Ibotta is a technology-based app that rewards you with cashback whenever you make online and in-store purchases.
You’re allowed to make payments on the Ibotta app for the items you purchase when you shop at major e-stores like Sam’s Club, or Walmart. Once your receipts are uploaded to the app, you’ll get cash back for your shopping in less than 24 hours.
There are a lot of cash back services and apps nowadays – most of which are scams. I’d love to say beforehand that Ibotta is not a scam like most cash back apps out there and I’ve at least saved some dollars once for shopping at this store.
Do you want to know how Ibotta works and how you can save hundreds of dollars buying items from this store? Sit back and read this post down the page – I’m going to walk you through the process of using the Ibotta app to earn cash back purchasing items as well as show you which major retailers you should shop at and how much cash you can earn back by buying from those stores.
Let’s get rolling!
What to cover in this post:
- What is Ibotta?
- Getting Started with Ibotta
- Features of Ibotta and How it Works
- Security
- Pricing
- Pros & Cons
- Customer Service
- Promotions
- FAQ
- Alternatives
What is Ibotta?
Ibotta is a retailing app you can leverage to save some cash on your daily shopping at more than 350 online and in-store retailers. As at today, the Ibotta has so far paid out more than $620 million in cash to its users across the globe. That’s a lot of cash, right?
Currently, it has a ranking of #37 of all the App Store’s retailing apps and an incredible star rating of 4.8 out of 5 and more than 750,000 reviews posted.
Android phone users can install the app on Google Play Store where it has a star rating of 4.4 out of 5 and almost 450,000 reviews posted. With this figure counted altogether, it sums up to more than a million reviews, which create a good impression and reputation about the app and how fast it has grown up within a comparatively short period of time.
Ibotta was created by Leach Bryan in 2012 with its head office located in Denver and the total number of workers amounting to 600+ people. Ibotta was able to raise $76 million within the first few years of its launching the company.
At the time of this write-up, the Ibotta app has successfully recorded more than 30 million downloads so far, and one of the company’s numerous accomplishments is a unicorn status worth a billion dollars valuation.
Getting Started with Ibotta
By filling out your name, password, email address, date of birth (must be 21 years and above), gender, and zip code, you can register an Ibotta account online. If you’re referred by a friend, you can simply enter your friend’s referral code to ensure he gets a commission.
Downloading the app is required to truly start using Ibotta.
Features of Ibotta and How it Works
Whether you are shopping online or at major retailing locations, Ibotta can be leveraged to earn some cashbacks.
Earn Cash Back In-Store
To save money at your chosen retailing store (using Target as an illustration), simply launch the app and select the “Find Offers” tab.
The next step is adding the offers you desire to your account. Since you’ve decided to shop at Target, any offer particular to your brand can be filtered. In particular circumstances, you can simply provide answers to some short surveys about the item you want to add to your account. A recipe similar to the item might be shown by the app.
Once you’re done identifying the offers you’re passionate about, you can start shopping. Simply log on to your vicinity Target retailer and buy items as usual.
Having done that, use the app’s camera feature to upload your Target payment evidence and save some cash. After you’ve uploaded a receipt, the offers you initially chose before you continued shopping with the completed transactions on your receipt will automatically be cross-referenced by Ibotta.
Once a match is found, the system will then ask you if you intended to redeem the offers for rebates. If everything seems to be alright, you can go ahead and process the receipt. And you’re all done!
Associating Loyalty Accounts
Ibotta has connections with most major e-stores. And as such, it’s connected with the loyalty accounts of these retailers.
To connect a retailer’s loyalty account, launch the app and choose the specific retailer you intend to visit. The next step is to select the Link Account tab of the app which is located at the top and will allow you to register a new loyalty account or present the information in your existing account.
After completing the process, Ibotta will automatically reward you with rebates for the purchases you made at the store – if and only if you made use of your loyalty card in the course of completing the transaction. This particular function is super easy as it truncates the process of typically uploading receipts after the shopping activities.
Earn Cash Back Online
To instantly earn cash back at more than 140 e-stores, such as Instacart, Nike, Casper, Grubhub, Kohl’s, and Advance Auto Parts, you can explore the Ibotta app.
To save some cash online, launch the app and click the Online Shopping tab. A full list of currently accessible offers will then be delivered. At this juncture, select the Shop button and buy your item online as usual.
After completing the purchase transaction, some money will automatically show up in your own account.
Make Payment with Ibotta
Ibotta is affiliated with more than 30 stores and restaurant chains nationwide. Upon using the Pay with Ibotta tab, earning discounts on all personal purchases on the Ibotta app and rebates is instant. You’d be able to instantly save anywhere from 10 percent upwards – all with the exception of a coupon.
To choose the Pay with Ibotta option, you must add your credit or debit card to Ibotta – this is done through the Payment option. The next step is to present the Pay with Ibotta gift card code after making your in-person purchases to the cashier in charge at checkout. Once the gift card code has been scanned by the cashier, you will make payment for your goods and earn rebates instantly.
Ibotta Security
Ibotta is a secure and safe money-making app to leverage. A good number of IT workers operating in-house are employed by the company to ensure adequate protection of your data. Integrated security protocols are also used. The 256-bit data encryption is a typical example of such protocols.
Pro Advice: If you’re such a person who is extremely conscious of data protection and privacy, you might be thinking that your data isn’t safe with Ibotta. Selling users’ data to third parties is one of the ways some companies make money. To be candid, it is not feasible to figure out what they use your data for, where it’s transferred, and how secure it is once it’s transferred to 3rd parties.
In that case, based on their privacy policy, the Ibotta app and its partners leverage your data to:
- Provide marketing supplications and advertisements to you via text messages, applications, email messages, services, push notifications, or other means of communications; and
- Deduce the places you constantly visit, infer the frequency or quality of time you spend at these places, and notify you on arrival at or quitting those locations.
Ibotta Pricing
Ibotta is completely free to use and download. It has no membership fee or upsell of any type.
To earn rebates, you need to make purchases first at stores. Since it’s likely that you’ll shop anyway, using the Ibotta app and earning rebates is no-brainer.
You just need to be watchful how you spend; you do not spend extravagantly or purchase anything you wouldn’t normally. You aren’t moving ahead if you conclude incurring more funds on making purchases from Ibotta that you would normally.
Ibotta Coupons, Bonuses, and Promotions
When you create an Ibotta account using a referral code, as a stunning Millennial Money reader, you will receive a $10 sign-up bonus.
What you simply need to do is register an account for free, and then redeem a cash back within two weeks of becoming a user leveraging the Ibotta app. Then, an additional $10 will be credited to your account.
Pros and Cons of Ibotta
Pros
- Flexible way to earn cash back on daily purchases
- Rebate is accessible at most major retailing centers
- The Ibotta app is completely free to access
Cons
- Only connects with big brands and major retailers
- Your location is easily tracked by the app while in stores
- There are a lot of shortcomings with the customer support
Customer Support & Service
Ibotta offers an interactive customer help center and it’s allowed to submit a help ticket on the portal.
There is a Contact page on the portal, but it does not contain any helpful info on it. An email address is found posted on SiteJabber – support@ibotta.com
On SiteJabber, Ibotta has a star rating of 1.7 only, and on PissedConsumer (only few companies have a great star rating on this platform), it has a star rating of 1.5 out of 5.
If you have a circumstance that warrants getting your rebates in earnest in order to meet some needs, you might decide to check out those reviews prior to making any purchase at all.
Ibotta FAQs
Is Ibotta Legit?
Yes. Ibotta is a legit money-making app where you can shop and save some cash back.
Does Ibotta Truly Dash You Real Cash?
Yes/no! To earn cash back from Ibotta, you must make purchases first by shopping at major retailing centers. Then you’ll earn rebates, which you can redeem for gift cards or PayPal.
Which of Ibotta or eBates is Better?
This has to do with personal opinion. If you find apps useful, Ibotta is likely a more feasible choice. Ibotta is more flexible to access at more brick-and-mortar centers in as much as receipts can be uploaded to the app, which in turn gives you rebates.
Alternatively, eBates has existed longer and has more connections with major web retailers. eBates has a much higher customer support rating on the SiteJabber platform, with a star rating of 4.5, while Ibotta has a star rating of just 1.5.
How Do You Withdraw Your CashBack From Ibotta?
You can withdraw your rebates in cash to PayPal or in gift cards.
To withdraw your money to PayPal, you need to have earned at least $20 worth of rebates. You can then withdraw your money to a PayPal account already linked.
If you’d prefer to withdraw your money in gift cards, you must have earned at least $20-$25 worth of rebates. The money can then be withdrawn to a gift card (which can be utilized for shopping at the exact major retailing centers where you earned the rebates initially).
Thus, Should I Install Ibotta?
If you cherish dining at chain restaurants such as Olive Garden, Applebee’s, etc, love shopping at major retailing centers like Target, Walmart, and you’re a savings and coupon fanatic, then you’ll likely be excited about Ibotta.
If you’re someone who prefers to eat at a locally-established deli or take cups of coffee at a local shop, you cannot definitely leverage Ibotta’s core services in full.
Be reminded, the path to financial independence doesn’t involve constant shopping at Applebee’s, Walmart, etc. However, if you’d responsibly shop at those retailing stores, it will not harm earning some rebates on your important everyday supplies.
Ibotta Alternatives
If you’re on the lookout for identical services to Ibotta, some more famous rebate retailing apps are:
- Dosh
- MyPoints
- Rakuten
Conclusion
While it’s been said that you cannot find financial freedom from shopping at major retailing apps; there’s only one way to becoming financially free online – which is building a passive income stream.
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