Are you looking for honest Rent a Friend reviews? Would you like to know is Rent a Friend a scam or legitimate way to earn money? Or are you thinking about renting a friend through their website? You have come to the right place.
In my Rent a Friend Review I’m gonna answer all your questions regarding their service. So, spend the next 2 minutes with me. Oh and by the way, if you have any questions or comments regarding Rent a Friend, don’t hesitate to leave them below in the comments and I’ll be more than happy to give you a personal reply.
Rent a Friend Review
Name: Rent a Friend (RAF)
Founded: In 2009 in New Jersey, US
Type: Renting a “Friend”
Short Review: Rent a Friend is a completely legitimate website where you can earn money by offering your time. Even though some people may earn up to $50 per hour through this website for most members it’s only a source of some extra income.
If you are looking for ways to make a full-time income online, I recommend having a look at My #1 Recommendation. That website has helped thousands of people all around the world to earn a full-time income from home.
What Is Rent a Friend?
Nowadays you can rent literally anything. You can rent a house, a car, a music teacher, a guide and so on. So why couldn’t you rent a friend? At first, the idea of renting a friend may sound a little bit weird. But did you know that there are already more than 621,585 “friends” on this website that you can rent immediately if you want?
RentAFriend is a website that allows you to rent a friend in almost anywhere in the world. A friend can, for example:
- Dance with you
- Come to a concert
- Cook
- Snowboard or ski
- Give tours
- Teach an instrument
- Or just hang around
You see, you can do almost anything with a friend that you rent through this website. However, RentAFriend is not a dating or escort service. There’s a strict rule that RentAFriend is created only for platonic friendships and not for sexual relationships.
Rent a Friend is available all around the world but you can find most friends in the big cities. I am living in a small town of 20,000 people at the moment so here aren’t “friends” available at the moment.
Rent a Friend has been featured already on several news channels. You can have a look at a 3-minute clip below when it was on Fox News.
How Does Rent a Friend Work?
You can use the website from 2 different perspectives:
- You can rent a friend
- You can offer your time and services as a friend.
If you want to earn money as a friend you can join for completely free and fill out your profile. Then you are ready to get requests who want to rent/hire you.
Of course, you need to tell something about yourself and what can you do with a person who rents you. You can answer for example following questions in your profile description:
- What are your interests?
- What kind of person are you?
- Do you want just hang around?
- Do you have some special skills like playing an instrument or dancing?
- Do you know your town and want to give a tour?
Notice that you can freely set your price tag. Most “friends” charge between $10-50 per hour for their service. You can keep 100% of earnings and RentAFriend website doesn’t take any commissions. How is that possible?
Those who want to rent a friend through this website will pay a membership fee of $24.95 per month or $69.95 per year for this website. It helps RentAFriend to run their website and keep on connecting people.
Is Rent a Friend Safe?
RentAFriend does their best to be a safe service for a “friend” and a renter as well. It’s definitely a legitimate website and there’s no reason why you couldn’t use their service.
However, for your own safety I want you to use common sense:
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- Meet people in public places. Don’t go to someone’s home right away without knowing him/her.
- Carry your mobile phone with you.
- If there’s something very strange with the other person, take action immediately and report to RentAFriend.
I have met many people on the Internet and afterward in real life. These principles apply to any other service as well. 99% of people are fine but there’s always that 1% of people why you should be a little bit aware.
Rent a Friend Reviews & Complaints
I read several Rent a Friend reviews to find out what kind of experiences people have when using this.
First of all, I didn’t find anyone who would make a full-time income with this website. Even though they have big calculations and statistics on their site, most people seem to make only some extra cash.
The service has been rapidly growing as they have already more than 650,000 “friends” even though they started only 7-8 years ago. It’s a sign that they are doing something right.
Some clients complained that many “friends” just want to earn easy money without doing anything special. When you ask to meet them, they ask if they can take 5 friends along or something similar. Of course, this doesn’t always happen but I think it’s good for you to know that there are many kinds of “friends” on this website.
One “friend” explained that some of her customers don’t seem to understand the difference between a real friendship and the relationship through this website. It’s her job to offer her time. She isn’t their customer’s friend as we understand in our daily conversation. She is offering a service and a client is paying for it.
If you are looking for a real friend, I would recommend looking for another source. Also, if you are looking for ways to earn a living, then I rather recommend having a look at this website.
Conclusion – Do I Recommend Rent a Friend?
I must admit that the idea behind Rent a Friend is creative and unique. I could use this kind of service when I come to a new city and want somebody to show me places. However, in an ideal world, you wouldn’t really need to rent a friend.
You can have a real friend showing you places, coming with you to a concert or hanging around with you.
Some RentAFriend users reported that their meeting with their “friend” was pretty awkward and it wasn’t natural. I think that can happen if the other person’s job is to be your friend.
I wouldn’t rent a friend but I could use this website for renting, for example, a guide, teacher or translator if I don’t speak the local language. In my opinion, paying somebody just to “be your friend” isn’t really nice. Friendship can’t be bought by money but you can buy services of course.
Some people who join RentAFriend are interested in earning “easy money online”. I don’t believe in easy money but I know tons of ways to earn money on the Internet. Here are some of the best training that will teach you how you can do it:
What do you think about RentAFriend? Would you consider using this website as a “friend” or as a customer?
Wow such a great idea of implementing this in a website. It is my first time hear Rent a friend concept of earning money. This made me curios and hastily browse this website. Very helpful I am very interested and hoping to find people in nearby places. By the way i am from Philippines. This would be great if this works here in my country. I want to be paid because i’m in need.
Hi Jemuel,
I checked out and yes, Rent a Friend works also in the Philippines. If you are interested in earning money through ther website, I recommend creating an interesting profile.
Share what kind of things you could offer for a client. Maybe a tour, teaching some skills, or what are your strengths? I think this could be an interesting opportunity.
It is very hard to trust someone who you just met online and then be your companion for one day. it takes days, months or even years before to get to know the person right. Making money on this site is risky, you have to think about your security first.
Probably if I’m the customer I would hire a professional, like a private coach on something that interests me but not a companion, I’m paying so I want to see a good quality service. I wonder if they ask the member to send id’s or if there are no criminal records, just for verification.
Hi,
I have a quite different experience here. I’ve met a big amount of people online and afterwards in real life. As said before, of course you need to use your common sense but 99% of the time you’re just completely safe. The same goes with meeting people in general.
This website defies the true concept and meaning of “friendship”. I don’t despise people that resort to this means but I think being a friend is not a job. I mean, there must be something very wrong with you if you can’t find someone who will do stuffs with you for free.
Although I must say that the idea of making extra cash by being with someone for a short time isn’t really that bad. However, this kind of job pose a lot of threat to both parties. What if you end up with a psycho customer that wanted to skin you alive? We cannot also discount the probability that the so called “friend” can take advantage of your vulnerability.
Hi John,
I am not so concerned about those “pscyho” clients. Just use your common sense: meet a client in a public place and don’t go alone to his home. Anyhow, 99% of clients and users are completely fine.
I’ve get to know many people through the Internet and afterwards met them in a “real life”. We are living in 2017 so that’s how it goes nowadays. 🙂
I am not surprised a site such as this exists but it is probably not a safe one for females. I know you quoted how many ´friends´ there were available, but a better number would be how many jobs they are each getting. It seems one of those businesses where there are a ton of sellers, but very few customers.
But if you are male, I think there is nothing to lose, but I would recommend women make sure the ´buyer´ has a solid rating and information before going on any type of private excursion.
If you are living in a big city and actively using Rent a Friend to get clients, I’m sure you’ll get them. It’s an interesting idea for sure. But as you pointed out, it’s good to make sure that it’s good to be a little bit careful with this kind of services.
This is really an interesting topic, knowing that blogging is a very popular platform for sociocultural integration of many people in different aspect of lives. This makes me think that blogging can be really demanding at the same time rewarding if you are able to create and initiate discussions that may be relevant to most of the people at these times.
Hi Ken,
I have been surprised how great thing blogging can be. At the moment I’m reaching hundreds of people every single day through my websites. Soon it will be thousands of people every day and the influence is just growing. Blogging is definitely one of the most effective ways to have a positive impact on the world and also a very profitable way to earn money online.
Wow, I didn’t actually know such site exist, i must say this is very cool, but like you said common sense should be applied in this. And for people like me, who visit new cities sometimes, it will be very helpful to use this app and catch around some new places, but extra caution should be applied, because people are cruel, and might use this avenue to carry out some evil activities. Nice Info.
Hi Decypher,
I would say that 99% of people are just fine. They don’t want anything bad for other people especially through this kind of websites. The reason I said you should use your common sense is that there’s always that 1% of “crazy” people, you know 😉
This is really interesting, I have seen a video about this before and I can say that renting a friend is somehow effective. But, of course, for me a real friend is better.
Hi Jean,
yeah, renting a friend can be effective if you are in a new city and just need a guide or something. Finding a real friend may take time so if you pay someone, things can go forward faster. However, there are of course limitations when renting a friend. It can’t go as deep as a real friendship.
Hi,
I think this is one of the modt unique thing I’ve seen in a while.
Seems like a nice ideea to rent maybe a friend to go to a movie but it still hurts me than you know that your rented friend came with you for your money and not to have fun for free.
Well,
I guess there are some people that are really nice and charge less but the majority just comes for the money and not to have a lot of fun.
Hi Alex,
I completely agree with you. I would also rather go to a movie with a real friend than with a rented friend.
However, for other services Rent a Friend could work a bit better in my opinion.
For me, the site just looks a bit old and out of date which is why I would avoid it if someone is interested in the idea of renting a friend. It just looks like a site that is fake and a scam but I may be wrong. I’m sure there are several legitimate sites that still have slightly older designs.
I think the point you made about people saying meetings were not natural is an important one. You just can’t create a relationship with someone that you are paying to be there.
Hi Kingcool,
I also paid attention to slightly older designs. However, the site is still legitimate and it’s not a scam. I know also some other sites that have quite similar old design but are still working well. Maybe they could make a little update on their look to bring the service to the next level.
The site design does look pretty simple as well which is maybe why they are trying to keep the slightly outdated look. Maybe they feel that due to the fact that the majority of people using the site might be older people looking for friends or company, they don’t want to bring in a new theme or update the website because it may confuse some older people and they may have trouble finding certain things on the site.
Just a theory, maybe they are just a bit too lazy to update the theme :D.
That’s an interesting theory. It can be one reason. Or maybe their users are so used to the current design that they just don’t want to confuse their users.
Anyhow, I think it works fine even though it looks a bit old.
Wow, I always used to joke about “buying friends”, never thought I’d see the day when you can *actually* pay for it. It’s a bit creepy if you ask me… and after reading your article I’m even more convinced to not do it. Pretty sure there are more profitable and less risky ways of using my time 🙂
Hi Dhervas,
yeah, it’s a bit “interesting” concept. I think renting a friend could work in some situations but, of course, it’s just better to get to know real friends 🙂
Wow, that’s really interesting concept. I have never heard of rent a friend, and I am interested in trying this. I hope I can find people in my location willing to pay me for my services.
I am willing to sell my services, however, I may never rent a friend, I think the membership fee is too high for me. I can not afford to pay $25 every month. Even the yearly membership is too high for me.
I understand. If you set an interesting profile and there are many people in your city, I’m quite sure that some people are ready to “rent you as a friend”. You can keep 100% of your earnings through this website and you can set your price as you wish. The website doesn’t take any commissions because of the membership fee.
It is an interesting idea, I’ve seen a video about friend renting in Japan and it is popular there. Maybe it will become more popular in other places with pages like this but as you wrote it works only in big cities so far. I’m also not the most social person so I don’t know if I would be able to work like this, spend time with people I don’t know.
Hi Felabruno,
yeah, I also heard that this kind of services has been very popular in Japan. RentAFriend was created in the U.S. but now it has already spread all around the world. Yeah, RentAFriend work is for social persons who want to meet new people.
However, there are many online jobs also for people who don’t like meeting new people all the time. You can do affiliate marketing from the comfort of your own home and make big money even without meeting anyone. Have you already started?
Hi Felabruno.
It is meticulous of you to have pointed out the fact that Japan is not the only place that renting can be very popular. Though there is nothing wrong with renting in the bigger cities, renting remains a universal concept. It is nice to know that we can find out much more of this renting information online and even reading the newspaper. Great way of pointing this out.
Yeah, it will be interesting to see how popular this “rent a friend” trend will become in the future. To be honest, I hope that natural friendships would be more popular rather than renting a friend 😉