Want to increase your cash balance without having to work for it? You should look over this list of ways to earn free cash.
Your parents may have told you that you couldn’t earn an amount of money at no cost. Unfortunately for them, that simply isn’t true. We’ve discovered a variety of ways to earn cash without any effort.
This “effort” part is crucial. Many other guides for making money on the internet have survey sites that pay you, and we believe that is deceiving. Being required to do more than the bare minimum for your money means it doesn’t come for free. It’s a sign that you’re working.
With that in mind, we’ve included only the most easy, easiest ways to earn money. And don’t worry, you can still earn £100s!
Do you have a bit more time to spare? This list of methods to make money in a short time may require some effort from you, but the earnings are more than worth it.
Scholarships, grants, and bursaries
It’s likely that you’re aware that college students can be awarded money in the form of bursaries and grants, as well as scholarships and bursaries (and that, unlike Student Loans, these aren’t required to be repayable). But what you might not know is just how many people can be qualified for this cash.
Many students assume that the funds are just offered to those who have the top grades, a ability to excel in a particular sport or instrument, or from less privileged backgrounds. However, even though they can receive support, plenty of others can receive some of the money , too.
As we’ll explain in our guide on the most bizarre bursaries, funding’s accessible to students for any reason. It doesn’t matter if you’re a vegetarian, having a passion for FIFA or simply having the right name there’s a chance to receive cash for nearly anything. There’s no reason not to look for a way to fund yourself.
Offers for signing up
Signing up for an account with a company that sells… or, well what? Check to see if there is any sign-up incentives that are open to customers who have not yet signed up.
Apart from offering discounts on initial purchases, a lot of businesses offer no cost money when you sign up. It’s possible to have to purchase a qualifying item prior to signing up, but if it’s something you’re likely to buy anyway, you’ll get absolutely money for nothing.
Sometimes, the reward is in the form of the form of an Amazon voucher. But as Amazon offers almost all things, a voucher is just as valuable as cash. When you apply our Amazon shopping hacks, you’ll be guaranteed the best price.
There are countless signup offers out there but among our most popular are the £5 bonus to join OnePoll as well as the £10 bonus for signing up to Monese as well as Curve (you may also discover exactly what Curve card types are by reading our guide).
You can also earn cryptocurrency for free by signing up for Coinbase and performing a few short tasks. Although you won’t can’t spend it at most stores, you can exchange it with Bitcoin (some shops do take Bitcoin) or sell it for £20+.
If you’re after more go to our deals page for all ways to earn cash through signing up with companies.
Money to change bank or utility provider
One of the first things we suggest students do prior to starting university is establish a student account at a bank. But did you realize that you can switch bank accounts even when you’ve already started uni? Even better, that you can get cash in exchange?
Moving your bank account is an easy way to earn free money in the UK. If it’s just cash or an Amazon voucher (which, again, is just as good as cash) Many banks provide up to £100 in order to convince you to switch.
And if you don’t own any bank accounts yet but you’re not worried. These deals are available to new customers , too and not only for those who are switching.
Be sure to check the conditions of each bank’s offer because there’s a chance that you may not be in the running for cash (if it’s been your first year of university or have completed your first year of university, for example). Remember that banks offer cash to non-students wanting to switch banks.
Cash rewards for referring friends
We absolutely love referral codes. In terms of how little effort it takes and how much you could make It’s hard to think of a better method to earn money for free than by referring loved ones to join some businesses.
There’s a lot of overlap with our previous tip. Some of the very best referral codes are offered by energy companies, banks (Octopus Energy provides £50 credit) and broadband providers.
Many times, the offers for new customers (like £100 for joining) match the refer-as-friend plans. But there’s an important distinction – both you and the person who you’re referring to receive rewards.
Sure, the biggest and best offers come from utilities and banks. Many companies also have referral programs. Some reward you in the way of credit cards, whereas others will pay cold hard cash.
Cashback websites (which we’ll look at in the next section) and automatic savings apps are among the most reliable in this (although the deals they offer can shift). It is possible to earn as much as £15 per enrollment!
The key is to examine all applications and services you use to determine if they have a referral programme. You could be raking in the money quickly.
Receive a Student Loan refund
There’s lots of erroneous information about the present state of Student Finance in the UK. However, generally speaking the repayments for Student Loans are pretty sound. The problem is when the problems with the system cause you end up making repayments even though you shouldn’t.
To begin making payments on your Student Loan two requirements must happen. First, you must have reached the first April of your graduation. Then, you must be earning more than the minimum amount required that your loan plan will allow.
Check if you’re owed a tax rebate
Student Loan refunds aren’t always the only way to recoup some free cash you’ve overpaid.
In every year, the thousands of people across the UK have the misfortune of paying too much tax. If you’re one of the majority, you’re entitled an exemption.
You may have overpaid tax due to one of a myriad of reasons. But the good thing is that it doesn’t matter if it was the fault of you or it wasn’t.
And, even better the fact that it doesn’t really matter how long ago. You can claim a refund of up to 4 years following the conclusion period in which you paid more than.
Remember that most students earn less than the threshold of annual earnings for tax (currently £12,570 per year). So, if that you’ve paid taxes even though you’ve had a lower income than this it is advisable to take a look at the possibility of claiming a tax rebate.
Earn interest by saving and current accounts
If you’re a student you might not have too much spare cash floating around. If you’re and are able to save a few dollars and want to save it, we’d recommend you put it into an ISA or a regular savings account.
Even though the 2008 financial meltdown as well as austerity measures like Brexit and COVID-19 even kept interest rates down for a time but there are some great deals on the market.
Due to increasing inflation £100 is today’s value will likely not have the same value in a year’s time (you’ll still be able to use £100 however it will not be able to purchase you the same amount).
Therefore, you should try to save all of your spare funds as you can in accounts that have the highest rate of interest. Even if you’re not looking for the money you can earn from interest, you’ll want to ensure that your cash is protected by its value.
£1,000 is free for the year with Lifetime ISA
A home may seem like a distant pipe wish right now. But you can help make that dream come true by putting money in the Lifetime ISA (LISA).
The LISA can provide up to £1,000 each year A LISA is without doubt the most affordable source of money that we could think of.
In order to get the full amount it’s necessary to pay £4,000 into your LISA in one tax year (April until April). Don’t fret if you haven’t got that much going in the bank. The government will still give you a bonus of 25% on any savings you make up to £4,000, too.
The maximum total bonus you could earn from the Lifetime ISA is £33,000 (equivalent to 33 years, in which you can deposit each year £4,000) It’s certainly plenty of money for free. However, as is the case with life there are a few drawbacks.
In the beginning, you’ll be able to only withdraw money from your LISA in the event that you’re using it to purchase a home, in the event that you’re older than 60 or if you’ve been given more than 12 months in which to live. If you withdraw money for any other reason, and you’ll forfeit the bonus you’ve earned, plus an additional percentage of your money.
Therefore, although it’s best to only deposit money into a LISA only if you’re sure you’ll use it for the purchase of a home or for retirement and it’s also the method that will earn you the most free cash.
Cashback sites are a good option for shopping online
It’s been mentioned in this guide on ways to earn free cash in the UK. If you’re an avid fan of earning and savings money, it’s likely that you’re aware of cashback. But, just in case there’s a chance that you’re not a brief breakdown.
If you are buying something online you can do it directly or go via the cashback website. If you can, we’d suggest using a cashback website.
If you buy from cashback websites, you’ll experience the same shopping experience as if you were on the website of your chosen retailer. But, the cashback website will track your activities and will refund you a portion of your total purchase (or in some instances, a set amount).
So, so many of your most loved stores are cashback-based sites such as TopCashback or Quidco. Adidas, ASOS, Amazon, plus some retailers that don’t begin with A, are all on these sites. You’ll usually be looking at getting a maximum of around five percent although it’s still more than enough!
The big money is, as you’d expect, in the major purchases. If you’re purchasing insurance for your car or purchasing a brand new phone Cashback websites will pay you in excess of £100 to buy it from them.
You can also get money back from the stores. Along with cashback websites which offer money back for the internet, food stores, and supermarket cashback applications offer up to 100 percent cashback on a broad array of products from sweet treats to pet food.
Make use of cashback websites every time you shop online and you could make a few hundred pounds of free money every year.
Earn money to use the internet by Swagbucks
Spend your life online? Well, when you’re not going through your favourite books, such as Save the Student guides (we all have one) You could be earning money completely free using the internet.
One of the many ways you can earn money with Swagbucks is to make it your primary source of information. If you do that, it means you’ll have to say goodbye to Google (or, god forbid, Bing), you’ll get 10-20 SB points (the virtual currency that is used by Swagbucks) per 10-20 search.
Based on these numbers using these figures, we’ve found that the same amount of searching for six months will earn you approximately £300.
However, the free cash does not stop there – Swagbucks will also pay you to watch videos. Let’s face it this is what most of us end up doing online.
It’s slightly more difficult to earn cash in this manner, as it’s not as simple as just searching for free money, and it’s often not accessible to all users. It’s certainly worth taking a look!
Head over to our Swagbucks review for more info or sign up for Swagbucks right now.
Earn money through walking
We all know about the primary benefits for walking or walking: cheap and it keeps you fit and healthy, and it’s carbon-neutral. But what would you think if we said there was a fourth benefit to take a walk every day?
Thanks to apps like Sweatcoin, BetterPoints and winwalk Walking is now better than being free – it’s a source of free money.
These apps track your movements throughout the day, and reward your movements via virtual money. This money can be exchanged in gift cards at many popular stores and eateries and, most importantly, for free money too.
We’re not lying, you’re not going to become a millionaire by earning free money from the paid apps for walking. But keep your phone on during your out and about and you’ll soon notice the cash flowing into.
Get free cash from competitions
Let’s be very clear. If we say that you could win free money in competitions, that’s absolutely free. This isn’t about playing into the lottery which requires money and has an incredibly low chance of winning over these more unlikely opportunities.
We’re talking about the hundreds perhaps thousands, of other competitions being held in the UK currently, which are open to all and could win you an eye-watering amount of free cash.
Elite-level compers (people who participate in competitions regularly) claim to be able to participate in around 100 competitions each day. However, that’s not feasible for the majority of us. If you plan to achieve around 30 a week, you should have a chance to win a good amount of prizes (be they items, cash or even experiences).
One of our most popular ways to win money is to enter free lotteries. Most require you to check the results every day to claim your prize (if you’ve won, of course), but with jackpots that can reach hundreds of pounds, it’s definitely worth the few seconds for your attention.
There are numerous contests that offer thousands of pounds worth cash for free.
Make sure you scan your receipts for cash
The last, but by no way least in our collection of methods to earn the most money is to use receipts. If you typically throw away your receipts, or just ignore them altogether, you may want to reconsider your actions.
In addition to making it more difficult to ensure your consumer rights throwing away your receipts can see you missing out on free cash and even cash. Also, be sure to retain them at least long enough to get pictures.
Apps that scan receipts like Storewards, Shoppix and Huyu will pay you to submit copies of your receipts from any retailer. Although you won’t be paid actual cash for each receipt, you’ll be rewarded with tokens or coins every time you submit.
If you’ve earned enough coin to make a withdrawal at the bank, you’ll get your free money. This will either be a voucher (including Amazon) or free cash (usually through PayPal).
It might take you some time to reach this stage. But with such little effort involved, we’d say receipt scanning is certainly a worthy way to make cash for nothing.