Ibotta is a shopping app that can help you save money on your purchases and possibly make some extra cash for yourself. Within the context of this Ibotta review, we will demonstrate in detail how that transpires.
If you are unfamiliar with Ibotta and its amazing software for saving money, continue reading to determine whether or not you should consider downloading it.
Summary
If you like to save money while you shop and are ready to put in a little bit of effort to do it, the Ibotta app may be able to put a pleasant little bit of change in your pocket. All you have to do is scan certain items at participating retailers.
Pros:
• The software is simple to use,
• Withdraw money to PayPal as well as other services.
• A number of different approaches to cut costs
Cons
• Credits may take some time to process
• Ratings for customer service are average
Ibotta: what is it?
The Ibotta app collaborates with you to locate coupons and other types of reductions that can be applied to the items that you purchase.
To tell you the truth, I was a little skeptical when I initially started looking for information pertaining to Ibotta. In fact, the question “Is Ibotta legit?” even crossed my mind.
When I’ve looked into similar programs in the past, I’ve discovered that there are times when the supposed savings aren’t actually savings at all.
Ibotta, on the other hand, is not like the others. This is in no way a fraudulent scheme.
Because it is not required that you shop through the Ibotta site, but rather that you input your coupons after you have already shopped at the store, you can be certain that you will save actual money using this method.
Ibotta is designed to help you save money on purchases in the following way:
How does the Ibotta app work exactly?
As soon as I started doing research for this essay, I discovered that I had a really limited understanding of what Ibotta was.
I tried to get the scoop by simply browsing the website, but in order to give you a real feel for how it works, I felt it was better to just join up and try Ibotta for myself. Ibotta is a mobile application that allows users to collect cash back on purchases made at participating retailers.
Ibotta is based on a straightforward concept. Ibotta gives you cashback on qualified everyday purchases you make at your favorite merchants after you register an account with them and make those purchases using the app.
The procedure for registering for an account with Ibotta is not overly complicated.
Simply establish a password, provide them some basic information such as your name, email address, and birthdate, then download the app onto your smartphone (it is available on both Android and iOS).
After you have registered, you will be prompted to select your preferred stores, both offline and online, where you do the majority of your shopping.
The selection of retail establishments from which they can pick is quite extensive.
The Ibotta shopping list includes a variety of retail establishments, including supermarkets, pharmacies, and more.
Once you’ve selected the stores whose deals you’re interested in seeing, you can begin browsing the deals that are currently available at each retailer and adding them to your account.
You can search for deals based on the category of goods that you are interested in purchasing or on the store itself, which is personally my preferred method.
Other times, an offer will need you to watch a brief video; in my experience, “short” refers to videos that are less than ten seconds long.
Additionally, some offers demand that you respond to a brief and straightforward inquiry, such as “How many years of study do you have under your belt?”
The movies and questionnaires for surveys that were included with some of the opportunities to save money were almost invisible. They do not in any way prevent users from downloading and using the app.
How much does it cost to use the Ibotta app?
Both downloading and using the Ibotta app are completely free of charge. You will not incur any expenses in order to earn cash back through any of the available channels.
You should be aware, however, that if your account is dormant for a period of six months or longer, you will be subject to a maintenance fee of $3.99 per month. This is an important point to keep in mind.
Your Ibotta balance, not the money in your bank account, will be deducted when the fee is applied. The subscription charge will be cancelled as soon as you return to active status within the app and begin using it once more.
Ibotta’s Main Attributes and Functions
Ibotta gives you a number of options to choose from if you want to make money. The first one on this list is the one with the fewest steps.
Earn Money by Shopping I believe that shopping is by far the simplest way to earn money using Ibotta. This is my perspective, at least.
When you sign up for Ibotta, as I mentioned before, the company asks you to select the stores where you do the majority of your shopping.
This makes it easier for them to find all of the deals that are currently available at your preferred stores.
This free app’s ability to efficiently organize and cross-reference offers that were offered at a variety of retailers was one of the aspects of it that most impressed me.
For instance, my shopping list includes both Target and Walmart as potential destinations.
Ibotta will add an offer to both my Walmart offer list and my Target offer list if I find a coupon for a product on the Walmart offer page of the app that is also valid at Target. This happens when I find a coupon for a product when I’m browsing the Walmart offer page of the app.
Because of this, it is quite simple to cut costs and save even more money, which is especially helpful when shopping at a store that has an item on sale.
My first time using Ibotta consisted of browsing through all of the Walmart deals, adding the ones that were applicable to my list, and then waiting for shopping day to arrive.
On the day I went shopping, I stuffed everything into my cart, paid for it, and then headed home.
After I got back to my apartment, I scanned the barcode on my receipt into the Ibotta app, and it immediately began researching the products that I had bought.
In some instances, the maker of the item will request that you scan the barcode as evidence that you purchased the item in question.
This was a very simple task. I just completed the task while the things from our excursion to the grocery shop were still arranged on the countertop.
The Ibotta app informed me, once I had finished scanning the products, that I had earned $8.50!!
Earn money by referring others to us.
You can also earn money through the Ibotta referral program by recommending a friend who then downloads and uses the app.
If you invite friends to join Ibotta by providing them with your unique referral code and they go on to redeem a qualifying offer, you will receive $10 for each successful referral.
When it comes to how much money you can get by referring other people, there is no cap!
There is no obligation to generate more money by recommending others to the program; yet, who wouldn’t want to assist their friends in lowering their financial burdens?
Bonuses for Signing Up
Ibotta will likely not always, but certainly many times, run promotions in which they will pay you a bonus for joining up for their service.
At the time that I joined, they were giving a $10 signup bonus to new members who redeemed at least $10 worth of deals. Costing nothing!
Putting away money was a breeze thanks to the app. I spent probably fewer than fifteen minutes of my time looking for the offers, scanning my receipt, and scanning the barcodes of the products that needed verification from the manufacturer. It’s not a bad pay rate: $8.50 in cash for just 15 minutes of effort.
Deals on Various Necessities
Some discount websites and mobile applications only provide coupons for products or services that you do not require or that you do not typically purchase.
When it comes to our family, we don’t really spend much money on things that aren’t absolutely necessary. We don’t buy new clothes unless we really require them, and we try to limit our intake of processed and junk food as much as possible.
In order for us to achieve our monetary objectives, we are making every effort to adhere to the parameters of our budget.
Ibotta offered a wide variety of coupons, and not just for supplementary items that one would not often purchase.
If you look over the list that shares what I saved on when we went on our short shopping trip that Wednesday, you’ll see that I had an Ibotta coupon for bananas, bread, eggs, and other things that we would normally buy. This is something that you can see if you look over the list that is located above.
Even though we don’t buy a lot of extras or processed foods, I was able to determine from this that we would still be able to save money by using Ibotta.
Coupons Offering a Cash Back Discount on “Any Brand”
Ibotta provided me with a handful of cash back offers for things of “any brand.” This indicates that Ibotta will give me money back on the generic items that I enjoy purchasing, which will allow me to save even more money.
As an illustration, a “coupon good for any brand” allowed me to purchase our $0.87 per loaf generic bread for only $0.62 cents on the very first day that I went grocery shopping.
Bonus Coupons of Unknown Origin
On the very first day that I used Ibotta to go shopping, not only did I get a coupon for fifty cents cash back on any purchase that was on my receipt, but I also got an offer for a free item!
Therefore, even if I hadn’t participated in any of the other Ibotta offerings, I would have still been able to save fifty cents.
Although at first glance it might not appear to be a significant amount of money, over time it will amount to quite a bit. This made clipping coupons nice and simple.
There are several different ways to cash out.
You will be able to go into your Ibotta account once you have saved money using the app and have the money placed into your PayPal account. From there, you will have the freedom to use the money anyway you like.
You can get a deposit to your bank account using your Ibotta earnings, or you can get a gift card to one of many retailers. Both options are available to you.
Ibotta makes gift cards available for purchase for a variety of retailers, including Whole Foods, Sephora, Target, Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, and Costco, among others.
This could be the best option for you if you like to have gift cards rather than cash, either for spending or for giving as gifts to other people.
The least amount that can be cashed out is twenty dollars. However, the minimum cash out amount for some gift cards is often $25.
Ibotta User Opinions
As of the time of this writing, Ibotta has earned a “Excellent” rating on Trustpilot, which is based on a score of 4.2 out of 5 stars.
There were numerous unfavorable reviews that mentioned needing to argue with customer support in order to receive earned cash back, despite the fact that the majority of reviews were positive.
On the website of the Better Business Bureau, the grade given to Ibotta is a “B.” They receive 3.82 out of 5 stars from the Better Business Bureau.
My Personal Experience
I used Ibotta for the first time on Wednesday, and when I got up Thursday morning, there was an email from the company waiting for me in my inbox.
It detailed how much money I had saved by using Ibotta from the shopping trip I had completed the previous day and informed me that the money had been added to my Ibotta account.
Ibotta had not only placed my original $8.50 into my account, but they had also given me a random bonus deposit of $2.00, which meant that I now had $10.50 in my account.
Please find attached a copy of the email that was sent to me by them. It detailed each item that I had saved money on as well as the total amount that I had saved.
You may have noticed that there are some more items, such as potato chips, in there because we went Christmas shopping for food.
When I checked my email in the morning, one of the highlights of my day was undoubtedly the receipt of a confirmation email from Ibotta.
Although I’ve had a positive experience with Ibotta’s customer service in terms of communication, it’s evident that some customers have had negative encounters.
Ibotta FAQs
The following are some responses to some of the queries that are posed very frequently about Ibotta.
Is it simple to use the Ibotta app?
Not only is it simple to sign up for Ibotta and simple to collect offers, but it’s also simple to cash out your earnings once you’ve done so.
Ibotta is designed to ensure that the cash savings you earn are deposited into your Ibotta account between 0 and 5 business days after you earn them.
Can I obtain a cash refund for groceries orders placed on Amazon?
Yes! If you use Amazon to buy groceries and have the Ibotta browser extension for Google Chrome installed, you will be able to collect cash back on your purchases. For further information, please visit the Ibotta website.
Is there a cap on the number of my personal connections that can earn me money as a referral bonus?
No! You are free to recommend as many of your friends as you see fit. Make sure, however, that each of them is registering from a separate device.
Does Ibotta integrate with a store’s loyalty program in any way?
Yes! Simply visiting the Ibotta app on your mobile device will allow you to link your store loyalty account with your Ibotta account.
Summary
When you go shopping, it is important to seek for ways to save the most money possible on products that you were going to buy anyhow.
It also never hurts to sometimes experiment with a new brand or product, one that you possibly might not have tried otherwise if it weren’t for the opportunity to save money on it.
It’s possible that after considering these points, you’ll decide that downloading the Ibotta app was really necessary. Ibotta allows you to earn cash back in-store as well as online, which might help you save even more money.
I really hope that this Ibotta app review was informative for you in your quest to make money by clipping coupons in this day and age.