People need money for all sorts of reasons. You may need money to pay bills, take a vacation, or for medical reasons. There are some ways that you can make quick money for whatever need you may have. These 10 ways to make fast cash are easy methods that you can use to put some money in your pocket.
Selling Bottled Water
Another way to make some quick money is to sell bottled water on a hot day. You do have to be careful of local laws as this might not be legal in your areas or you may need a special permit.
While you may need a license to sell bottled water, many stands and sellers just go unnoticed. Unless you have strict local police that routinely crack down on vendors without a license you should be fine to sell your water and you’ll go unnoticed.
The trick is to buy your water at a reduced price and then sell it at a higher price. For example, a case of 24 16.9-oz (500-milliliter) bottles will sell in a box store for about $7. If you have a card at one of these stores you can get it for a cheaper price in bulk. If you sell this water for $1, then you could make a profit of about $17 in one hour.
Make sure you go to the right location to sell the water. Some good locations include parks, a subway station, a bus stop, an outside sporting event, and so on. Try to avoid selling on the side of the road as this will draw the attention of law enforcement.
Filing Unclaimed Bonds
A long time ago U.S. Treasury bonds where quite popular as gifts for many occasions. The buyer only has to pay half of the face value of the bond. You could get a $100 bond for $50, for example. One the bond reached maturity they could be cashed in for the full value of the bond. If the bondholder waited a longer period, they could make even more on the bond as interest would accrue.
Today you can still get these bonds, but you have to pay the full face value of the bond and they are only in electronic form. The government switched to electronic bonds is because many people lost the paper bonds. To help individuals find these lost bonds they launched Treasury Hunt which is a database you can search full of unclaimed bonds. You just need to enter your Social Security number to see if you have any securities on the file with them. The search is quick, but it can take a long time to actually get your money. You should also search for unclaimed Income tax returns. It’s estimated that millions each year are unclaimed as the tax return in undeliverable. The USA.gov site has a section on unclaimed money you can check.
Sell Parts of You
You can sell your plasma, sperm, hair, and blood for some quick cash. For example, a college student can go to a plasma donation center and make $35 for an hour and a half of their time for just one needle prick. This is safe for a normal healthy person to do and it can be done about two times per week. Doctors use this plasma which is the liquid portion of the blood to saves people’s lives.
A sperm donation will pay about $50-200 dollars. This isn’t quick cash as the donation clinic will run along background check to make sure you have good genetic health before they will allow you to be a donor. Once you are accepted then you can make some money.
Your hair can also bring you some quick money. To make a lot of money, you’ll need about 10 inches or 25 centimeters of hair. The hair needs to be free of colors and other artificial treatments and be healthy looking. Online Hair Affair is a site that has auctions for hair and you can check this for what is selling now.
Sell Your Cell or Smartphone
You may be tempted to go to pawn shop to sell your laptop, cell or smartphone, but there are other options for selling your gadgets that you might not be aware of. Some of these options also allow you to sell broken gadgets too.
Once site that has a fixed price for old iPods, iPhones, tablets and other gadgets is called Gazelle. You entire in the operating system, model and the memory of your item as well as the condition and you’ll get a quote from Gazelle that is good for the next 30 days. If you send in the item, you’ll get a check in about one weeks’ time. You’ll get $310 for example, for a flawless iPhone 5 16 GB currently.
If you have a drowned, cracked or broken device you may want to try the site EcoATM. This is an automated kiosk that will pay you for your old damaged gadget. In the U.S. there are thousands of these kiosks which are mostly found in malls. The kiosk has software which can analyze the makes and models of the gadgets as well as detect flaws in that gadget. You need a thumbprint as well as a scanned photo ID before you make a sale as this helps to deter thieves from stealing the merchandise.
Selling Unused Gift Cards
If you get a card that you don’t want you can sell this for some quick cash. People love these cards and they may be willing to buy your card from you. If you don’t like the item or service on the card, you have useless money left on the card you can’t spend. Sites like Cardpool and CardCash allow you to buy and sell gift cards. You don’t get face value for the card, but you’ll get about 92 percent of the total value of the card. Once they get the card you send, you’ll get your money for the card in just a couple of days.
Money from Gambling
Gambling is addictive and you can lose money from it, but you can still make money too. If you gamble for a long time, the house will win so the trick is to gamble for less time. Statistics show that those people who gamble all day for example will make about 5.26 less money than when they began to gamble. Slot machines have bad odds at about a loss of 35 percent over time and rookie blackjack players will lose about 10-20 percent on average.
If you go into the casino with the right attitude and the idea that you won’t spend over “x” amount of dollars you may do well. The professional gamblers know that the best way to make money is to make a big one-time bet. If you play a big game of blackjack for example, you have about a 50/50 chance of winning that bet. The same can be said at a craps table too. If you do win, make sure you walk away because the next hand will probably be a loss. If you make money, take it and run.
Scrap Metal Sales
If you have a lot of brass and iron laying around your backyard, this can be turned into quick cash. Metal recyclers and scrap yards pay by the pound for these metals. It doesn’t matter if they are new, used or even well used, they will still buy them from you.
The most valuable scrap metal is copper so if you have this then you’ll make more money. It usually goes for around $3 per pound, but this will vary location to location. Copper wire and copper pipes are some of the more common items. Brass will bring you around $2 per pound. Older cars tend to have brass radiators which can be salvaged for money.
The scrap yard will weigh your truck once you bring the metal to the yard and from here everything is done quickly. A crane is used to lift the metal out of the truck and then the truck is weighed again and you get this difference as your payment for the metal. You’re given a slip of paper and this can be used at an on-site ATM which will pay you.
Loose Change Collecting
You may have money around your home that you don’t realize is there. Try looking in the seat cushions of your couch, checking the pockets of your jackets and other areas of your home. You may be surprised at all the cash that’s actually laying around the home. Other areas to check include the car seats, in the washing machine, and so on. Think of all the areas in your home where there could be some spare cash. You can spend this spare change or convert it into dollars at the bank, it’s up to you. Many banks will give you coin rolls or there’s the green Coinstar machines, but those charge a small fee.
Return Things
Another way you can make some cash is to return things. Any item that’s still in the original box can be returned to the store in most cases and you can get your money back. In some cases you can even return the item as long as you have the receipt for it and the item is still in good condition so it can be sold again. Many stores will give you cash back or a store credit for the item. You’ll have to read through the policy of each store to determine what you can or cannot bring back to the store.
If you don’t have the receipt some stores will still allow you to take the item back. Wal-Mart is one such store which allows you to take an item back which is under $25 and you can get cash back for the item. Target can find the receipt for you if you used a credit card to buy the item. Many smaller stores will only offer store credit and it takes a lot of convincing the store clerks that the item actually came from that store. Make sure you bring credit card statements as a way to prove that you bought the item if you used a credit card. One way to better your odds is to take the item back just after Christmas where clerks are swamped with returns and you may be able to return an item you wouldn’t be able to at other times of the year and get some money back.
Get a Deposit Back
If you don’t have good credit history you may have to pay some sort of security deposit before you open a new account for utilities, for example. These deposits may run into hundreds of dollars. There are different laws state to state, but the utility has to pay back this deposit with interest one twelve months of on-time payments have been made. If you qualify, but haven’t received your refund yet, you want to get on the phone as you may be entitled to some quick money.
If you move around a lot and have several bank accounts and utilities in different states try a search through MisisngMoney.com. The site can put your name through a database and find property and unclaimed assets for you.