How to Make Money with No Car [17 Creative Strategies that Work]

If you are looking for ways to make money without a car, you are in the right place.

When I was younger, I didn’t have a car (this was in Los Angeles where everyone has a car) and I remember how hard it was to do even the most simple tasks. If you are trying to earn a living (or just trying make some extra cash) but don’t have a car, life can be really difficult. But the good news is that there are plenty of great options (mostly online, but some that are offline) to make money even if you don’t have a set of wheels to get you around.

With that, let’s get into it!

This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on a link and complete a transaction, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

The information contained in this post is for informational purposes only. It is not a recommendation to buy or invest, and it is not financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. You should seek the advice of a qualified professional before making any investment or other decisions relating to the topics covered by this article.

1. Get Paid to Simply Chat with People in English

Are you a native English speaker looking for a low-key way to make some extra money? Then chatting with someone who wants to improve their English may be the perfect side gig for you. Of course, this can be done online, so you certainly won’t need a car to offer this service.

It’s probably not surprising to you that there are a lot of people in the world who want to become fluent English speakers. They may want to work on improving pronunciation, expanding vocabulary, or removing undesired accents from their speech. Many recognize that simply having real conversations with native speakers can dramatically help with all of these things and they are willing to pay native English speakers who offer this service.

Sound interesting, but don’t know how to get started? Check out my full article on the topic here.

2. Become a Freelancer

If you want to be your own boss and want the flexibility to take on projects that line up with your skills and interest, freelancing may be perfect for you.

You can sign up for platforms like Fiverr and Upwork that will connect you with customers who want to use your services. Depending on what you want to offer, you can become a virtual assistant, offer IT services, become a freelance writer, or provide advice on fashion, marketing and a host of other topics.

And of course, none of these tasks require driving anywhere. They can all be done from the comfort of your home.

If you want to get started, check out Fiverr and sign up as a seller. It’s simple to do and you can pretty much get started right away.

To learn about the easiest freelance jobs for beginners, check out my article on the topic here, which explores 12 of the best options out there.

3. Become a Bike Courier

You may not have access to a car, but if you have access to a bike, you can become a courier delivering packages locally. This usually works best in cities (or other densely populated areas). If you want to get started, just start checking out job sites like simplyhired.com or ziprecruiter.com and look for bike courier jobs in your area.

4. Make Money Watching TV or Playing Video Games

If you like watching TV or playing video games, you can earn a little extra cash on the side by doing these low-key activities.  If you want to get started, check out inboxdollars for more info. 

5. Sell Your Designs on Merch By Amazon

If you have an artistic streak or just have a creative mind and can come up with snappy slogans, you may be able to make a killing selling your designs or slogans with Merch by Amazon.

Here’s how it works.

First, you come up with a design. Then you upload your design to Amazon. Once there, you pick a product and color that will feature your design (it can be a t-shirt, coffee mug, etc.), and add a product description. That’s it!

Based on what you provide, Amazon does the rest. They create a product page for you on Amazon and when customers buy your t-shirt or whatever, they handle all of the fulfillment, including production, shipping, and customer service.

The best part is that there is no upfront costs to you and you don’t have to worry about inventory or over-production. They only produce the product when someone orders it. This strategy will require some upfront work but once it’s done, the business basically runs on autopilot.

If you want to learn more about Merch by Amazon, check out their site which provides some good info on how to get started.

For more great ideas like this, check out my article on 9 ways to make passive income on Amazon.

6. Become an Online Tutor

If you have a knack for teaching, you can become an online tutor. With the emergence of large online tutoring platforms like tutor.com, learner.com, and skooli.com, there is going to be no shortage of options to launch your tutoring business.

7. Cash Back Credit Cards

I love this strategy. Now you won’t become a millionaire doing this, but the best cash back credit cards pay you at least 2% cash back from purchases you are going to make anyway. Free money doesn’t get easier than that. Best of all, there’s no downside and no risk to this strategy.

Just make sure you pay off your entire credit card bill each month, so you don’t pay any interest on the balances.

8. Cash Back Apps

Another solid way to make money with out a car is by using cash back apps. Generally, these types of apps provide cash back when you buy something or give you a coupon for an additional discount. Some of these apps give you points that you can use for discounts on later purchases.

Here are some of the most popular cash apps:

9. Rent Out Stuff You Already Own

Did you know you can rent out extra storage space (basements, attics, spare bedrooms and even spare closets) on online platforms like Neighbor. Of course, you can also make money renting out extra bedrooms for tourists or other people who need temporary housing through Airbnb. And all of this can be done without ever leaving your home.

If you want to learn more great ways to earn money by renting out stuff you already own, check out my article on how to make truly passive income with no money required.

10. Start a Blog

Starting a blog is one of my favorite ways to make money, period. And it works perfectly for anyone who doesn’t have a car or other means of getting around.

All you need is a computer, an internet connection, and the will to succeed. It certainly helps if you are a good writer and can engage readers with your content. But most importantly, if you actually want to make money doing this, you need to figure out how to rank your articles on Google, so they show up at the top (or near the top) of relevant search results.

What I love about blogging is that it takes almost no money to get started (hence, it’s low risk), but can be a terrific way to generate passive income (once the articles are written). If you want to a step-by-step guide on how to get started, check out my article on How to Start a Blog From Scratch.

I cover all of the key areas you need to know, including how to set up your website and most importantlymy best tips for writing great articles, getting traffic to your blog, and monetizing that traffic.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to do this on your own, you can hire a service to create a website for you. Make Lemonade is a UK based firm that specializes in this.

I have used their content writing service to help me expand my blogs when I was running short on time, but they do offer a full service model, where they will create your website for you from start to finish and include content that has gone through their rigorous keyword research process.

Check them out here if you want to learn more.

11. Affiliate Marketing

If you have a media platform that has visitors (website or blog, youtube, facebook, pinterest, etc.), you can make money by promoting products to people who visit your site. In fact, you can even do this via email – just casually mention to your social circle that you read a great book, tried a great product, etc. and provide them a link. If they click on that link and buy the product, you can earn a commission.

12. Start a YouTube Channel

If you prefer making videos, you can start a YouTube channel. In fact, all you really need is a phone to record videos and a computer to edit them. If your content resonates with people and you get traffic to your site, advertisers will pay you to insert their ads into your videos.

13. Write an eBook

If you like writing, but blogging is not for you, you can write an eBook on any topic that interests you and sell it on platforms like Amazon KDP and Apple iBooks.

If you want a complete guide to making money with eBooks, check out my article: Making Money [Passively] Writing eBooks: A Simple 5-Step Guide.

14. Share Your Mobile Browsing Data

If you agree to install an app on your phone that tracks your browsing behavior, mobileXpression will pay you a weekly credit that can be redeemed for gift cards at a number of large retailers or online websites.

15. Honeygain

When you use Honeygain, you install an app on your devices and Honeygain securely shares the internet with no access to personal data. They use your internet data to run various queries for their clients. 

How do you get paid? You get credit based on how much data is shared. These credits are then converted into money.

Note: Make sure you are on an unlimited data plan because it may use a lot of your bandwidth.

16. Uber or Lyft Driver

I know you must think I am crazy by including this, but hear me out.

There are actually plenty of people who don’t have a car, but still make good money driving for Uber or Lyft. Here’s how it works, both of these companies allow you to rent out cars from them (may only be available in certain states). Sure, you’ll make more overall if you have your own car, but you can still decent make money as a driver, even after paying your car rental expenses.

If you want to learn more about these rental options, check out Uber’s page here and Lyft’s page here.

You can also use platforms like Hyrecar to rent out your car for Uber or Lyft (they specialize in these types of rentals.

17. Stock Investing

One of the most popular ways to make money is by investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. Of course, with the popularity of online brokerage platforms, you don’t need a car to start making money doing this.

It’s actually quite easy to get started – you just need to open up a brokerage account, fund it, and then buy the investments that you like. Many online brokerages allow you to start trading for free (i.e., no fees for buying and selling most securities). If you don’t know where you start, check out Fidelity – they are a huge brokerage, but they are very easy to use.

If you pick the right investment, then you will make money with absolutely zero effort on your part. But that’s the rub, isn’t it? Choosing the right investment is hard. The fancy analysts on Wall Street don’t always get this right and they are supposed to be experts. So you will definitely want to research your investments before taking the plunge.

If you want to reduce your risk, you may want to look at funds that aggregate individual stock holdings. I like ticker symbol “VTI”, which is a Vanguard fund that is supposed to reflect the performance of the entire US stock market. These funds are often less risky than investing in individual stocks and may be better suited for you if you are a beginner.

Conclusion

So there you have it, 17 ways to make money without a car.

If you find the idea of passive income intriguing, check out by ultimate guide to passive income for more than 20 great ideas for generating passive income.