Do you see the words “free money” and think it is an oxymoron? You have probably heard the old saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and it is true. Both online and offline, if a deal sounds too good to be true then it probably is. However, there are some ways that you can essentially be given money that are not a scam. Read below for our 5 ways to get money for free in Australia.
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Is it possible to get money online free?
Yes, it is possible to make money online free. However, there is always some type of string attached. It also depends on what you consider to be free. Many of these types of lists online or sites that claim to give away money require some type of effort from you to obtain that money. For example, often completing surveys for cash is considered a “free” way to make money. Although it may be true that you do not have to pay to do the survey, I do not personally consider an hour’s work for a dollar (for example, durations and payment figures vary) as earning money for free. I think the differentiation here is that you are “making” the money for “free”, rather than it is money for free.
It is important with any of these schemes that you work out for yourself what your time is worth. If the way you are making money requires no thought or real effort, then a site which takes some time in return for small amounts of money may be worth it for you.
5 ways to get money
Ready to see how to get free money in Australia now? Here are 5 ways that you can make some money.
1. Find Unclaimed Money
The first thing every Australian should do is an unclaimed money search. There are lots of super accounts, savings accounts, unclaimed wages, shares, interest, and many other forms of money that have lost their owners and one (or more!) of them might be yours. It is surprising just how much money is currently unclaimed, so even if you think there is no chance that there is any for you, it is very much worth spending ten minutes just to make sure – you never know!
I have found lost superannuation this way that I had sent in forms to transfer but which obviously never happened. Here is a cute video from the government’s MoneySmart website to get you in the mood:
How to find Money that is Unclaimed
Much of the unclaimed money in Australia is very easy to find now thanks to helpful Government websites where you can enter your details to find out if there is anything that is yours.
To see if there is any money waiting for you, try each of the sites in the table below. Once on these sites, you can perform a search to see if anything comes up. You usually just need your name.
| Site | Find Money From... |
|---|---|
| MoneySmart | Shares, insurance and banks |
| ATO's SuperSeeker | Lost superannuation |
| State Government Sites | Deceased estates, wages, shares and dividends, cheques, over payments and many others |
| Fair Work Ombudsman | Unpaid wages |
These sites are all very helpful and will give you information about what to do next if you hit the jackpot and you have some money to claim.
2. Open an ING Direct Orange Everyday Account
I personally have one of these savings accounts, and it is great. Not only are there no fees for the account, but there are ways you can be given money if you use your account in certain ways. These ways change over time, but they will send out information about any new schemes.
How to start making money from your Account
- Sign up for a free account. You can do this online, but you must be 18 or over and an Australian resident.
- Wait for your new bank card to arrive in the mail. It will be a Visa debit card.
- Activate your account and start using it.
The current offer to make money with this account is to get 2% back on any purchases that you make using Visa payWave when you have deposited at least $1000 into your account over a month (it does not need to stay in the account). You can use Visa payWave for purchases under $100. In my experience, the payment amount comes out of your account and then ING pay you the 2% back straight away.
A huge cost saving with this account is that you can also use any ATM in Australia for free regardless of what fee the ATM owner has on their machine. ING Direct will reimburse you the amount.
In the past they have also offered:
- 5% back on Visa payWave transactions. This was fantastic and I would put all costs on here that were possible which would add up to a fair bit of money over a month.
- 50 cents for cash withdrawals via eftpos.
- Bonus payments if you refer someone else to ING Direct and they open this savings account
3. Cash Out Rewards Points
If you are anything like me, then you probably have half a dozen rewards cards that you use often but then forget about doing anything else. And if you don’t use rewards cards you should!
Although I often hear people saying that rewards cards are a waste of time and not worth it, I do not agree. It is important to use the right rewards programs and to be strategic about how to cash out reward points to get maximum value.
Tips for choosing the Best Rewards Programs
- Only bother with programs for places you shop or services you use anyway. If you end up with dozens of rewards cards, it will become more difficult to use any of them.
- Ensure that the rewards scheme actually offers rewards that you want.
- Check that the number of points you need for a reward is achievable.
Are Credit Card Rewards Programs worthwhile?
In my experience, yes. For you? You need to work that out for yourself. Generally any credit card that offers a rewards scheme also has an annual fee. It usually also has a higher interest rate. You need to calculate if the reward you would gain is worth the annual fee.
For example, our credit card costs us $150 a year. However, we tend to make at least $400 a year in reward vouchers and we never pay interest on our card. This is worth it for us.
Tips for cashing out Rewards Points
It can pay to think outside the square with points. Even if you really want the iPad, kitchen appliance, TV that might be available, it can often be a better deal to cash out your points into a gift voucher and to buy the item that way.
The best thing to do is usually to cash out points to a supermarket gift voucher, if this is available, then use this voucher for your groceries and then use your grocery money for extra cash or whatever reward you want to buy. This is especially worthwhile with airline reward points. Schemes like QANTAS frequent fliers add so many fees and charges that you still have to pay after using points for a flight that sometimes these add up to more money than just buying the flight! It is far smarter to use the points for a Wish card, buy your groceries at Woolworths and then use the money to buy whatever flight you want.
4. Sell Unwanted Gift Cards
Another way to get some spare money now is to sell any gift vouchers that you have in your possession – or you could do step 3 above and cash out your rewards points into gift vouchers and sell these.
It is rare that you will be able to sell gift cards in Australia for the same value as what they are worth, but you can usually get very close, perhaps losing only 5% of the value. It can be more than this for gift cards that are not popular.
How to Sell Gift Cards
Unless someone you know wants to buy them, you can list them online. Here are some sites where you can sell gift vouchers:
- eBay – you can list your gift card on here either with a buy it now price or set it up as an auction. You can then send the winner the gift card after they pay.
You also need to take into account that gift cards generally have an expiry date, so make sure you sell them before this date.
5. Use Money Croc
If you have ever googled anything about “free money” a site that appears near the top is MoneyCroc.com. They offer the opportunity to win instant cash. Basically you click a button and two images appear. If they are the same you can win either $5, $10 or $50. You can try up to 50 times a day. The page is covered in advertisements.
The website states that they can pay out the money as they are making a lot of money in the displayed advertisements. In fact, they say that they pay half the money earned in prizes. This sounds like an interesting business idea to me. Every time you play, the advertisements all refresh, so I am sure they are making a decent income.
If you win, the site will pay you the money straight into your PayPal account. You don’t have to register unless you win instant cash. You can take a look in this video:
Is this a scam?
I did some research into this and I am unsure. If it is not a total scam, then I would at least say that it is very unlikely that you will win. I found people online saying that they had won, but they always seemed to be accounts that had only posted a couple of times in whatever forum they were in, so there is a good chance that those accounts were fakes.
If lots of people were winning, then I am sure we would all be hearing about it and it wouldn’t be hard to find legitimate looking account online from people saying they had won, so my verdict is that this is most probably a scam.
I list it here as there are many websites with the same premise as this. If you are going to try them, take into account how much time you spend on the sites and if you could have better spent the time making money online doing any of the other work from home ideas on this site.
Still looking for some ways to make money? Check out our list of 25 quick ways to make money now or read one of our other guides.
You now know how to get money for free. What are your tips?
