Are you interested in learning about the best cash advance apps for instant money?
Today I’m going to show you some new strategies to borrow money instantly simply by clicking a few buttons on your cell phone (in under 5 minutes).
I get it.
Life happens.
Sometimes you need some extra cash to pay a bill or you’re trying to save up for something you want.
You don’t want to fall behind on bills and are wondering how to get an instant $50 loan or what money borrowing apps can pay you today?
Sure, another 100 dollars paid out early wouldn’t hurt. We’ve all been there, but what do you usually do when that happens? This is an exhaustive list of things that anyone can do, today, in order to get your paycheck early so you can earn money today.
If you’re strapped for time, I’ll go ahead and share the best cash advance apps for interest-free cash advances.
How to Get Cash When You Need Money Now
These apps help you get your paycheck early and can help you get paid today.
Try these free mobile applications available in the App Store and Google Play Store — so you can borrow cash with ease:
1. Cash advance apps
When you're thinking ‘I need money now' one of the best places to turn to is using cash advance apps, even if you bad credit.
Because these payday apps help you get your paycheck early can help you borrow money instantly. I mean you worked today, get paid today.
Cleo
With Cleo, you can get a salary advance which is its answer to extortionate overdraft fees and the scary-expensive world of payday loans; it’s part of Cleo Plus, the apps subscription service.
If you qualify, Cleo can give you a no-interest advance of up to $100 to help you stay out of your overdraft. You pick your repayment date – anywhere between 3 and 28 days – and pay Cleo back when you reach it. It won't affect your credit score, but Cleo Plus is $5.99 per month.
The free option gives you access to Cleo's budgeting tool and digital wallet, plus a weekly quiz with chances to earn cash rewards but you can't get the salary advance.
- You can earn cash back rewards and enjoy salary advances up to $250 with Cleo Plus ($5.99 a month)
- Robust free version that helps you budget, automatically save and track your spending
- You can earn interest on your savings
Brigit
Brigit is another instant loan app that can help anyone get paid today. By downloading the free app on iOS or Android — you can join 3 million members who get paid up to $250, budget, and save smarter with Brigit. Only takes 2-minutes. No credit check. No interest.
- Tap to get an advance within seconds
- Get up to $250
- No credit check is required and no interest
- Pay it back without hidden fees or “tips"
Odd Jobs to Make Money Now Around Your City
These are a set of money-making ideas that do not require formal or corporate skill sets. Rather, it is more dependent on time commitment, soft skills and the resources available to someone who needs money desperately. Yup, these are realistic ways to earn money around your town without paying anything.
Here are a few options that you can check out when you need money today.
2. Renting out a spare room
Don't want to use a payday loan, short term loans, personal loan, or payday lenders? No problem.
If you're thinking, I need money now then look no further than that spare room in your home. This is an awesome opportunity to earn a little extra income from your extra space.
There is enough profit in renting out a spare room to help you cover a quarter of your monthly costs or when you need money fast.
If you are not looking for a full-time roommate, you can list your house on Airbnb for specific time periods.
Fun-Fact: Airbnb said hosts in Washington, D.C. earned $96 million last year, up from $82 million in 2017. The average Airbnb host in D.C earned about $10,000 in supplemental income last year according.
3. Catering
Catering is another way to score some extra cash when you need money desperately.
Catering is one of the easiest ways to get money since a majority of the event managers are understaffed.
You can also easily accommodate a catering gig into your schedule, as parties are generally held during the weekends and during the holiday season. You can generally find catering gigs on ZipRecruiter or Craigslist.
4. Take on babysitting gigs
According to UrbanSitter, the national average for 2021 is $18.36 per hour for one child (and $21.23 for two), up a bit from last year's $17.73 average.
It is a good idea to babysit for family and friends when starting out. You will be able to gauge if you have the required patience and aptitude to deal with kids.
Also, trust is an extremely important factor for parents when hiring for babysitters. By starting off with your friends-family circle, you will be able to earn reference & experience letters which will give a huge credibility boost for your profile. You can find babysitting gigs on sites like Care.com and Sittercity in order to make money whenever you need it.
5. Become a DoorDash or PostMates driver
DoorDash can be a great way to earn extra income, especially for those looking for a flexible side gig. As a DoorDash driver, you have the freedom to work on your own schedule, choosing when and where you want to accept deliveries. The earning potential is also quite attractive, with drivers often earning a base pay plus tips for each delivery they complete.
Additionally, DoorDash offers bonuses and incentives for reaching certain milestones, further boosting your earning power. Getting started is relatively straightforward – you'll need to sign up, pass a background check, and complete a brief onboarding process.
Once you're ready, you can start accepting orders right away and begin earning money almost immediately. Overall, DoorDash can be a lucrative and convenient way to supplement your income, making it a great option for those looking to earn extra cash on their own terms.
- Choose your own flexible working hours
- Get $150 when you refer a friend to join
- You get to keep 100% of all customer tips
6. Handyman services
A handyman is someone who is skilled in tackling “fix-up tasks” like repairs and maintenance work. Handyman work includes gardening, plumbing, electric and mechanical repairs, etc. Apart from making a few extra bucks when you need it desperately, you also save on taxes.
Fun fact: The Penny Hoarder recently covered a story on a self-employed handyman who earns $30,000 a week. Not bad.
You can find handyman gigs on apps like TaskRabbit. Here's how it works:
- Register online and complete the registration form
- Verify any identity verifications required
- Start tasking by downloading the Tasker app and accept your first job to make money whenever you need it
7. Get paid to play with dogs
This method to get cash fast is for all the animal-lovers out there. Dog walking has 3 lucrative benefits: you get to spend time with your four-legged friends, you yourself get some exercise and you don't have to pay taxes.
You can find dog-walking gigs on Rover. At Rover, you can get paid to play with dogs by joining the nation's largest network of pet parents. You can your own schedule and prices. Offer any combination of pet care services. Set size, age, and other pet preferences that work for you.
By signing up as a dog sitter through Rover, you’ll be connected to a nationwide network of pet owners in need of caring providers who offer boarding, pet sitting, or dog walking.
8. Rent out your car
What should you do if you need money now? Start looking at some of the items that you have that you can rent out, like your car.
Some people are turning their cars into a second paycheck by using apps like Getaround and Turo. With Getaround, you're paid monthly and you can earn $1,000s per year actively sharing your parked car.
9. Become a brand ambassador
This is suited to students with people, sales and marketing skills. Brand ambassador is an incentive-based program, where students are paid to promote a particular brand on campus (like Jameson liquor or Red Bull energy drinks).
Tasks can range from wearing company merchandise, getting registrations or social media promotions. Campus ambassador opportunities are posted on job and internship sites like LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter.
10. Teach English online
Teaching English online is a great way to meet new people and earning money on the side. By teaching online you have the ability to choose your own work-from-home schedule, an ability to bring your own teaching style to a custom-designed classroom and receive local, US and UK-based support and payments.
The task is simple: Sign up for a teaching company like Education First (EF) and get paid to teach English to people overseas. The requirements are basic, you just need a Bachelor's degree from US or UK University, currently residing in the US or UK and have some prior tutoring experience.
Teachers with EF earn up to $20 per hour.
11. Deliver groceries
Grocery delivering apps are on the rise with the rise of the coronavirus making people stay indoors now, according to Gigs Done Right. You can profit from this demand by signing up for food delivery apps like Instacart.
Instacart is the North American leader in grocery delivery. Their technology gives customers access to their favorite grocery stores like Kroger, Shaw's, Costco, and Aldi so they can order groceries from anywhere. If you wanted to deliver groceries with them you can become a full-service shopper and earn around $20 per hour plus cash tips.
As an Instacart Shopper, you would receive these orders through an app on your smartphone, then shop and deliver groceries to the customer’s door. You can earn money quickly when you need and shop and deliver customer orders on your own schedule. Get to know your community by delivering to new and familiar areas.
12. Participate in medical studies
Being a human guinea pig is not a bad idea after all, especially if you can earn up to $15,000 per project (some clinical trials do shell out that kind of cash!).
Research and clinical trials test the effect of drugs and medicines to determine their efficiency. While the money may look lucrative, one must do thorough research before nominating himself/herself for a study regarding the safety measures and side effects. In case you want to explore this option you can use ClinicalTrials.gov to find studies.
Other Ways to Get Cash Today Online
Did you know that the online outsourcing market is projected to grow to $16 Billion by 2023? Young adults, especially those in the age group of 20-25 years form a large part of this outsourcing market.
Hence, it comes as no surprise that nearly 80% of students work part-time and about 30% of working professionals have side jobs or what we like to call, side hustles. Using side hustles has increasingly become a popular option in the last decade, with students and working professionals alike.
Here are a few reasons why best side hustles have appeal when you need money fast:
- Opportunity to earn an additional source of income, which can be used to offset the financial pressure due to student loan debt and lifestyle upkeep.
- Develop and hone a skill set
- Productive use of time
Side hustles or the “second job” is a concept that has been branded by the millennial generation. Besides the regular 9 to 5 clocked hours, some people design websites, some download apps that pay real money, some tutor a subject and some others run odd errands to make a few extra bucks on the side.
In fact, the gig economy, characterized by independent contract jobs, has been growing at a faster rate than payroll employment. According to a report by CNBC, the number of independent contractors has increased by 27% more than the traditional clocked-hours employees in the last 2 decades.
If you want to take complete advantage of the opportunities existing in the gig economy, below are some of the best ways you can pursue to earn additional income when you need money desperately.
The ideas above are ways for you to get money relatively fast when it's urgent. Here are a few alternative ways to get cash (through online methods) when you need it.
13. Freelancing
Freelancing is a great way to gain some practical experience in your interested field and get access to fast cash.
As a freelancer, you can work with multiple clients at the same time. Freelancing projects are a great way to build your portfolio and pick up on a multitude of skill sets. You can take up a few projects for free initially, to get on your references and build work samples for your portfolio.
Once the word is out about your credibility, you can set a price chart and take up projects according to it and always have a steady stream of income. You can find freelancing projects on Fiverr or Upwork.com.
14. Play Skillz game apps to win real money
There really are free game apps that you can download on the App Store or Google Play store that'll pay real money.
Skillz is a multiplayer tournament platform that lets you compete in mobile games with other people around the world for either real cash or virtual currency.
Once you make a deposit, you can use that money to enter cash tournaments and win real cash prizes. You can then withdraw your winnings at any time. Popular Skillz games include Solitaire Cube and Blackout Bingo.
So if you play games anyways, now you play them without wasting time or money.
This app lets you play bingo for money — make $100 today. Over 5 Million players agree Blackout Bingo is the fresh, social competitive twist to the classic game where you can win real world rewards and cash prizes (where available).
15. Take online surveys
Yes, you do get paid to give your opinion. However, your feedback should be detailed and honest as you are judged by your content quality here. You can earn anything from $1-$50 per survey and get paid instantly through PayPal.
Here are some trusted survey companies that pay you in cash via PayPal:
- Survey Junkie: Make up to $50 per survey in your spare time from home to take online surveys, participating in focus groups and trying new products. Join Survey Junkie Now
- Swagbucks: Watch videos, take surveys, shop and more to earn real money. Join Swagbucks Now to Get $10 Free
- InboxDollars: Has so far paid its members over $40 Million. Watch videos, take surveys, shop and more. Join InboxDollars Now and Get Free $5
Survey Junkie has a well-designed platform, straightforward rewards system where you can get paid to surveys, listen to music, try out new products and participate in focus groups at home.
16. Become a user tester
User-testing is research conducted by firms to improve their customer experience. Businesses are willing to shell out quite a few bucks to understand if their product/service effectively satisfies the customer demand before officially introducing it in the market. You can register yourself as a user tester by downloading apps like S'mores.
S'more (Android only) is a lock screen rewards app that allows you to earn points in exchange for us placing ads and content on your lock screen.
17. Get a free stock in the next 3 days
If you need money fast you can claim a free stock offer from the popular Robinhood investing app. Robinhood currently has approximately 6 million users and they are currently offering new users a free stock like Facebook (worth $200 today), Apple (worth $150 today), or Microsoft (worth $261 today).
Simply sign up through a Robinhood Promo Link and you will get 1 share of free stock to your account when your brokerage application is approved. You’ll be able to keep the stock or sell it after 2 trading days. You can then withdraw the money to your bank account after.
Robinhood is a free-trading app that allows you to trade stocks, crypto, and more without paying commissions. Plus, they'll give you a free stock worth between $5 and $200 for joining.
18. Get money for scanning receipts
What do you usually do when you get receipts after buying groceries? If you're like me, you usually crumble them up and toss them out.
I used to do that before I learned about the Fetch Rewards app.
Fetch Rewards is a free grocery savings app that rewards you just for snapping pictures of your receipts. That’s really it. Free rewards on groceries on thousands of products every day, no matter where you get your groceries. Just scan your receipts and let them do all the work
Download Fetch for iOS or Android phones to get money today.
With Fetch, you get rewarded for anything you buy. Snap a receipt to get started. Shop all your favorites & get rewarded on Fetch. Try the free app now. Earn points and redeem.
19. Get translation gigs
The current market size of the global languages industry is around $40 billion and it is expected to keep growing cumulatively every year. The best part is, that although there are various translation-related applications, automated translation is not considered to be completely reliable by publishers. There is a continued demand for translators, especially in the areas of website translation, transcripts, and foreign language education.
20. Join referral programs
According to research by the research company Neilson Holdings, people are 4 times more likely to buy a product/service when it is referred by a friend.
Now, that is a statistic that companies like and this is precisely why companies across all sectors and sizes have been implementing referral programs.
From an organization's perspective, the ROI of referral programs is lucrative and hence they are willing to invest in a decent incentive plan for the referring sources.
21. Sell stock photography
The growth of E-commerce and E-learning industries has been a catalyst in the transition of photography from a hobby occupation to an off-beat profession.
Almost every company has an account on stock photography sites like Shutter-Stock, Getty images, etc. to fulfill their imaging needs. There is a high demand for HD images to support E-commerce products, blog posts, articles and E-learning modules.
If you have always pursued photography as a hobby, maybe it is time to start thinking about it commercially.
22. Become an editor
Believe it or not, companies and people are willing to pay huge bucks for proof-reading and editing reports, proposals, advertising copies and other such documents.
In fact, certain freelance proof-reading is known to pay $17 per hour!
If you happen to have a background in human resources, you have added leverage.
Conclusion on Getting Money Now
There are so many payday loans, personal loans, personal loan lenders, credit card cash advance options if you need money today.
However, your best bet would be to use a cash advance app like Brigit to get money if you need money quickly.
If you're keen on working for your money there are side hustles you can do online and offline.
The best side gigs are not limited to just making money when you need it. In the current skill economy, they are a great asset to your resume! In fact, you might actually find your career calling and there is a possibility of a side gig turning into a full-time job.
Have you tried any of these side hustles when you caught yourself thinking “I Need Money Now Desperately”? Tell us in the comments section below!
*Chime SpotMe is an optional, no fee service that requires a single deposit of $200 or more in qualifying direct deposits to the Chime Checking Account each month. All qualifying members will be allowed to overdraw their account up to $20 on debit card purchases and cash withdrawals initially, but may be later eligible for a higher limit of up to $200 or more based on member's Chime Account history, direct deposit frequency and amount, spending activity and other risk-based factors. Your limit will be displayed to you within the Chime mobile app. You will receive notice of any changes to your limit. Your limit may change at any time, at Chime's discretion. Although there are no overdraft fees, there may be out-of-network or third party fees associated with ATM transactions. SpotMe won't cover non-debit card transactions, including ACH transfers, Pay Anyone transfers, or Chime Checkbook transactions. See Terms and Conditions.
^Early access to direct deposit funds depends on the timing of the submission of the payment file from the payer. We generally make these funds available on the day the payment file is received, which may be up to 2 days earlier than the scheduled payment date.
- Up to $250 Instant overdraft coverage
- With Instant, you can overdraw your Albert Cash account up to your Instant limit
- Costs $14.99 per month after a 30 day free-trial
