The holiday season is often associated with spending money, but what if you could make a little extra money, too? Keep reading to see how you can make an easy $500 this holiday season. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can do more things on this list and make even more money!

 

Make $500 with Bank Account Bonuses

Bank account bonuses are an easy way to make a some extra money without even getting off the couch or getting out of your pjs (my favorite)! Listed below are a few different bank account bonuses currently available.

 

Chase Total Checking $300 Bonus

With this offer, you can earn $300 by opening a Chase Total Checking account and making a qualifying direct deposit within 90 days of account opening. The bonus will be added to your account within 15 days.

There is also the option to open a Chase Savings account for a $200 bonus. This requires a deposit of $15,000 or more. If you open both the Total Checking and the Chase Savings account you will get a $400 bonus for a total of $900.

There is a monthly fee of $12 for the checking account and $5 for the savings account. Click the link below to see how you can avoid these fees. This offer is good until 1/14/24.

Here is a direct link to the offer (open the link incognito or in a private window).

 

BMO Harris Smart Advantage Checking $400 Bonus

With this offer, you can earn $400 by opening a BMO Harris Smart Advantage Checking Account and having a total of $4,000 of qualifying direct deposits within 120 days of account opening. There are no monthly fees with this account. Make sure to keep the account open for 90 days or else you will have to pay a $50 early termination fee.

There is also a BMO Relationship Checking Account that has a bonus of $600 but requires $7,500 in direct deposits. This offer is good until 12/8.

Here is the direct link to the offer.

 

PNC Bank $200 Bonus

PNC Bank is offering a bonus of $200 when you open a Virtual Wallet Checking Pro account and have $2,000 of qualifying direct deposits within 60 days of account opening. There are no monthly fees on this account. This offer is good until 1/2/14.

Here is a direct link to the offer.

 

Looking for more bank account bonuses? Check out Doctor of Credit’s list of best bank account bonuses.

 

Make $500 Through Swagbucks

Another way to make $500 this holiday season is with Swagbucks. Swagbucks is a rewards site that gives you rewards points (Swagbucks) for taking surveys, playing games, or completing other tasks. You can then redeem those Swagbucks for gift cards or my favorite is to redeem them for cash into my PayPal account. When redeeming, 100 Swagbucks is equal to $1. Below you’ll find a few deals currently available on Swagbucks.

 

Complete Your First Uber Drive $350 Bonus

When you sign up as a new driver with Uber you can earn 35,000 Swagbucks ($350). You must be a new driver and the offer is only for car rides, not delivery.

Here is a direct link to the offer.

 

SoFi Checking Account $200 Bonus

Earn 20,000 Swagbucks ($200) when you open a SoFi Checking account and have $400 of qualifying direct deposits in the first 45 days. This is a bonus I did years ago!

Here is a direct link to the offer.

 

Play Games and Earn Swagbucks

You can earn over $200 by playing games online and reaching certain levels. There are various payouts depending on which level you reach and there are a variety of games available. I have never played games to earn Swagbucks so I am not sure how much time you’ll have to put in to earn Swagbucks. If you enjoy games like this (or your kids do) it could be an option to earn some extra money.

 

Use a Shopping Portal

Another way to earn some easy cash back (or points/miles) is to use a shopping portal. My favorite is Rakuten. If you plan to shop online during the holidays (or anytime really) then it makes sense to use a shopping portal to be rewarded for the shopping you are already doing.

I have the Rakuten browser extension installed on my computer so I don’t ever forget to shop through the portal. You can also link Rakuten to your American Express Membership Rewards account and earn Membership Rewards instead of cash back. This is what I do.

You can get a bonus when you join Rakuten and complete your first shopping trip.

 

Another popular shopping portal is TopCashback. Most airlines and bank programs also have their own shopping portals.

To compare payouts on shopping portals you can use Cashback Monitor.

 

Sell Your Old Things

The holidays are a great time to declutter and make some extra money by selling your old things. You can list your items on Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark, or other resell sites. Not only will you make some extra money, but you will also have created a business which allows you to open business credit cards!

 

Bottom Line

By completing even just two of the tasks listed above you can easily make $500 this holiday season or potentially much more! Let us know if you end up trying any of these things and how much extra cash you earn!