Amazon has come up with another “huh, interesting, I could see this working out” idea called Amazon Cash. As the name suggests, it's a way for you to turn cash into Amazon credit at over 30,000 participating retail locations. While that might seem counter intuitive to some, I know there are people out there like yours truly who tend to spend cash in my pocket far faster than if I put it in the bank or have it as store credit.
Since people love free money, they're offering $5 in free Amazon credit to new users when you add $20 to your account thru 3/31/21! Simply generate a barcode by clicking the “Get Your Barcode” near the top left. Then either print it out or send it to your phone via text and visit a participating merchant like CVS, Gamestop, 7-Eleven or a dozen more stores. You'll then pay $20 in cash and have the store scan your barcode, which will give you $25 Amazon credit!
It's hard not to love this freebie from Robinhood. It's thankfully still kicking in the new year, so be sure to pick up your free stock using the guide below.
Be sure not to miss out on this! 2,800-ish Hiffers have now joined and gotten free stock worth over $3,000$5,500(!) $12,500(!!) since I first published this. Seven Hiffers received shares of Apple, worth $175, and four more Hiffers received shares of Facebook, worth $179!
I'm not a huge stock trader. I'm more of a sock trader, in that I'm always unwittingly trading left socks with the person using the washing machines after me at the laundromat.
When I first started investing, I found the online brokerage fees of $7 per trade to be a bit steep. That's why I joined Robinhood a few years ago and never looked back. They're an app-based brokerage account regulated just like all the big Wall Street companies. What sets Robinhood apart are their no-fee trades, which means you never pay a commission when you buy and sell stocks. The only drawback is they don't have great research options, but I always got around that by using all the free research tools on other websites. Then I go back to Robinhood and make my free trades there 🙂
While that's all well and good, Robinhood is running a promo giving away free share of stock to anybody who joins! For no money whatsoever, you can get a free share of a surprise stock. While it's completely random what you get, you have a 1 in 150 chance of getting a share of Facebook ($178.92), Apple ($172.50), Microsoft ($84.14) and a 1 in 100 chance of getting a share of Ford ($12.36), AMD ($11.12), or Vereit ($7.92) – all for free! The lowest stock you can get for free is priced at $2.50, so there are no garbage or penny stocks being offered here.
How to Get a Free Share of Stock
Fun Fact: The stock above was $4.20 when I got it! It's now worth $2.04! I should have sold it long ago! On second though, this wasn't very fun… 😀
To get your free share of stock, simply sign up via their app and wait for your account to be approved. You have to be referred by somebody in order to get your free share, so it's important you go through a link here on HIF. You can only have 1 account per person, so they confirm your identity with your social security number (similar to how tobacco freebies do!) using bank-level SSL and 128-bit encryption.
After your account is approved, open the app and click on the “Free Stock” link in the menu. You should then have a share of stock to claim! You then have to wait 2 business days before you can sell the stock and then wait another 30 days before you can transfer the money out of the app and into your bank account.
With the number of readers HIF has, I'd be shocked if a few Hiffers didn't get a share of those mega expensive stocks! In fact, I'd love for Hiffers to share what they got in the comments just so we could see how much free money was given out.
You may remember Robinhood's awesome free stock promotion where you received a free share of stock that could be worth up to $200. A few Hiffers even got the mega-expensive stock shares for free and were able to cash out within weeks!
Well, you know what they say about success, imitation, and flattery. Enter Webull Financial!
They saw Robinhood blasting off to the moon and thought “hmmm, we could do that too.” But what's a good way to differentiate themselves? Oh, I know, offer free stock shares that could be worth up to $250! 🤑
What's Webull
If you've never heard of Webull, you're not alone because they're a relatively new company based out of New York City. Just like Robinhood, Webull is a registered broker dealer with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC.
Their main goal is to bring free stock trading to the masses. Gone are the days of paying a $7 commission just to buy or sell stock.
This means you get unlimited free trades, with no minimum balance, along with a boatload of investment and research charts, information, and news – something I found lacking from Robinhood.
So how do they make money while offering free trades? By having a lot of customers! Webull makes tiny amounts of money on cash balances, interest, and premium memberships, so they don't charge crazy-high fees just for selling stock.
Obviously, Webull hopes we become lifelong members. But for our intents and purpose, we just want that sweet, sweet free share of stock!
The odds of specific stock allocation is implied as follows:
Stock worth $2-$10 per share are awarded approximately 1:1.1
Stock worth $10-$20 per share are awarded approximately 1:24
Stock worth $50-$100 per share are awarded approximately 1:200
Stock worth $150-$200 per share are awarded approximately 1:333
Stock worth over $200 per share range are awarded approximately 1:1,000
Get your Free Stock
To get your free share of stock, you need to do the following easy steps within 24 hours! If you take longer than 24 hours to sign up, you won't get your free share!
Upon registering, follow the prompt to download the Webull app for your iPhone or Android.
Wait for your account to be approved. Mine took around an hour, but I've seen some people take up to a full day.
Open the app, click the left menu, and then click “My Free Stock.”
Once your account is approved, you'll see a “CONGRATULATIONS!” message with a giant “GET” button next to it.
Click it and claim your potentially valuable free share!
From the same screen, you can invite any friends and family to Webull for even more free shares.
I managed to score a free share of ABEV, the parent company of Anheuser-Busch, valued at $4.49. Hopefully people keep drinking and drive the price up. 😂
Your stock will be credited to your account within 5 business days. After that, you can do whatever you want with it! You can sell it for cash, keep it for an investment, or even transfer it to Robinhood if you prefer that app. You can also transfer your no-cost Robinhood stock over to Webull if you like this app better.
Whoa! If you're new to Rakuten, you can get $40 deposited into your account simply by making at least $40 in purchases through their site within 90 days. You can make multiple purchases at multiple stores, you just have to spend at least $40 total within 90 days. You'll then get paid $40 either by check or PayPal.
You can choose from Best Buy, Target, Kohl's, Old Navy, Walmart, PetSmart, GameStop, Bus Stop? and literally hundreds and hundreds more. Pretty much every store except Amazon is available for cash-back on Rakuten. With the holidays coming up, I imagine it won't be too hard to hit the $40 threshold!
This free cryptocoin offer was upgraded in October 2020 and brings the freebie total to over $78 USD that we can cashout!
Coinbase, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges for Americans, is offering over $78 worth of free money via different cryptocoins Once acquiring your free crypto, you can then hold on and hope it goes up in value, like you would with stocks from Robinhood or Webull.
Or, you can convert it to USD and cash out today!
The first thing you'll want to do is download and install the free Brave browser. I've personally used this browser since July 2019 and absolutely love it! It has a built-in ad-blocker that works wonderfully and highly protects your privacy online while surfing the net. You can even leave free, small tips for your favorite websites, like HIF.
After that, you'll want to make a free Coinbase account. Don't worry about the Bitcoin message on that screen, since we're not buying anything. Just freebies for us, please and thank you!
I believe all of these offers for free money are still available! 👇
Get $78 in free cryptocurrency!
Now, onto the free cryptocurrency quizzes. Don't worry, I've got all the answers below 😉
There will be a video for each question that you only need to watch a few seconds of them. You'll then be able to enter your answer and earn free cryptocurrency with each correct answer. All told, it only takes a few minutes to earn all your free money.
Finally, if you find you're getting an “Earning Unavailable: Unfortunately this opportunity is not available in your region” message for any of the coins, you can use a VPN to get around it! 🙂 I personally use Private Internet Access or PureVPN, but any VPN should work.
If you're looking for a free VPN, my go-to here is ProtonVPN. Aside from their great security – I'm never going to recommend a VPN with bad security, that's a given! – I find their speeds to be quick and their IP addresses are almost never blocked by large websites.
Free $19 in COMP
The latest free coin offer just dropped in October 2020 in the form of $19 in free COMP.
Earning interest on your crypto.
Q2: Supply a crypto asset as collateral.
COMP token hodlers.
Those question will earn you $9, but you can gain another $10 in the 4th step “Use Compound with Coinbase Wallet”. You just have to follow all the prompts. It took me about 10-15 minutes.
They also have four bonus referral slots, where you get $10 per friend who completes just a single quiz. You can earn up to $40 here – just send your friend your referral link and this post with all the answers!
It is a free, open-source web browser build for privacy.
Users get paid BAT for viewing opt-in ads, and publishers get rewarded when users pay attention to their content.
Free $12 in OXT
Next up at Coinbase is snagging our $12 in free OXT. Here are the answers you'll need to quickly advance through the quiz.
A peer to peer privacy wallet.
Orchid’s Ethereum token, OXT, as well as the Orchid app and a Web3 wallet.
Multihop configurations between bandwidth providers.
The OXT freebie has four bonus referral slots as well, each netting you $10 for a potential $40 in additional free money. You don't have to do these in order to get your initial free $12, but it's a nice option that'll bring your total to almost $100 in free cash!
Free $6 in XTZ
One of the easiest free crypto offers is the November 2019 deal where you get get $6 in free XTZ, also known as Tezos.
Formal verification
A decent computer, an internet connection, and 1 roll of Tez (8,000 XTZ)
A decentralized stablecoin that aims to be worth one US dollar.
Decentralized and borderless.
Open a CDB with Maker.
Once you have all your free crypto, you can go back to your main Coinbase account and click the blue “Trade” button in the top right. You'll be able to convert your freebies into a more stable crypto, like Bitcoin or Ethereum, or sell them for USD! Once you've sold it for USD, you can then link your bank account to Coinbase and directly transfer it to your account.
If you register for a new Hilton Honors reward account, you'll get a free $5 Amazon gift card! After enrolling, your freebie will be delivered via e-mail from [email protected] in 6 weeks. If you don't get a confirmation message promising a gift card after submitting your address, then this offer has probably died.
Pinecone Research is the online survey branch of Nielsen Holdings Company, which not only owns the National Consumer Panel that many Hiffers have joined, but who also have an A+ BBB rating. With Pinecone, consumers earn $3 via points for every survey they complete! In some cases, members can earn even more by completing product tests. However, the surveys are their main method of earning.
Pinecone Research can actually be hard to join, as they open and close registration based on their needs. Once in though, it's a great platform to earn a little free money throughout the year. Most surveys pay in the $3-$6 range
They also have a product testing service with many opportunities to try products that haven't even hit the market yet. These unreleased products are typically in their final stages of development, so you get to keep the product forever AND earn money just by answering a few questions.
One impressive factor about Pinecone Research is their payout options. Since the Nielsen Company owns them, Pinecone also has access to their paid trials, surveys, polls, and sweepstakes entries. Sweep prizes are paid out either quarterly or bi-weekly, with the quarterly prize at $4500 and the bi-weekly prize at $500. Both are sent out as checks made payable to the winners, so they're literally free money!
Aside from contest, members can withdraw cash starting at only $3! Snail mailed checks are sent in quantities of $3, $5, or $15 or you can redeem $15 through PayPal. If you opt to cash out through PayPal, you'll receive your pay in three to five business days. For those who choose to receive a check, you'll receive your compensation in seven business days or less.
Their crazy low payout threshold, along with their BBB rating and exclusivity earns Pinecone Research a rating. It's hard not to love a site where you earn free money! Make your voice heard today and take advantage of learning about new products before they hit stores while you make money with Pinecone Research.
I gotta admit, this is a better system than my current method of coin disposal. I save quarters for laundry, dimes for sugary snacks at midnight, nickels just kinda get lost all over the place, and pennies are thrown out my window at cars honking before sunrise.
If you're an Amazon Prime member, did you know you can support HIF for FREE each month?
A few years ago, Amazon bought Twitch.tv, a site where millions of people watch others play video games. On Twitch, people who broadcast their video games are allowed to have paying “subscribers,” also known as “subs.” In exchange for $5 a month, subs gain special little perks and their money goes towards supporting their favorite streamers and content creators. I actually wrote about this feature back in 2017.
When Amazon took over, they gave Prime members a free subscription each month! This means anybody who links their Amazon and Twitch accounts are able to give a streamer $5 for free, each month. If you don't use the subscription each month, it simply expires.
This means Amazon Prime members get $60 in value each year and they lose it unless they use it each month!
Now I don't actually stream a lot. In fact, I hardly stream at all. But your support here helps me out immeasurably. If you're a Prime member, here's how to easily link your Amazon and Twitch accounts.
If you're looking to make a little extra cash from the comfort of your couch this winter, consider applying to VIPKID to teach Engling online to kids in China for as much as $22 per hour! You don't need to know any foreign language and all teaching materials are provided by VIPKID.
Eligibility to work in the US or Canada with native accent
Meet eligible tech requirements
Device – Any Desktop, Laptop, MAC, Surface
Headset – Use a headset with a microphone, stable output and input
Camera – HD External camera or HD integrated camera (Most laptops have it)
VIPKID currently employs over 60,000 teachers, but are hiring thousands more right now. Heck, at $22 an hour, I'm thinking of applying! They teach over 500,000 students in China ages 4-12 with a curriculum based on the U.S. Common Core State Standards. In 2018, they even won #1 on Forbes magazines “Best work from home companies” list!
Teachers are recommended to be available for at least 7.5 hours per week, though it's not required. If that sounds like an easy time commitment, then I'd definitely consider applying!
Classes are guaranteed 25 minutes of active teaching time, with an additional 5 minutes assigned for teachers to make a few comments. Peak teaching hours are during Beijing time, Monday-Friday 6-10pm and Saturday-Sunday 9am–10pm. Here's a handy converter for US time zones. While not required to teach in these time zones, availability during them will help your application chances.
A few Hiffers have sent this site to me, so I know a few of y'all are making some money with VIPKID. If you're one of them, what are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them in the comments!
Some Hiffers have already found a few hundred dollars owed to them!
Wow! $113 from an old insurance company! Thanks! 😁
I did a search on your “Missing Money” link and found my husband about $58! Nothing for me (rats), but still great for my husband. Thank you!!! – Barbara
My friends and I have shared various online chats since 2001, but we didn't discover Slack wasn't until 2015. It's now a program I couldn't live without. Goofing off and sharing links throughout the day with each other is so easy, even as we're spread across the globe.
A while back, one of the Slack rooms lit when a buddy of mine found an old link on Reddit about free unclaimed money. The following conversation ensued:
We laughed and my buddy proceeded to call his dad to walk him through claiming his $113. It was only later that it struck me. If one of my good friends didn't know about this page on HIF detailing how to search for unclaimed money, then I bet a ton of readers who haven't been with HIF since Day 1 don't know about it either!
So I decided to dust off this old post and republish it in the hopes that more Hiffers could find some free cash!
Wait, Free Money? What's the Catch?
Long story short, there are a few websites where you can search your name for unclaimed money you're entitled to. This could be money from bank errors, back pay from past jobs or employers, money from stocks, or from a myriad of other ways for money to be owed to you.
And this is serious money we're talking about here. Collectively, all the states hold over $40 billion in unclaimed money, assets, and property! California holds over $9 billion and New York holds over $16 billion. Even little old Connecticut holds close to $876 million.
So where does all this money come from? Well, for starters, the government is a big source. If the government owes you money and you do not collect it, then it's unclaimed. They're not allowed to just keep it! This also applies to private companies. State laws demand companies that owe you or your business money to turn it over to the state after a certain amount of time. This includes banks, credit unions, utilities, employers, and more. It also includes investments like pensions, bonds, or stocks, among other sources.
Many sources of unclaimed money come from deaths as well. It's not uncommon for wills to be outdated, leaving assets to distant relatives with a new names. It's also common for money to be left in you
As you can see, my buddy found $100 for his dad from a tax rebate he was owed from the mid-90s. The most I've ever found for myself was an $8 check from Verizon. But hey, it was something! I know of people who discovered unclaimed property from bank accounts, safe deposit boxes, stock dividends, literal unpaid wages!, tax rebates, insurance payouts, and so many other ways.
Find Unclaimed Money
State Unclaimed Money Forms
All 50 states, plus DC, have a dedicated state website with an official search form. So that should clearly be your first step in searching for unclaimed money and property! I highly recommend searching your last name and business name in every state you've ever lived or worked in. Below are direct links to each state's search form and you can learn more from the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.
Your next stop should be this US Government official unclaimed money guide. They breakdown all of the individual sites you can search for unclaimed money.
While the government doesn't have a central website for locating unclaimed money, they do have specific areas to look based on where the money is coming from.
Unclaimed Back Wages
Unpaid Wages – If you think you may be owed back wages from your employer, search the Wage and Hour Division's (WHD's) database of workers for whom it has money waiting to be claimed. WHD is a part of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
Life Insurance
VA Life Insurance Funds – Search the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for unclaimed insurance funds that are owed to certain current or former policyholders or their beneficiaries. Note: This does not include funds from Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI) or Veterans' Group Life Insurance (VGLI) policies from 1965 to the present.
Retirement
Pensions from Former Employers – Search for unclaimed pension money from companies that went out of business or ended a defined plan.
Taxes
Tax Refunds – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may owe you money if your refund was unclaimed or undelivered.
Banking, Investments, and Currency
Bank Failures – Search the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for unclaimed funds from failed financial institutions.
SEC Claims Funds – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lists enforcement cases where a company or person owes investors money.
Mortgages
FHA-Insurance Refunds – If you had an FHA-insured mortgage, you may be eligible for a refund from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). To search the HUD database, you will need your FHA case number (three digits, a dash, and the next six digits—for example, 051-456789).
International
Foreign Claims – U.S. nationals can find money owed to them from foreign governments after loss of property.
Beware Unclaimed Money Scams
Finally, watch out fir people who pretend to be the government and offer to send you unclaimed money for a fee. These scammers use a variety of tricks to get your attention, but their goal is the same: to get you to send them money. Government agencies will not call you about unclaimed money or assets.
