by PointsGuru | Mar 2, 2018 | 3% Cash Back, Cash Back Apps, Taxi Rideshare & Rentals, Travel
We know it says $2 in the photo above but stay tuned we’ll show you $3. Shop Your Way (SYW) and Uber have teamed up to give SYW members the opportunity to earn SYW points for their Uber rides. Shop Your Way is a points currency where you can redeemed at Sears, Kmart and/or at shopyourway.com. You cannot redeem SYW points as payment for an Uber ride. You can redeem your rewards at Sears, Kmart, Lands’ End, or online for clothing, electronics, entertainment and much more.
Not only can you earn cash back from UBER rides with Shop Your Way but you can also connect the Ibotta app for an extra dollar per ride! This gets you three dollars per ride. You’d be amazed at the thousands of points I’ve redeemed since November last year on ShopYourWay on things such as a George Foreman Grill and kitchen utensils paying no shipping and not even connecting a credit card.
Here’s how to get up to $3 per UBER Ride:
Step 1: Sign-Up here for Shop Your Way.
Step 2: Connect Shop Your Way with the UBER App. This automatically earns you $2 per ride.
Step 3: To earn the $1 extra cash back, download Ibotta (YOU GET $10 to start you off with Referral Code UNCVEUI). Here are more details on Ibotta. You must open the Ibotta app before booking the UBER ride and it stacks with with Shop Your Way promo.
Bonus: Earn 10 points per $1 (1%) with the Drop app. This also stacks on top of the $3 per ride you’re earning above. This really doesn’t take much time to all set-up and then you are banking on each UBER ride! You can also get the same points per ride on Lyft with this app.
ShopYourWay and Uber Points Work When You Least Expect It
A few things we discovered with the $2 per ride cash back from ShopYourWay is that not only do you get it for U.S. rides but it has worked for Europe and Australia and other destinations when traveling. We’ve also discovered that you can earn points on Uber Eats transactions which is a huge deal if you order on-demand often. Another plus is that it works using points such as Membership Rewards from AMEX and gift cards and credits — so basically any transaction out of the Uber or Uber Eats app will earn you SYW points.
I’ve earned over $300 in SYW points since I connected the shopping portal to Uber just a few months ago. This is mainly because they had a $4 bonus a few times per Uber ride so I’ve been extremely happy with this new found earning treasure chest because it’s FREE MONEY.
Earn 3 Additional Points Per Dollar on Uber Rides
We’ve discussed the amazing Uber Credit Card which is one of our favorite rewards cards out on the market now from any bank. You can read a full review here for the Uber Visa. We have also discussed maximizing the Altitude Visa and Citi Thank You Cards for 3x on Uber Rides which count as Travel.
by PointsGuru | Mar 1, 2018 | Utility Payments
Recently Reliant Energy sent out some questionnaires with incentives that asked how interested we would be in some new rewards-based programs. Some of the rewards required consumers to pay an extra $5 to $10 per month. Another plan on the survey included a roommate plan where you could split the bill.
It seems Reliant electric is looking for new ways to keep existing customers and gain new ones in a highly competitive energy sector. Read our review of Reliant Energy here and the best credit card to use for Utility payments this month here..
Power Perks Plan
Now you can earn valuable points by paying your electricity bill. Your points can be used to purchase gift cards, energy efficiency products for your home, and consumer electronics.
Sign up on the Power Perks plan from Reliant and receive the following benefits:
-Welcome bonus points just for signing up!
-Earn points for signing up for account services, renewing with Reliant, and paying your bill before the due date.
-24/7 customer service and support, online or by phone (more…)
by PointsGuru | Feb 15, 2018 | Gift Cards, Grocery, Retail
The list is growing long for us grocery shoppers who keep our receipts or take time to scan them and earn rewards. We have many apps available such as Ibotta and now we have another you can stack with it while you have your receipts out to scan. If you haven’t signed up for Ibotta then do so here and get a bonus.
The Fetch Rewards App is a free mobile app that gives you cash back for taking pictures of your grocery receipts. The main difference between Fetch Rewards and other receipt scanning apps is that it doesn’t matter where you buy your product. Ibotta requires you to buy a specific product at a specific store.
The Fetch Rewards app only requires you to buy a specific product. As long as your offer appears on a receipt at any grocery store, you’re going to earn cash back for it. You also get 25 points for ANY receipt from grocery stores.
What we like about this app compared to the other grocery shopping apps is that it recommends other brands you would have made more money on when you scan the receipt for the next time you go shopping. For example, I bought Starbucks coffee and it tells me I could’ve earned more points on Maxwell House. Although I still made points for scanning the receipt.
How To Earn Gift Cards Using Fetch Rewards
1. Sign Up For An Account
As with all point reward apps and websites, you can’t earn if you haven’t joined. Go to the app store on your smartphone and download the free Fetch Rewards app. Once downloaded enter your information, including my referral code QG4YH. When you enter the referral code, you will receive 2,000 points when you scan and complete your first receipt. That is enough points to bring you halfway to your first $3 gift card cash out–making it worthwhile.
Take Advantage Of Special Offers
Under the “Special Offers” tab within the Fetch Rewards app, you will find a current listing of offers that provide relatively high point values. For instance, when I wrote this you could earn 1500 points for buying any two namebrand hair care products. To get the full details of these special offers, simply touch the “offer” box and a new screen will appear that shares all the details of that offer.
How To Earn Gift Cards Using Fetch Rewards
2. Any Receipt Earns Points. Fetch now gives you points for every grocery receipt you update. You do earn more points though if your receipt contains brands from their list.
Bonus Points: Search Through The List Of Brands After Your Next Grocery Shopping Trip:
Currently, there are over 160 different brands available to earn rewards through in the Fetch Rewards app. These are primarily brands that sell grocery and personal product items. All are name brands such as Degree, Axe, Gatorade, Heinz, and Kraft.
3. Upload Your Receipt
Knowing that you have a qualifying item on your receipt, hit the “scan” tab at the bottom of the app and follow the instructions.
An example is one qualifying brand was a stick of Axe deodorant and it was for 750 points plus the receipt of 25 points.
The second time I used the app my only qualifying items was $2.99 box of Captain Crunch which earned a 1,000 receipt scan bonus plus 29 points for the cereal. Essentially this means I earned $1.02 for my few seconds worth of effort to scan and verify the receipt.
Those two trips plus the 2,000 points I earned for entering my friend’s referral code at sign up were more than enough to claim my first Amazon code.
How To Earn Gift Cards Using Fetch Rewards
4. Claim Your Reward
As you can see by my example, it is possible to earn your first cash out with Fetch Rewards in as little as two shopping trips.
Fetch Rewards makes claiming and redeeming your reward simple. In the app, press the “rewards” tab at the bottom of the screen. You can then pick out your reward either by “category” or by “points.” I find it easier to search by points. Simply press the 3K option to cash out 3,000 points for a $3 reward or the 5K option to cash out 5,000 points for a $5 reward and so on. Fetch Rewards offers cash out values all the way up to 50,000 points for a $50 reward.
There are dozens of different types of gift cards available including those for Amazon, Walmart, Itunes, Panera Bread, Dunkin’ Donuts, Whole Foods and more.
Once you pick a reward, a code will be sent to your email box with instructions of how to cash in your gift card. So far I have cashed out for Amazon gift card codes and the whole process from picking out my reward in the app, to receiving my email, to adding it to my Amazon account has taken under five minutes. I would assume the process would vary depending on what gift card you choose.
by PointsGuru | Feb 12, 2018 | Low Interest
You could spend all day and night searching online for the hottest 0% Transfer offers online with no balance transfer fee but its nearly impossible to find decent offers. You may get a few offers a week from your current or wannabe credit card companies offering 0% but with transfer fees. Search engines also tend to give you 5 pages of junk results about credit cards that DO have fees. I refuse to move money with fees so this is my short list of the best 0% No Fee cards right now.
My favorite Top 3 Cards that are 0% APR with No Balance Transfer fee are the following:
1. We are in love with this Credit Union Alliant Bank (alliantcreditunion.org). You get 0% APR for 12 months with NO FEES. You don’t have to be a member to apply and find out if you qualify for the 0% APR deal. Choose ‘not a member’ when you apply and if you are approved you’ll then be able to become a member of the credit union to finish opening your account. I applied for this myself to transfer money from my Slate card that was ending this month to do my annual shuffle around of balances on 0% Cards. My credit line was actually bigger on this card than with Chase Bank but mainly because I have so many cards already with the bigger bank.
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by PointsGuru | Feb 2, 2018 | Sign-Up Bonus, US Bank
As if you need another reason to watch the Winter Olympics now you can monetize the sport when you get this credit card offer.
U.S. Bank is bringing back the Winter Olympics US Bank FlexPerks card promotion. You’ll earn an increased sign-up bonus of 25,000 FlexPoints after meeting minimum spending requirements. Plus bonus FlexPoints for every medal the US Olympic team wins!
Because FlexPoints are worth 1.5 cents each when you redeem them through the US Bank travel portal for airfare, hotels, and rental cars, this could end up being a decent deal. We’ve bought some excellent flights through their portal and for some reason a better deal than Citi ThankYou, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and the much over hyped Membership Rewards.
The US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards card normally comes with 20,000 FlexPoints after spending $2,000 within 4 months of account opening. But US Bank is celebrating the Winter Olympics by increasing the card’s welcome offer and adding bonuses.
With this deal, the US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards card earns 25,000 FlexPoints after spending $2,000 on purchases within the first 3 months. And you’ll get bonus points for each medal the US team wins:
- 500 FlexPoints for each gold medal
- 250 FlexPoints for each silver medal
- 100 FlexPoints for each bronze medal
The card also comes with:
- 2 FlexPoints per $1 spent on 1 category (gas, grocery or airline purchases) which you spend the most on each month and on most cell phone expenses
- 2 FlexPoints per $1 of eligible charitable donations
- 1 FlexPoint per $1 of all other eligible purchases
- $25 airline credit for every award flight booked with FlexPoints (baggage fees, in-flight food, drinks, etc.)
The $49 annual fee is waived the first year.
During the 2014 Olympics, the US team won 28 medals (9 Gold, 7 Silver, 12 Bronze), which were worth 7,450 FlexPoints (9 Gold X 500 FlexPoints + 7 Silver X 250 FlexPoints + 12 Bronze X 100 FlexPoints). So if the US team earns a similar amount of medals as last time, you’d end up with ~32,000 FlexPoints (25,000 FlexPoints sign-up bonus + ~7,000bonus FlexPoints).
FlexPoints are worth an average of 1.5 cents each when redeemed for airfare, hotels, or rentals cars through the US Bank travel portal. So you could end up with ~$450 toward your next trip!
If you were considering applying for the US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards card, now is the best time. You can apply with this link. If you’re a newbie to credit cards we recommend a Chase card first such as the Freedom Card here that comes with a $150 bonus.
