You earned it, and now you want to cash it out—But most gig apps only deposit your earnings once each week!
If you need your money sooner than payday, many apps allow you to instantly withdraw your earnings—for a fee.
But what are your options if you want quick access to your earnings without paying any fees?
➔ Skip to the Table: Instant Pay Options on Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Spark, Instacart, and Amazon Flex
Most of the rideshare & delivery apps now offer free debit cards that let you get your money as soon as you earn it.
Read on to learn how to get paid instantly on the top apps and how you can save on withdrawal fees by signing up for debit cards.
Article contents
- Table: Paydays and instant pay features of the top apps
- Amazon Flex
- Uber & Uber Eats: Instant Pay and the Uber Pro Card
- DoorDash: Fast Pay and DasherDirect
- Spark: Daily Pay with the One Bank Account
- Lyft: Express Pay and Lyft Direct
- Instacart: Instant Cashout
- Can you avoid ACH transfer delays?
- Are gig app debit cards worth it?
Payday, instant pay, and debit card features of the top apps
Direct deposit is the default option on all apps, but some offer instant pay and no-fee debit cards to hold your earnings.
| Instant pay? | Direct deposit day | Debit card | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Flex | No | Tuesday and Friday | Amazon Flex Debit Card. No instant pay features |
| Uber & Uber Eats | Instant Pay. $0.85 per withdrawal up to 5x per day | Thursday | Uber Pro Card, Uber Debit Card. Both offer free instant cashout to the card |
| DoorDash | Fast Pay: $1.99 per withdrawal | Wednesday | DasherDirect Visa. Free cashout to the card after every dash |
| Lyft | Express Pay: $0.85 per withdrawal | Tuesday | Lyft Direct. Earnings automatically transfer to the card |
| Instacart | Instant Cashout: $0.50 per withdrawal up to 5x per day | Between Wednesday and Friday | No debit card |
| Spark | One app & card. Earnings automatically transfer to the account | Branch users: Tuesday | Branch: Earnings transfer on Tuesday One: Earnings transferred after each batch |
Amazon Flex: No instant pay, but there is a workaround
By default, Amazon Flex earnings are direct deposited on Tuesday and Friday of each week.
Unlike many other gig apps, Amazon Flex does not offer an instant pay feature. You can’t cash out your earnings whenever you want!
But there is a workaround that can help you get paid daily.
Some markets allow you to choose your payout days. You can get paid daily by selecting every day of the week as your payout day.
Head to Settings > Personal information > Payment to select your payout days, and choose every day if you want daily pay.
Some markets let you pick your payment day. Select every day for daily pay!
Amazon offers the Amazon Flex Debit card, but it doesn’t have instant pay or a daily pay feature. Instead, the main benefit of the Amazon Flex Debit card is cashback rewards.
Depending on your rewards tier, you can get up to 6% cash back on gas.
And once your earnings are on the debit card, you can transfer them to another account for free. Typically ACH transfers take 1–3 days to clear.
More about Flex
- No offers on Flex? Here’s why
- How to become a Flex driver
- Amazon Flex order types and warehouse codes
Uber & Uber Eats: Instant pay for $1.25, or use the Uber Pro Card
By default, Uber and Uber Eats earnings are direct deposited to your bank account on Thursday of each week.
Uber offers several ways to get paid instantly.
With Instant Pay, you can instantly withdraw your earnings for an $1.25 fee, up to 5 times per day.
The other way to get instant access to your earnings is the Uber Pro Card with Branch Bank.
The Uber Pro debit card has free instant cash-outs. Your earnings are automatically transferred to the Pro card after every ride or delivery.
To move your money out of the Pro card to another account, you can do an ACH transfer, an Instant Transfer, or withdraw cash at an ATM.
ACH transfers are free, but they can take 3–5 business days. That’s slower than other instant pay options on competing apps!
If you want to move your money right away, you can do an instant ACH transfer for a fee of around 2%.
Instant payouts are one of many features of the Uber Pro card
The third option is the Uber Debit Card with GoBank, which is being replaced by the Uber Pro card but still may be available in some markets.
You can instantly withdraw your earnings to the Uber Debit card for free. ACH transfers are also free and take around 1–3 business days.
DoorDash: Fast Pay for $0.50 or use the DasherDirect debit card
By default, DoorDash earnings are direct deposited on Wednesday each week to your bank account.
DoorDash has an instant pay feature called Fast Pay. It lets you instantly cash out your money to a debit card for a fee.
Fast Pay costs $1.99 per withdrawal. The transfers usually appear in your debit account within minutes but can take up to a few business days.
The DasherDirect Business Prepaid Visa is another way to get paid daily—subject to approval.
With the DasherDirect card, your earnings are automatically transferred to the card at the end of every Dash
Automatically get your earnings after every dash
And you can transfer money out of the DasherDirect card without paying any fees—ACH transfers out of the account are free.
An ACH transfer can take up to 2 days, but for many Dashers a transfer only takes a few hours.
The DasherDirect card also has other benefits, like 2% cash back on gas and free ATM withdrawals at participating ATMs.
To set up Fast Pay or sign up for DasherDirect in the Dasher app: Select Earnings then tap on the bank icon in the upper corner.
Wait for direct deposit, pay for Fast Pay, or sign up for DasherDirect
More for Dashers
Spark: Get daily pay with the One bank account
Spark now offers daily pay through the One bank account. With the One account, your earnings are automatically transferred to your account after each completed order.
You can use the One debit card to spend your earnings, or you can use the One banking app to transfer your money to another account.
Spark drivers can finally get daily pay with the One account. But you have to be invited
Eligible drivers will receive an email invite and an in-app notification. Follow steps to create a One account and link it to Spark.
Look for an invite to the One wallet
Currently signing up for a One is optional and you can continue to use the Branch account if you prefer.
The Branch account does not offer daily pay or instant pay. Branch users must wait for the weekly payday each Tuesday to access earnings.
Lyft: Express Pay for $0.85 or use the Lyft Direct debit card
By default, Lyft earnings are direct deposited to your bank account on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week.
You can instantly cash out Lyft your earnings with Express Pay for a fee of $0.85 per withdrawal.
If you rent a car with Express Drive, you can only use Express Pay after your earnings cover your weekly rental charges.
85 cents to cash out with Express Pay. It can add up.
The Lyft Direct debit card is another way to instantly access your earnings.
With Lyft Direct, your earnings are automatically added to the debit card after each ride.
It’s free to transfer funds out of Lyft Direct to other accounts, so it’s easy to move your money if you prefer to store it in other places.
Lyft Direct also offers cash back on gas, restaurants, groceries, and other rotating categories.
One drawback with Lyft Direct is the ATM fees: There is a $2.50 fee and surcharges. Other debit cards offer better ATM perks.
Lyft Direct also offers cash back on gas, anywhere from 1–7% back depending on your Lyft rewards tier. Platinum drivers get 7% cash back.
Up to 7% cash back on gas is the best feature of Lyft Direct
More for Lyft drivers
Instacart: Instant Cashout for $0.50
Instacart pays shoppers via direct deposit once per week, between Wednesday and Friday.
You can use Instant Cashout to withdraw your earnings any time for a $0.50 fee up to 5 times per day.
Earnings will usually arrive in your account within a few hours, but Instacart warns that it can take up to 1–3 business days.
Instacart does not offer a debit card for shoppers, so Instant Cashout is the only way to get your earnings faster.
Many shoppers use Instant Cashout on Sunday to access earnings from the previous week. That way, you won’t have to wait until Wed–Fri for the direct deposit, and you’ll only pay one fee each week.
More for Instacart shoppers
ACH transfer delays: Can you move your money without waiting?
Need to transfer funds out of your gig app debit card but can’t wait a few business days for an ACH transfer?
Try Cash App or Venmo for instant transfers: Connect a Cash App or Venmo account to the debit card, request funds from the debit card, then transfer from Cash App or Venmo to your final account.
It’s a trick to do an instant transfer that may work for some—but not all—debit cards and bank accounts.
Withdraw at a free ATM, deposit to another account: Many gig app debit cards offer free ATM service at participating ATMs.
Search for a partnered ATM in the debit card app, then withdraw your funds and deposit them to your desired account. But watch out for cash deposit fees at some banks!
It may not be as convenient as electronic transfers, but it can be a fast and free way to move money from one account to another.
Are the gig app debit cards worth getting?
Instantly accessing your earnings without paying any fees is a tempting perk, but there are some restrictions and extra hassles to remember before you sign up for a gig app debit card.
Benefits of the debit cards
- No fees to instantly access your earnings
- You can use the card for everyday purchases
- No minimum balance, no overdraft fees, no monthly fee (on most cards)
- Other perks like cash back
Drawbacks
- Delays transferring funds out of the account
- ATM fees or a limited ATM network on some cards
- Prepaid cards (DasherDirect, Amazon Flex) can’t do everything that a normal card can
- Potential for unexpected fees: Either from the card, or your bank
- Administrative hassle: It’s an extra account to keep track of
- Poorer customer service from online-only banks
If you pay instant fees more than a few times each week, it may be worth signing up for a debit card to save on fees. They can add up to hundreds of dollars every year!
But the extra complications from a new card might not be worth it if you can wait for the weekly direct deposit, or if you only occasionally pay fees.
Leave a Reply