$20 Target Gift Card For Free? Yes Please!
As I get older (and somehow my living space seems to get smaller!), I like to consider myself somewhat of a minimalist. Gone are the days when I find myself coveting “things”; these days I’d much rather spend money on experiences.
That said, whether you’re a hoarder or a purger of your belongings, we can all agree that a free gift card to Amazon, Target, Walmart etc will ALWAYS come in handy for the purchases you just have to make.
A few weeks back, we wrote a blog about money making apps, but what about those apps that pay you in gift cards?
It’s true. There are a whole suite of apps that will give you free gift cards for activities you may already be doing online.
1) Get Amazon Gift Cards for Saving Energy with OhmConnect
If you’ve read any of my other posts, you know I’m a sucker for opportunities to not only save money and be frugal, but to do something good for the planet at the same time. If you live in California and are a customer of PG&E, SCE or SDG&E, you’re eligible to sign up with OhmConnect, a free service that rewards you for saving energy when it matters most to the grid and the environment.
Once you connect your utility account to OhmConnect, you’ll receive a notification about once per week (by email or SMS) to save energy for an hour. If you save energy, you receive cash or can cash out for an Amazon gift card.
2) Earn Gift Cards and Make Money Online With Swagbucks
Swagbucks is one of the easiest ways to make money online through a variety of tasks. Here are a few ways you can earn free gift cards with Swagbucks:
For every task you complete, you earn rewards points. They can be redeemed for gift cards for your favorite stores and restaurants for only $3. Not a fan of gift cards? You can also redeem your points for PayPal cash.
3) Get a Gift Card to One of 4000+ stores with TopCashback
TopCashback is a cash-back shopping portal that lets you get a percentage of your purchase amount back in the form of cash or gift card at a selection of more than 4,000 stores. You can earn cash back when you shop online or use their app (alongside six million other worldwide users!)
While you can choose to receive your payout as PayPal cash or direct deposit, you will receive a 3% bonus when you request payment with an American Express gift card. Pro tip: The gift card can be more valuable than cash and other retail gift cards, because these prepaid cash cards are accepted anywhere you can make a credit or debit card purchase.
4) Get a Free Gift Card or Make Money on Apps You Already Use With AppBounty
This one’s interesting. Upon launching AppBounty you're shown a list of free apps available to download from either the App Store or Google Play, from which you can earn credits. You’ll be awarded credits if an app is used for more than 30 (ish) seconds, and then notified by AppBounty when you've earned them. Credits usually vary per app download, as each app will offer a different number of credits.
After you've been awarded enough credits (500 credits = $1), you can spend them on gift cards from Google Play, iTunes, Amazon, Xbox, Steam, PlayStation and more. Have a friend in mind who could also use a few extra bucks? You can earn extra credits by referring the service to a friend, via your unique invite code or URL. AppBounty is available for both Android and iOS devices.
5) Consider Yourself Lucky? Earn Gift Cards With Lucktastic
Consider yourself a lucky person? Lucktastic is a free rewards app that lets you win tokens, gift cards, merchandise, and cash as you play a selection of games of chance. All you have to do is download the app and you’ll get a set of daily scratch-off tickets that can contain a prize. Pretty easy, right?
At the very minimum, you’ll receive coins that can be redeemed for gift cards, to over 30 major brands, even if you don’t win an actual prize.
Another quick way to boost your points balance is to refer a friend. As soon as they play their first game on Lucktastic, you earn 1,000 bonus points! So far, Lucktastic has given away more the $3 million in prizes.
6) Share Your Opinion & Get Paid With Google Opinion Rewards
The Google Opinion Rewards app allows you to take simple, short anonymous surveys, and rewards you with credit in the form of a Google Play gift card. After downloading the app you'll need to answer some basic questions about yourself, and you're ready to receive your first survey. You'll receive approximately one survey per week, via a notification on your phone.
Surveys generally take less than a minute to complete and can reward you with anything up to $1. To receive the Google Play credit you will need to open a Google Wallet account. Once you've earned enough credit, you can click the "Shop" button and spend your gift card as you wish, in the Google Play Store.
7) Already Keep Your Receipts? Get A Free Gift Card With Receipt Pal
We’ve all been told at some point that we should be holding on to our receipts. But who really does? You may want to now that you can earn and redeem points with Receipt Pal. They are one of the very few apps that accept receipts for nearly any purchase making it easy to be rewarded for all your weekly purchases.
You’ll earn rewards points for sharing a picture of your receipt when you buy coffee in the morning, take a friend to dinner, or even get your oil changed.
Just as it’s super easy to be rewarded for every single purchase you make, you can also redeem your gift cards at many different stores.
8) Earn Rewards and Points With AppNana
Personally, I like to keep my phone screen pretty clutter-free. If I’m not regularly using an app, it’s gone.
But if you’re one of those people who loves downloading and testing the latest apps and games, AppNana will give you rewards points for every app and game you download and use. The selection is constantly changing so this can be an “evergreen” way of earning points that can be redeemed for gift cards for Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and the Xbox stores. You don’t have to keep every app you test, but I’m sure there are a few that you will keep and continue to use!
9) For An Even Larger Selection of Gift Cards Try FreeMyApps
FreeMyApps is another app that pays you to download and try out new apps and games. You might prefer FreeMyApps to AppNana because there are more gift card options. In addition to the AppNana offerings, you can also redeem your points for gift cards to other online stores like Steam, Hulu, and Visa gift cards.
10) Make Money Online and Get Paid in Gift Cards With PanelPayDay
Do you enjoy taking surveys, participating in focus groups, and mystery shopping? If the answer is yes, tjen head on over to PanelPayDay. You can instantly begin earning between $25 and $75 per survey, and you’ll receive a $25 bonus just for completing your first survey today.
With PanelPayDay, you can expect to receive between two and four invitations each month for a host of topics. You can earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards, and, some surveys will also offer to pay you with cash.
11) Already Planning to Shop? Try Ebates & Get Cash Back or Gift Cards
Ebates is possibly the largest online shopping app with the possibility of earning 1% to 40% cashback at more than 2,000 stores that you might be shopping at anyways. They also give you the opportunity to earn cash back in-person at more than 30 stores and restaurants.
While you can shop through the Ebates web browser, they also offer increased cashback rates when you use their mobile app.
You can earn an additional $10 bonus after making your first $25 purchase with Ebates. Once your rewards balance reaches $5, you will have the option to redeem your gift cards for cash. Or, you can also redeem them for a gift card for a higher value!
Whether you want to give a gift card as a gift, or simply want to do some shopping for yourself and earn higher rewards than you often can with cashback apps, apps that pay you in gift cards can be the perfect option.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an Android or iOS user, there’s most likely an app that will help you earn free gift cards every day of the week.
Have you tried any of these apps before? What was your experience?
