How good are you at making friends? Wanna get paid for it? And no, we're not talking about being a sexual escort. If you're here reading this you've probably already started looking at Rent A Friend reviews online. Well, if you have your doubts, it's about time we filled you in on what you can expect with the Rent A Friend service.
What Is RentAFriend.com?
RentAFriend.com is a web-based hire a friend service. You can either choose to rent a friend or get paid to be a friend. Rent A Friend was started in 2009 by Scott Rosenbaum in New Jersey. It claims to be the world's leading friend-for-hire website, having been featured by major news stables including FOX and CNN.
How Does Rent A Friend Work?
I know what you're thinking. But rent a friend is not a dating website nor an escort service. If you are looking to hire a friend, all you have to do is pay the $24.95 membership fee and then start searching.
If you are seeking to earn through the website (i.e become a friend), follow these steps.
- Create an account
You will need to register for free with the website through email. You can also register using your Facebook or Twitter profiles.
- Fill out Your Profile Application Form
This step is very important. The information you feed into this page will go to your public profile and will be visible to a potential friend. The website filters friends for hire profiles by
- Gender
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Body type
- Height
- Eye color
- Sexual orientation
- What you are available for (e.g. movies, dinner, sightseeing, wing person, friends with seniors etc)
- The language you speak
- Your fees
You will then complete a compulsory 2-3 sentence ”About You” portion of the application form.
- Upload a photo(s)
Uploading a photo is also compulsory. The photos you upload including your profile picture need to be 4×6 inches or larger, You can upload up to 10 photos.
- Verify your phone number
You will need to provide an actual phone number before your profile goes live. That phone number will be your contact information, if you choose to be contacted through phone. Alternatively, you can choose email. Once you are through with this step, your profile will be up and running within an hour.
- Meet Friends and Get Paid
If someone is interested in hiring you, they will contact you directly. You can then meet up with your friend(s), be of service to them and then get paid.
Where Does Rent A Friend Work?
At the time of writing this review, Rent A Friend is available worldwide according to the website. The website has an inbuilt Geolocation filter that automatically detects where a user is accessing it from. Users looking to hire a friend can search by country, zip/postal code, state or city.
What Are Some of the Rent A Friend Jobs?
So people can hire or rent a friend for various types of jobs. You can be hired for things such as going to the movies, sporting events, hiking, prom dates and etc. But it's not a job per se.
How Much Does Rent A Friend Cost?
You will not have to pay a dime to earn through the website. That is if you are looking to get hired. However, members looking to hire pay a one-off membership fee of $24.95.
How Much Can I Earn With Rent A Friend?
According to the website, it is all up to you. You get to charge an hourly rate, with room for negotiation with a client/friend. If you choose to pre-set your hourly rate, the least you can charge is $10 and a maximum of $50. You can also set your payment terms to be just negotiable depending on certain variables. The website has no limit as to when you choose to work. You are your own boss, and there is no guarantee as to how much you can earn through the website.
How Do I Get Paid By Rent A Friend?
The website itself does not pay you. You will be paid by the friend hiring you once you agree on the terms.
How Safe is Rent A Friend?
It is impossible to determine just how safe the service can be. However, the owner of the website provides some guidelines that can help keep you safe. Some of the guidelines include
- Always have your phone close to you at all times
- Always ensure you meet in public
- If something does not feel right, it most likely isn't
- Always be self-sufficient at all times, including enough cash
- Never go to someone's home alone
If that is not reassuring enough for you, there are safer, unassailable ways of earning online without breaking a sweat at Swagbucks.com and Fusioncash.com.
What We Like About Rent A Friend
Free Sign Up
Very few friends for hire services will enable you to earn without mooching off you. The website provides you with an income generating opportunity on the house. Did you know you can also earn a guaranteed income at Swagbucks.com and Fusioncash.com? Now you know.
TV Mentions
The website's story has been featured on Fox News, CNN, CW News, and GMTV and several other news stables, magazines and newspapers. From the looks of it, the features are for all the right reasons. That's even the more reassuring for skeptics.
Be Your Own Boss
As with most work at home opportunities, you get to be your own boss. You also get to choose your rates and get to keep every penny of it.
Worldwide Presence
You can create a profile from anywhere in the world. You can even edit your profile at any time to reflect changes in location.
Speaking of being your own boss, there is no promise that you will make money with RentAFriend.com. If you are looking for guaranteed ways of making money, you can check out My Top Work At Home Recommendation.
Rent A Friend Complaints
Just before you create a profile, you might want to know the not so rosy side of Rent A Friend, and word from actual users of the service.
No BBB Listing
At the time of this review there are no BBB listing for this company which may be a deal breaker for some folks.
Rent A Friend Horror Stories
These stories will not make a horror movie bio, but they are most certainly worth mentioning.
“Date From Hell?”
People are different, especially when it comes to personality. With the service, you can never be certain that you will get along with whomever contacts you. Lemon, a social worker and professional friend for hire once had an experience with a friend who was too angry a dinner partner. After a bust up during dinner, she politely excused herself, unpaid.
“Friends With Benefits, maybe?”
Some users hire friends, with the hope of having sex or hanky panky intentions. If these intentions backfire on them, the whole experience turns awkward and sometimes nasty really quick.
“Not What I Ordered”
Sometimes you are left to swallow the bitter pill that the friend you hire does not come as advertised. Gary, a first time user of the website chose a friend based on her looks. He felt short-changed once they met in person.
Is Rent A Friend A Scam?
Rent A Friend is not a scam. It is a legitimate Be-Your-Own-Boss concept that is slowly gaining popularity. It is not a work from home opportunity so you have to put yourself out there to make money. If you are looking for ways to earn real income without setting foot out of the house, check out My Top Work At Home Recommendation.
The truth is that you can make money with Rent A Friend, especially if you are the life of the party kind of person. The most successful stories we came across were people who made their profile as close to professional as possible.
On the flip-side, you will need to have the personality it takes to make it in the business. You will also have to be outgoing, unreserved, sociable and open-minded to make good of the business. Remember, all that is on the off chance you actually get picked from the thousands of users available.
If the idea of making friends for a living is not as snug as a bug in a rug for you, I would recommend Swagbucks.com and Fusioncash.com. You can also alternatively check out My Best Work At Home Recommendation.
Don't forget to leave us a question or comment below, if you have any. You can also share your opinion on this or any other review, we would love to hear from you!
Until next time
Eddy with a Y
How exactly do I go about doing something like this? Would you be able to give me a detailed explanation (and one that I will understand). Yep to make the explanation as simple as possible.
Uh visit their site and read it. It’s not complicated.
What I don’t like about rentafriend as a person trying to rent a friend is that the profiles are super old, these people will use old pics from years ago so when you meet them they’re super big or hair looks different, hair cut or idk, frauds, i have emailed rentafriend to tell these girls to use recent pics and the old pics are just there so i suggest you meet them via webcam, no pics, even covid you can safely distance so meet them via webcam first
Hi Eddy,
Personally, I think so many people have been conditioned by mainstream media to be sex-driven creatures that for them relationships must fit into tiny, predictable, sexually intimate boxes. For instance, many folks seem to think that women can’t have platonic male friends, unless at least one of the two parties is gay. Also, a white person and a black person who are casually dressed and are not of the same sex can’t walk down the street without people thinking something romantic is going on, which often stirs up other issues that are still festering underneath a faux cosmopolitan veneer after centuries of so-called change.
I get why people may have knee-jerk responses to what I just said. Still, as enlightened as we all believe ourselves to be, most of us have certain not-so-enlightened, often unexpressed thoughts about who we are and who others should be.
Here’s what I, a self-classified eccentric weirdo, thought when I read about Rent A Friend:
Wow! How cool! It’s a great way for people to get together if they just want to go to a concert with someone and their personal friends either don’t like their taste in death metal music or are too busy. It’s also great for someone who’s new to a city to make friends without feeling intimidated by the thought of making outside-the-job buddies, or for an elderly person to have companionship, since many of them don’t get as much time with people as they used to when they were younger, or the kids were closer. I also thought about people who are mildly depressed, say they are still grieving, don’t want to pester their friends and don’t need lectures or don’t want to navigate ancient waters with people from their everyday world who greet them with long faces or pity on those days or nights when they feel the emptiness (been there, especially at night, and after all the baked goods are given and eaten) or generally don’t want to be alone or they’re bored or just want to be around some new faces and have new experiences they know their traditional friends aren’t up for, the kitsch factor.
Sure, there are some people who will always think about the sexual potential of encounters with strangers. However, as much as I am reluctant to hurt someone’s feelings by implying that they should expand their consciousness, I see that kind of thought as social conditioning that needs to change so people can be creative, critical thinkers. In my humble opinion, that thought pattern was implanted so that people can feel like weirdos for wanting to connect with each other in unique ways. I think it’s part of the social engineering that we are becoming less emotionally sophisticated as we rely more on tech.
I also think this company is boldly embracing an idea whose time has come. It’s part of the push back. As we look forward to more and more isolation within a technological age that is becoming increasingly more AI-dominated, we must not allow ourselves to be constricted by perspectives that may serve to effectively cut off potentially meaningful personal contact for populations that are finding themselves increasingly marginalized.
As it is, I’ve seen enough people sitting right next to each other texting instead of talking. I’m for anything that gets us back to “human.” Maybe things have gone so far in one direction that what seems strange is what could possibly get us back on track. The service generally has good ratings. Let’s just see where this thing goes.
Well that was a mouthful. Lol
But I hear what you’re saying and agree with some of your perspective. Thanks for sharing such an in-depth perspective and response.
I live in Los Angeles and have been on rent a friend for a year. Been hired 6 times and it’s been fun. The most common reason I get hired is to go out to dinner. Most people who hire me are professional business people. Also I’ve been to a few work events and parties. My favorite experience was I was hired by a guy who had an invite to a party to check out the new Ferrari at a dealership and I got to test drive one. Everyone has been nice. It’s important to discuss your fees and their expectations before you meet so that it’s not awkward.
Hi Sara,
Thank you for sharing your experience. It’s sounds sensible and quite intelligent. Have you been payed hourly in advance? Did you pay for your dinners or tickets yourself?
Thank you
Mia
That’s weird.
I just signed up with them today out of curiousity. I am in a relationship and my boyfriend and I think it sounds like a unique job. It might be strange since it’s not what people are used to, but I think it’s such a great way to be there for someone who actually needs a friend for the day or maybe even a tourist who needs to be shown around town. I see that as a pretty nice job if you’re safe about it. I do kind of get the vibe that most people are only on there to try to hook up and even though the company says they’ll ban you if you’re caught doing physical contact , there’s just not enough security in my opinion. Maybe make it into an app where people can communicate more with the company , etc and other people who rented you as a friend for the day can leave reviews so you can build a better following and service for people. I think it should be more set up like a Uber or Lyft , but for friendships so it seems more secure and professional. But back to the whole hook up thing I think people should have an open mind . It’s a job and you’re providing company, might not be your typical job but it’s still a job and it’s up to you to be a responsible person and well as the person paying you. You have to see it as a job if it’s something you’re interested in being apart of.
Thanks for sharing your anonymous view point “Someone”.
This is crazy. I cant believe this has been around since 2009 and I havent heard about it. Its like the uber for freinds but way before uber was even an idea. Its a great review by the way. How do you find this distinguishes itself from dating sites though. Wouldnt people just look for that hot friend then hit on em? lol
Indeed. Again, all over their site they make it clear it’s not a dating or escort site. So if anyone thinks differently that would be their own fault because they’re very upfront about this.
Eddy, this is a new concept for me. My main take is that this is a non-sexual companion service. There are times when you want a friend along. I believe there is always an issue with safety, as there are predators out there, but I also believe in the goodness of man and the odds are in my favor. Again, good article. I learned something today.
You’re welcome.
Thanks for this interesting post. So you’re getting paid to be a friend for the day. I probably wouldn’t do this though, because of my own safety concerns. Thanks for your other recommendations. I’m definitely going to check out your other posts on Swagbucks. Thanks again for this review. I appreciate it!
Hi Eddy,
Thanks for the honest review of Rent a Friend. I’m from the UK and must admit, I haven’t heard of this concept before and it seems very strange, and much more like a dating site than renting a ‘friend’ – I can see how this site could get taken advantage of and why some people think it should be only for singles?
I am an introvert too so I personally wouldn’t have it in me to sign up, but it is good that you’re showing everyone the possibilites of being your own boss!
It is quite a lovely idea really, to meet new people – you never know, you could end up meeting your new best friend!
Thanks again,
Sophie
You’re welcome. They make it very clear it’s not a dating or escort site. But I guess people can’t help but think that, which is probably why visitors seem to think that only single people can take advantage of this unique opportunity. Thanks for your insight either way!
I have heard about this and appreciate your review. I agree with another commenter who says that it’s likely better for single people! Also, I just keep thinking about what my deceased grandparents would say. This is so outside of their imagination! So much has changed in the last 100 years. Wow!
I am curious why some of you would think this is only good for single people. It just seems to me if you’re a social person anyone can do this. It’s not a dating site. Lol
Hi Eddy,
Thank you for writing the honest review about Rent A Friend.
In my opinion, this site is like adding a stranger on your Facebook but added with physical meeting up. Meeting a friend or dating online is never easy because many people tend to abuse the trust/ bond created. Although its not a scam, but I would not be using this site to make friends or earn money. After all, there are so many other better ways to make money online.
Thank you for letting me know.
I guess that’s a good analogy. I am an introvert so the idea of meeting and talking to strangers gives me the willies. I barely talk to people I know and love. Lol So that’s why this wouldn’t appeal to me.
Hey Eddy
This is a great article about rent a friend, I think this is an opportunity for single ladies and gentlemen not for married couples. However, I appreciate you clearing up what is RentAFreind and how it all works. Great read.
I do have one question, is the $24,95 membership a monthly or one time payment.?
I’m glad you enjoyed the article. I don’t know if this is limited to single people. I think anyone can do this. The fee is a onetime as mentioned above. Thanks.