Shopping and Grocery Rebates My Ibotta App Review
Iโve been meaning to write an Ibotta app review for quite some time now.
When I find a service that I believe is worth your time and moneyโand therefore has value beyond a price tagโI want to share it with my readers.
For years Iโd heard about the grocery rebates through Ibotta.
However, I never got around to trying it before this summer.
What was I waiting for?
Now was a time to write one of those Ibotta reviews.
What is the Ibotta app?
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For starters Ibotta is a free app.
You download it on your Smartphone and go.
Ibotta is one of those apps that pays you for the grocery shopping you were going to do anyway.
Ibotta is a lot like Rakuten (formerly Ebates).
It is a cash back shopping solution in that it gives you cash back for the online shopping you were going to do anyway.
With Ibotta youโre getting cash back or grocery rebates for your food shopping.
Yes, that means that you can get paid to go grocery shopping.
Itโs one of the easiest ways to make money with your Smartphone.
As part of this Ibotta app review, Iโve put together an Ibotta reviews FAQ, if you will.
How to Redeem Rebates on Ibotta?
How you redeem rebates on Ibotta is simple.
After youโve shopped and you get home, you scan the barcodes of products youโve bought and then snap a picture of your receipt, and submit.
Thatโs it.
Thatโs how you unlock rebates on Ibotta.
Within a day or so, Ibotta deposits the money youโve earned for your grocery rebates.
Your Ibotta cash out options are easy.
You can get your money in PayPal or Venmo.
You can also trade in your earnings for gift cards.
There are other ways you can get cash back, too.
One, you can start your grocery shopping on the Ibotta app.
Or, two, you can load your grocery rewards cards onto the app.
Then it automatically adds any cash back you purchased using your rewards card.
What I like about Ibotta is that you can compare your grocery list to the items listed that week.
I find that if what I need to buy is on my list and I see it on the app, too, great.
If not, I often donโt change my grocery list to reflect the offersโunlike when I used to buy things I didnโt really need when I was strictly using coupons.
Why donโt I alter my list?
Because I know that Ibotta grocery rebates come back frequently, like week after week.
Unlike coupons from the newspaper, which cycle every few months, I can always count on the Ibotta rebates showing up often.
I mean, at least twice a month I can get cash back for buying milk and bananas.
When can you ever get coupons for those?
Is Ibotta a Coupon App?
Ibotta is not a coupon app, per se.
Yes, you are saving money on items you have on your grocery list, but, no, you donโt have to cash in any coupons to save the money.
In other words there is no transaction at the checkout counter.
With Ibotta the cashing in, if you will, happens after you get home.
I like that convenience.
That said, Ibotta offers deals beyond the grocery store.
You can use Ibotta as a cash back shopping solution when booking travel on Hotels.com, shopping online for Groupon deals or even buying items on eBay.
However, with this latter deal, you have to launch the eBay app from the Ibotta app for the purchase to count.
I recently bought shoes on eBay and tried to go back in and submit it for my 2% back on Ibotta.
Unfortunately, it wasnโt accepted.
So like Rakutenย you have to start your shopping on Ibotta for that cash back shopping to count.
Is Ibotta Legit?
Ibotta is absolutely legit.
You can get cash back for your grocery shopping, simple as that.
As I explained in the section above โHow to Redeem Rebates on Ibotta?โ you buy products, you click on them in the Ibotta app, you scan the barcode, you snap a picture of your receipt, and you submit through the Ibotta app.
You get cash back.
Itโs really that simple.
What Are Ibotta Pros?
One of the reasons I wanted to write this Ibotta app review is because I believe it has many pros over coupons.
Here are a handful of Ibotta pros.
Referrals and Ibotta Bonus When You Sign Up
Ibotta is so confident youโll like the app that it rewards you with extra money.
Ibotta wants you to encourage friends to sign up, too.
Youโll get a $5 $10 referral Ibotta bonus for every friend you refer.
If you click on my Ibotta links in this blog post, Iโll get that referral bonus, too.
Also, once you refer friends, they become members of your โteam.โ
The more grocery rebates they do, the more money you can potentially earn in a month.
Thatโs an Ibotta bonus that keeps on giving!
Multiple Submit Rebates
You know how supermarkets limit how many coupons you can redeem when you shop?
Well, Ibotta actually encourages you to purchase an item multiple times and submit for a rebate each time.
Iโm not talking about in a way that cheats the system but in a legit way.
For example, recently one of my grocery rebates was Land O Lakes eggs.
I got $.50 back for it.
When that rebate became active again in the Ibotta app, Ibotta let me know right in the app.
Like hey, if youโre out of eggs, you can get another $.50 for buying those eggs.
In other words you canโt โrebate-outโ of an offer.
If you were always buying eggs for your family, why wouldnโt you get $.50 back for them each time?
With eggs as expensive as they are right now, who wouldnโt want a way to save money on eggs?
Grocery Rebates on Meat and Produce
We all know that organic food is often more expensive than โregularโ food.
Therefore, finding a way to save on money on organic groceries is a good thing.
With the Ibotta app you can get grocery rebates for not only organic food but other healthy foods, like milk and produce.
Just this week Iโve gotten cash back for bananas and carrots.
Since you rarely find coupons for fresh produce, Ibotta fills this niche nicely.
In addition to milk and produce, you can get cash back for buying meat.
It doesnโt have to be meat in a brand name package.
It could be meat from the butcher counter.
Note: since first writing this review, Iโve gone vegetarian.
So, Iโm not using the cash back benefit from buying meat.
However, that doesnโt mean that you canโt.
Extra Ways to Earn Cash Back
I mentioned that you can refer your friends for bonuses.
And once your friends start using the app, you get bonuses based on their spending and rebates.
Well, Ibotta offers additional bonus opportunities from time to time.
Last summer Ibotta offered a Labor Day bonus.
You just had to submit four offers to earn an extra $10.
Grocery Rebates on Beer, Wine and Spirits
Perhaps this โproโ isnโt for everyone, especially if you donโt drink.
However, if you purchase beer, wine and spirits, then youโll want to know that you can cash in grocery rebates for those as well, via the Ibotta app.
The only challenge is if you live in a state that does not sell alcohol through traditional grocery stores.
I live in Pennsylvania.
Here, pretty much your only option for buying alcohol is a state store.
However, some Sheetz locations now sell liquor.
Iโve yet to see Sheetz in Ibotta, though.
So any liquor rebates in Ibotta would go to waste.
But in states like New Jersey, Ohio and Maine (where weโre moving this year), you can buy beer and wine in stores that youโll find on Ibotta.
Recently, I shopped in a Target near Cleveland, Ohio, and I could have killed it with liquor rebates.
Hundreds of Ibotta Retailers and Stores
Like many apps Ibotta uses location to determine the stores nearest you where you can shop and qualify for grocery rebates.
Normally these stores fall into one of these categories:
- Grocery
- Pharmacy
- Clothing
- Beer, Wine & Spirits
- Beauty & Wellness
- Specialty
- Convenience
Just in the grocery category alone, the stores near me where I can get grocery rebates include Target, Stop and Shop, Costco, Dollar General and Whole Foods.
Here are some dollar store shopping hacks.
If youโre a military family, youโll want to note this.
You can get grocery rebates from the military commissary, too.
Also, there are restaurant and bars offers from time to time.
These usually coincide with a holiday, like Valentineโs Day or Motherโs Day.
Finally, you can use Ibotta with online stores, too.
Amazon is one store that gives you cash back through the Ibotta app.
It works with Macyโs rebates, too.
Ibotta app โany itemโ offers
Usually at least once a week the Ibotta app loads an โany itemโ offer.
That means that you can buy any item in a certain category and you get the cash back.
You donโt have to buy a brand you donโt like or make a special trip.
These โany itemโ offers sometimes include fresh produce or healthy dairy products.
Sometimes all you have to do is simply submit your receipt, regardless of what you bought.
Theyโre a great way to add to your cash back earnings.
What Are Ibotta Cons?
Sometimes Ibotta doesnโt work the way Iโd hoped.
For example, when I first started using this app, I would scan the Ibotta receipt and submit, but rebates were rejected.
I couldnโt figure out why so I created my own Ibotta hack or Ibotta app cheatsโthough Iโm not really cheating.
My Ibotta hack
What is my Ibotta hack or Ibotta app cheats?
Itโs this.
Now I mark up my receipt by putting an arrow next to the products Iโve purchased and which are eligible for rebates.
I figure by highlighting matches on the receipt, it makes it easier for Ibotta to process everything.
So far, so good.
This Ibotta hack has worked every time since.
So it might be seen as one of those Ibotta app cheats but, like I said, itโs not really cheating at all.
Details sometimes hard to understand
Another fix Iโd suggest for Ibotta?
The deals listed in the app arenโt always 100 percent clear.
Recently, my daughter at college asked me to send her a care package of K-cups so she could caffeinate while studying for finals.
On the app it said that Dunkin Donuts K-Cup pods were eligible for a $1.00 grocery rebate.
So I bought some.
Only problem?
When I went to redeem them and scanned the barcode, it was rejected.
It was only when I looked closely at the picture with the rebate did I notice it was for pumpkin spice Dunkin Donuts K-Cups only.
Since you cannot enlarge the picture on the Ibotta app, if you donโt notice these subtleties, you are SOL.
Note to Ibotta: please make the description in the rebate offers clear, if there is a flavor or size necessary to qualify.
Ibotta App Review Conclusion
So is Ibotta worth it?
I think so.
To me Ibotta is a timesaver over traditional coupons.
I will still use coupons from time to time but not nearly as regularly as the Ibotta app.
For me Ibotta is so easy to use, convenient and almost like playing a game.
It is the grocery shopping app Iโll open first on my Smartphone.
I donโt have to have it open or activate it when I walk through a store door.
And I donโt have to bring anything up at the checkout counter.
At my leisure, after I get home, I can scan barcodes and receipts with the Ibotta app.
Thatโs how I get paid for the grocery shopping I was going to do anyway.
thought I’d share again. get paid for shopping. use my referral code (below) and you’ll receive a $10 signing bonus after using your first rebate. once you reach $20 you’re able to cash out. or you can just let those coins build. you can cash out with gift cards. or have the $ sent to your PayPal account. that’s what I do. and then I use my free Master Card – PayPal Cash Card. or sometimes I’ll leave the $ in my PayPal account and shop online or order takeout. but you can use your card wherever Master Card is excepted. there are many other rebates apps but #IBOTTA is best by far. going coins for buying things you will probably buy anyway. so, again use my referral code and we’ll both get a bonus. me and my cats would highly appreciate it. thanks and happy shopping ?!
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I’ve made the same mistake of inadvertently buying the wrong item; however, Ibotta does have a feature where you can check the barcode by scanning it before you buy. Checkout51 is a similar app, but I think Ibotta has better selection. Still, it can’t hurt to use both since they offer savings on different items.
Thank you for your comment. I didn’t know you could scan the barcode while still in the store. I’ll have to try that the next time I use the app.