Ibotta Review : Cash Back Made Easy (2021)
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95% of American’s shop online to avoid crowds and save time. Are you one of them? Well, you could actually be earning money while you spend it.
How? With a cashback app like Ibotta.
Apps like Ibotta earn back you a percentage of the cash you spend. That cashback can then go towards saving, investing, or paying off debt.
In our Ibotta review, we’ll answer questions such as how to use it if you can trust it, and that’s why we’ve put together this Ibotta review?
Keep reading to learn how to sign up and if it’s worth your time.
Contents
What is Ibotta?
Ibotta is a cash back app that will help you earn money for shopping online. They have helped customers get back more than $469 million in cash back rewards. Don’t you want in on that?
It’s available through both desktop and mobile, but most of the action will happen from your phone. It’s very hands-off. The only rule is to shop using special links and complete various tasks.
How does Ibotta work?
Ibotta offers three different features that make it unique among other money apps.
The first is how you send your receipts to Ibotta to get cash deposited into your account within 24 hours.
- The initial step is to navigate through Ibotta’s offer page and find eligible products.
- Then shop at the selected store to complete the sale.
- The last step is to take a photo of the receipt and send it in via the Ibotta app. Once confirmed, you’ll have cashback in as little as two days!
Note: Ibotta supports over 288 stores, including Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, Publix, and many others that you most likely already shop at.
The second feature is how Ibotta manages loyalty cards. You can connect an eligible loyalty card using your phone number.
Like with the receipt function, you go through their offers and do online shopping as normal. After you’ve made a purchase, a deposit goes into your account within two days.
Finally, Ibotta offers in-app purchases that will get you cash back, as well.
With this feature, you visit the shopping section of their app and shop through their offers.
Now, we’re going to show you how to sign up for Ibotta and start earning money.
Signing up for Ibotta
You can sign up for Ibotta via their homepage, click the “Sign Up” button on the top right.
You can register through Facebook or your Google account, which is faster. Don’t worry about the app posting on your pages, it doesn’t gain access to that ability.
Or, you can sign up through the regular form on the right. We also liked that there’s a $10 signup bonus
The desktop version displays your account information, along with your referral code. If you send this to friends and they sign up through your special link, you will be credit $5 towards your account. Imagine if you sent out this via social media and ten friends signed up.
That’s an easy $50!
You can edit what alerts you receive via email on the “Email Alerts” page from the sidebar.
We recommend keeping most of these options active, as it will ensure that you stay up to date on opportunities and what’s going on with your account. The red text on the top can be clicked if you want to completely unsubscribe from receiving any emails. From Ibotta.
Similarly, the “App Alerts” page has the same options with a few additions that you can edit.
The “Content” page contains a single option at the time of this Ibotta review. That option is to block rebates related to alcohol if you’re a minor or not interested in it.
Once you’re satisfied with your settings, it’s time to download the app. Click “Download Ibotta” from the top navigation. This will take you to a page where you will need to input your phone number. They will text you a download link for the app.
Who is Ibotta for?
Ibotta is ideal for people that like getting the latest deals, saving money, and that shop on a regular basis. Students and individuals that are budget sensitive will benefit the most from using it.
Is Ibotta legit?
33 billion personal records will be stolen by cybercriminals in 2023. It’s more important than ever to be careful with who you’re sharing your data with and what you’re downloading.
That’s why went on a quest to find out if you can trust Ibotta with your time and information. During our research, we first discovered some interesting Trustpilot reviews.
This first positive Ibotta review claims that they’ve been using the app for a year, and that’s it’s the best rebate app they’ve come across. The cashback feature is what they liked the most.
It wouldn’t be fair if we only looked at the good reviews, so we also have to look at the critiques, such as this one.
This user claims that they enjoyed using Ibotta in the past, but that they no longer. This is because they experienced their account getting locked for no reason, not being able to cash out, and poor customer service.
Furthermore, we investigated Ibotta’s Better Business Bureau page for insight into the history and legitimacy.
That poor customer review from Trustpilot does align with the less than stellar customer service performance. Over 189 reviews, yet less than a two-star rating.
However, they did score a “B” rating, based on factors such as:
- Honesty in advertising and how they promote their app
- Their time in business
- If they are fully licensed to offer the product they’re offering
- History of complaints
Lastly, we took to social media to get ideas of what users are saying. YouTube is filled with dozens of reviews about Ibotta, as you can see from a quick search.
We did notice that a lot of the reviews have a slight bias, peddling a referral code to earn money. However, many users we watched that did not include an affiliate link tended to have a positive experience.
Ibotta is definitely a company that you can trust with your time and money. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the main pros and cons of Ibotta.
Pros of Ibotta
These are some of the best components we experienced while reviewing Ibotta.
- Welcome bonus: You can earn $10 in as little as 30 seconds by signing up. This is great because it gives you a boost before you’ve even begun saving with the app.
- Refer a friend: Not only will you get cash back from shopping and sending in receipts, but you will generate an extra $5 for every friend that signs up through your special referral code.
- Variety of ways to save: Unlike some other cashback money apps, Ibotta offers three ways for you to save: receipts, shopping, and loyalty card rewards. This is a useful feature because you may only use one of them or want to reap the benefits of all of them. If you do a lot of shipping, you might already have a loyalty card, anyways.
Cons of Ibotta
While we had a pleasant time using the app, we did find some flaws during our research and trial.
- Lack of customer service: Most reviews, including the poor BBB score, always related to a lack of customer service and long wait time.
- Low cashback percentages: While earning cashback from purchasing is great, we did notice that the amount you earn isn’t as much as other platforms.
- Not every store is available: As fantastic as it’d be to be able to get cashback from every store you shop from, it isn’t the case with Ibotta. They don’t have Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and other stores that you may regularly shop at.
Wrapping up our Ibotta review
Students, young adults, and those on a budget can all benefit from using Ibotta. It’s super easy to use, their platform isn’t complicated, and most importantly, it can all be done from your phone.
Signing up is free and only takes a moment of your time. You’ll also get $10 just for registering, which we thought was a nice touch. The mobile app is lightweight and won’t take up much space on your phone, either.
The versatility of being able to get cashback on receipts, shopping online, and through loyalty cards give users like you plenty of options. Some apps only offer discounts or an online shopping portal, putting Ibotta ahead of the game.
You can shop from 288 different stores to save money over time and refer friends for a quick $5 through your referral code. Don’t expect the best customer service or fastest response times, but other than that, our Ibotta review didn’t find any major flaws.
Overall, we can recommend that you try Ibotta for yourself to start earning cashback from your shopping sprees.
Have you used Ibotta in the past? If so, what was your experience?