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How to make 20 dollars fast [39+ legit ways to use NOW]

How to make 20 dollars fast [39+ legit ways to use NOW]

So you want to know how to make 20 dollars fast!

Am I right?

You have come to a good place as we are full of ideas on how to earn those 20 bucks, and fast! There are so many ways to do it that we had to trim our list of methods to earn $20 to “only” 25 legit ways.

Most of these suggestions we listed below are online-based but we have also added good old offline money earning methods.  

Without further ado, let’s get straight into learning on how to make 20 dollars right now.

p.s. – some methods we mention here are legit options to completely replace your existing career – more and more people use them to make money without being employed.

Also, if you are persistent and willing to put in the work – you can not only make 20, but much more in a day. Read here how to get to 200 dollars per day, very quickly.

Take surveys on online survey sites

This is, has been, and probably will be the easiest and most commonly suggested option of earning $20 fast and in a legit way.

Earn $20 quickly with Survey Junkie

If you’re looking for quick cash, survey junkie is definitely a viable option you can go for!

It is a legitimate, paid survey site that has been around for some time and is quite well known among bloggers.

Survey Junkie was launched in 2013 and since then it has gained tremendous success with a large number of mixed reviews with a positive majority.

While it’s not as good as Swagbucks in terms of the variety of ways to make money, it’s still a good option to consider.

Join Survey Junkie now!

Join Swagbucks ($5 sign up bonus)

Swagbucks is the highest rated survey site, known as the number one survey site on the Internet.

You can learn more about best survey sites to make money from here.

Swagbucks rewards you for performing simple tasks such as online surveys, watching videos, playing games and other simple, fun activities that you normally do without charge!

To date, it has paid out more than 150 million dollars in cash rewards and gift cards, etc.

Sign up for swagbucks today and receive a $5 bonus when you reach your first 300 points!

Earn $20 with quick surveys and games at InboxDollars

Another survey-based site, InboxDollars offers attractive incentives for participating in surveys. You will be paid out real cash for watching videos or participating in surveys. They receive great reviews from their customers and it looks like they are paying out fast. This is, after all, an award-winning company that has paid out $57 million in cash bonuses to date.

Using InboxDollars, it’s a piece of cake to make money with your phone, and signing up will earn you an instant bonus of $5.00.

Offer gigs on Fiverr, Legiit or Konker

Fiverr is a freelance marketplace where you can offer virtually any type of service for at least $5.

There are many categories on Fiverr, but you can browse them and choose the one you think you’re good at.

Fiverr alternatives that are more focused on SEO and social media are Konker.io and Legiit.com. They are smaller than Fiverr and hence have less competition. You can post your gig on all three platforms, free of charge.

What if you have no skills?

Well, you can read here how to use other people’s gigs on Fiverr and resell them.

On Skillshare you can learn any skill you want, there is a free trial for the first month, and I’m sure you would be able to learn enough. Apart from that, YouTube is a great place to learn any kind of skills, such as editing with Photoshop, logo design, video editing, social media management, web development, and so on.

Write about stocks on Seeking Alpha

If you are knowledgeable about US stocks, it is quite easy to write $20 per hour about your investments on Seeking Alpha. But keep in mind: the site is for investors who really know stocks.

Added benefits: If you are good at what you do, you will end up making more from your investments than if you write your thesis. But you will keep writing them down because:

  1. it is risk-free cash, which is always nice, because in the markets every dollar you invest is a risk.
  2. it is a perfect method to review your ideas under stress (as long as you are unpretentious) and open to contrasting views.
  3. it’s a great way to demonstrate your investment expertise.
  4. if you are fully invested in a stock that you feel is undervalued, this is a fantastic opportunity to spread your story and involve other investors in your thesis, which over time can cause the stock to go where you expect it to go.

Read more about it here: Become a searching Alpha contributor

Sell your old stuff

Collect worn and old clothes and stuff from friends you know and sell it on eBay. In fact, eBay even has an application that lets you make 100 sales at once. Plenty of people make a living from this – they even just take trash from people’s trash cans and sell it on eBay.

I also know someone who says that in a good week he can earn 500 dollars a week (a few weeks) just by looking at the scratchcards that people threw away by mistake on July 11th.

Go buy 20 bottles of water for 5 dollars (this is an expensive scenario, but let’s just be generous). You must make $25 in sales to get back the $5 + the $20 profit you want. 25/20=1.25$. So one way is to buy 20 bottles of water for $5, go to a busy place and sell them for $1.25 each. You will succeed in the twinkling of an eye.

You can also make easy money by selling your own e-books. No money is needed to sell an e-book, so the sale should be quite profitable. If you would only sell 2 e-books for $10, you would already have earned your $20.

Rent the stuff you already own – 8 ways to earn money by doing that

ZipCar – You may not like to drive, but you have a car that you don’t drive often. ZipCar allows you to rent out your car so other people can drive it. Most of the time you can get a nice second income by renting out your car.

Turo – Much like ZipCar and GetAround, with Turo it is possible to use your car to rent it to other people in your area. Usually, if you live near an airport, you will have many business people who need a car for the weekend.

GetAround – one more great way to make some money with car rental! Instead of just leaving your parked car to gather dust, make money with it!

Airbnb – You have a free room or guest house, rent it out! Expensive hotel rates have made the Airbnb explode. Put a mint on these pillows and enjoy some extra money to let people sleep in your spare beds.

VRBO – VRBO is also a popular rental website for your house or vacation home.

HomeAway – In case neither Airbnb nor VRBO work for you, you can try HomeAway.

Online tutoring – 5 ways to make money through online lessons

These are just some of the tutoring gigs that take place in your city or online.

HAWO American Academy – Support English learners in China through video tutoring. Some of the major advantages are a flexible schedule, home-based work, enjoyable work (if you like teaching!), guaranteed weekly payment and a competitive hourly rate. Qualifications include the US-Canadian standard, a bachelor’s degree in any subject or currently enrolled in a university education program, and any experience as a teacher or tutor.

VIPKid – VIPKid is an online tutoring and education portal, but it has a distinctive twist. They provide international tuition for children aged 4 to 12 years in China. They offer 1-to-1 English lessons. If you are fond of teaching English, it is a great way to earn extra income.

Udemy – Education is a great way to make money, and thanks to the Internet there are many opportunities to share your knowledge online. If you have some technical skills, you can use Udemy to share it with the world and earn extra money. Each time someone buys your course, you get paid!

Wyzant – Tutoring is an excellent way to help students and earn some money on the side. Wyzant allows you to create a free profile and search for tutoring jobs in your area. They have traditional school subjects, but there are also more specialized jobs like tutoring in web design.

Chegg Tutors – Chegg works similar to the other tutoring sites, expect that these tutoring sessions are all online. You can tutor students virtually. Simply log in when you have free time for tutoring, and Chegg connects you with students seeking help in your subjects.

iTalki – It can be difficult to learn a new language. iTalki comes into play at this point. It is a website that connects students with native speaking teachers. If you want to teach English, iTalki is one of the best places to get paid for your services. You connect with students all over the world and manage all international payments for them.

Sell your gift cards

Perhaps some of you have received a gift card for your birthday or Christmas and never got around to using it.

Those of you who never plan to use a gift card may choose to sell it to friends or family at a lower price.

For instance, if the gift card costs $50, you can sell it for $40.

This way, you will have earned twice as much as the $20 you might have needed from the beginning.

Can’ t sell it to your friends?

Then you can sell gift cards online through sites like Raise and Cardpool.

They’ ll send you your cash within a few weeks.

Use money-saving apps

It is not always easy to save money, but this is where practical savings apps come into play.

Below are three of my favorites, but this article is also a good source for others.

Trim – This is a great app that can help you lower your bills (by negotiating prices for you), give you text messages when you spend too much money, and even offer cash back bonuses.
Digit – Digit does the job by analyzing your spending and automatically saving you money every day.
Mint – Mint automatically connects to your bank and checks your transactions. It will draw up a budget for you, so you can see how much you spend where.

Accept small gigs

Minor tasks, such as freelance gigs, usually don’t take long and can be a good way to earn extra money as a side job. Many apps and websites are available to get you started, such as those listed below.

Constantly
You can use this app to find local small jobs that you can do. Most of these are part-time jobs, which are intended as side jobs for extra money.

CrowdSource
This website is a good choice if you like diversity in your work. You will be trained for different types of tasks that customers want to do. After that you can choose which tasks you want to work on.

Task Rabbit
Task Rabbit is a job board where you can get small one-time jobs on site. There are many tasks you can do, such as

  • Repairs
  • Cleaning
  • Delivery
  • Move
  • Furniture assembly
  • Personal Assistant

You only have to do something once for most jobs, meaning that you will probably earn your $20 in just one day.

Dolly
You can offer to help people move for about 15 dollars per hour. You will have to be strong and able to do physical labor. If you are physically strong, this is a good place to earn over $20 with just two jobs or less.

Quick Diagram
You can earn money from home by doing medical transcriptions. Establish your own working hours and work when you want.

Get paid for writing book reviews

Do you like reading? If yes, this is a good option for you.

You are paid by review companies to read books and give honest reviews. In other words, not only are you paid to read, but the store also gives you a free book from their store!

There are different salary ranges depending on the website, so read carefully when you sign up for an offer. Below you will find a few websites that you should check out.

Online book club
You get the book free of charge for your first review. If your review is well written, you are then entitled to the paid test orders. The most payouts are currently between $5-$60 per test.

The US review of books
The length of each review must be only about 300 words. Furthermore, you get your books for free!

Kirkus
Reviews are approximately 350 words and are due two weeks after assignment. You have the opportunity to review books of all genres.

Women’s review of books
For women who have had a career as a writer, academic or journalist, this is a good site to look at. The payment is $100 per published review!

Book List
Each review on this website can be no longer than 175 words. The payment is $15 per review, but if your review is declined, they will pay you $5.

Childcare and elderly care

It’s easy to earn $20 when you get into the business of child care or elder care. Usually you can earn more than that in just one night with just one customer. Most jobs only last a few hours.

Visit Care.com to learn more and find jobs near you.

Use Shopping Apps

Shopping apps are not so much about making money, but rather about earning cashback. However, these additional discounts can really add up.

We recommend signing up for as many as possible and scanning your receipts with multiple apps to make the most money.

Ibotta
You will receive a $10 bonus when you scan your first receipt. Then you will receive $5 for each referred friend who scans a receipt. If you can convince two of your friends to sign up, you’ll have your $20 right here.

Check out our Ibotta test.

Rakuten (Previous discounts)
You’ll receive a $10 bonus for signing up, and you’ll earn even more through cash back offers, coupons and promo codes. You also have a referral program for friends that will earn you more money.

Trunow
Do you want to save on gas? With this app you get 1% cashback on all gas receipts you photograph.

Earn over $20 with Nielsen
By using the Internet as you do every day, Nielsen invites you to make a difference – and you can make money.

I downloaded this app and earn about $50-100 passively… It is a legitimate app.

All you need to do is register your computer or phone first.

NIELSEN

Nielsen: This company pays you $50 a year to run their app on your favorite Internet browser, and they also give away $10,000 a month. So you may be able to earn more than $50. Sign up here for a signup bonus.

Car Wash

Time needed to earn $20: 1-2 hours

When can you be paid?
Get paid in cash after washing the cars

What do you have to do?

Walk around your neighborhood and look for the dustiest and dirtiest car there is and offer to wash it. You can even start with the cars that your family members own! Ask for at least $10 to $20 per car, so you only need to find 1-2 willing customers. If you are desperate, offer a $5 quick wash for four cars on your street.

Freelance Websites

There are so many websites for freelancers, but it’s important that you don’t waste your time with websites that don’t have many customers.

If you are a writer, graphic designer, videographer, or artist, these are the sites to check out:

  • Five
  • Freelancer
  • Guru
  • Upwork
  • Writer Domain
  • Reconditioning
  • Verblio

You can take over all projects that are offered to you and set your own schedule. Great if you want to have a side job on the weekends.

Sell your photos

Photographing and selling pictures will probably never get old.

Businesses, families and individuals will always be interested in photos, whether it’s general landscapes for an office space or something cool and flashy for a bedroom wall.

You can look at websites like Foap and DeviantART as places to sell your art.

With Foap, you can earn $5 for each of your photos sold there.

It doesn’t seem like much, but with only 4 photos sold, you could easily make $20.

ShutterStock is also a good choice.

Similarly, with DeviantART you can upload your own photos and market yourself to your customers and you keep your own profits.

You get paid when someone clicks on your work and downloads it.

Both websites also accept videos and digital art if photography is not your strong point.

Selling scrap metal

Who would have thought that you could make a profit with what most would call scrap metal?

Scrap is still worth something, especially aluminum and copper.

In most states, you can expect to get over $2 a pound.

So collect the old wires that are in your garage and start hoarding soda cans.

You can even ask friends and family for their scrap metal.

If you have a decent load, go to your local recycling company or look for a specific scrap buyer in your area.

Here are the 19 best things that can be scrapped for money.

Start designing logos at 99Designs

In logo design, logos for companies and individuals are created using Photoshop or other professional software.

99 Designs is a website for freelance graphic designers that connects graphic designers with companies and individuals who request graphic design services.

Now there are many subcategories that fall under graphic design, and logo design is the most used and requested category.

You can learn logo design online absolutely for free. There are a lot of tutorials on YouTube, and if you can’t find quality tutorials on YouTube, you can join Skilshare or Lynda, they have free trial versions for the first month, and I think you could learn enough in that time.

After you’ve learned the logo design and practiced for a month or two, sign up with 99 designs and start offering your services.

In addition to 99 designs, you can also offer your services in social media and other freelance sites like Fiverr and start making some money.

Sell Plasma

There are plasma donation centers that you pay cash for your generous donation.

Depending on where you live and where you donate, the compensation prices vary.

Generally, you can expect to receive $20 – $50 per donation, and you can do this every few days or weekly, depending on how you feel.

Although donating plasma is not dangerous, you may experience mild fatigue and dehydration afterwards.

Work as a virtual assistant

Not many of us may have the ability or patience to work as a virtual assistant, but if you’re that kind of person, it’s a perfect way to make money on the side.

A virtual assistant is someone who provides administrative and business support services to a company or individual.

VANetworking.com is a wonderful website to find the right place for a virtual assistant that suits you well.

Become a transcriber

You probably know what is a transcription?

It is a process of converting an audio or video material into text.

If you are a proficient English speaker and writer and can convert an audio or video text into an English text without errors, you can make money with it.

The average hourly rate for transcribers is about one stroke per hour.

There are many transcription websites that link customers to transcribers.

Some of the best transcription sites are Rev.com, Transcribeme and scribie.

Writing for Listverse

Why only go for 20 Dollars?

Why not earn 100 bucks, almost equally fast!

Yes, you can quickly earn 100 USD by submitting a unique and interesting article to the list verses.

The Listverse is an entertainment website that regularly publishes interesting and shocking listings (list based articles).

You pay $100 to each person who submits a unique and interesting Listick to them, and It is approved.

Listverse receives many submissions, so it takes them a while to review all the tests and approve or reject them based on their guidelines.

Read the submission guidelines here.

Mow the lawn for your neighbors

Boring, I know. But boy, it can be profitable.

And mowing the lawn is one of the best ways to earn 20 dollars quickly.

You can earn some extra money every month by mowing lawns for your neighbors,

Just go door to door and ask if they want their lawn mowed at a reasonable price?

Chances are that most of them would agree with your suggestion, as people usually don’t have enough time for this task.

Start babysitting

Babysitting is one of the most lucrative part-time jobs that is often overlooked,

Instead of working in restaurants and stores, you should opt for babysitting!

It will not only help you earn a considerable income, but also help you to become a punctual and organized citizen,

How much money can you earn as a babysitter?

The average hourly rate of babysitters in the United States is about $15 per hour, but it can vary depending on your experience and expertise.

How much money you make depends on whether you want to become a full-time babysitter or if you want to consider it as an additional way to make some money every month.

The best way to start with a babysitter is to start with your neighborhood and relatives,

Once you have gained some experience, you should approach others with a solid portfolio or join an agency like Smart Sitting.

Create and sell resumes

Resumes are in high demand these days, as each individual wants their resume to stand out when applying for a job.

You don’t have to be an exceptional designer to create a resume. You just have to be good enough in Microsoft Word. On YouTube there are many tutorials on how to create an attractive resume that can help you learn the process in minutes.

Usually the average selling price of a resume is higher than 20 Euros, but you can start at 20 Euros and increase your prices as your portfolio grows.

Upwork and Fiverr are great sites to start with, but you can also promote your services through your personal social media accounts and even through Craiglist.

Final verdict

The list is extensive, and I am sure it got your brain juices flowing. Thanks to the internet, making a fast $20 is easier than ever before, even if you don’t have any distinctive skill. Being an English native will give you an unfair advantage over the rest of the world as you can write articles, transcribe or even proofread other people’s work – people will want to hire you just because you are born in the US and speak English as a native language.

Rene Simon Peters