How to Make Money with Your Phone

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How much time do you spend on your phone every day?

An EMarketer survey found that the average American spends around three hours on their phone daily, and 90% of that time is dedicated to using apps. These days, it’s easier than ever to turn some of that screen time into a profitable side hustle, which is what we at MoneyMagpie are all about!

Money-making apps for Android and iPhone have become more popular in recent years, and many will allow you to make a good chunk of cash each day just by completing simple tasks. 

Read ahead to learn some of the easiest ways to make money with your phone.

 

Go Shopping

Some phone apps reward you for shopping online or in stores, these are especially prominent for our American readers.

Shopkick

Shopkick is an app that allows you to collect points for shopping at big-brand stores like Walmart, Target, TJ Maxx, and more. You can earn points by entering a store, scanning barcodes of select items, and uploading your receipt after you check out.

Once you earn 1,250 points, you can cash them out into a $5 gift card to a store or restaurant of your choice.

Ibotta

Ibotta allows you to earn cashback for going grocery shopping. Just download the app, answer some questions about your shopping habits, then upload your receipt after you finish shopping. The app will scan all of the items you purchased and reward you with cashback for qualifying items.

You can cash out your Ibotta earnings through PayPal after you have collected at least $5.

 

Share Your Opinion

Sometimes, it pays to share your opinion. Survey apps can earn you money just by answering a few opinion-based questions.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a website and app that allows you to complete a variety of tasks to earn SB—points that you can redeem for gift cards or PayPal money. The app posts several surveys each day that will allow you to earn anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars each.

You can also earn SB by shopping, browsing the internet, playing games, and completing tasks.

Find out more about making money from Swagbucks here. 

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk, is a money-making site powered by Amazon. The site pays you for completing Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs), which range from surveys to labeling tasks to long-term studies.

The amount you can earn from each HIT varies, depending on how long the task will take you to complete. Amazon will send your earnings straight to your bank account every few days. Or, if you live outside the United States, they will convert your profits into an Amazon gift card.

Google Opinion Rewards

You can share your opinions about businesses and restaurants you have visited with Google Opinion Rewards. This app will track your location and send you surveys that request information about your experiences at places you have been to recently.

Android users can cash out their rewards into Google Play credits, while iPhone users can have their money sent straight to their PayPal. Though you’ll only earn a few cents every week, your money will quickly begin to add up.

 

Browse the Web

Several apps pay you just to search the web.

InboxDollars/InboxPounds

Most people use Google or Safari as a web browser, but InboxDollars (or InboxPounds if you’re in the UK) pays you to browse the internet through its search engine instead. You can earn one cent for every search you make with a maximum of fifteen cents each day.  

A few cents here and there may not seem like much, but it definitely adds up over time. Just check back into InboxDollars every month or so to see how much you’ve earned. With this, you’ll even forget that you’re making any money.

QuickRewards Network

Similar to InboxDollars, QuickRewards Network pays you for searching the web through its search engine. Each search earns you a cent or two, and you can cash out any of your earnings to PayPal with no minimum required amount. Want to get that one cent into your bank account? You can.

 

Invest Your Money

Investing your money is easier than ever when you use a simple mobile app.

Acorns

You can invest as little as one dollar each month with Acorns. This app features the option to automatically round up every dollar you spend on a credit or debit card and contribute the extra pennies to your investment account.

Acorns also provide investment advice and free resources to help you make smart investment decisions. It’s a sensible app for those looking to dive deeper into investing or those just wanting to make a few extra bucks.

Robinhood

Robinhood goes a bit further than Acorns by allowing users to trade stocks and funds right from their phones. You can make an unlimited amount of commission-free trades in ETFs, stocks, and other financial options with a minimum trade amount of $1. You can also buy and sell cryptocurrencies through the app.

For those looking to trade in real-time through the simplicity of a phone app, Robinhood is worth looking into. 

 

Deliver Food

Do you pick up fast food often? You can make money by picking up and delivering meals to people all over your city.

Uber Eats

Uber Eats is a service through Uber that hires people to deliver food. You can make anywhere from $8 to $11 an hour (or about £13.32 per trip in the UK) just by picking up food orders from restaurants in your area and transporting them to Uber Eats customers.

As long as you have a working bicycle or car to get you from one place to another, you can make some extra cash delivering McDonald’s, for instance, throughout your city.

GrubHub

GrubHub is very similar to Uber Eats, but it pays a little better—you can make anywhere from $12 to $20 per hour depending on how quickly you complete each order. However, GrubHub has stricter regulations than Uber Eats, like required delivery times and a minimum number of hours you must work each week.

If you’re looking for a serious side hustle that could turn into a part-time job, GrubHub may be the perfect money-making app to try out.

 

Sell Your Old Stuff

Everyone has clutter around their house that they no longer use. Rather than letting your old stuff collect dust, why not turn it into cash in your wallet? It ties neatly into our Clear Your Clutter Campaign. 

Poshmark

Poshmark is an app that works kind of like a consignment shop. Though people mainly use this app to sell their clothes, you can also list household items, accessories, and personal care products.

To begin selling your stuff, just download the app, make an account, and take photos of the items you would like to sell. Listing items is free, but Poshmark will collect a small fee for each item you sell.

Once you sell an item, Poshmark will supply your box and postage for free. Just pack it up, ship it out, and wait for the money to come in.

Letgo

Letgo is a buying and selling app that lets you sell just about anything. Similar to Craigslist, Letgo allows you to sell items to people in your area. When someone decides to purchase your item, they can pick it up from your house or meet you in a public place to complete the exchange.

The app is free to use, and you can negotiate prices with users to get your stuff out the door faster. Unlike Poshmark, buyers cannot pay you through the Letgo app, but many users accept payment through PayPal or Venmo instead. 

Decluttr

The purpose of this app is right in the name–to declutter your house. Decluttr allows users to sell media items like CDs, DVDs, books, and electronics, and you can even use this app to make some money off of your old mobile phones.

Instead of selling to other users, Decluttr will appraise your items and provide you with payment directly. Just scan the barcodes of your electronics, submit them to the site, and wait to receive your valuation. If you decide to sell, Decluttr will provide you with a kit to send your items to their warehouse for free.

With these kind of apps/sites, it’s sensible to take a picture of your item before sending so you know exactly what condition it’s being sent-off in, making it easier to argue your case if there are any disputes.

 

Play Games

Do you like to play games on your phone? Transform that fun into cash with these money-making game apps.

Solitaire Cube

If you’re willing to bet money on your solitaire skills, you may be able to earn a decent chunk of cash through Solitaire Cube. This app offers free and paid gameplay of a variety of Solitaire variations.

Though you can cash out earnings from free games for swag and other rewards, you can only make real money through paid ones.  

Mistplay

If you enjoy switching up the games you play regularly, you could check out Mistplay. This app will pay you to download and reach certain levels in a variety of games. The game options change frequently, so if you get tired of one game, you can always switch to another.

Mistplay allows you to earn points called “units” for each offer you complete. You can cash out these units into gift cards for popular stores and restaurants or redeem a prepaid Visa gift card to use your earnings like cash.

 

Now that you’ve learned how to make money with your phone using some of the best money-making apps, it’s time to turn your free time into cash. Which app will you try out first?

 

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