--- title: There's a Loophole in HQ Trivia That's Keeping Winners From Getting Their Money description: The HQ Trivia game's fine print contains a loophole that's preventing some of the winners from getting their prize money. authors: - name: Allana Akhtar url: https://money.com/author/allana-akhtar/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 101 covers: - Lifestyle - Business - Career Advice - Economy and Politics - Education - Identity Theft - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Technology former_staff: true published: '2018-01-04T21:33:13.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T07:34:29.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - apps - HQ Trivia - online games word_count: 218 canonical: https://money.com/hq-trivia-game-money-winners/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![A group of friends playing HQ Trivia](https://img.money.com/2018/01/180105-hq-sneaky-rule-winning.jpg) *The hundreds of thousands of people regularly playing HQ Trivia are trying to increase their odds of winning the big prize.* Fans of HQ Trivia, you many want to sit down for this. It turns out there's a loophole in the [wildly popular app-based game](https://money.com/hq-triva-app-win-money-phone/) that's preventing some of the game's winners from actually taking home their earnings. This means HQ winner Lauren May, whose [emotional reaction to winning $11.30 went viral this week](https://money.com/you-have-to-see-this-womans-reaction-to-winning-11-30-on-hq-trivia/), needs to win again to actually claim her prize—not an easy thing to do. The game has drawn as many as [750,000 participants](https://twitter.com/hqtrivia/status/948028033805545477), all competing for a piece of a [cash jackpot](https://time.com/5038037/hq-trivia-app-game/). Yet HQ splits each prize (currently offered twice daily) among everyone who correctly answers all 12 of the game's questions—and it doesn't pay out the prize money if a winner has pocketed less than $20, in total. That leaves some HQ players (sometimes referred to as “HQties” by the app’s charming part-time host, [Scott Rogowsky](https://money.com/hq-triva-app-win-money-phone/)) coming up short. HQ does spell out the $20 minimum cash-out in two places: both in its terms and conditions and under the game’s FAQs. ![](https://img.money.com/2018/01/eh0vzd2p-large.jpg?quality=85) Representatives from HQ Trivia have not responded to multiple requests for an explanation of the policy. But the $20 minimum doesn't appear to originate with PayPal, which does not require the third-party apps that use its service to clear any minimum payments, company spokesman Josh Criscoe told Money. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/hq-trivia-game-money-winners/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Entertainment", "item": "https://money.com/entertainment/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "There's a Loophole in HQ Trivia That's Keeping Winners From Getting Their Money" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/hq-trivia-game-money-winners/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/hq-trivia-game-money-winners/", "name": "There's a Loophole in HQ Trivia That's Keeping Winners From Getting Their Money", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2018-01-04T21:33:13.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/hq-trivia-game-money-winners/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/hq-trivia-game-money-winners/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T07:34:29.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "There's a Loophole in HQ Trivia That's Keeping Winners From Getting Their Money", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/01/180105-hq-sneaky-rule-winning.jpg", "width": 2000, "height": 1333, "caption": "hq-trivia-game" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/01/eh0vzd2p-large.jpg?quality=85", "width": 800, "height": 875 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Allana Akhtar", "url": "https://money.com/author/allana-akhtar/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/allana-akhtar/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2018-01-04T21:33:13.000Z", "description": "The HQ Trivia game's fine print contains a loophole that's preventing some of the winners from getting their prize money.", "abstract": "The HQ Trivia game's fine print contains a loophole that's preventing some of the winners from getting their prize money.", "@id": "https://money.com/hq-trivia-game-money-winners/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T07:34:29.000Z", "wordCount": 218, "keywords": [ "apps", "HQ Trivia", "online games" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Entertainment", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment" ] } ] } ] } ```