I’ve been talking a lot about the snowball and passive income, that’s kind of the point here, but I want to address something that I feel might drag readers down. Referral links. Anyone whose every churned credit cards for bonus points knows that companies big money businesses will throw money at people to get their business.

I just churned a Chase card by spending $500 in 60 days to get $300 in reward bonuses. (I’ll cover that later). Like Robinhood many places will give you bonuses if you do “X within Y days”. On top of that Apps like Swagbucks or Freecash, will also pay you to open accounts, or get credit cards. The trick is to do it with intent to get the bonus and move on, unless you really like a company then stick with it, I’m not the boss of you.

In the past week I went after two offers at Swagbucks. Chime Checking and Kraken Crypto. the goals were simple: Deposit 2 $200+ direct deposits to Chime within 30 days of account opening and Transact, i.e. buy crypto at Kraken with a minimum of $200. The rewards: $4 at Swagbucks for signing up at Chime, then $200 at Swagbucks for completing the direct deposits. Kraken was $45 for doing the transaction.

Lets talk Chime. They’re an online bank with some interesting things, virtual debt cards that have separate numbers from you physical one for online purchases, Spot me free over drafts up to a certain dollar amount, and of course a referral link. Each Friend that opens an account and makes 1 Direct Deposit of $200, then each person gets $100 into their Chime account. Crazy! Now there’s several websites that track what an acceptable direct deposit is, but payroll from work will always be acceptable, or Social Security, or VA Benefits etc. I used payroll, I’ll let the two paychecks hit get my bonus and most likely not keep it there because I’ll want to churn another banking bonus. And of course I’ll add the swagbucks link here and the personal one to the toolbox, because this is a blog about finding “free” money that makes us more money!

Kraken is a crypto exchange. They offer referrals related to sign ups as well, but mainly I wanted to just get my $45 from Swagbucks. I don’t really enjoy crypto so I’ve been focused on buying either Ethereum or Bitcoin as they are the most likely to not lose value. Currently I’m waiting the 7-10 days that Swagbucks says it can take Kraken to report the transaction, which I will screenshot below. I also set up an auto sale of the Ethereum I bought if it reaches $4000, which for my $200 investment would be like $230 or something. That way I can capitalize on any minor gains it has while getting out of the crypto faster so I can put that $200 back into my Snowball Goals at Robinhood.

I’m putting the referral link directly to Kraken here as it talks about $75 for both parties, vs Swagbucks $45, which I haven’t even confirmed tracked appropriately yet.

Also I already transferred most of my $200 direct deposit at Chime into Robinhood. While some of these payouts can take 30+ days, this should be $245 bonus money right into the snowball.

Edit: 1/23/26, intentional or not Swagbucks credited me for the $200 reward after only 1 direct deposit instead of the 2. Your mileage may vary.

~~Miniwing~~