Lyft is Offering $50 Credit for First Time Passengers
For a long time, Lyft has been giving out a free ride for up to $20. That means once you take your first ride, regardless of how much it is, there is no discount on the second ride. If the ride is above $20, you pay the difference while you “lose” the rest of the credit if the trip was less than $20. Lyft claims that this system worked pretty well and their retention rates have been above expectations, but it is not as good as getting ride credits. Ride credits allow you to use the credits on multiple trips, not just on the first ride. With $20 worth of ride credits, you could take 4 $5 trips or 2 $10 trips. It would be very useful for a night out since you can get a roundtrip on Lyft for free.
For the past few months, Lyft not only changed their new passenger referral incentive from having a free ride to ride credits, they also increased it to $50. I thought this would be a limited time promotion, but every time I checked, it was still $50. I didn’t think it would last that long, but so far this incentive has been going on for months.
How Do You Get The Credits?
When a new passenger signs up for Lyft, they will get $50 in ride credits (for a limited time). This credit will last for as many rides as it takes to add up to $50. This ride credit is only for new passengers who have never used Lyft before. Lyft mainly tracks your passenger accounts through your phone number so if you have a second phone number and credit card, you could open up another account and get the free ride credits.
If you want to sign up for Lyft as a first time passenger and get $50 in ride credits, you can use the below link:
What if you are already a Lyft Passenger?
You could always give out your own code and links and get a referral bonus of your own! I believe the referral incentive for existing passengers is a free ride up to $15 that expires in 30 days. My wife always has a bunch of rides that expire every month since we don’t take Lyft’s that often.
What if you are a Lyft Driver?
You can give out your referral code to new passengers to earn a referral bonus. I is currently $10 in cash on the next pay statement, but every once in a while, it is $20. Even at $10, you can make quite a bit of money handing out passenger referral cards, and definitely focus on it when they increase it to $20. It is most effective to do it as a group of Lyft drivers. Giving out cards as a group gives you more credibility, especially if you are all wearing pink Lyft shirts. I know of a few drivers that have amassed thousands of passenger referrals. The last time I checked, he had about 1000 people that took their first ride within 9 months. That is $10k worth of income he took home from that. It may have been more since he did part of it during the $20 promotion.
Handing out Lyft cards is effective in every market. It works a bit better in cities where Lyft is not as popular since your referral card may get passed around to their friends who also don’t use Lyft. The drivers who were onboarded first in each city had a better time converting on passenger referral bonuses, but it is still effective in mature market such as Boston. For drivers looking to diversify their income, handing out referral cards is definitely a great way to do that.
Here is the list of cities that are eligible for the driver bonus for referring new passengers:
Eligible Cities
| Ann Arbor |
| Atlanta |
| Austin |
| Bakersfield |
| Baltimore |
| Boston |
| Charleston |
| Charlotte |
| Chicago |
| Cincinnati |
| Cleveland |
| Colorado Springs |
| Corpus Christi |
| Dallas |
| Denver |
| Detroit |
| Fresno |
| Honolulu |
| Indianapolis |
| Jacksonville |
| Las Vegas |
| Lexington |
| Lincoln |
| Los Angeles |
| Louisville |
| Madison |
| Memphis |
| Miami |
| Milwaukee |
| Minneapolis-St.Paul |
| Modesto |
| Napa and Sonoma County |
| Nashville |
| New Jersey |
| New York City |
| Oklahoma City |
| Omaha |
| Orange County |
| Orlando |
| Philadelphia |
| Pittsburgh |
| Phoenix |
| Portland |
| Providence |
| Raleigh |
| Sacramento |
| Salt Lake City |
| San Antonio |
| San Bernardino |
| San Diego |
| San Francisco |
| Santa Barbara |
| Seattle |
| Silicon Valley |
| Spokane |
| Tampa Bay |
| Toledo |
| Tucson |
| Tulsa |
| Washington, D.C. |
| Virginia Beach |
- 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.
