Free Taxi Rides with Uber (worth $45 or much more with referrals)

Updated on December 14, 2023

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Here's how you can get a minimum of $45 worth of free rides with Uber — and potentially much much more with referrals.

What is Uber? A service that lets you order a taxi from your phone. Its not a yellow taxi but a private car that charges a similar price. Read the wiki here

Uber will revolutionize the use of taxi/car services, at least in NYC. One of the things that really bother me is trying to hail a cab on New Years at 2AM after celebrations at a bar/club. It’s near impossible and when you do finally hail one, expect to get the dirty type of driver that negotiates pricing with you through the window before letting you in. Uber takes away this hassle. Now, Uber users can “hail” a ride using the smart-phone’s GPS capabilities. The closest Uber driver has 15 seconds to accept your request. And unlike taxis who can turn down your ride, Uber drivers are rated based on your experience, so it would not be a good idea to cause issues. From my discussions with drivers during my Uber rides, I am told that each driver must maintain an average rating of 4.5 stars (out of a possible 5), very strict standards in my opinion.

How does this work?

If you sign up using my referral link, you will start off with $20 credit. Disclosure: I will also receive $20 credit upon your first Uber ride. Once a new account is created, you can use code HIPMUNK for $25 off your first ride – simply go to PROMOTIONS tab and enter HIPMUNK. This stacks on top of the $20 sign up credit, so if your first ride costs more than $25, it will automatically dip into the $20 credit. Note that after entering HIPMUNK, the $25 credit will not appear anywhere else in your account if you are doing it on your phone. If you log in from a computer you should see it below your $20 credit. I made the mistake of taking a fairly short first ride which rang up to $16 thinking I would have $9 remaining to use. However, HIPMUNK offers $25 off the first ride, so the additional $9 went to waste.

How can you take advantage of this offer?

Each account needs a unique email address and cell phone number. You can refer your brother, sister, parents, friends. If you use one phone to login to all the different accounts, you may lose the credit and get charged the full amount so I don't suggest faking accounts just to get more referral credits. Each referral gets you: $20 referral credit to your account and $45 of credit for the new account, but you won't get the credit until the other person takes their first ride (so getting 50 people to sign up but never take a ride will get you nothing). Uber sends an email and text message, requesting for a response before your account is officially active and ready for use. However, it is not needed after getting past this step. Also, Uber sends a text when you request a ride and when the ride is near, but isn’t needed to confirm a ride request. Make sure to use UberX cars and NOT the Black or SUV rides. UberX are standard cards, with rates on par with a standard yellow taxi.

What is Price Surging?

You may have read online that Uber utilizes price surging to balance supply and demand. During snow/rain days, demand increases with the supply of available Uber drivers either decreasing or remaining the same. Read more about it here. If you are requesting an Uber ride during high demand, the Uber app will make it very clear that you are paying 2x or more the standard rate, and they will have you accept a few times, disclosures stating you are aware of the price surge rate. I tried to get a ride recently when it raining on an early Friday evening in midtown nyc… the surge pricing wouldnt go away at all, so I just jumped in a subway.

How to sign up

Click here to sign up and get a free $20 credit ($30 as of 7/6/14)

Feel free to post your own referral link in the comments.

Enter the Promotion code: HIPMUNK (click on Promotions tab) for $25 off first ride (ride by 5/1/14):
Click “Get Free Rides” on the top right, and get your referral link.
Use the referral link to refer friends/family using a different phone number and email address. Repeat.

List of Areas with service

Uber is available already in 34 Countries. Here is a list of where its available in North America:

Thanks to AA for this post.