicer and cleaner interface and allows you to take part in easy and short surveys as well as uploading receipts. I’ve also found that it’s a lot quicker and easier to reach the minimum payout of £5 – I am already halfway there and I only began using it in April! The only downside is that you can’t get cash directly, but the gift cards are endless: Amazon, Cineworld, H&M, M&S, New Look, Pizza Express, lastminute.com etc. So if you’re saving for a particular goal like a holiday with lastminute.com or just want a treat like a dinner at Pizza Express, it’s perfect! You get 5 points per receipt, which means you’d need 100 receipts to cash out – this is easily done if you shop a lot. You also get 15 points per survey.
Receipt Hog, on the other hand, is a bit more wildly known as the app to upload your receipts (but bear in mind you can download both apps and upload the same receipt to both!), but does take longer to reach the goal of 1,500 coins, which is a direct £5 to your Paypal, Mastercard or Amazon gift card. I’m only on 195 coins so far. You also get more coins per receipt depending on how much you spend at the shop. You also get spins for ‘hog slots’ which will reward you with extra coins, and there are also monthly bonuses. I’m still getting my head around this but I think up to level 11, you get extra spins for ‘hog slots’ by uploading receipts regularly. Then, once you’re at level 12, your monthly bonuses swap from extra spins to actual coins. So I suppose, in the long run, you get more chances at hitting your goal, but it can be a bit of a slog at first. Still, considering there’s no other way to gain points than uploading receipts if all you have to do is take a photo of a receipt when you get one, it’s a no brainer really!
TOP TIP: Keep the apps all in one folder on your mobile, so you can open that folder and work through each one in one sitting – without having to search through your phone. I’ve added a little money emoji to mine to motivate myself a bit more!
So next time you’ve got half an hour spare at home or you’re browsing your phone whilst watching TV, why not open one of these apps that pay you real money and try your hand at making some extra cash? It may not be a lot and it may take a while to cash out but since you’re literally sitting on your bum doing nothing anyway, why wouldn’t you?!
Do you use any other ways to earn extra cash online? Would you be interested in a more in-depth guide or a transparent look at what I earn and how long it takes me on a day to day basis? Let me know!
*Please note, this post contains affiliate links.
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