Free $5 Instantly: How to Make 5 Dollars Fast

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Free 5 Dollars Instantly

Do you need to make extra cash quickly? Thankfully, there are many realistic ways to get a free $5 instantly or very fast.

This article covers realistic and legit ways to put more money in your pocket quickly. You’ll learn how to make $5 fast with several different methods.

How to Make 5 Dollars Fast

There are many ways to get easy money quickly. Here you’ll find the best options and specific suggestions and resources to make it happen.

1. Easy Signup Bonus Offers

Possibly the easiest way to get free money is to take advantage of signup offers. Credit card and bank account sign-up bonuses can be very lucrative, but it may take months to get the money. If you need cash quickly, you can focus on apps that pay you to sign up. The best options are listed below.

  • Swagbucks ($10 bonus) – This popular get-paid-to (GPT) site allows you to earn rewards by taking surveys, watching videos, playing games, and more. You can redeem your points for free gift cards or PayPal cash.
  • MyPoints ($10 bonus) – MyPoints is similar to Swagbucks in a lot of ways, but many of the specific offers are different. I recommend using both sites to maximize your earning potential and to get both bonuses.
  • InboxDollars ($5 bonus) – With a free InboxDollars account, you can make money by taking surveys, completing special offers, and reading emails. Your points can be redeemed for cash or gift cards.
  • Clearvoice ($5 bonus) – Clearvoice is a survey site that offers a nice signup bonus. You won’t find as many different ways to make money here as you will with the three previous sites/apps, but it’s worth using for surveys.

2. Free Stock Bonus Offers

Some investing apps and platforms offer free stock bonuses instead of cash. Most of these offers provide you with a stock (or several stocks) selected randomly, so some luck is involved. You’ll get a bonus worth at least a few dollars, but it could be significantly more if you’re lucky.

  • Webull – This commission-free trading app offers free stocks when you create your account. You can earn even more stocks by depositing money into your investment account.
  • Moomoo – Moomoo is a trading app that’s similar to Webull, and they also have a very enticing bonus offer. You can get a free stock for creating an account and many more free stocks when you fund your account.
  • Public – You can invest in stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, treasuries, and alternative investments through Public. It’s a user-friendly platform, and they offer a free stock bonus when you create an account and deposit money.*

3. Play Games on Your Smartphone

Do you like to play games on your phone in your spare time? Most people do. But are you getting paid for it?

Believe it or not, many apps pay you free money or gift cards to play mobile games. Now, to be honest, you won’t get rich from these apps. The payouts are usually relatively small. But if you’re looking for a fun and easy way to receive cash rewards or other bonuses in your spare time, you’ll want to try this. You can play games whenever you have a few minutes or while watching TV.

  • Mistplay – Mistplay (Android only) is one of the most popular gaming apps. You can play a wide variety of games and earn rewards based on the time you play and the levels you reach.
  • Cash Giraffe – Cash Giraffe is similar to Mistplay. It’s also only available for Android users, and you can earn rewards by playing various games.
  • Bubble Cash (for iOS and Samsung) – Bubble Cash is a fun arcade shooter game that’s much different from the previous two. You can start for free, but depending on your scores, you may need to pay to enter higher-stakes games.
  • Bingo Bling – Bingo Bling is only available for iOS users. As you can tell by the name, it’s a Bingo game. You must pay to enter games, but you’ll earn a cash prize if you win.

For an even bigger list, see our article on games that pay real money.

4. Take Online Surveys and Get Paid

Earlier, I mentioned free apps like Swagbucks, MyPoints, InboxDollars, and Clearvoices because of their signup bonuses. But there are many other apps and websites that pay you for completing simple online surveys. The sites in this section don’t have signup bonuses, but they’re among the best options to earn cash from surveys.

You can take surveys whenever you have a few minutes to spare. While it may not be the highest-paying side hustle, it’s extremely flexible and requires no experience or special skills.

Here are my top sites/apps for surveys. These legit sites are all fairly similar in that they focus exclusively on surveys, rather than other sites like Swagbucks that give you a bunch of ways to earn points and free money.

5. Cashback Apps

Cashback apps present an easy way to get and save some money. Thanks to the apps featured here, you can save money on many of the purchases you already make. Of course, you don’t want to spend more money just to earn cash rewards.

With just a small effort, almost anyone can save a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per year, depending on their shopping habits. Here are my top cashback apps suggestions, particularly if you want to make money shopping online.

  • Capital One Shopping – This handy browser extension is possibly the easiest way to save money. It works in all major internet browsers. Capital One Shopping will automatically search for coupon codes when you’re shopping online. All you need to do is click to apply the coupons and potentially save some extra money.
  • Rakuten – Rakuten is a popular cash back program that partners with thousands of online retailers and stores. With a free account, you’ll earn cash back on many of the purchases you already make. Best of all, the Rakuten browser extension notifies you whenever you’re browsing a participating site. Then, all you need to do is click on the notification to earn cashback for your purchase.
  • TopCashback – TopCashback is very similar to Rakuten. It’s not as well known as Rakuten, but sometimes TopCashback offers a higher percentage of your purchase. It’s worth using both so you can get the best deal every time.
  • DollarSprout Rewards – This browser extension offers cash back and automatically finds coupons for you. They partner with more than 15,000 sites, so it’s definitely worth trying.

6. Share Your Data

If you like passive income, you’ll love the apps in this section. Each of them makes it easy to earn money or rewards (gift cards) with almost no effort. These are market research companies that reward you with free money or other bonuses for sharing data. None of them collect personal or sensitive data.

  • Nielsen Computer & Mobile Panel – Nielsen is a well-known market research company that provides ratings for TV viewership and more. You can install their app on your computer or mobile device. It will track your browsing activity and reward you for it. You can earn $50 per year in gift cards.
  • MobileXpression – MobileXpression is similar to Nielsen, but only for mobile devices. You’ll earn points each week the app is active on your device. After accumulating some points, they can be redeemed for a gift card. You’ll earn about $50 in rewards per year. MobileXpression also offers a new user bonus so you can get your first $5 gift card after just one week.
  • SavvyConnect – SavvyConnect can be used on computers and mobile devices. You’ll earn $5 per month per device.

7. Invest in Real Estate

Earlier, I mentioned some stock trading apps that offer bonuses, but you can also earn bonuses from a few real estate investing apps. Investing in real estate is an excellent way to diversify your portfolio and build wealth. The signup bonuses are just the cherry on top.

  • Fundrise ($10 bonus) – Fundrise is a popular real estate crowdfunding platform. You’ll invest in a diversified portfolio of income-generating properties. Fundrise removes many of the barriers associated with traditional real estate investing. You can start with as little as $10, and Fundrise currently offers a $10 bonus.
  • Groundfloor ($10 bonus) – Groundfloor is much different than Fundrise. Instead of investing in a portfolio, you’ll invest in a specific property. House flippers get funding for their projects through Groundfloor, and you can earn an attractive return as an investor. You can invest as little as $10 and get a new user bonus from Groundfloor.

8. Track Your Finances With Empower ($20 Bonus)

Empower offers wealth management services, as well as free financial software. You don’t have to be their client to use the free software and tools. With a free Empower account, you can view all your financial accounts in one dashboard.

There are several different tools and reports provided. You can automatically track and calculate your net worth, see how much you’re paying in investment fees, track the results of your investments, and more.

Empower is an excellent resource for tracking and managing your money. And to make it even more enticing, they offer $20 free money for new users. If you sign up through my referral link, you’ll get a $20 Amazon gift card as soon as you link your first financial account. You’ll get the digital gift card by email right away.

9. Complete Micro Tasks

Microtasks are small tasks that take no more than a few minutes to complete. They’re generally very easy and require no particular skills for you to earn money. For example, microtasks can include simple online research, surveys, content moderation, creating text, and more.

This opportunity is somewhat similar to the survey sites mentioned above. You won’t earn a high hourly rate, but it’s incredibly flexible and easy work. You can do as much or as little as you want whenever you want to make money fast online.

  • MTurk – Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, or MTurk, is the most popular platform for microtasks. There’s a large selection of tasks available, and you can choose the ones you want.
  • Freecash – Freecash offers a variety of small tasks like surveys, quizzes, and special offers. You can opt for cash via PayPal, cryptocurrency, or gift cards.
  • 25Clicks – 25Clicks will send you small tasks via email, usually one per day. The tasks involve things like searching Google. They only take a minute or so to complete.

10. Claim Missing Money

Websites like MissingMoney.com and Unclaimed.org make it easy to search for money that’s rightfully yours. These sites include a database of unclaimed assets. For example, you might find money from an old bank account you had forgotten about.

When I searched for missing money, I found a PayPal account linked to an old address. After I moved, PayPal couldn’t reach me, so my money was being held as unclaimed property. With a simple search that took just a minute, I found more than $150.

You may or may not find something when you search these sites, but it’s worth a few minutes of your time. Be sure to search your current and previous addresses.

11. Refer a Friend and Get Free Money

Referral bonuses present an easy way to get cash rewards or other bonuses. Credit cards, bank accounts, apps, websites, and retailers often pay bonuses for referrals. And in many cases, your friend will get a bonus or discount as well.

If you want to maximize what you can earn from referrals, find a friend who’s also interested in getting some free money and discounts. You can refer each other to different programs and help each other earn bonuses.

See our list of apps and websites that pay for referrals for specific possibilities.

12. Sell Stuff You Don’t Need

One of the best ways to make money fast is to sell things you don’t use or need. Chances are, you’ve got a lot of things around your house, basement, or garage that you could sell. Although you may not use or want these items, many of them have value.

Thanks to platforms like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and eBay, it’s easy to sell used items. It’s possible that you could list some things and have them sold by the end of the day or at least within a few days.

13. Rent Out Your Stuff

Aside from selling your stuff, another option is to rent out specific items. You can rent tools, baby items, photography gear, your car, your truck, and even storage space. See our list of things you can rent for more ideas.

Platforms like Fat Llama allow you to rent just about anything. There are also rental platforms for specific types of items.

One of the best options is to rent storage space with Neighbor. If you have extra space in your attic, basement, garage, or shed, you can rent it to someone in your local area. Neighbor helps find renters, and they handle all of the payments. It’s an excellent way to earn passive income.

Excellent Side Hustle
Rent Out Storage Space for Passive Income Rent Out Storage Space for Passive Income
4.5

Neighbor makes it easy to earn extra cash by renting out storage space in your basement, attic, garage, or even a shed. Make extra money each month without needing to spend time on a side hustle.

Features:
  • Earn thousands of dollars per year
  • Very little time or effort required
  • Neighbor markets your space to people in your local area
  • Set your own rates
  • Neighbor handles all the payments for you

Final Thoughts on Ways to Make 5 Dollars Instantly

As you can see, many ways to get 5 dollars quickly exist. If you need cash now, check this list and see which options are best for you. With a small effort, you can have $5 or more in your bank account and wallet in almost no time.

*Public.com offer valid for U.S. residents 18+ and subject to account approval. This is not a recommendation. You can lose money with any investment. Open To The Public Investing is a member of FINRA & SIPC. Regulatory and firm fees apply. New customers receive free stock with value $3-300; 0.3% receive the max value. Cryptocurrency trading provided by Apex Crypto LLC (NMLS ID 1828849). Apex Crypto is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services. See Public.com/disclosures/


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  • Commission-free trades of stocks and ETFs
  • Buy and sell 25+ different cryptocurrencies
  • Fractional shares
  • Access alternative investments
  • High-yield treasuries accounts
  • Social community of investors
  • User-friendly interface
  • Commission-free trades of stocks, ETFs, options, and ADRs
  • Powerful screening and charting tools
  • Free real-time level 2 data
  • User-friendly mobile app
  • AI monitoring
  • AI-powered price forecasts
  • Free investing courses
  • Commission-free trades of stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrency
  • Buy fractional shares for any amount
  • Extended trading hours
  • Advanced reporting tools
  • Schedule recurring investments
  • IRAs now available
  • 24/7 customer service

Disclosure: Information presented on Vital Dollar and through related email marketing is intended for informational purposes only and is not meant to be taken as financial advice. Please see our Disclosure for further information.