How I made an extra £1,215.22 in July 2025
I have been sharing my mission to making more money since late 2020 and don’t plan on stopping soon; it is completely possible to make extra income online and I want to show you exactly how this can be done with little or no experience.
I believe in full transparency and, therefore, you can see my full Profit & Loss report for The Bank Engine broken down in my upcoming Instagram post!
The Bank Engine: £917.76
July continued to be another successful month for The Bank Engine’s profitability and was led by a handful of key themes:
Chip’s referral offer
Chip is a savings and investing app that I have used for years and they have had various referral schemes every now and then but the one they launched in July was the best yet and gathered decent momentum. This referral scheme paid both the new customer and the referrer (me) £20 for depositing £1.
Free shares
The amount of free shares received during July was almost unheard of and is driven almost entirely by Google searches which result in new customers using my referral links and codes. This was coupled with a sizeable payment from Robinhood as a result of their $50,000 prize pot - spoilers; I did not receive $50,000 but I did receive more than expected, being ~£130 cash post-US tax deductions.
I have said it numerous times before, and will continue to say it time and time again, but thank you for supporting The Bank Engine. Even if it’s the case of reading this blog post every month and feeling nosy; it helps more than you know.
Market Research & Surveys: £110.56
Dscout - 3 Studies for £59.36 / US$82
I was accepted for 3 separate studies throughout July on Dscout, which is the best performing market research app I have ever used. I have received at least one study per month since February this year.
This is what July's studies looked like:
1 x Digital Technology Usability Survey - Self-recorded video survey for 20 minutes (£17.93 / $25)
1 x Content Creation Tools Call - Interview with AI for 1 hour (£36.43 /$50)
1 x Banking Partnerships Survey - Self-recorded video survey for 6 minutes (£5 / $7)
Askable - 1 Study for £35
I was also invited to a study via the Askable website which is another favourite of mine as it pays really well but has less frequent studies. In July, I did the following:
1 x Investing Usability Call - Call with investing platform for 30 minutes (£35)
THX - £10 Voucher
I have been using this app for quite a long time now and whilst it won't make you a fortune it seems to earn me £10 every other month for answering short surveys (10-20 seconds each) every so often.
You can withdraw when you get to £5 to a gift card but there are more choices of stores when you get to £10 and I withdraw to Sainsbury's whenever I can.
Google Rewards - £6.20
They are generally about shops I have visited and whether I made a purchase, but recently have started getting questions about Google searches too!
In the last few months, they have also introduced receipt scanning where they will ask you to upload receipts for stores you have visited (completely random, and some I haven't been in) paying £0.01 if you don't have a receipt/ didn't visit or up to £0.30 if you upload one.
The earnings can only be redeemed for Google Play credit on Android but still worthwhile!
Bank Interest: £81.42
I LOVE passive income, and bank interest is the best form of passive income as its your money working for you. Alongside my current Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA, I have a Cash Lifetime ISA with Tembo which is earning me a large amount of bank interest each month. I am also using Zopa’s 7.5% regular savings account and Nationwide’s limited withdrawal account to save for other short-term goals.
Mystery Shopping: £49.90
Check out my FREE mystery shopping guide here, where I share exactly how I make £1,000s from this!
Since writing this guide I have discovered SmartSpotter (see below) which is fast becoming my favourite app and is perfect if you don't like the idea of having to interact with staff as most jobs don't require you to!
SmartSpotter - I do have some referral links (referrer-only benefit) if you would like to help me out!
4 x Stationery Checks (visit store, take photos and answer questions): £23.00
1 x Bread Check (visit store, take photos and answer questions): £9.00
2 x Kefir Checks (visit store, take photos, purchase products and answer questions): £9.00 + reimbursement for products
2 x Closed Store Fees (received £1 each as stores were closed): £2.00
Roamler - I do have some referral links (referrer-only benefit) if you would like to help me out!
1 x Cracker Check (visit store, take photos, answer questions and tidy shelves): £15.00
I also incurred mileage costs of £8.10 using HMRC’s approved rate of 45p per mile to travel to these sites.
Chip Investing Offer - £30
This was an offer that was available for a number of existing customers back in June. You had to invest £100 via the Chip app for 30 days and would receive £30 in the form of cash or a gift voucher.
I invested my £100 in an All-World fund which grew by £1.61 in the 30 days and then received an email which gave me the choice between £30 cash to PayPal or a gift card. I chose PayPal and once received, then sold my investments.
They do still have a referral offer ongoing that pays new customers £10 for depositing £100. You can check this out here.
EverUp - Cashback on groceries - £14.47
I have now been using EverUp primarily for grocery shopping as they seem to have the consistently highest rates at the supermarkets I shop at averaging at around 4% or so. Combined with loyalty cards, and using my Chase card to purchase the gift cards through the app, this can often get it above 5% which is well worth the few minutes it takes to purchase a gift card through the app before shopping!
Dividends Received - £11.11
Dividends are largely like bank interest, but you receive them for investing in the stock market. They reflect a share of the profits of companies that you have invested in and are paid semi-regularly depending on how you invest.
If you are new to investing, or just want to learn more, you can check out my free investing guide here.