Get Money Back With Ibotta
Chances are if you’re reading this you’ve at least heard of ibotta. It is the most popular of the cash back apps available.
Be sure to check out our other Money posts and see how you can make your money work for you!
What is ibotta?
Ibotta is a cash back app which rewards you based on your purchases of certain brands from participating retailers. Think of it as being paid for your participation in a large market research project.
What do I need to do?
First: download the app the ibotta app is available on Android and Apple iOS. You’ll want to sign yourself up and create your account. Make sure to use my code * fjbktuu * at signup so you can earn any available extra bonuses. This is for first time users who redeem their first receipt/offer within 14 days of signing up.
There are two main ways I earn with ibotta:
Shop as Normal
Usually, I just go about my normal shopping trips. When I’m shopping at any of the participating retailers that ibotta partners with, I simply use the in app scanner to scan the bar codes on any of the items I’m already placing in my cart. If there is no rebate available, no problem, I continue on. If there IS a rebate available, I’ll pause a moment to add that rebate to my account.
To add a rebate to your account on an item, sometimes you have to watch a short video, answer a survey question, or one about the brand, and sometimes it just adds once you select it. I do love store brands, 90% of the time they’re of the same quality as the name brand items for a decent discount. Periodically I will stop myself during a normal trip and instead of grabbing the store brand I will scan some name brands first, from time to time the name brand item will have a rebate on it which makes it a lower price than the store brand. Score!!!
So I go about my normal trip with no specifics in mind and redeem my receipt either in the car or once I get home. I’ll explain how to do that after I explain my shopping methods.
Plan Your Trips
That was the more simple way. This way is quite a bit more involved and is reserved for big trips when I have more time to plan everything out.
Every week we receive ads in the mail, the local grocery ads that everyone gets. Included with that, we also receive coupons for major brands. I don’t subscribe to the newspaper, but if you you, you’ll receive even more of these coupons. There are also other sources in which you can receive coupons like the machines in the store and product samples.
I will sort through these coupons, see what products we use in our home, check prices at participating stores, and check for ibotta rebates. Sometimes it’s one store, sometimes multiple stores. I use the information I’ve gathered to choose which items will be bought at each store and give the best rebates. Like I said, it is more involved, but has always yielded a greater reward in the end.
Save this post, so that once you master submitting receipts, you can learn the ins and outs of the other ways to earn.
You say redeem an Ibotta offer, what is that?
Once you’ve selected your rebates and done your shopping, make sure you get a paper receipt. When you get home, make sure you have a well lit, flat surface. Get into the app, and select redeem. The app will instruct you as to what to do next, but basically you snap a picture of the app, reaffirm some bar codes if requested and submit. Within 48 hours or so you’ll see the rebate amounts sent to your account.
Can I get it right away?
You can cash out once you hit $20. Your options include money sent to your PayPal account or gift cards to over 60 stores including restaurants and retail establishments.
What kinds of rebates are there?
As of today’s publishing date, 1/9/2020 some current ibotta rebates include (but are not limited to):
Right now when you shop at Target, you can earn cash back on healthy essentials like $2.00 back on Nature Made Supplements, $0.70 back on Kellogg’s Special K Cereal, $2.00 back on Nuun Immunity, and $2.00 back on ThermaCare Heat Wraps
Shopping at Walmart? You can earn $0.25 back on all vitamins of any brand and oatmeal, FREE Pringles Wavy- any variety, $0.60 back on Silk brand Almondmilk, FREE Viena Chickpea Snacks, and even $2.00 back on American Greeting Cards.
Heading to a GAP Factory Outlet? Earn 2% back on your entire purchase!
Groupon – earn up to 8% back while you’re already saving on amazing deals! Learn more about Groupon here!
Crafters! Earn 5% back on your entire purchase at JoAnn Fabric!
Join today to see what other deals are available!!!
Since becoming an Ibotta member, I have earned over $250!
I’ve cashed out some to PayPal when I needed cash, and I’ve also cashed out to Amazon for the purchase of some Halloween decorations. Here are some of my experiences with ibotta prior to this post, perhaps seeing some real life savings may be helpful to anyone still not 100% sure.
More ways to earn with Ibotta:
Link Your Loyalty Accounts
This is actually quite genius and I’m super excited that they did this. Within the app, you’ll select the store you’d like to link your loyalty account to. Select “Link Account” at the top of the screen, and you’ll be prompted to enter the necessary information. You’ll need to verify your account information, and then you’re ready to go! It says on the website that they’ll automatically add qualifying purchases to your account. To be sure, I still like to add the rebates for items I’m purchasing as I add them to my cart. Like an insurance I guess, so those rebates are associated with my Ibotta account and when scanned I can make sure they show up.
You can link your Target RED card as well, so that when you make a purchase with that card, it will work in the same manner.
Pay with Ibotta
In this method, you are able to securely link a debit or credit card to your Ibotta account. At over 50 retailers and restaurants when its time to pay, you’ll select the retailer from the Pay with Ibotta section of your app, enter the amount of your transaction, review the information, and select Pay. A code will generate for you to have the cashier scan much like a giftcard.
This method is supposed to result in instant cash back.
They also mention on their website that they use 256 bit bank-level encryption security to ensure that your payment information is safe, they don’t see your information, it is only used for transactions.
So, I personally haven’t used this yet. Looking into it for the purpose of this post, I’m kinda sold on it. My assumption is that you’ll still submit your receipt afterwards for the regular rebates? I’m going to test it out, so stay tuned!
The phone image and description of Pay with Ibotta is from their website.
Using the Mobile App
If you shop on line often, this is a great way to earn cash back on your purchases. From the Ibotta app, select offers from the participating retailer you wish to purchase from. Launch that shopping app from the Ibotta app. Shop as you normally would, check out, and there you have it! Shortly after you check out, you’ll receive a confirmation that your order is pending and should receive the money in your ibotta account shortly. This is the most straightforward method I would say. Cash back through the mobile app method can go up to about 10% back.
I believe a few more minutes of effort prior to shopping is totally worth it. Why not get money back on purchases you were already planning on making?
And Another Three Ways to Earn with Ibotta
It’s true, besides submitting receipts, connecting loyalty cards, using mobile apps, or paying with Ibotta, there are another three ways to earn with Ibotta! Two out of these three methods expand upon the above mentioned methods to earn. The third is as simple as hitting “share” on your favorite social media.
Easy, right?
Think of all the money you can earn!!!
What an amazing beginning to this series: Extra Money – Start Earning and Saving Today.
T-E-A-M With TEAMWORK, You’ll EARN!
Take anyone back to their cheerleading days?
Anyway, in this method, you’ll need to either have referred friends who are new to ibotta, which I’ll cover in a bit, or have ibotta connected to facebook. Any of your friends who are also on ibotta or anyone who joins ibotta through you will join your “team”. Each month, you’ll have the chance to earn bonuses based on the performance of your team. The larger your team, and the more you redeem rebates, the more bonuses you’ll earn.
For example, the current January, Level 1 Bonus requires your team to earn a total of $20 and for you personally to redeem 15 offers. Once those requirements are fulfilled, you’ll get an extra 50 cents in your account. This bonus expires at the end of the month. If you earn this bonus, you’ll be eligible for Level 2, which will require a higher team amount and more offers redeemed, but will yield a higher bonus amount. Offers excluded include referrals, earnings from bonuses (read next), or “any item” offers.
Bonuses
Bonuses vary from month to month depending on participating brands. The basic idea is that if you redeem a pre specified number of offers from a specific brand, you’ll receive a bonus amount in your account. You can also earn extra bonuses straight from ibotta for performing certain tasks.
For example, at the time of writing this post, January 2020, some bonuses include
- Special K: redeem the current Special K offer ($0.70 back on Special K Cereal) twice and receive an extra $0.50 in your account, this bonus expires 2/29/20.
- RXBAR: redeem any 3 of the current offers from RXBAR (says unique- so you can only redeem each one once) and receive an extra $1.00 in your account. The current offers for RXBAR are on the following products: RXBAR Multipack, RX Nut Butter Single Serve, RXBAR Kids Multipack, RX Nut Butter Jar, or RX A.M. Oats Cup, this bonus expires 8/20/20.
- Lowes: If you have a balance of $20 or more and are ready to redeem for a gift card, right now you can earn $2.00 to start your next gift card goal when redeeming a Lowes Gift card with your earnings. This offer expires 12/30/20.
In addition to product/store specific bonuses, there is also a bonus I spotted today, the “Mid Week Money Maker”. In this bonus, if you redeem 9 offers before the bonus expires on 1/22/20, you’ll earn an extra $3.00 in your account!
Personally, I don’t pay much attention to the bonuses, but I have earned back on them many times. I like to think of it as a fun surprise if I get one. Now, if I’m shopping, and I scan an item for my cart and Ibotta lets me know there’s a possible bonus available, I will check the bonus out and see if it is worth it to purchase either a duplicate or another variety of that item. Also, if I’m near the mid week bonus amount, I will take a look around for a product I know I will use and is worth it to me to purchase to make that bonus requirement.
Tell a Friend
Simple as that, Ibotta offers multiple options to share their app. Each user receives a unique code and anyone that signs up with that code counts as a referral. Besides a referral bonus, you’ve also got a new team member for everyone that signs up with your code! Most of the time, they also get a bonus when they redeem their first receipt within 14 days.
The beauty is that to earn with Ibotta, you have so many options. Use the methods that work the best for you! Regardless I think Ibotta is an amazing app, that even I need to explore more.
So, go on, download ibotta, and get to earning!
[…] you sign up with ibotta or Swagucks, you can log into your Groupon account through their sites and earn money […]