Here are some more pointers I picked up in my month of cash-back app shopping.
Read the fine print
A week into my experiment, I was ready to throw in the towel after spending nearly 30 minutes carefully aligning my phone camera to capture a lengthy grocery store receipt and uploading it repeatedly to Ibotta, without getting credit for my purchase. On closer inspection, I discovered that the cash-back offer couldn’t be combined with the coupons I had used.
I had failed to heed an important tip from Strauss: “Pay attention to exclusions.” The apps’ retail and brand partners establish the parameters for cash-back offers, he says. For example, you might be able to earn cash back only on certain products rather than everything sold on a retailer’s site. And product-specific offers often require you to buy a certain quantity, dollar amount, size or variety of an item to earn the rewards.
Compare offers to find the best deal
Before making a purchase, I checked each app to see if it offered a cash-back reward for the retailer where I wanted to shop. Comparing offers paid off because cash-back amounts can vary greatly.
For example, a recent check of offers showed that users could earn up to 12 percent cash back on purchases at Macys.com through RetailMeNot, 2.5 percent through Ibotta, 15 points per $1 spent through Fetch and four kicks per $1 spent through Shopkick.
Double-dip
There are ways to earn cash back from multiple apps on the same purchase. For example, I bought Native brand body wash and earned $2 from Ibotta and 3,750 points from Fetch by submitting the receipt on both apps.
Natalie Van Raalte, senior business development manager at Ibotta, offers another strategy: When you purchase retail gift cards through Ibotta, you instantly receive the gift card numbers and PINs. This allows you to essentially double up on rewards when you use those gift cards to make purchases from online retailers that offer cash back through the app. More than half of my cash-back earnings on Ibotta came from purchasing gift cards.
Rack up rewards without shopping
You don’t have to make purchases to earn points through some cash-back apps.
Fetch lets you earn points by downloading and playing games. You have to allow the app to track your activity on the games so it knows what levels you’ve achieved and can award you accordingly, but if you’re OK with that, answer “yes” when Fetch asks you about tracking.
Shopkick also offers ways to earn points without making purchases. You can click on the “discover” tab and interact with content provided by retailers to unlock kicks. Or, you can get out of the house while earning points by entering select stores and scanning product barcodes; it’s the most common way Shopkick users earn points, Strauss says.
Know your privacy rights
To be clear, all of these apps collect data about you to evaluate your shopping habits and provide you with cash-back opportunities, personalized product recommendations and targeted ads from their brand and retail partners.
Their privacy policies, available on their websites and in the apps (check the account settings), provide detailed information about the data they collect and how they use it. All four apps I tried allow you to customize your privacy settings. Fetch, Ibotta and RetailMeNot have easy-to-use forms to opt out of letting them sell or share your personal information. Shopkick allows you to opt in or out of information sharing, depending on the privacy laws in your state.
The apps claim to use security measures to protect users’ personal information from unauthorized access, but they acknowledge that data breaches can occur.
A worthwhile experiment
After my monthlong experiment, my husband asked why I was still scanning receipts using the apps. My response: “Why not? It’s an easy way to earn cash.”
I don’t expect to earn anywhere close to $50 a month through RetailMeNot going forward, but I plan to keep using the app to make a few bucks with eligible online purchases. Buying gift cards through Ibotta to pay for purchases has become one of my favorite shopping hacks. I also plan to continue using Fetch, as the app makes it easy to accumulate points by submitting receipts. And Shopkick, while not my favorite, could be great for retirees who have the time to visit multiple stores and scan barcodes to earn cash back without spending a dime.
A word of caution, though: It’s easy to get caught up in the appeal of earning cash back through these apps. If you’re not careful, pursuing rewards can lead to buying things you don’t need.