Andrea Woroch, a consumer savings expert in Bakersfield, California, told me she earned $60 in cash-back rewards through one of the apps last year, which made it easy for her to purchase gift cards for her children’s teachers at no extra cost to her.
“Let that cash accumulate then put it toward shopping,” she says. “I love getting free money.”
So do I. So I decided it was finally time for me to try out a cash-back app, just in time for my holiday shopping.
Picking the right app
First, I had to choose the right one for me. NerdWallet’s review of the best cash-back apps lists eight different options, including RetailMeNot, Ibotta, Fetch and Dosh. Each app offers a slightly different twist on the cash-back experience.
Some apps run special deals at certain times of year. Fetch offered extra rewards during the Black Friday shopping season, for example. Rakuten announced up to 15% cash back during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend.
After a careful review of my options, I downloaded Fetch because I could earn rewards with the retailers I already used, including Amazon, and I liked the idea of earning gift cards. It also looked like it would be easy to upload receipts from online purchases.
Learning to earn
After inputting my email address to open an account, I quickly started earning points, including a bonus of 2,000 points for getting started. Then, I began scanning my receipts — including from recent grocery store purchases — and saw my points start to accumulate.
Soon, I ran into some bumps: I needed to learn how to scan my online receipts so all of the information was captured. I also tried to scan some older receipts, but the app wouldn’t let me scan anything older than 14 days.
I also felt a bit hesitant to share my personal information, including my Amazon log-in credentials, but doing so made it easier to earn points.
A few days and a dozen or so receipts later, I accrued 3,000 points, which is worth about $3. My goal was to qualify for a $5 Starbucks gift card so I could reward myself for all of this work.
Getting an insider’s perspective
As I shopped and earned, I reached out to Ayo Jimoh, chief product officer at Fetch, to get some additional tips on using the app.
“You can earn points for every single purchase you make and additional points at one of the featured retail brands or merchants,” Jimoh says.
He suggested earning extra points by shopping through the app, playing the app’s games and referring the app to friends.
Cash-back apps have gotten so popular, Jimoh says, partly because people’s budgets are stretched so thin.
“We are all seeing prices rise,” he says. Consumers want something in exchange for their loyalty, and earning rewards is one appealing option.
Cashing in on rewards
As I approached the end of my holiday shopping, my momentum with earning points slowed down. While I wanted to continue to put in the effort to scan receipts, I also felt pulled in many directions as the holiday season heated up, and I fell behind.
In the end, my experiment — which lasted about a month — earned me almost $4 in rewards points. It was just shy of my goal of a $5 gift card.
I looked through the other options on the app, and discovered I needed only $3 worth of points to make a donation to a charity. With a quick click, I sent my money to the American Red Cross.
It might have been a small donation, but it felt like a balm amid this season of consumerism.
I’m glad I joined the cash-back craze and plan to continue scanning my receipts in the new year. Perhaps I’ll be able to make a bigger donation next holiday season.
