I’m pretty sure you already have heard the name Ibotta somewhere, either from your friends or from searching for a new way to save on your grocery shopping. You are just not sure how it actually works and whether it is worth your time.

Here is where MoCashForYou comes in and does all the research for you. You’ll have all the answers in a minute.

Quick Summary:

 

Description	Grocery shopping coupons app with additional earning options
Rating	😀 😀 😀 😀 😀  9.5 out of 10. Give it a try!
Sign up bonus	$10 once you redeem the first Brand Name offer
Minimum Cash out	$20
Payout Options	Linked PayPal or Venmo accounts or Gift cards
Pros	♥ Good variety of digital coupons for popular brands   ♥ About 300 participating stores   ♥ “Any item” and “Any brand” rebates   ♥ You can pick offers after the actual shopping trip
Cons	♠ You need to scan receipts for most stores   ♠ Offers are not valid at small local grocery stores   ♠ The app uses about 170MB of space on the iPhone

Is Ibotta a legit app?

Does Ibotta make money for you? Well, I would call it mostly saving money rather than making money, as you need to pay for all the products before you can get any rebate. However, there are some exceptions to this rule, as teamwork bonuses and friend referral rewards (I’ll explain them later).

It’s absolutely legitimate. I currently have about $65 in my account, which is really nice, especially taking into account that I rarely buy branded products, so most of the earnings come from the generic, “Any brand”, rebates. My husband also has about $40 in his account (see the Tips section at the bottom to learn why we have two accounts in our household).

 

How does Ibotta work?

The process is very simple. Just follow the steps below.

Sign Up

First, you need to sign up on Ibotta site, using your email address or Facebook account and complete the quick registration process. It’s free! You wouldn’t be required to provide your credit card.

Download the app

Get the app for iPhone or Android and open it to begin. Login with the account you have created.

Link your Loyalty cards if available

There are about 300 stores participating in the Ibotta app.

Some membership/loyalty cards can be linked to Ibotta directly so you wouldn’t need to scan the receipts. The activated coupons will be credited automatically to your account. You don’t need to remember to scan the receipts. It’s a very convenient option available for some stores. Here is the sample: Food City, Fresh Market, Giant Eagle, KMart, Raley’s, Remke Markets and more.

Unfortunately, at this point, this option is not available at Costco, Sam’s club, BJ’s, Shoprite, Target, Walmart, Whole Foods and others. You still can manually upload the receipts from any participating stores.

Select and add your favorite stores, it will make the receipt scanning process faster.

Find and activate the offers

There are a lot of great brands on Ibotta. They are grouped into several categories in the top menu, like Dairy & Eggs, Frozen, Pantry, Breakfast, Snacks, Produce, Beverages, Household, Beer & Cider, Spirits, Wine, Kids & Babies, Beuty& Personal Care and more.

In addition to specific brand and product coupons, there are also generic offers for “Any item” or “Any brand”, usually with $0.25 reward. You can be sure to save some money with Ibotta, whatever your shopping preferences are.

Each offer has an expiration date. Don’t forget to use the ones you like before they expire.

To activate, click on the ‘+’ sign on the offer. Some offers will require you to watch a short (about 10-20 sec) video.

Scan the receipts and redeem the offers

If you have a linked card, you’ll receive the credit for activated and used offers within 48 hours. For other stores, you have 7 days to scan a receipt. Sometimes you’ll be required to scan the barcode on the product as well. Don’t procrastinate or the offer may expire or the product will be consumed and not available for scanning.

Get your payout

Once you accumulate at least $20 in your account, you can cash out with PayPal, Venmo one of the gift cards, like Amazon, Target, Starbucks etc.

Here is my proof of payment received via PayPal

Teamwork and bonuses

In addition to the regular product coupons, you also can get bonuses from specific brands, monthly bonuses for teamwork and others. Here is a small sample:

 

You can add to your team all your Facebook friends who use Ibotta.  Your referrals will be part of the team as well. The more offers the team members redeem during a month, the higher bonus you will be able to unlock.

How much money can you make with Ibotta?

 

Everybody’s shopping habits are different. Some people buy a lot of branded items, others mostly stay with fresh produce and private label products. The bigger family you have, the more you by from large stores and well-known brands, the higher your earnings will be.

Ibotta is not meant to be a job or not even a side hustle. It’s a saving app. Therefore, it would be reasonable to expect to save anywhere between $5 to $20 a month.

This being said, I have one member on my team with lifetime earnings of about $144,000 with Ibotta. I don’t know him personally, but I assume he made this much with a lot of alcohol purchases and referring many friends.

 

How to maximize your Ibotta rewards?

1. Once you sign up, be sure to redeem your first offer in a week and secure your $10 welcome bonus. For example, buy a TicTac (it costs about $1.5), get $0.25 cash back and the bonus will be added to your account.

2. Get Ibotta for additional members of your household who have their own mobile device. If you have multiple receipts from different stores in the same week, you will be able to redeem more “Any Item” or “Any Brand” offers giving one receipt to each user. Another option is when you buy the coupon eligible products multiple times and want to redeem the coupon more than once. Just don’t scan the same receipt for multiple users. It can get you banned.

3. Check and scan your receipts regularly, at least once a week. Make it a part of your shopping routine. I scan my receipts just after I’m back home and done with emptying my bags into the pantry and refrigerator.

4. Invite your friends to join. The friend referral bonus is normally $5, but sometimes there are even better rewards. For example, in July 2018 you could get $25 for the fifth friend referred.

More tips from MoCashForYou

 

1. You don’t want to buy anything you don’t really need. Make your meal plan and write down the shopping list before you look at the app. Personally, I always open the app only “post factum”, while standing in the line for the cashier or even at home after the shopping.

2. Add your Facebook friends to your team. Any friend who uses Ibotta will be added automatically. This will make earning team bonuses much easier.

3. Check out the Bonuses section. Sometimes there are surprisingly good offers there.

4. Check out the Mobile Shopping section for cash back options. I would expect the rates to be lower than at my favorite Cashback site (check it out in this TopCashback Review), but who knows, maybe there is a surprise.

MoCashForYou Verdict:

I recommend Ibotta to anyone who wants to save on grocery shopping and has enough patience and some time to follow the process. If you have a family and buy most of the groceries in one of the participating stores, I’m sure you’ll be able to accumulate a nice amount after several months of using Ibotta. For bachelors who mostly eat out or visit local farmer markets, the earning options probably will be limited to wine and spirits. Which is also not bad after all…

Additional grocery shopping app is Fetch Rewards, where you don’t have to check offers, but receive credit for buying products from many famous brands. Read my full Fetch Rewards review for more details.

I also like Saving Star, where you can link your loyalty card and don’t need to scan the receipts.

However, if you are already into scanning your receipts, you’ll LOVE the new CoinOut app that pays you for ANY receipt, not only from grocery stores. And ANY really means ANY. Give it a try, you’ll thank me later.

Please feel free to share this review on social media.

What is your favorite grocery saving app?  I’d be so thrilled to hear your saving tips. Please share in the comments below

 

Truly Yours,

Mary