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Want to find an easy way to help pay for your vacations?
One of my favorite ways is with the online rewards program Swagbucks, which I’ve been using since 2015.
I love being able to earn Disney gift cards, which I can use for things Disney hotel stays, park tickets, meals in the parks and more.
There are so many other ways you can use Swagbucks for vacation expenses, though, including Hotels.com gift cards, airline gift cards, PayPal gift cards, Uber gift cards, Airbnb gift cards, Carnival cruise gift cards, and restaurant gift cards.
However, Swagbucks can be a little overwhelming, and some of the activities can take up a lot of time without much of a reward.
Who wants to deal with that?
Instead, here are the top 5 ways to earn Swagbucks. These are the best ways because they are both easy and effective – the biggest earners with the least amount of work!
But first – if you haven’t joined Swagbucks yet, you can join Swagbucks by signing up here.
So now that that’s out of the way, here are some of the best ways to earn quick Swagbucks:
#1 Buying Gift Cards
One of the easiest ways to earn a large amount of Swagbucks is from buying giftcards from MyGiftCards Plus. MyGiftCards Plus is basically the online gift card store associated with Swagbucks. I’ve purchased gift cards through it for years.
Now, I obviously do not advise you to buy gift cards that you’ll never need.
However, there is a large selection, so if you know you’ll be shopping at a certain store or going to a particular restaurant, then I strongly suggest you buy a gift card first and earn some Swagbucks in the process!
For example…
Let’s say you’re planning on having dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings later in the week.
If you buy a $50 Buffalo Wild Wings gift card, you get 200 Swagbucks (which is basically getting 4% cash back, since 100 Swagbucks = 1 dollar)!
If you make a regular habit of purchasing gift cards for places where you know you’ll be spending anyway, then all these Swagbucks really do add up!
Things to keep in mind:
- The gift cards can take 1-2 business days to arrive. That being said, if you buy one in the morning, it often comes by the evening (but not something you can absolutely count on).
- The gift cards are e-gift cards – they arrive via email. You can just show them on your phone if you use them in person, or you can print them off if you’d like. You can also use the code to buy things online (if, for example, you’ve purchased an eBay gift card).
- The amount of Swagbucks you get can vary from around 2% to 7% cash back.
- Sometimes there are special promotions and you can get extra bonus Swagbucks on a purchase – just check the banners on the site for any promotions or sales.
Here are some of the gift cards you can buy:
- Restaurants
- Fast Food (ex. Burger King)
- Pizza Delivery (ex. Domino’s)
- Counter Service (ex. Panera Bread)
- Sit Down Restaurants (ex. Landry’s Restaurants)
- Travel (such as Southwest Airlines and Hotels.com)
- Department Stores (such as Lowe’s and JCPenney)
- eBay
- Barnes & Noble
- Groupon
One more thing – these gift cards can make great birthday and Christmas presents! Now, you won’t get the physical gift card, but you can print off the gift card if you want something you can gift wrap.
#2 Games
Now, if you don’t enjoy playing games on your phone, you can just skip this section.
But if you enjoy mobile games (or are open to trying them out), why not get paid to do so?
You can find the list of games under the menu heading “Play” on Swagbucks. And you can sort by iOS or Android depending on what kind of phone you have. Just look for a game that seems fun – and that you haven’t downloaded before.
Once you’ve installed the game through Swagbucks, you’ll have a certain number of days to reach various levels or benchmarks in the game. And whenever you reach them, you’ll get paid more Swagbucks.
In this screenshot (which is for an offer for playing Game of Vampires), you can see some of the different achievements you need to reach in the game in order to earn money. A couple of them must happen in a relatively short amount of time (within 1 day or 3 days). For all of the other levels, you have 30 days. (This can vary from game to game – for example, sometimes you may have a total of 40 days.)
Generally, the farther you go in a game, the more money you get paid. And while each game has its own payout, there are multiple games you can play to earn hundreds of dollars. Which is certainly not the worst way to make money!
#3 Receipts
Swagbucks has a feature called Magic Receipts that lets you take photos of your receipts and get money back for things you purchased. The amounts range from something relatively small (like 2 SB for any brand of potatoes) to special deals that make more money. The special deals are usually limited to a specific store or store and a specific product or products.
Here’s an example of one of those special deals. At the time of writing this, if you buy a Jimmy Dean frozen breakfast product at Sam’s Club, you’ll get 350 SB (which is $3.50). If you buy two products, you get 800 SB (or $8.00). Only these products are eligible:
- Jimmy Dean Meat Lovers Bowl, 8 count
- Jimmy Dean Original Pancake and Sausage on a Stick, 20 count
- Jimmy Dean Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Croissant Sandwiches, 12 count
You can look through the deals (or search for certain brands or types of food) to find any that look appealing. If they are items you’d probably buy anyway, at a store where you usually shop, it can be an easy way to get back several dollars!
#4 Shop
Speaking of shopping, shopping online is another great way to earn lots of Swagbucks with minimal effort.
Check out this blog entry explaining how to earn Swagbucks by shopping online.
Just note that unlike most Swagbucks offers, you may have to wait 30-60 days or so before receiving your Swagbucks.
#5 Referrals
Referring your friends is probably the number one easiest way to earn Swagbucks!
Currently, if your friend signs up and earns 300 SB in their first month, then you get a $3 bonus.
However, the earning doesn’t stop there.
If you refer a friend, then you get 10% of their earnings… for life!
Now, there are some exclusions, but for most ways to earn Swagbucks, for everything your friend earns, you get 10% of it.
These referral Swagbucks require absolutely no work from you and can really add up!
Conclusion
I hope that these 5 simple ways to earn Swagbucks will help you make a lot of money for your next vacation (or however you want to use it!). Happy Swagging!