5 Legit Ways to Get Free Money on Your Cash App in 2023

Written By Branson Knowles

Watching YouTube and scrolling through Instagram, one would think that major companies give out money left and right and that there are hundreds of “free money hacks” that are just waiting for you to take advantage of. 

However, I have to disappoint you. Most of them are scams. That’s right, DON’T fall for it.

Still, there are legit ways how to get free money on one of the most popular payment apps. Cash App uses money, stocks, and even bitcoin as an incentive to both new users and people trying the platform for the first time. There are five legit ways to get free money on Cash App:

  • Getting the sign up bonus
  • Referring your friends
  • Using the Cash Card’s boosts
  • Enrolling in rewards programs,
  • Entering in one of Cash App’s sweepstakes

Cash App has a wide variety of things users and users-to-be can do to get free money on the app. Some take a little more time, while others can come at the tap of a button. 

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How to Get Free Money on Cash App Through a Sign-Up Bonus

Before you download Cash App and make a profile, look for a referral bonus to get you a head start on your balance. If you have a friend who uses Cash App, have them send you a referral for the app, and you’ll both get paid.

If you sign up for Cash App and use your friend’s referral code, you’ll be eligible for a $5 bonus. They might be eligible for even more, anywhere from the same $5 you’re getting to an astounding $30! (More on this later)

Once you’ve qualified for the sign up bonus, you’ll still have some steps to take. First, Cash App will need you to link a debit card or an active bank account to draw funds from. 

Next, you’ll need to send $5 to another Cash App user, it can even be the person who referred you. You have 14 days to get this done. 

I actually just missed my referral bonus time period when I downloaded Cash App for myself, I’ll include a picture below.

If you’re a little better about managing your time than I am, consider getting a referral code from a friend before starting a Cash App account on your own. 

How to Get Money on Cash App by Referring Your Friends

I bet you’re wondering how you can get that $30 referral bonus, aren’t you? Well I have bad news for you. I spoke with Cash App directly a while ago, and they told me that referral bonuses range and there is no way to change yours directly. 

While some users can invite their friends and receive a $30 bonus, others can get $10. It’s pretty arbitrary from what I’ve seen online as well.

For whatever reason, my referral bonus is $15. If I invite someone to Cash App who has never had an account with them before, and they follow the steps I outlined above, I would receive $15.

How do you exactly refer your friends? And how do you know how much your referral bonus is?

It’s easy, let me break it down into a few simple steps: 

  1. Open Cash App: To find your referral code and bonus amount, you have to start by getting logged into Cash App.
  2. Click on your profile: When you open Cash App, it will take you to the home screen. From there, you’ll want to click on your profile in the upper right hand corner. If you added a profile picture to Cash App, you’ll see it here.

my cash app profile

  1. See your referral bonus: Just beneath your basic information is your referral amount. You should see white plus sign in a green circle that is titled “invite friends”. It should also say your referral amount, mine is $15 as you can see here.

i get $15 referral bonus

  1. Invite your friends: Cash App will ask for permission to see your phone’s contacts. If you say yes, Cash App will pull up all of your contacts and include who already has Cash App and who doesn’t. If you say no, you can still find new people to invite by using their email or phone number.

cash app contacts

  1. Confirm they’ve sent $5: If you really want to make sure you get your bonus, you can follow up with the person you’ve invited to Cash App and make sure they sent their money. 

If you’re making $15 a referral like I am, you could even pay the person $10 to send you the initial $5. That way, they’re making $10 instead of $5 (after they get the $5 referral bonus too), and you get $10 as well ($15 from the referral bonus and $5 from them, minus the $10 you sent to start the transfers).

You can refer an unlimited number of people to Cash App, as the company doesn’t put a limit on the number of referral bonuses a user can get. 

How to Get Free Money on Cash App by Using the Cash Card’s Boosts

Cash App has its own debit card, called the Cash Card. Users can apply for the Cash Card right from the app. It’s completely free and even comes with a lot of fun bonuses that can help you get free money right from Cash App

The free money comes in the form of “Boosts”, Cash App’s way of giving their customers discounts at popular stores, restaurants, and services.

Users can hand-pick their own boosts too, so you don’t have to worry about getting 10% off at a store you’ll never go to. Some examples of boosts seen within the app are a one-time $5 off a ride through Lyft or 10% off of your Shake Shack order.

cash app card boosts

Each boost has their own stipulations, and you can click on them to learn more. Some, like the Shake Shack boost I mentioned earlier, are only good for one order an hour or have a minimum of $7.50 to qualify. Not the biggest barriers in the world.

If you’re interested in getting a debit card to attach to your Cash App account, consider getting the Cash Card and looking at their boosts. They even have boosts for bitcoin, giving you fractional pieces of the popular cryptocurrency for doing certain tasks. 

How to Get Free Money on Cash App by Enrolling in Restaurant or Store Rewards Programs

Rewards programs are more popular than ever at your favorite stores and restaurants. Both big corporations and small businesses alike use rewards programs to reward their customers for coming in and spending money with them.

Small businesses especially use these rewards programs through Cash App, integrating the popular payment platform with grace. I’ve personally been to a couple of coffee and sandwich shops that use Cash App, and I’ll share some pictures below.

cash app rewards

When I was researching my Capital One Cafe article, I stopped by a sandwich shop that has some great pretzel bread. When I was checking out, the point-of-sale system asked if I wanted to join the free rewards program offered by the shop.

All I had to do was enter my phone number, and voila! I was in the program. The POS device communicated with Cash App instantly, and I could see my new rewards balance right from the app. 

The connection was seamless, and with the rewards program on Cash App, I could see exactly what my points could get me. 

I could see all of my interactions with the shop on Cash App as well, including when I joined the rewards program and how many points, called avocados at this restaurant I had earned. 

my cash app rewards screen

If you’re a frequent flier of a shop, store, or restaurant that’s partnered with Cash App, consider joining their rewards program to get some cool, free stuff.

How to Get Free Money on Cash App Through Cash App’s Sweepstakes

What kind of list of free money would be complete without sweepstakes? Cash App offers a lot of them through their social media accounts, namely Instagram and Twitter.

Cash App is constantly posting tweets of encouragement. They recently just tweeted an invitation to their followers that if they replied to the tweet with their current savings goal and their $cashtag, Cash App might send them $50 for free! Pretty good deal for just responding to a tweet. 

They do these kinds of posts constantly, giving away amounts ranging from $20 all the way to $50 in free money. I’ve heard rumors about Cash App giving away as much as $100 through these social media posts too, so be on the lookout. 

If you do win one of their sweepstakes or get seen through a tweet reply, Cash App will immediately put the funds in your account. The money will be available right away.

Cash App Free Money Code

If you’re looking for a free code to get money on Cash App right when you download it, you can use my referral code: https://cash.app/app/njghg5z, or just NJGHG5Z if you’re using a mobile device.

If you use that free money code, all you have to do is add your debit card to Cash App and send another user $5, perfect if you were planning on sending someone money anyways.

Cash App Scams

cash app scam example

Cash App has more than 70 million users, and that attracts too many scammers to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram to try and take advantage of regular people. They do this in many, more or less, creative ways.

The above-mentioned Cash App Friday giveaway makes people share their $Cashtags that scammers are using to send people messages that they’ve won the giveaway, but in order to pay it out, you, the “winner,” have to send them a small amount of money to “verify” the account. 

Scammers go as far as sending you a fake Cash App login link that leads to an incredibly good-looking login page that mimics Cash App’s official website so they can steal your credentials.

And then there are also many, and I mean many, cash flipping scams that promise to “flip” small amounts of money into 10x bigger sums of money by “exploiting” a non-existing Cash App “hack” or by simply doing it in return for installing a few “harmless” apps.

How to Avoid Scams?

There are so many scams that I’m sure you got a DM from someone promising you something ludicrous. The reason why you have to be extremely careful is that the cash payments are instant and can’t be canceled, and you won’t get ANY help from the company if you fall for a scam.

You must know that no Cash App representatives, including their customer support, will ask you for payments, log-in details, SSN, or bank account information.

Be sure to always double-check $Cashtag, phone number, or email for typos before transferring money to someone. Make sure to send money only to verified accounts and to people you know.

Also, never share your $Cashtag with people you don’t know, as scammers can use it against you. This also goes for your phone number.

A good rule to follow when dealing with people requesting that you send them payments over the Cash App is – if it’s too good to be true, it’s probably a scam.

Still, being scammed can happen even to the best of us. If you were scammed on Cash App – act fast.

READ NEXT: Cash App Vs. Zelle (A Quick Guide With Table)

The Bottom Line

It’s true that there’s no free lunch, at least not one that’s moral or legal. However, I showed you a few ways to get free money on Cash App that still work. 

Important that I also showed you what you need to look out for so as not to get scammed. If something is too good to be true, it probably is. 

If you find this article useful, check this out:

About the Author

Lead Researcher, Digital Banking in the U.S. at TopMobileBanks

Branson Knowles is a former banker and current writer at TopMobileBanks.com.

During his years banking, he helped his clients discover their financial freedom through smart savings and spending goals. He started as a teller before becoming a banker and obtaining his federal licenses, furthering his clients' on their financial journeys.

After becoming one of the top producing bankers in the state, Branson decided it was time to pursue his own financial freedom. He started writing freelance finance articles before joining TopMobileBanks.com, breaking down banking like only an ex-banker could.

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