Lyft Cuts Signup Bonus to $350, $400 in Boston
[Update 1-12-16: The bonus is Boston is now only $200 after 50 trips. It was good while it lasted (at $1000, $750, and $500)
Lyft made some minor changes to the signup bonuses over the last few weeks. They reduced the bonus in a few cities, including Boston, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington DC that had the $500 signup bonus. Lyft has reduced the Boston signup bonus to $200 after 50 trips, down from $400 last week and $1000 back in October. This is one of the slower times for rideshare, so they are adjusting their driver signup promotion accordingly. Here are some ways to deal with the slower rideshare season.
I was working almost nonstop about nine months ago to get a different $1000 bonus after 50 trips and we only had a week to do it with snow on the ground. You can read more about it here: How I earned $1750 after 50 Lyfts in 21 Hours across 3 days. If I did 50 trips after working my full time job on two weeknights and a full weekday after flying back to Boston on a redeye, anyone can do the required number of rides on just weekends alone (3 weekend days).
If I can get 50 trips between Monday morning and Wednesday night with six feet of snow everywhere, you can definitely do 50 trips in 30 days. Realistically, that is only 3 trips a day and I used to do about 6 on weeknights in addition to working all night Friday and all night Saturday.
Here is the list of cities with $350 bonus after 50 trips, unless otherwise noted:
- Chicago
- Seattle
- Silicon Valley
Here is the list of changes from last week. The changes went live this week:
- Austin: from $100 to $50
- Dallas: from $500 to $100
- Denver: from $250 to $100
- Nashville: from $100 to $50
- New Jersey: from $150 to $200 [on 1-7-2016]
- New York City: from $500 to $250 [on 1-14-2016, down to $350 on 1-7-16]
- Philadelphia: $350 to $100
- Portland: from $250 to $100
- Sacramento: from $250 to $100
- San Francisco: from $100 to $50
- Silicon Valley: from $750 to $350
- Washington DC: from $350 to $250
How do I sign up?
To sign up for the above bonuses, you can use my referral link here to sign up for Lyft!
How to earn another $500 from Uber
You can also sign up for Uber and get $500 bonus from them as well! (Bonus varies by city so email your local Uber office to verify your signup bonus)
Here are the requirements:
- Be an active Lyft driver
- Have a car 2000 or newer (It may be different in some markets).
- Complete only 25 trips on Uber within 30 days of activation with Uber
- Be a noncommercial driver (such as uberX)
- Provide Uber with the most recent pay statement confirming their Lyft experience
You can sign up for Uber and get $500 with this form. I would recommend you sign up for Lyft, get approved, and then sign up for Uber afterwards.
Complete Lyft Bonus List:
Below is the full table (cities not listed will get $50 after 30 Lyfts):
| City of New Driver | New Driver Bonus Amount | Ride Requirement in 30 days |
| Atlanta | $50 | 100 |
| Austin | $50 | 50 |
| Baltimore | $150 | 30 |
| Boston | $200 | 50 |
| Chicago | $350 | 50 |
| Dallas | $100 | 50 |
| Denver | $100 | 50 |
| Los Angeles | $50 | 100 |
| Miami | $50 | 100 |
| Nashville | $50 | 50 |
| New Jersey | $200 | 50 |
| New York City | $250 | 100 |
| Orange County | $50 | 50 |
| Phoenix | $100 | 50 |
| Philadelphia | $100 | 50 |
| Pittsburgh | $200 | 50 |
| Portland* | $100 | 50 |
| Sacramento | $100 | 50 |
| San Diego | $50 | 100 |
| San Francisco | $50 | 100 |
| Seattle* | $350 | 50 |
| Silicon Valley | $350 | 50 |
| Tucson | $50 | 50 |
| Washington, D.C. | $250 | 40 |
Note that you don’t need to be an Uber driver to sign up for these promotions so you can be a brand new driver before signing up for this offer. This is a great way to get started with Lyft and try it out for 30 Lyfts. If you don’t like it, simply quit after doing the required Lyfts and getting your signup bonus.
Terms of the promotion:
The referred new driver must:
- Start their application to become a Lyft driver during the promotion.
- Input the referring driver’s referral code in the “Referral code” field when originally applying.
- Complete 30 rides within 30 days of being approved as a Lyft driver, unless stated otherwise in the chart above. No more than two rides with the same passenger will count toward the ride requirement.
- Become approved to be a Lyft driver within 30 days of starting their application.
Please note:
- Lyft driver eligibility and approval is determined at the sole discretion of Lyft, and is not guaranteed.
- The duration of the review process may vary.
- Participation in this promotion is subject to Lyft’s Terms of Service.
- This promotion runs for a limited time only, and terms and bonus amounts (if any) are subject to change. Cannot be combined with Weekly Guarantee Promotion or New Driver Promotion.
- The bonus amount (if any) is determined by the time and market of the referred new driver’s application, and can vary (for both applicant and referrer) by market. The amounts above reflect current bonus availability and may have been different at the time of the referral and new driver application.
- In Boston, Denver, New York City, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. this promotion is limited to the first 1,000 applicants. In Chicago, this promotion is limited to the first 2,000 applicants. In Dallas, this promotions is limited to the first 500 applicants.
- In Las Vegas, the 30 days to complete the ride requirement will begin at launch. Post-launch, the 30 days to complete the ride requirement will begin at approval.
Once these requirements are met, the referred new driver will see the bonus 1-2 direct deposits after the ride requirement is met. The referring passenger will see the credits in their Lyft account 1-2 weeks after their referral’s ride requirement is met.
How Do I Sign Up?
To sign up, you can use my referral link here to sign up for Lyft!
[Note, I will also receive the bonus for you to sign up and complete the trips. If you prefer to help out a friend, you can ask anyone you know who is a Lyft driver to sign up with their code and you both can get the same bonus.]
What if I am already a driver?
Well do you know anyone who isn’t driving on Lyft yet? Refer them to drive on Lyft with your own referral code and you and your friend can earn the bonus! It is that easy. Also, you would know if your friend would still continue to drive on Lyft or not so definitely pick people you know that would get the Lyfts done but maybe quit afterwards so you can get your bonus and not risk increasing the driver pool. I have done this a few times myself and none of my personal referrals are still driving in Boston so we both got our bonus but didn’t further dilute the driver pool.
Have more questions about Uber or Lyft? Head on over to our Rideshare Driver Training Course! Driver Promotions- New Uber Drivers will get up to a $800 bonus after signing up: Sign up for Uber.
- New Lyft Drivers will get up to $800 if you sign up here using this link.