5 Ways your Smartphone Could be Making you Money Right Now

Smartphones have so many great features and apps that can make life easier. One feature you may be missing out on is the ability to make easy money with simple apps.

If you are one out of five people in the world that own a smartphone, are you using it to its full potential? Among the great features and tools smartphones are equipped with, they also have the ability to make you easy money. While this money won't necessarily pay the bills, it provides a great supplement for shopping, dining, and other entertainment.

1. Mpoints

The main mpoints app is called "Mplaces" and you get points for checking into nearby businesses, easy polls, and opening prize boxes on the map. There are also well over 25 mpoints game apps where you play easy tap games and get points for completing achievements. Points earned are exchanged for a wide variety of gift cards that you can choose from. This is one of my favorite rewards' apps because mpoints gives you all the opportunity to earn that you could ask for. The work is up to you. Taking full advantage of all the mpoints apps can result in about 2,000 points a day, which quickly add up to the $5 payout for 12,500 points.

Mpoints

2.Checkpoints

Checkpoints is another app that rewards you for simply checking into nearby businesses. Coins can also be earned for watching movie trailers and scanning product barcodes at the grocery store, no purchase necessary! One way I maximize my earnings is by taking full advantage of my home wifi connection. Before I go to bed, I set my phone on silent and turn on the movie trailers. They play one after the other automatically and allow me to gain hundreds of points while I sleep. The payouts are easy to reach and gift cards can be redeemed in amounts from $1-$500. Use the referral code cwebb34 and you'll get a 50 point bonus (and help me out as well).

Checkpoints

3. Swagbucks

If you are going to shop online, you might as well get paid for it. Swagbucks offers rebates for virtually almost any retailer, as well as travel agency sites. To me, there is nothing more rewarding than getting a $50 rebate on a plane ticket. Swagbucks also offers many ways to earn, such as participating in surveys, playing games, completing trial offers, and much more. You can even earn by printing off coupons and redeeming them at the store. Unlike mpoints and checkpoints, this site can be accessed on mobile and desktop. You earn points referred to as "swagbucks" that can be exchanged for gift cards.

Swagbucks

4. Shopkick

While swagbucks offers rebates for online shopping only, shopkick offers rebates exclusively for shopping offline. Using these two apps regularly ensures that you always get money back for shopping at retail stores. Shopkick awards "kicks" for walking into retail stores and also offers a free rewards card that can be linked to your credit or debit card in order to get money back for purchases. In some stores, it is also possible to earn "kicks" for scanning specific barcodes. "Kicks" are exchanged for gift cards.

Shopkick

5. Ibotta

Ibotta gives rebates for grocery shopping. Between swagbucks, shopkick, and ibotta, you have the ability to get rebates on any shopping trip. Nothing is more rewarding than getting paid for purchases you have to make. An awesome feature on ibotta is you can get rebates on almost any brand. Before your shopping trip, you can scroll through the app and unlock grocery items you intend on buying by watching a video or doing a poll. Then we you get home from your shopping trip, upload the receipt and watch the money appear in your account. Like the other apps mentioned above, account credit can be exchanged for gift cards.

Ibotta

Updated: 11/02/2015, CarleyClagg

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DerdriuMarriner on 08/09/2022

Your Swagbucks entry indicates that app benefits can be accessed by desktop and mobile.

Is that advantage not mentioned for Ibotta and Shopkick because of not being available or not being as advantageous?

DerdriuMarriner on 07/23/2022

Deals, markdowns, sales and specials appear to be associated with smartphones. But there still are those who spend more time on computers than on mobiles.

Would any of these money-earning, money-saving arrangements be accessible through laptops?

DerdriuMarriner on 06/29/2022

Sometimes the grocery store where I shop does not have high-demand or new products. Is there a certain amount of time within which one has to upload the receipt after doing the required poll or video?

DerdriuMarriner on 06/24/2022

Both Checkpoints and Shopkicks appear to confer points for scanning barcodes.

Is it the same products that you must scan in the same stores? That would be quite convenient, gas-, mileage- and time-saving to earn points with two different sources at one time in one place!

DerdriuMarriner on 06/23/2022

Your fourth section, on Shopkicks, counts kickpoints for "walking into retail stores" and mentions a free reward card.

Does one have to buy or scan something when one walks inside? And is the reward card at zero or with a starting balance?

DerdriuMarriner on 06/13/2022

How do the rebates work in your third section about Swagbucks?

Would they be something immediate or would there be the delay like in turning the appropriate number of points into gift cards?

DerdriuMarriner on 05/27/2022

Regarding the Checkpoints in your second section, do you have to ask permission from the store to scan product bar codes? And does it matter what store you scan the codes in? It would be convenient -- as part of one's regular shopping -- if it's general products that can be found in any department or grocery store.

Also, what would be the coins that you mention in connection with movie trailers?

The movie trailers would be a current thing to do that wouldn't require the travel time that the code-scanning would. Would their Checkpoints have a range of gift cards from which to choose or would there just be one with the host business?

DerdriuMarriner on 05/16/2022

The Mpoints in your first section add up to $150 to $155 if played daily and rewarded with a $5 payout daily.

Is there a limit to how many times one can seek Mpoints in a month? And is there a limit to how much one can earn through Mpoints in a month?

DerdriuMarriner on 04/11/2017

CarleyClagg, Do the gift cards have to be used up as they're awarded or can amounts accumulate? Which app do you prefer and which is the most rewarding in terms of amounts and convenience in claiming?