Before you swipe your card again, read this post! Better yet, before you spend any money, read this blog post. Sooner or later we all have to spend money somewhere. Whether it is to buy groceries, pay our phone bill's, light bill, furniture, gas for our car, maintenance of our car, eating out, new mobile phones and laptops etc... Almost every day we are spending money either in-store, through an app on our smartphone, or on a computer via a web browser like Chrome, Safari, FireFox, or Internet Explorer. Well why not get rewarded and get paid to spend money! If you're really pressed for time, here's my Top 7 of the Best Cash Back Apps. Use my referral links to receive a bonus for signing up. Otherwise keep reading for more details.
The Best Cash Back Apps
Rankings updated 12/24
7) Drop App: Code bjse9 Get $5 Sign Up Bonus
6) GetUpside App: Code FAB72 Get 15 Cents per Gallon Sign Up Bonus 5) Dosh App: Code AJM62 Get $1 Sign Up Bonus 4) Ebates App: Code AJMOB14 Get $10 Sign Up Bonus 3) Pei App: Code 4ozbzr Get $2.50 Sign Up Bonus 2) Bumped App (Waitlist) 1) Bits of Stock App (Waitlist)
As much of the United States gets prepared for Thanksgiving and two of the biggest shopping days of the year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, take advantage of these apps which provide cash back or stock back as a reward! Yes, you read that right, Stock Back! That's cash back which is automatically used to purchase Fractional Shares of stock. More on this later.
The great thing about these Cash Back Apps is that they work in ADDITION to any of your Credit Card Rewards. This includes your Cash Back Card, and Points Rewards for flights etc. So you're not sacrificing anything to take advantage of these apps! Go ahead and combine these with your cash back credit card today! #7 Drop App
With the Drop app you have two ways to gain Cash Back. You can connect your credit card to automatically receive Cash Back when you shop in-store or online using their Power Offers, which are pre-selected stores where you ALWAYS receive Cash Back. I was able to select Chipotle and Starbucks as my preferred options. As a new user you can only have 2 Power Offers for automatic Cash Back. The 2nd option is to shop within their app making ad hoc purchases with the available stores in the app. If you prefer using a laptop or desktop to shop, for a larger screen, you can email links to yourself to ensure you get the referral when shopping from your computer!
For each purchase you receive a certain number of points per $1 spent. Points rewards vary with each store, and can also increase for boosted stores. Points add up to $1 for every 1000 points, and can be redeemed for gift cards to your favorite places to shop like Amazon, Target, Walmart, iTunes, Best Buy, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks and many many more! Gift card options vary at each points level. The lowest level to redeem is $5 up to $100, with more store options for redemption as you reach higher point levels. Some offers have a minimum spend. Be sure to spend at least that amount to be rewarded. You can't use additional discount or promo codes in combination with the Drop deal. So if another promo provides a better net value via discount or points, use that option. Boosted offers are limited time increases to the points rewards rate, and must be used within the stated time-frame. The largest boost I've seen so far is for the Microsoft Surface. Its normal rewards are 15 points for $1, and was boosted to 60 points for $1. That's 4X the normal rate, and with the lowest cost Surface running at $400, that's an increase from $6 to $24 in Cash Back for a $400 purchase. Drop for Chrome, an extension you can use in the Chrome Web Browser, is currently only available by Invite only. Get 5000 points ($5) just for singing up and linking a credit card! Get Drop today! #6 GetUpside App
Get Upside with the GetUpside App! GetUpside provides you with Cashback for all of your gas purchases. If you use a car, which most Americans do, then this app is for you! Every time you get ready to fill up your gas tank, pop open the GetUpside App to check for the Cash Back offers near your location. You can view the nearest participating gas stations, the price of gas at these stations, and how much Cashback GetUpside will pay you PER GALLON for using a particular gas station. After you first signup you will receive a bonus of 15 cents Cashback per gallon. With gas tanks ranging from 13 to almost 40 gallons to fill, that's between $2-$6 dollars back on your first use! Just claim the offer via the app when you're headed to the gas station, and fill up your tank using your credit card during the claim period. After filling up, take a photo of the receipt and upload it in the app, and within a few hours or days receive Cashback for your gas purchase! Yes, it's that simple!
After your initial purchase the Cashback offer will vary. I've seen as little as 1 cent up to 20 cents as the Cashback offer, depending on your area. Larger cities seem to have the better Cashback deals since there's more gas station competition. But if you invite a friend to use the GetUpside app, you receive a 15 cent bonus every time a friend signs up! In addition to the initial bonus, you also receive 1 cent per gallon for every future gas purchase your friend makes! This can add up over time, so the more friends you invite, the better! #6 Dosh App
The Dosh App provides Cash Back when using your credit or debit card via the Dosh App as well as via online purchases! When using a Debit Card you must make a credit card transaction, meaning not to use your pin number. Otherwise transactions won't be recognized. Unlike Ebates, every purchase doesn't need to start within the app to receive credit! Any "Online Offer" or local deal listed in the app will receive credit from Dosh once they receive confirmation of the transaction from the credit card company. This can take 30 to 45 days sometimes. The reason it COULD take this long is to ensure items are not returned, as this is a typical return period for most stores. Dosh also has a dedicated section to book hotels directly from the app. This is not a feature I've used yet, but could be lucrative as well.
Get $1 after signing up with Dosh and connecting at least 1 card to the app. Withdrawals have a $25 minimum threshold, and can be made via PayPal, Venmo, or transferred to your bank account. Payments take 3 to 5 business days. You can also donate your Cash Back to Charity! #4 Ebates App (Rakuten App)
The Ebates App, now owned by Rakuten, provides Cashback when shopping through their app or using the Chrome extension on your laptop or desktop computer. You can also search for local in-store and restaurant options via the app, however these must be activated before making a purchase. You can save a list of favorite stores for quick access once you open the app.
Check for weekly deals like the Double Cashback rewards this week for Black Friday. Some deals are more than double! Jane.com increased from 1% Cashback to 11%, and Bloomingdale's from 2% to 11%. Also check for shorter term Hot Deals for big discounts at your favorite stores. Ebates seems to have the largest number of store options of all the apps, and there's no need to try and convert points to money. Everything is Straight Cash Homie (Randy Moss voice)! Get $10 from Ebates after making your first $25 purchase! Cashback payments are made Quarterly via check or PayPal! Minimum threshold for payment is $5. #3 Pei App
The Pei App is the newest of the apps in this list. Since this is a newer app compared to the rest, there aren't as many store options to choose from. I expect as more users join they will increase the number of retail stores and restaurants available.
*Update 12/24/19 After using Pei for over a month now, it seems they've added lots of new stores! I'm often surprised when I see a cash back notification pop up that I wasnt expecting. This may vary depending on your area, but for automatic cash back retailers, Pei is taking over! If you use Uber (3%) or Lyft (1%) often, then the Cash back they provide could be a nice incentive. Other than that, their list of preferred merchants is slim for their "Online Deals". Only local options for restaurants are of any real benefit to me personally, which I can stack with the 3% I receive on my Credit Card already. Their Cash Back Boost is a nice feature as well. Use the Cash Back Boost to increase your Cash Back rewards by 1% anywhere you shop, and the retailer is NOT required to be a Pei Partner. This is a nice general increase to the normal Cash Back from your credit card provider, although it has limited use. In order to activate the boost you must first unlock it by hitting 20 points. Point System: +1 Link a new card +2 Invite a Friend +1 Gift Card Cashout: Choose the gift card option to cash out at least once, instead of PayPal or Bitcoin. +1 5X Loyalty: Get the 5X Loyalty Bonus for shopping at a merchant 5 times. +2 Preferred Merchants: Shop at a Pei Preferred merchant. With the Cash Boost you will receive 1% bonus over a 48 hour period, no matter where you shop, but you can only gain a max of 500 points during that time. Black Friday or Cyber Monday would be a great time for you to activate your Cash Back Boost! Or both if it's possible to use it in back to back 48 hour periods! Get $2.50 sign up bonus after the first time you make a purchase with a Pei merchant. There's a limit of 50 referral bonuses you can receive for inviting friends and family. Payments are made via PayPal, Bitcoin, or Gift Cards, with a $15 minimum to cash out. #2 Bumped App
I began using Bumped at the end of August this year. When you shop at certain stores, The Bumped App gives you Cash Back in the form of Stock! Just like the other apps mentioned above, you can link your Credit Cards, and when you spend money at a pre-selected group of stores, you will earn Cash Back which is used to buy Fractional Shares of Stock. Depending on the store, the cash back could be of that company's stock, or in the form of Vanguard Total Stock Market Index ETF (VTI). For all the Financial Independence Retire Early (F.I.R.E.) folks out there, this is the preferred method! VTI is the ETF equivalent of VTSAX, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Mutual Fund version of the Index.
The Bumped App separates the store options in different categories, where you are able to select from a list of companies, but you can only choose 1 company per category. Depending on the user, you may have different stores than other users who sign up. Here's my list of available Categories, associated Stores, and the ticker symbol where I receive stock back. With some companies you can choose either company stock or VTI. The Bolded options are my current selections.
With your selected stores, you can only make 1 change per 30 days, and 3 changes per year. Choose wisely! I really wish there were more, or different options in some categories. For instance with the Club Warehouse category, Sam's Club is the ONLY option for me. I've seen online where others have Costco as an option, and that is the store I shop at the most. If Costco was an option for me, most of my stock in this app would come from Costco. I rarely shop at any of the other places, so the cash back going towards these stocks are not growing at a fast rate, despite having the Bumped App since the end of August. Maybe they will update this in the future! You would think we would be given at least one alternative, even if it was BJ's. Take a look at my earnings in the Bumped App since August, versus my earnings in the next App which I've only used since November 15th! #1 Bits of Stock App
The Bits of Stock App is THE BEST CASH BACK / STOCK BACK REWARDS APP. Yes, I had to scream this from the mountain tops. Why is it better than Bumped? With Bumped you get to choose from categories, but with Bits of Stock, you can choose 15 Brands from ANY category. For instance if you're someone that uses the Bumped App and spends a lot of money on Entertainment, but not any of the other categories, with Bits of Stock you could select all of the options under Entertainment to maximize your stock back rewards. Or if you eat out a lot, you could choose all of the food related rewards. Whatever your special case is, you would have the option if it was not just one per category.
But with the Bits App, you can select from a long list of stocks, and choose the 15 you believe you will get the most stock back or investment value from. This can be based on volume of use, or amount of purchase. Take a look at my list of selected companies: Costco (COST), TJ Maxx/Marshalls/HomeGoods (TJX), Lowe's (LOW), Walmart/Sam's Club (WMT), Amazon (AMZN), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Shell (RDS.A), Walgreens (WBA), Verizon Wireless (VZ), Target (TGT), Starbucks (SBUX), and Wendy's (WEN) For Additional Available Companies see Gallery Below.
With almost 100 Brands to choose from, I can safely say that 99% of us spend money with at least 15 of the companies above, right? Why not earn cash back that turns into ownership of those brands? Join the Bits of Stock Waitlist!
Stock Back Rewards?
Stock Back Rewards! Yes, both of the stock back rewards apps come in at the Top 2. Why, you might ask? Because equity, ownership, into a company is better than cash in most cases. Of course when you're receiving cash back as a stock reward, there is a chance that you could lose value with the ups and downs of the market. However, cash is always going down due to inflation which lowers the value of cash, and increases the costs of living. Inflation increases at a rate of 1-2% per year. So the 1-2% that you're getting as Cash Back from a high yield savings account or credit card is essentially cancelling out inflation. This is why it is important to not only stack rewards by using multiple of the apps mentioned above, but to also invest your cash. If you're a person who says you can't afford to invest, well now you can! In addition to automatically receiving Stock Back via the Bumped and Bits App, you can use your Cash Back Rewards from the other apps to go towards investing in the stock market. With the ability to invest in partial shares of an individual business, and Index Funds or ETF's, you can now transfer all of your Cash Back to an app that allows the purchase of fractional shares. All it will cost you is the time to sign up for these cash back accounts, link your credit cards, link the bank account you want to transfer to, then transfer that money to your investment apps to invest the funds. You can also notice a trend in the Top 7 apps above. Apps that have some fore of automation to recognize all transactions or for preferred merchants, require the least effort on our part, and are closer to the top than those which require more manual work.
Speaking of automation, I like the M1 Finance Investment App because you can automate deposits as well as purchases. Although you won't be able to automate your cash back transfers on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, once you do make the transfer to M1 Finance, those deposits will automatically purchase your selected stocks. For more info on how this works, checkout my M1 Finance Tutorial. Fractional Share Investing
Here's the full list of platforms that provide Fractional Share Investing, and don't charge a fee to trade stocks:
Tutorials and Reviews of the above apps are available on the AJ Mobile Money YouTube Channel! With this list of fractional share investing apps, you can decide which platform is best for you to transfer the cash back you receive from Apps ranked 3-7 and put that "free money" to use in the stock market. I've literally just given you free money to invest. Use it wisely! WARNINGS
PayPal Warning! For all of these store options, it is possible that your rewards may not be recognized if using PayPal for payment. The reason this is the case is because transactions made via PayPal with your credit card show up as "PayPal" instead of the store name you shopped at. For example, I realized this when I first started using the Bumped app on my drive from Florida to DC. I had my Starbucks account linked to reload from PayPal, so almost all my purchases didn't count for Stock Back Rewards. Sad week for my Stock Back Rewards, but once I realized it I resolved the issue!
Capital One Warning! Is it just me, or does Capital One currently not work with Pei, Drop, or Bumped Apps? I was previously able to use Capital One in the Bumped App, but it was removed as an option. Let us know in the comments if you have the same issue, issues with other apps listed, or issues with other banks/cards. Discover Warning Warning! Doesn't work with Dosh.
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