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 1, 2018 | Retail
The leaked Chase Starbucks Visa card is now live for applications. Here’s a review of the card.
In case you are new to the Starbucks rewards program here’s a summary: All Starbucks Gold members get 2 stars per $1 spent at Starbucks. Get a free drink or food item after reaching 125 stars ($62.50 in spend). More in-depth post here on the program.
The New Starbucks Visa Card Offers these rewards:
- Get instant Gold status on the Starbucks loyalty program which typically takes 300 stars ($150 in spend) to reach
- Earn 1 star per $4 spent everywhere outside Starbucks (free item after $500 in spend)
- Earn 1 star per $1 spent on Starbucks purchases only when reloading your Starbucks balance via the app (if you pay directly at Starbucks you’ll earn the regular earn rate of 1/$4). The 1 star per $1 earned on Starbucks app reloads is in addition to the standard 2 stars per dollar earned by Gold members on all purchases. In total, you’ll end up with 3 stars per dollar, but again, the credit card is only adding 1 star extra per dollar.
- 8 Barista Picks: Curated food or beverage Rewards selected by baristas and automatically loaded to the cardmembers Starbucks Rewards account. These are random picks that get sent to you, not something you can choose. This benefit will load to your account 45 days after becoming a cardmember and will reset each cardmember year. Barista picks expire after 30 days.
Signup Bonus
- Earn 2,500 stars (20 free drinks) after spending $500 within the first 3 months
- Earn 250 stars (2 free drinks) when using the Starbucks Visa card to load your Starbucks card in the app for the first time
The Starbucks Stars program comes with a 6-month expiration on stars, and this expiration is the same for credit card holders. This is especially important to keep in mind with regards to the signup bonus since you’ll have to use up all 22 free items within 6 months. The good thing about this is that you can keep points from expiring by using this card and topping off rewards like we do with airline and hotel points.
Starbucks stars can be used for almost any free item – it’s not limited to a drink. Our suggestion is to find the most expensive food item from Starbucks which could be an $8 or so Turkey sandwich and use it for that! A typical drink runs under $5, so keep that in mind when determining the value of the rewards program.
Small Print
The Chase Starbucks Visa card is not available to current cardmembers or previous cardmembers of this credit card who received a new cardmember bonus for this credit card within the last 24 months. This is not possible now because this is a new card. Unknown whether the 5/24 rule applies to this card. This rule basically says you cannot get most cards from the Chase portfolio if you have too many applications or other cards.
You can use the card now in the app, but…!
Upon approval, you’ll be able to use a digital version of the credit card immediately in the Starbucks app (but not elsewhere).
Card comes with standard Chase card benefits like purchase protection, extended warranty, price protection, and car rental insurance.
Should you get the card?
The $49 annual fee is shocking because it really doesn’t do too much unless you really want to feel like you belong to Starbucks. If a card charges an annual fee you should get benefits such as a free hotel night. A $49 annual fee with the IHG card can get you a free night stay at a Holiday Inn. The card also has foreign transaction fees and that makes no sense because they are such an international business.
Looking at the earnings on the card it’s not too bad but if you put in the annual fee it’s not impressive. The value comes to less than 1% back on everyday spend, and it’s slightly over 3% back on Starbucks purchases. To maximize the value of the card it would come to a valuation of 2% everywhere ($500 spend gets $10 sandwich at Starbucks) and 8% at Starbucks ($125 spend gets $10 sandwich).
This was a pretty hyped card which was leaked last year to include such a high annual fee. Starbucks is a brand that people obsess with such as Apple but you have to be a pretty ill informed shopper to actually pay a fee for this card.
by PointsGuru | Dec 29, 2017 | Retail
Amazon has some great deals today if you can still catch them. It’s funny how when they do the yearly Amazon fest or whatever it’s called they would time deals like these for an hour or so but these will last all day. The deals end at 11:59pm December 29.
Uber Gift Card $5 Off
Go Uber on Amazon and click the $50 box then send it to yourself or someone else. At checkout enter promo code UBER. That will bring down the cost to $45. Easiest free $5 ever! If you want to stack that with 5% back on Discover at Amazon you save even more!
$10 Amazon Credit with HBO Now
You can get a $10 Amazon.com Credit when you Subscribe to HBO NOW. You could subscribe to it then cancel it and make a profit. Here is the HBO Offer on Amazon. Note: You need to have an Andriod device for this offer to work. They do not have HBO Now on Amazon for ios yet apparently.
by PointsGuru | Nov 22, 2017 | Free Stuff, Retail, Sign-Up Bonus, Taxi Rideshare & Rentals
You’ll earn $4 Cashback in points for EVERY ride you take with Uber with no limit to the points you can earn with this new promotion plus you can get another dollar per ride by opening the app through Ibotta. You will also be entered for the $5,000 Shop Your Way Sweepstakes every time you ride.
Shop Your Way (SYW) and Uber have teamed up to provide 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.
Here’s how to get up to $5 per UBER Ride:
Step 1: Sign-Up here for Shop Your Way
Step 2: Connect Shop Your Way with UBER
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.
All linked members can earn $4 Cashback in points per Uber ride anywhere in the US, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Shop Your Way points earned for rides in qualifying market Areas expire 30 days after issuance. Please note split fare rides do not count as a ride for purposes of this offer. Offer Valid 11/17/17-1/2/18.
by PointsGuru | Oct 19, 2017 | Retail, Tools & Gadgets
We’ve spoken before about Postmates and their beta rewards program. This one is much better for deliveries! Ibotta is a smart new way to earn cash when you shop. It’s way better than coupons but you need to use an app and normally take photos of your receipt inside the app. With this new 10% cash back offer with Postmates deliveries (and Delivery.com) there’s no need to get receipts because its all mobile. Read more on our review of Ibotta here.
If you launch the Ibotta app then launch Postmates before your order you automatically get 10% cashback on any delivery. This includes alcohol or even a trip to the drug store you need that someone else runs for you.
Here is how to get 10% Cash Back + $101 Free Credit on Postmates + $10 in Ibotta credits:
1. Sign-up here to get a $10 Bonus from Ibotta if you’re new to the cash back app.
2. Download the Postmates app or head over to Postmates.com to sign up. Use this promo code 478n and you should get $101 in credits to cover the delivery fee.
3. Search for Postmates inside the Ibotta app then after opening Postmates through the app you place your order. (more…)
by PointsGuru | Jul 18, 2017 | Retail
One of my favorite Amex Offers is back again! While last time you received a $25 statement credit on a $65+ purchase at Boxed.com, this go around it is the same $25 statement credit but on a $75+ purchase. And the best thing is that this offer is available via Twitter, so everyone is eligible and you can take advantage of this offer on every single American Express card you own! This offer expires September 30, 2017.
- Make sure you have synced your AMEX Card with a Twitter account.
- Register your Amex card to this promotion by Tweeting: Click Here to Tweet #AmexBoxed to get $25 statement credit on a purchase of $75 or more at Boxed.
- If you are new to Boxed.com, sign up here to save $15 on your first Boxed order of $60 or more. This is a stackable promo you can use so you save $40 in total if you are new to Boxed when spending over $75 for the total order. They sell everything from food to kitchen appliances and cases of energy drinks.
Boxed also runs coupon codes and offers a rewards program for AMEX card members meaning you get around 2% back on each order so your account will have money in it waiting for the next order. Some coupon codes I have used lately are SAVEUP10 (10% off), GETBULK (15% off), JULY17 (17% off). You can try these and see if they will work or do some googling for Boxed Promo Codes and check your emails from them they send out Graduation, Back to School. and holiday codes all the time.
Background on Boxed:
Boxed.com also offers 2-day shipping via FedEx and front-door delivery of fresh produce in select cities. I am a pleased Boxed customer, but, have recently found myself shopping at Jet primarily because of their larger product selection.
- 2-Day shipping on every order
- Free shipping on first order
- No membership fee
- “Boxed for Business” accounts save an additional 10% on each order
- 2 free samples with each order!
- No Sales Tax!
Both Jet and Boxed fall into the online shopping club category. This means their direct competitors are Costco and Amazon. One large exception is that neither charges a membership fee like Costco or Amazon’s Prime program that cost $55 and $99, respectively. This is a big win-win when it comes to maximizing savings due to the lack of recurring expenses for Jet & Boxed, if you do not need additional services like digital streaming or buying discounted gasoline.
