Between buying the phone and paying your phone bill, owning a smart phone can drain your bank account.

So when we heard there were apps that claim to be able to make you money, we were intrigued.

“It does sound too good to be true,” said Karri Baumann of St. Louis.

That’s what we thought too. But Jacqueline Sutt proved us wrong.

“I’ve made $4,500,” she told us.

Sutt’s been using apps like Field Agent and Gigwalk for years.

Their mission?

Send you to a nearby store to complete a few tasks and pay out an average $4 to $6 per job.

“An average gig is you look for a specific item in whatever store they want you to go to. You take a picture of that item and answer questions about that item,” said Sutt.

We tagged along with Sutt on one of her gigs.

Ten minutes and a few pictures later, Sutt was $4 richer.

“It’s not going to make you full-time job money, but it’s going to give you some extra cash,” she said.

And then there’s Mobee, an app that makes you a secret shopper, visiting businesses and checking out their service and what’s called “product placement.”

“If you’re going to the store, you could easily spend money there and if you can save money with the app, why not?” said Baumann.

And there’s Ibotta, an app that believe it or not, trades you money and rebates for an image of your grocery store receipt.

“All I did was take a picture of my receipt and it puts it into your account and they send a check to you when it gets to be a certain amount of money,” said Tara Williams, who has made money with Ibotta in the past.

And there are even apps that pay you to watch movie trailers and take surveys.

“Somedays I’m just on Facebook and instead I could just do this. Money is a good incentive to do anything,” said Michael Jenkins, a St. Louis IT expert interested in making extra cash.

According to Ibotta, users have earned a total of $10 million in cash-back rewards. Some of these apps will pay you in points — where it takes a certain amount of points to earn any cash. Others deposit cash directly into your checking or PayPal account.

Other apps that make you money

Gigwalk

Very similar to Field Agent with jobs like taking product pics, answering consumer surveys, etc. Sample Job Pay: $3 to $50. The more work you do, the more likely you are to qualify for the higher paying jobs.

Mobee

This app assigns you to be a ‘mystery shopper,’ visiting a business and rating anything from customer service to product displays, etc.

Ibotta

Ibotta asks you to take pictures of your receipts. Look for the rebates section in the App program to get started.

Swagbucks

Here you get paid for giving product surveys to consumers.  A well-regarded app.

Pact

An unusual app, Pact pays you to work out and eat right. You set tasks and goals and can make up to $5 a week. But don’t do them and you get fined.

Task Rabbit

If you have a knack or ability for doing something, this company will pay you for it at an hourly rate. The activity could be anything from being a “go-fer” to dog walking or building furniture.

Viggle

Viggle pays you with points that can then be exchanged for gift cards or electronics. So how do you earn them? By watching TV and listening to music and letting the Viggle app get ‘in on the action’ by also listening in so as to identify your preferences.

Checkout51

This one lets you earn money by buying particular grocery products. Then they send you a check when you’ve accumulated at least $20 in rewards.

Groupon Snap

For taking a photo of your grocery store receipt, Groupon Snap lets you take advantage of cash back offers on what you buy.

Rewardable

This is another ‘pay you for a task app’ that can earn you as much as $20 per event. The money goes to your Paypal account.

NEXTWORTH

Nextworth is a site/app that’s run by Target stores. It lets you turn in your old electronics and tech for bucks.

[Source: Ksdk]