13 Best Apps and Websites to Sign Up and Get Money [Best Instant Bonuses]

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Everyone needs quick cash once in a while. Thankfully, all businesses want more customers — and they’re often willing to pay to acquire them.

That’s why many apps and services offer cash bonuses for signing up, even if signing up is free; companies hope you’ll find their service valuable and stick around.

Most of the time you’re under no obligation to do so — your bonus is yours to keep regardless of whether you become a regular user.

Below, we’ve put together a list of the top sign up bonuses offered today. You can also scroll past the table to read more details about each offer.

Best Bank & Investment Account Sign Up Bonus Offers

Financial institutions like banks and investment brokerages are known for offering some of the most generous sign-up bonuses around. These are our favorites.

#1. Fundrise: Get $10 After Investing $10

The popular crowdsourced real estate platform Fundrise gives you a $10 bonus after investing $10. 

Specifically, you’ll get $10 worth of shares in the Fundrise Real Estate Interval Fund, the platform’s flagship investment product. To qualify, you must be new to Fundrise and make the initial $10 investment within 30 days of signing up. 

You can learn more about the platform in our in-depth Fundrise review. Overall, I view it as an excellent way for beginners to get low-cost diversification into real estate.

At the same time, be aware that Fundrise is best-suited for long-term investors. While the Interval Fund offers penalty-free quarterly withdrawals, other Fundrise investments have a flat 1% fee for selling before five years.

Visit Fundrise.

#2. Acorns with Swagbucks Hack: Earn $40 Fast 

Acorns is one of the most popular investing apps, with hundreds of thousands of positive reviews on the App Store. 

Currently, Acorns offers new users a $10 sign-up bonus for linking a bank account.

But aside from that generous $10 sign-up bonus, Acorns’ best feature is that you can invest spare change automatically. So if you spend $4.25 at Starbucks, Acorns will set aside 75 cents to invest. (The actual deposit is made once your spare change reaches $5.)

But don’t head over to Acorns just yet.

First, sign up for the popular rewards site Swagbucks (more on them below).

Once signed up, do a search for Acorns in the search bar. You’ll find an offer for $30 when you sign up through the Swagbucks affiliate link. 

This is a nice trick for earning an extra $30 for a minute or two of your time. 

If Acorns isn’t for you, make sure to cancel your account, as there is a monthly fee (starting at $3).

Sign up for Swagbucks.

#3. MoneyLion: Get a $5 Instant Bonus and a $50 Direct Deposit Bonus

MoneyLion offers a complete suite of financial services — including banking, investing and loans — within a single app. 

Signing up for the MoneyLion app through this referral link gets you a $5 instant bonus. No deposit is required, and opening an account doesn’t impact your credit score. Using our link should auto-activate the bonus, but if you’re asked to enter a promo code for MoneyLion, be sure to enter thewaystowealth.

You can earn an additional $50 bonus when you sign up for direct deposit, plus another $5 crypto bonus upon purchasing $10 worth of cryptocurrency. 

All in all, you can earn $60 in bonuses from MoneyLion. While the account has a $1 per month admin fee, you can close it at any time and keep your bonus funds.

Sign up for MoneyLion.

#4. Cash App: Get $5 Instantly

While not the largest sign up bonus on this list, getting a free $5 from Cash App is one of the easiest opportunities available. Plus, you can instantly withdraw your $5 welcome bonus to your linked bank account. 

To get the $5 Cash App bonus, enter the code BWSPWFR or sign up through this link. You’ll then get your $5 deposit bonus upon linking a bank account or credit card and sending $5 to any other user through the app. 

In my case, I sent $5 to my wife after linking my bank account. Once complete — the transfer appeared instantly — the $5 bonus was credited to my account balance.

Sign up for Cash App.

#5. Robinhood: $5 to $200 in Free Stock

Robinhood’s referral program gives new users of the popular stock trading app free fractional shares just for signing up and linking a bank account — no deposit or transaction is required. 

You’ll get anywhere from $5 to $200 in free stock. Robinhood says there’s a 98% chance your share value will be between $5 and $10, and you’re able to pick the specific stock you want from among the 20 biggest U.S. companies based on market cap.

While you can sell your stock after three trading days, you have to keep the money you get from your free shares in your account for 30 days.

Note that this is a referral offer, which means we’ll also get free stock when you sign up using the links on this page. 

Visit Robinhood.

#6. Credit Cards: Up to $1,000 in Welcome Bonuses

Credit card companies are known for offering lucrative sign-up bonuses. In fact, it’s possible to earn up to $1,000 in cash (and more if redeemed for travel) with a single promotional offer. 

Yes, it sounds great. But keep the following in mind:

• There’s almost always a minimum spending amount required to earn the welcome bonus, and you’re typically required to hit that minimum within the first two or three months. 
• If you don’t pay your credit card bill in full every month, you’ll pay far more in interest than you’ll make by earning the welcome bonus. 

Check out CardRatings.com for the top credit card sign up bonuses currently available. Bonuses change constantly and CardRatings does a great job of keeping their “best of” list up to date. 

Some of my favorites right now include:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which gives you 60,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points that can be redeemed for $600 in cash or $750 in travel. 
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which gives you 75,000 points (valued at $750) that can be redeemed for travel or gift cards.

The goal is to pick a card you’re going to use over the long-term (because closing accounts can negatively impact your credit score). So, beyond the sign-up bonuses, review the rewards you’ll earn and aim to find a card that aligns with your spending habits (as some cards offer more or fewer points for spending in particular categories).

It’s one of the best times ever to apply for a new credit card, as many of the top cards currently have the highest-ever welcome bonus attached. 

Visit CardRatings.

Reward Sites and Apps With a Bonus

Reward sites allow you to earn money while shopping online, taking surveys, watching videos and much more. As it’s a competitive market, companies in this space are competing aggressively for new customers, and many offer lucrative sign-up and referral bonuses.

Here are the top three sites to get started on.

#7. TopCashback: $35 Cash-Back After a Qualifying Purchase

TopCashback is one of our favorite reward sites, as they consistently offer some of the highest cash-back rates available.

Through their Tell-A-Friend referral program, they’re offering a $35 bonus to anyone who accumulates $10 in their TopCashback account. So if you’re earning 10% cash back on a purchase, you would need to spend $100 to qualify for the bonus. 

It takes about 6-8 weeks for the money to be credited to your account. But once it does, you can withdraw the funds instantly. 

Learn more: Get more details about how the site works in our TopCashback Review. 

#8. Rakuten: Earn $30 After a Qualifying Purchase

Rakuten is one of the top cash-back sites, and a reader favorite.

To get the $30 bonus, sign up through this link with your email address. Then, make a $30 online purchase (which can be from any of their thousands of partnered stores) within 90 days.

Rakuten also has one of the most generous referral programs around. You’ll earn a $30 bonus for referring just one friend (this could be your spouse, sibling or parent). Since you’ll both save, it’s an easy win for each of you.

Rakuten is known for consistently offering some of the highest cash-back rates for online shopping, but be aware that the company pays quarterly, so you’ll have to wait to get your earnings.

Learn more: Get the details on the latest Rakuten referral bonus and read our Rakuten review to learn how to make the most of your time on the site.

#9. Swagbucks: Sign Up and Get $10

Swagbucks is one of the most respected companies in the reward space, with over $830 million paid out in rewards. 

In addition to surveys, you can earn money by playing games, watching videos, shopping (both online and in-store) and completing an array of other tasks.

Cash-back shopping is one of the best ways to make money with Swagbucks.

They also have a large inventory of surveys to complete, which are updated daily.

To qualify for the $10 bonus, you have to use this link and spend $25 via the shopping portal within the first 30 days of membership.

Learn more: Check out our in-depth Swagbucks review to learn more about how the platform works, and read through our list of the best Swagbucks hacks.

#10. InboxDollars: Sign Up and Get $5

InboxDollars is an online survey and rewards site — similar to Swagbucks — that has paid out over $80 million so far, and has a 4.5/5 rating from 160,000+ reviews on the App Store. 

For new users, InboxDollars offers a $5 welcome bonus.

Here’s how it works:

1. Sign up for InboxDollars.
2. Click the activation link in your email.
3. $5 will be deposited into your InboxDollars account.

You need to accumulate a minimum of $30 in your account before you can request payment.

Learn more: See our complete InboxDollars review to learn how to best use the site.

#11. MyPoints: Sign Up and Get $10

MyPoints is another one of the top money making apps. 

You can make money on MyPoints by shopping online, completing surveys, watching ads and even printing coupons (you’re paid around 1 cent for printing the coupon, and then around 25 cents for using it).

So, you can save money on your grocery bill plus earn a few bucks for using the coupons.

If you spend at least $20 on purchases using the MyPoints shopping portal within your first 30 days of membership, you’ll get 1,750 points (worth $10). 

The site has a low minimum payout of around $3, depending on the rewards option you choose.

Sign up for MyPoints.

Tip: It’s worth checking for high-paying surveys, but your focus should be on using the paid coupons (which you can stack with other apps, like Ibotta). Also, read through our MyPoints review to learn more about how the site works.

#12. Ibotta: Get a $5 Welcome Bonus

Ibotta is one of the top apps for saving money on groceries. It started out as solely a grocery coupon app; you’d take a picture of your receipt and scan the product barcode to earn money. However, the service is quickly expanding beyond grocery stores and now offers both retail and online cash-back in addition to coupons.

To get the $5 bonus, sign up through this link and then spend $15 shopping online with Ibotta. In-store purchases do not count toward your $15 total. 

Learn more: Check out our Ibotta review for more info on how to get the most out of the app.

#13. BeFrugal: Get a $10 Instant Sign Up Bonus

With BeFrugal, you can earn up to 40% cash-back from 4,000+ stores. Along with offering a $10 sign-up bonus, there’s a generous $15 referral bonus.

Requirements: You have to earn $10 in cash-back to activate the $10 sign-up bonus.

Payment method: BeFrugal offers one of the widest ranges of payout options among cash-back sites, including direct deposit, PayPal, Venmo, gift cards and more. The minimum withdrawal starts at just 1 cent and varies depending on the option you choose.

Learn more: Check out our BeFrugal review for more tips on earning.

Best Sign-Up and Get Money Sites: Final Thoughts

Taking advantage of the offers on this list is a great way to make personal finance fun. 

After all, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting free money — especially when you’re on a tight budget. 

But it should go without saying that you’ll never pay your rent with these types of deals. At the same time, I think they’re valuable because they can help you build your money-making muscle. 

It can be hard to make progress on your financial goals when you’re struggling just to make ends meet, and it can feel like there aren’t any good options for improving your situation.

But the reality is that today, there are more ways to make and save money than at any time in history. You just have to know how to leverage them. And sometimes, getting started is the hardest part.

That’s where offers like these come in: they’re small wins that can take some budget stress off of your shoulders or boost your spirits with a little extra spending money, which can in turn help you focus on the next step in your financial journey. 

Want more sign-up bonuses? Check out our articles on how to get free Bitcoin and the best crypto sign-up bonus offers to learn about sites that will give you crypto just for becoming a member.

R.J. Weiss

R.J. Weiss is the founder and editor of The Ways To Wealth, a Certified Financial Planner™, husband and father of three. He's spent the last 10+ years writing about personal finance and has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, MSN Money, and other publications.

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