Ways to Make Money in your Spare Time

2011-03-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

1. Track down old accounts

According to the British Bankers’ Association, there is more than £15 billion sitting forgotten in bank and savings accounts in the UK, with the average balance estimated to be £600.

The good news is that tracing lost funds has become easier with Mylostaccount.org.uk – a free online service that covers all UK bank and building society accounts. All you need to do is to go to the website and type in your details.

2. Claim tax credits

It’s always worth checking that you are receiving all the tax credits you are eligible for. Research by entitledto.co.uk found that people across the UK are collectively missing out on benefits and tax credits worth more than £8 billion a year. So while you’re tracing lost funds, why not visit the entitledto.co.uk website too and work out how much you could claim.

3. Sort your savings

Another easy way to make money is to make sure your savings are working as hard as they can.

If you’ve had the same savings account for a while it might be worth shopping around because new customers tend to get the most competitive rates. Good rates come and go, but if you've had a savings account for more than a year the chances are the interest you are earning is not the best out there.

If you have a lump sum that you are prepared to lock away for 12 months or longer, then a fixed-rate account might be best. This type of deal will also protect you from interest rate cuts.

If you want to start a savings habit then a regular savings account is a good way to ensure you put a set amount of money away each month. But if you want to make deposits as and when, an instant access deal could be the one for you.

However, if you haven't yet used your ISA allowance for the current tax year then this sort of account should be the first home for any savings. You can save up to £5,100 each tax year as cash in an ISA and this will not be taxed.

4. Mystery shopper

If you're longing for some retail therapy but can’t afford to hit the shops, why not earn a few pounds as a mystery shopper? Websites such as Retaileyes employ mystery shoppers to drop in unannounced in shops and restaurants and rate their experience.

After you send in your feedback, you’ll be paid for your time and reimbursed for any purchases you made. You could make up to £20 a day, and get a meal or a night in a nice hotel thrown in for good measure.

5. Use cashback credit cards

If you pay off your credit bill in full each month, a cashback credit card could be the way to go. These offer you moneyback on purchases in certain shops or on goods such as petrol.

“Cashback credit cards are a great way to reward savvy spenders,” says Andrew Hagger, from Moneynet.co.uk, a price comparison website. “You can earn extra cash without even having to change your shopping habits.”

6. Cashback sites

You can earn even more money from shopping online. Cashback websites will automatically pay you every time you buy a product or a service from selected retailers, from your weekly groceries to switching your utility provider.

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY: # 1

2011-03-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

Make money doing what you already do

This is not for you if you're looking to build a serious small business on the Net. It's the easiest of the ways to make money without money, but because it's easy, it doesn't pay much.

Very little in fact.

It mostly involves getting paid to surf the Internet and getting paid to take surveys. It's like stuffing envelopes for money. If that blows your hair back, type "getting paid to do surveys" into the search box and hit "Enter". Take your pick. Don't expect to get rich though.

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY: # 2

2011-03-03T03:36:00.000-08:00

Make money selling advertising space

The idea behind it is to offer free information from your web site to pull in high volumes of traffic. Once you've achieved that, advertisers would pay you to display their advertisements on your site. This is probably one of the oldest and most hyped ways to make money without money.

It worked really well until the end of 2000. It's how Yahoo became big. With the dotcom bust in 2000, even Yahoo was forced to look to alternative revenue streams. Advertisers began to realize that, in most cases, web advertising is just not cost effective.

Nowadays most people don't click ads right?

Right?

Wrong! There's life in this old machine yet...

Contextual advertising offers a real alternative to traditional advertising - and many web site owners are rediscovering this tried and tested way of making money from their web sites.

::. Free Moneys .::

Ways to Make Money in your Spare Time

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY: # 1

Make money doing what you already do

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY: # 2