Cash back apps and sites I love
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Cashback apps are a great way to save money and earn little perks. Who couldn’t use more perks in life? In fact, because of cashback apps, my family has funded birthday parties, vacations, and even done our Christmas shopping. Today I wanted to share with you some of my favorites.
How do cashback apps work?
Many of these apps work the same way, you either scan a receipt or link your debit card and after you make a purchase you can accumulate points. Many of these programs are ad-based and incentivize you to purchase certain items for a higher point return. (If you’re not careful this is how you will get sucked into spending more money than you intended or buying things you weren’t going to otherwise purchase.)
Here are some I use regularly and love.
Fetch
Fetch Rewards, turns any grocery receipt into savings. Simply scan your receipt on the app and get points you can trade-in for gift cards. And you can link your email address and it will scan in your Amazon and Walmart grocery pickup receipts for points.
You can then trade in your points for gift cards to places like Amazon, Starbucks, Sephora, Redbox, GAP hundreds of other retailers as well as Visa and MasterCard gift cards.
Enter my referral code, 6F8VW at the sign-up screen and you'll get 2,000 Fetch Points ($2.00 in points!) when you complete one receipt. Download here.
Ibotta
Ibotta is one of the cashback apps that’s been around the longest and is favored by money-saving enthusiasts. Ibotta partners with grocery stores like Walmart, Target, Kroger, and more to allow you to scan not only name brand items, but also generic items and earn money back.
For example, if I buy a gallon of milk I can often get $.25 back when I snap a photo of my receipt. Then I can get money back via PayPal after I hit the $20 threshold.
If your grocery store has a rewards card (like Kroger) you can link the app to your rewards card and accumulate the rewards automatically to Ibotta.
Rakuten (formerly Ebates)
Rakuten is a really easy to use browsers extension. It runs in the background as you’re shopping and will alert you if you can get cashback at a certain site. When the alert pops up simply click on it and continue shopping and you will earn a percentage back on your purchase.
Rakuten works with more than 2,000 retailers including Amazon, Walmart, OldNavy, Elf cosmetics. The list goes on. The rewards range between 2% and 15% with specials around Black Friday and Cyber Monday that allow for more retailers to have a higher percentage. Once a quarter you get what they call a Big Fat Check sent via PayPal or deposited to your bank if you choose that option.
Honey
Honey is a browser extension that runs much like Rakuten. It alerts you when there are coupon codes and will automatically apply them to your purchase. You then get points as a reward for using the extension. You can get coupon codes for just about any retailer you can think of. I got one when ordering my kids a pizza one night. Honey will also alert you if your shopping on Amazon and a lower price is available.
When you’ve accumulated 1,000 points you can trade those in for a gift card from over a thousand retailers like Target, Lowes, and Amazon.
Dosh
I just discovered Dosh this year and I love it. Securely link your debit or credit card to the app. Whenever you pay with your linked cards at a participating retailer, you get crash back. The cashback ranges from 2% to 5% and has a revolving list of retailers like Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Costco. I saved enough through the cashback app to pay for my Sam’s club membership.
You can transfer your cash to bank accounts, PayPal, or donate to charity from the app.
Drop
Drop is both an app available on iOS and Chrome. Just like many of the other apps mention you receive points based on the purchases you make through the app. But the point system allows you to receive gift cards that you spend at certain retailers, stores like Dunkin Donuts, WholeFoods, Amazon, and Netflix.
You can only shop at a limited number of stores through the app and you cannot change your options. So be careful when selecting the stores you want to use.
If you sign up now you can get a $5 bonus.
Top Cashback
This one is one of my favorites. I have used and talked about them for years. They work with over 4,000 brands to offer up to 40% cashback. They are also ad-based and work with retailers. This is a rebate site that allows you to shop and then get a percentage back.
And you get $10 for each person you refer.
Will cashback apps make you rich? Nope. But they will give you a little extra cash to play with.
