Who doesn’t like to extra money? I know I do. Saving up for that emergency fund, or some cash to have on hand, I’m all for finding ways to have extra money. I was aware of the idea of cashback, but I thought it could only be through credit card rewards. Thankfully I was wrong and learned about the world of cash back apps. Once I made this discovery, I had to share the top 5 must-have apps to earn cash back.
Cash Back Apps #5 – Dosh
For a simple way to earn cashback, start with Dosh. It tracks your spending and gives you cashback when you make purchases at particular stores and restaurants. It’s simple because all you do is connect your card (credit or debit) to the app, and it earns the cash for you. No scanning items or receipts required. You can cash out what you have made once you hit the payout minimum. The only thing I don’t care for is finding the bank that you use. If it’s not in their system, then you can’t connect to it, but they have many of the major banks and credit unions.
Cash Back Apps #4 – Checkout 51
To dip your toes into the world of grocery store scanning, check out Checkout 51 (see what I did there). While they do have several grocery stores listed, they focus more on individual products. You get your receipt and no matter where you made your purchase, you can get from $0.25 – $3 in cashback. While they don’t have as many offers as some of the more prominent apps, you can claim more than one offer per receipt. You’ll cash out once you hit the $20 minimum to either your bank account or PayPal.
#3 – Shopkick
Like the idea of variety in your cashback app? Look no further than Shopkick. Not only do they work with a plethora of stores, but they also have several different ways to earn “kicks.” Kicks are points that you earn towards gift cards and other rewards. You can get said kicks by
Walking into stores
Scanning barcodes of specific products
Shopping with a linked card
Submitting your purchase receipts
Visiting online stores
Viewing products online
Shopping online and
Watching videos
So if you like earning points for doing everyday shopping tasks, this app could be useful for you.
#2 – Rakuten (formally Ebates)
One of the most well-known cashback websites, Ebates (now known as Rakuten), gives you a certain percentage back on a vast amount of stores and has one of the biggest referral bonuses out there. With its browser extension as well as an app, Rakuten allows you to earn up to 10% cashback on purchases as well as instant coupons at certain stores.
They work with retail outlets, travel agencies, and communication companies like AT&T to give you deals that you can’t get with any other app. You can also receive $25 in bonus cash for every referral that accepts your invite, and that spends $25 through them. Buy your online/in-store purchases with Rakuten without dealing with receipts or physical coupons. You also receive $10 after your first $25 purchase.
#1 – iBotta
My favorite app to use, iBotta has almost 22 million downloads and has paid out over $200 million back to its users. You can receive anything from $0.25 – $5 per scanned item. The three ways to earn cashback with iBotta is through scanning your receipts, linking your store loyalty card, and shopping directly through the app to one of their mobile partners.
The way that I love to use the app is through scanning my receipts. Many times they’ll give you the option to scan any receipt from their participating stores, and you’ll receive $1 back regardless of the item. My second favorite way of using the app is by shopping through it. When using Instacart (a grocery delivery service), I was able to get 1% cashback of my total regardless of my items.
No matter which one you choose, you’ll find that before you know it, you’ll not only be saving money, but you’ll be earning money on items that you were going to purchase anyway! I love them, and I hope that you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.
So what do you think of my list? Share this with your friends and check out which apps work best for you to earn cashback