Notice: I've pretty much quit this site after yet another failure in payment. I've given them two extra tries over the years, and they keep letting me down. I can no longer recommend them, but if you'd still like to read my old review I've kept it below.

FreeRide was the first site I ever joined, back in 1997 I believe. In the first few years they were online I made hundreds of dollars for doing nothing more than clicking ads, then usually cashing out in CDNow gift certificates. Unfortunately CDNow is now dead - bought by Amazon - and FreeRide itself closed up shop about the same time. They remained closed for a number of years. When they finally reopened their site, it was a shadow of what it used to be but much more sustainable.

The current incarnation of FreeRide is not my favorite site out there, but it's not too shabby. The site itself is easy to navigate and professional-looking. The account section leaves a bit to be desired - I prefer more detail - but it's functional. You can cash out in gift cards to a handful of online and offline stores, including Home Depot, Visa virtual account, and Amazon, among others.

Tokens are the FreeRide currency, like points on other sites. 10 Tokens are worth about 0.8 - 0.9 cent, depending on the level of gift certificate you choose. The higher the dollar value of the gift certificate, the better the conversion rate for the Tokens.

There are very few ads on the site anymore, and most of the "free" money is to be earned via emails. They send one, sometimes two emails a day, worth 10 tokens a piece for clicking, and more tokens if you complete the offer. There are also survey emails with surveys typically worth 500 Tokens.

They are "Grab-a-Cabs" which are fun little graphics that pop up while you surf the site. They're worth 1-5 tokens a piece, which is a nice bonus for visiting the site.

Other ways to earn money include shopping, which awards you a certain number of tokens per dollar, and signing up for offers, for which you get a set number of tokens. You can also fill out surveys - usually worth 500 Tokens a piece, or about 40 cents. They sometimes have video offers as well, giving five tokens or so for viewing a video hosted by another site. They do offer a referral bonus of 100 Tokens if you email a friend through their website and that person signs up with them. There's a limit of 1000 Tokens a month. There is no other way to refer people. There's also a one time sign-on bonus of 500 Tokens.

All of this is pretty standard stuff for a rewards site nowadays. The only thing "different" about FreeRide is its design and interface. They put a lot of effort into making the design fun and interesting, even allowing you to pick your own welcome avatar from a pretty large selection. The pages are bright and clean. I like visiting this site, though I don't put as much effort in here as I do other sites I belong to. The reward for effort is a little lower here than at many other sites, though still worth it if you have some spare time.

As of July, 2010, I have received multiple payments from the new FreeRide, so they appear to be reliable. They even recently resent an Amazon gift card to me which I had missed in my email before.