Lyft Changes Signup Bonus to $750, $1000 in SF and NYC
[Update 5-2-2016: The bonus in Los Angeles is increased to $5,000, but only after 1000 trips in 90 days. That is 300 trips a month, or 76 trips a week. That is about a 25-30 hour work week on Lyft for 13 weeks. At an average trip cost of $10, you’ll essentially earn about $15,000 in 3 months, or $5000 a month once the bonus is achieved. This is really for those full time drivers. I wouldn’t recommend this to recreational or part time drivers since 75 trips a week for 13 weeks is a tough schedule. My opinion is to wait until it is a reasonable bonus.]
Lyft has steadily increased the signup (referral) bonuses over the last three months, but they drastically increased them in a few cities last week. This week, they increased the bonus in Orange County, Silicon Valley and Washington DC to $750. In addition, the bonus in San Francisco is still $1000, but only after 100 trips. The previous requirement was 200 trips, which I estimated to take at least 75 hours. Now it is at a more manageable 38 hours for 100 trips over 30 days. I am unsure if Lyft Line rides count for 2 or just one ride. In addition, it is also $1000 in NYC after 100 trips.
Note that this is a bonus on top of your ride earnings, so in San Francisco, you can net about $2000 for these 100 trips (about $10 per trip in fares, and then $1000 bonus). Not bad for working approximately 40 hours.
100 trips in 30 days should not be that difficult. 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 for 50 trips, 6 days for 100 trips). 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 long term.
If I can get 50 trips between Monday morning and Wednesday night with six feet of snow everywhere, you can definitely do 50 or 100 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.
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.
Here is the list of cities with $1000 bonus (after 100 trips):
- New York City
- San Francisco
Here is the list of cities with $750 bonus:
- Boston
- Orange County
- San Diego
- Silicon Valley
- Washington DC
Here is the list of cities with $500 bonus:
- Atlanta
- Baltimore
- Dallas
- Denver
- New Jersey
- Portland
- Philadelphia
- Phoenix
- Sacramento
Here is the list of changes from last week. The changes went live yesterday:
- Detroit: from $500 to $200 (30 trips)
- New York City: from $750 to $1000 (100 trips)
- Orange County: from $500 to $750 (75 trips)
- Seattle: from $350 to $50
- Washington DC: from $500 to $750
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 |
| Baltimore | $500 | 100** | -2% | 9% | 0% | 2% | Lyft |
| Boston | $750 | 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 |
| Detroit | $200 | 30 | |||||
| Lake Tahoe | $10 | 30 | |||||
| Los Angeles | $5000 | 1000*** | 0% | 6% | -2% | 1% | Lyft |
| Miami | $50 | 100 | 1% | 13% | 6% | 6% | Lyft |
| Nashville | $350 | 50 | 0% | 14% | -3% | 4% | Lyft |
| New Jersey | $500 | 50 | 1% | 17% | 23% | 13% | Lyft |
| New Orleans | $200 | 75 | |||||
| New York City | $1,000 | 100 | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| Orange County | $750 | 75 | 0% | -7% | 3% | -1% | Uber |
| Phoenix | $500 | 50 | -1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Uber |
| Philadelphia | $500 | 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 | 75 | -1% | -9% | 4% | -2% | Uber |
| San Bernardino | $200 | 30 | |||||
| San Diego | $750 | 75 | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| San Francisco | $1,000 | 100 | -3% | 4% | 1% | 1% | Lyft |
| Seattle | $50 | 50 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Lyft |
| Silicon Valley | $750 | 100 | |||||
| Tucson | $50 | 50 | 5% | 19% | 24% | 16% | Lyft |
| Washington, D.C. | $750 | 75 | -4% | 6% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
**Rides required must occur within a 60 day period.
***Rides required must occur within a 90 day period.
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.
