The new service TextPayMe allows you to send money via your cell phone. Right now, if you sign up and confirm your cell phone takes text messages, you get $5. They seem to be legit, with a mention at CNN/Business 2.0. I just signed up, and got the $5 successfully without having to give out my Social Security or credit card number:
You will, however, need to make and send 3 text messages, which may cost something. You can withdraw your funds via online bank transfers, or you can request a check. They also have a referral program where the referrer also gets $5. You can allow me to refer you by clicking on the banner below, at no cost to you.
Once you sign-up, refer your significant other, friends, or anyone with a cell phone. To make things easy, you can have them send the money back to you for one single withdrawal. With two cell phones, you’d get $15 total.
If you haven’t joined already, you can also grab another $5 for signing up with a similar service from OboPay. Try them out, and grab that venture capital money while you’re at it!
Added: You will also need to complete one send money transaction before being able to withdraw the bonus $5. See the comments for more information.
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Did you miss the fine print? I did until I went to withdraw the $5 signup bonus. To whit:
“You must maintain the Signup Bonus of $5 in your account balance until you have made one payment to another user.”
Maybe we can setup a back and forth payment $1 between referrers to meet this requirement?
I want to do this but anyone want to do the $1.00 exchange with me?
Does no one see the risk here? Once they get your cell#, and know that it accepts texts [which YOU pay for], what is to stop the stream of never ending spam/junk texts you will start to receive when they sell your # to advertisers? You will pay far more in fees than the 5 bucks you get. Spam email is a pain, but it costs you nothing but time. Hit delete and it’s gone. But junk faxes and texts are a cancer that needs to be stopped. Nothing irritates me more than advertisers costing me money to view their worthless ads.
Besides your phone number, you can set up an alias to give out to other people. This prevents your number from being shown to others.
If you don’t have anyone else that you can swap money back and forth with, and want to send me $1 to “release” this bonus, I will receive it and send the $1 back to you within 24 hours. If you have an alias set up, I will only see that alias. My alias is simply mmb.
Tip: You can also send money directly from the online interface, which may be much faster.
thanks, so I would type:
to: sms@textpayme.com
Pay 1 MMB ?
I just sent the $1 to mmb labeled “release money”. Hopefully this works.
JP – Yes, I believe so. Or you can do it online and just confirm via cell phone.
Angela – I sent you back your $1.
Thanks, just sent you a payment. labeled as “mymoneyblog”
JP – $1 sent back.
Thanks, everything worked out for me. I referred one other person today so I get $10 as soon as my bank account is verified. It buys a few gallons of gas! I probably won’t ever use this service though.
just set up an account for me and my wife…transferred $1 to her, and then $6 to me. Now $10 richer…big challenge now is deciding what to spend money on. 🙂
You should be $15 richer 🙂 $5 signup x 2 + $5 referral.
I notice that they are really pushing the idea of paying for Craigslist items via the cell phone, as well as splitting dinner bills and bar tabs. Now, I wouldn’t mind this now, while it’s free, but I’m sure they will be charging a fee after the intro period is over.
On the withdrawal screen, I see the following message and it won’t let me withdraw any money.
“You must maintain the Signup Bonus of $5 in your account balance until you have made one payment to another user.”
signed up under you and sent $1
Sent along the dollar lanels as “release bonus please”. Thanks!
Sanjay – Please read the end of this post and the comments above.
$1 sent back, jt and ben.
When sending money, please make sure you confirm the payment via phone, otherwise the payment doesn’t go through and remains pending.
Jonathan-Just sent the $1, thanks for pointing out the deal, and hope you make a bundle from referals.
I tried to verify my bank account today and it couldn’t verify for it for some reason. the small deposits and pass phrase were entered in correctly.
I sent an email to their CS and no reply yet. They have no phone # listed.
Hi Jonathan – i just sent you $1 with the label yourmoneyblog. Thanks! Sorry for the trouble.
It’s not a problem at all. All dollars have been bounced back.
$1 sent re: “release money”. I have referred several people but no sign ups yet. 🙁 Most folks are not as adventurous I guess.
$1 sent
I’ve tried unsuccessfully to setup my account. I never get the call back. After 3 days of this and repeated e-mails; they closed my account.
Thank you very much.
Don’t forget to take advantage of the $200 you can deposit from a credit card for FREE! Great way for some free reward points/cash.
How long did it take for the bank account verification to go through? I am currently waiting for the 2 small deposits. It has been 2 days. Thanks.
Mike – Good point, that’s worth another $2-4 per user. I bet this feature goes away after beta is over.
Jimmy – It took me 3-4 days for the small verification deposits. They don’t appear to take them back. Currently waiting on the withdrawal to hit my bank account.
I just sent you $1.
Anyone knows if I can keep using that $200 credit card withdrawal limit (without fees) until it’s used up as it’s supposed to be a “signup” bonus?
Sam: It is only free for the first $200. The site states, “As a signup benefit, there will be no fees assessed for the first $200.00 you deposit.”
Can anyone confirm that the $200 deposit from a credit card is showing up as a regular purchase instead of a cash advance? Thanks.
I don’t see how it could possibly show up as a cash advance. They would need your PIN for a cash advance, which they don’t ask for.
Has anyone received the money in their BANK ACCOUNT yet?
Yes, I have just received my withdrawal. It took 4-5 days though. All $1s have been sent back.
Mine finally showed up today in my checking account.
Date Initiated 8/17/2007 5:06:02 AM
Date Completed 8/25/2007 3:02:14 AM
I love this site!
Jonathan, I need someone to bounce back the money to me to take advantage of the $200 credit card charge. It doesn’t seem like they allow you to add money without sending it to someone. Have you used up the $200 credit card charge? If not, we can partner up. Thanks.
$1 from jhip labeled mymoneyblog
Signed up for OboPay let me know if anyone is willing to swap $5 to get our bonuses.
To Jeremy: Is the bonus you are referring to for OboPay separate from the $5 sign up bonus. I was able to withdraw the $5 without swapping payments.
you actually get an additional $5 from obopay if you send $5 to someone else.
To Jeremy: Let’s do it. Please give me a call at 510-846-3909 or send me an email at jimmysubackup1@gmail.com to set it up. Thanks.
To Jimmy: Sent $5.00..let me know if you have any questions.
actually it didn’t go through lemme figure out what the problem was and i’ll give up an updated status.
There is a $0.10 fee for sending money so I have to deposit money in my account…so when it’s all linked and I load my account with the minimum deposit I will send you the $5.00 and send you an email.
To Jeremy: Sounds good. I will also start depositing into the account, so there is less wait in sending the money back to you.
It looks like the $10 Obopay offer is back now.
Jimmy no need for you to transfer money into your account once i transfer to you just transfer back…you have to transfer a $5 minimum but it cost $0.10 to transfer once i transfer you’ll have $10 then transfer me back $5 and we’ll both have $9.90 not quite $10 but hey…email me your info jeduhi@yahoo.com, and i will transfer as soon as i get it
To Jeremy: I got your $5. But I do need to transfer some money in before I can send it back to you due to the $0.10 fee. I already withdrew the $5 sign up bonus. The transfer from my bank account to Obopay for adding money is in progress. I will keep you updated. Thanks.
To Jeremy: I just sent the $5 back to you. I didn’t see the $5 bonus added after I sent the money to you. How long did it take you to see the $5 bonus for sending money? Thanks.
Is anybody else having difficulties getting money back from textpayme? Wife and I both signed up. We even sent each other some some money on one of our credit cards to take advantage of the $200 w/o fees. Instead of adding a bank account, for my wife, I requested a check to be mailed to her. For some unknown reason, it seems the check failed to process, and money hasn’t shown back up in her balance. Multiple requests for support have went unanswered. Suggestions?
I am trying to withdraw money from TextPayMe. Does it really pay ?