Lyft Increase Referral Bonus In April, $750 in LA, $1000 in SF
Lyft has steadily increased the signup (referral) bonuses over the last two months, but they drastically increased them in a few cities last week. Last week, they increased the bonus in Austin, New York, Los Angeles, Orange County, New Jersey, and San Bernandino.
[Update 4-14-2016:
- Lyft lowered the trip requirement in San Francisco down to 100 trips in 30 days, so it will only require about 38 hours over 30 days to achieve the bonus. I believe this is a very attainable goal for any part time driver, especially for $1000!
- Bonus in LA and the OC is down to $500 (with the same trip requirement of 100)
]
Let me mention that the bonus in San Francisco requires 200 trips. The previous bonus of $750 only required $100 trips, so I would actually wait for the bonus to drop back down to $750 or $500 for a better trip requirement. The 200 trip requirement in San Francisco will take some serious commitment. In San Francisco, drivers normally average about 2.7-3 trips an hour (more than a normal Lyft city, my average hovers around 2.3 trips an hour), so it will require about 75 hours in a month to achieve the trip requirement for San Francisco, so that equates to about 20 hours a week. Best thing to do is do a few rides every weekday and then drive on Friday and Saturday night. However, doing this for an entire month will be difficult.
Also, the trip requirement for Los Angeles and Orange County is different. It is 100 trips for $750 but only 75 trips for the same $750 bonus so make sure you put in the correct region when you sign up.
These bonuses were much lower just a month ago. Lyft is definitely increasing their new driver promotions to get more drivers for the busy late spring and summer season. I would expect the signup bonuses on Uber to be slightly higher than they were a month ago as well but nowhere near the levels of Lyft’s bonuses. You can see a short list of Uber’s referral bonuses in this post.
I was working almost nonstop this time last year 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). I have to comment that I didn’t drive on any rideshare service for the next two weeks because I was still recovering, so I wouldn’t recommend this strategy for the bonus in San Francisco.
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 trips on weeknights in addition to working all night Friday and all night Saturday.
Here is the list of cities with $750 bonus:
- Los Angeles
- Orange County
- San Diego
- Silicon Valley
The bonus is $650 in Boston after 75 trips. The bonus is $600 in New York City after 100 trips
Here is the list of cities with $500 bonus:
- Atlanta
- Dallas
- Denver
- Nashville
- New Jersey
- Phoenix
- Portland
- Sacramento
- Washington DC
Here is the list of changes from last week. The changes went live yesterday:
- Austin: from $50 to $150
- Baltimore: from $500 to $200
- Boston: from $750 to $650
- Lake Tahoe: from $50 to $10
- Los Angeles: from $500 to $750
- Miami: from $100 to $50
- New Orleans: from $500 to $200
- New York City: from $500 to $600
- New Jersey: from $200 to $500
- Orange County: from $500 to $750
- Phoenix: from $250 to $500
- Reno: from $50 to $10
- Sacramento: from $750 to $500
- San Bernandino: from $10 to $200
- San Diego: from $500 to $750
- San Francisco: from $750 to $1000
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 2001 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 up to $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:
This list is of the current Lyft signup bonuses as of March 9th. The right columns show the fare difference between Lyft and Uber. If it is positive, than Lyft is higher. If Uber is higher, the number would be negative. If it says Lyft on the right column, it means that Lyft has higher fares in that city. In most of the cities, Lyft fares are is higher than Uber so there is a dual benefit for drivers, the signup bonus and higher fares on Lyft.
| City of New Driver | New Driver Bonus Amount | Ride Requirement in 30 days | Base Price vs Uber | Mile Price vs Uber | Minute Price vs Uber | Average | Lyft or Uber |
| Atlanta | $500 | 50 | 2% | 20% | 6% | 9% | Lyft |
| Austin | $150 | 50 | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| Baltimore | $200 | 50 | -2% | 9% | 0% | 2% | Lyft |
| Boston | $650 | 75 | 0% | -11% | -2% | -4% | Uber |
| Chicago | $150 | 50 | 0% | 9% | 0% | 3% | Lyft |
| Columbus | $150 | 30 | |||||
| Dallas | $500 | 50 | 0% | 33% | 6% | 13% | Lyft |
| Denver | $500 | 50 | -3% | -8% | 1% | -3% | Uber |
| Lake Tahoe | $10 | 30 | |||||
| Los Angeles | $750 | 100 | 0% | 6% | -2% | 1% | Lyft |
| Miami | $50 | 50 | 1% | 13% | 6% | 6% | Lyft |
| Nashville | $500 | 50 | 0% | 14% | -3% | 4% | Lyft |
| New Jersey | $500 | 50 | 1% | 17% | 23% | 13% | Lyft |
| New Orleans | $200 | 75 | |||||
| New York City | $600 | 100 | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| Orange County | $750 | 75 | 0% | -7% | 3% | -1% | Uber |
| Phoenix | $500 | 50 | -1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Uber |
| Philadelphia | $350 | 50 | 5% | 6% | 5% | 5% | Lyft |
| Pittsburgh | $50 | 50 | 0% | 6% | 1% | 2% | Lyft |
| Portland | $500 | 50 | 3% | 33% | 26% | 21% | Lyft |
| Reno | $10 | 30 | |||||
| Sacramento | $500 | 100 | -1% | -9% | 4% | -2% | Uber |
| San Bernardino | $200 | 30 | |||||
| San Diego | $750 | 100 | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| San Francisco | $1,000 | 200 | -3% | 4% | 1% | 1% | Lyft |
| Seattle | $350 | 50 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Lyft |
| Silicon Valley | $750 | 50 | |||||
| Tucson | $50 | 50 | 5% | 19% | 24% | 16% | Lyft |
| Washington, D.C. | $500 | 50 | -4% | 6% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
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.
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.
- If an applicant has an existing application, they are only eligible for the referral amount, if any, associated with that original application, and they are not eligible for any other referral amount.
- 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 promotion is limited to the first 500 applicants.
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.