Ibotta Review: Is It worth It? (Is Earning $1700 a Year worth It?)

Below, in our Ibotta review, we cover everything you need to know about this money-saving app, including what it is, how it works, and how you can get the most out of it.

What is Ibotta?

Ibotta is an app and website that allows you to earn cashback when you make purchases at certain stores.

It’s partnered with more than 300 stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and pharmacies, including popular retailers.

This includes:

• Walmart
• Kroger
• Food Lion
• Publix
• Walgreens
• CVS Pharmacy

You can get cashback on everything, like:

• Groceries
• Health and beauty products
• Restaurants and bars
• Travel
• Clothing
• Home and electronics
• and more!

You can even use it at some online stores too.

How it works

So, how does Ibotta work?

You’ll be glad to know that using Ibotta to earn money is pretty easy.

But, first, you need to download the app:

• Ibotta app for Android
• Ibotta app for iOS

Once you have the app, you will be able to view offers. There’s a wide range of offers available at a plethora of different stores and brands, from Kroger to Booking.com on a multitude of products, like cleaning products, food, and beverages.

You can even earn cashback on Amazon purchases.

There are essentially three ways to get a rebate:

1. Send a receipt.
2. Link a loyalty card.
3. Make mobile in-app purchases.

Here’s an overview of how each one works

1. Submit a receipt

With this method, you get a rebate when you upload your receipt to the app.

Here’s how it works:

• Before you go shopping, you need to find offers that you’re interested in. This is really simple to do, as they are all displayed clearly in the app (but more about that later).
• With Ibotta, you have to complete tasks in order to redeem some of the offers.
• But, these tasks are always super simple and quick to do. For example, you might have to watch a video, or answer a simple question, like “have you ever purchased this product before?”
• Once you’ve added the offers you’re interested in, you go shopping at any participating store.
• When you’re there, make sure that you don’t throw out your receipt – that’s what’s going to make you money!
• Once you have your receipt, you need to take a photo of it and upload it to Ibotta.
• Within 48 hours, the app will deposit the cashback into your Ibotta account – it’s really quick to give you the cashback, which is great.

2. Link a loyalty card

Another way you can earn money with Ibotta is to link a loyalty card. This is an easy way to take advantage of the app’s offers.

Here’s an overview of how it works:

1. Choose one of the app’s Preferred Partners, then connect your loyalty card or phone number.
2. Before you go shopping look for offers. Again, like you do with the method above, you’ll need to complete simple tasks to add offers.
3. Go shopping and use your loyalty card or phone number and you’ll automatically redeem the offer.
4. The money will be deposited into your Ibotta account within 48 hours.

3. Make a mobile in-app purchase

Another way that you can earn cashback from Ibotta is by making mobile, in-app purchases.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Take a look through the available cashback offers from Ibotta’s mobile app partners.
2. From within the app, tap on the “Shop” button.
3. Then go shopping as you normally would from your phone, and make a qualifying purchase in a participating app.
4. When you’ve made the purchase, you get a confirmation shortly after that the offer is pending.

So, as you can see, there are a few different ways you can get rebates!

Browsing offers

What’s great about Ibotta is the range of stores, restaurants, movie theaters and retailers it works with – this allows it to provide a good variety of different offers to its users, on everything from cereal to clothing.

Whether you decide to link a loyalty card, submit a receipt or make a mobile purchase, you need to browse offers and add them before you go shopping, but you don’t redeem them until after you’ve checked out – it’s kind of like couponing in reverse!

Ibotta features a lot of different stores, like Walmart, Ulta, and Publix.

Have a look at the stores that you shop at the most often.

So for example, if you shop at Walmart a lot, then select that store and then browse through offers.

There are a few different sections for offers, like “For You”, “Hot” and “New”.

In the “Hot” section, you’ll find offers that are most popular with users. This is a good way to get a feel for what types of deals are available.

However, we recommend looking at offers by category.

In each store, you can search items by categories, like “Dairy & Eggs”, “Frozen” and “Breakfast”.

You can find some good deals by looking in the “Hot” and “New” tabs.

But, you’re more likely to find deals for the stuff that you actually buy if you browse through by category.

One of the best aspects of Ibotta is that it doesn’t just offer deals for specific brands, like Bounty, McCormick or Dove. Sure you can get those brand specific deals, but you can also get deals on specific items, regardless of brand, like “$0.30 off oranges, any brand.”

Once you find an offer you’re interested in, just click the plus symbol to add it to your account. You might have to watch a short video or answer a quick question to do this.

How Ibotta pays you

So, once you’ve added and redeemed the offer, and the money is in your Ibotta account, you can withdraw it.

But, you must have at least $20 in your account if you want to cash out.

You can choose to withdraw your earnings via PayPal, which is a big plus!

Or, you can have your cash transferred to Venmo.

What’s great about Ibotta is that it gives you quite a few options when it comes to cashing out.

Sure, you can withdraw your earnings as cold hard cash, which is great, but you can also choose to have them transferred to a gift card if you prefer.

Tips & tricks for earning more

Okay, so now you know what Ibotta is and how it works. Now, we’re going to cover how you can earn money with it.

Below, we’ve included tips on how to get the most out of it.

1. Invite your friends

Like many apps, Ibotta has a refer a friend program that enables you to earn money when you invite others to use it.

Just give your friend your referral code, and when they join Ibotta with it, they get $10 and you get $5.

2. Take advantage of bonuses

If you want to get the most out of Ibotta, then you definitely want to look out for bonuses.

These are an easy way to boost your earnings.

You can view available bonuses by going to the account section of the app, and then tapping on “Bonuses”.

There, you’ll see bonuses from a variety of brands and stores.

You normally need to redeem a certain number of rebates or buy a certain number of products to redeem these bonuses.

For example, Gogo Squeez previously had a bonus offer available where you could earn an extra $1 when you redeemed the Gogo Squeez rebate on three or more separate shopping trips.

3. Join a team

Interestingly, Ibotta gives its users the chance to join teams.

If you’re part of a team, you can earn teamwork bonuses.

Your team has to redeem a certain number of rebates and they’ll earn bonus cash.

For example, your team might have to redeem eights unique rebates or redeem $10 worth of rebates to earn an extra $1.

If you’re going to start or join a team, make sure that everyone who joins uses the app often, otherwise, you won’t unlock rebates – everyone has to participate.

4. Always read the fine print

This is really important.

Sure there are some generic offers available through Ibotta, but many of them refer to a specific size or variety of product.

So, take the time to read the fine print on any offer you plan to redeem.

Otherwise, you could end up purchasing a 12 count pack of Bounty Paper towels, only to get home and realize that the rebate offer was for a six-count pack – then you don’t get your rebate.

On many offers, you’ll see “Any variety – Any size”, which is great, but that isn’t always the case. So take the time to read the details of the offers you plan to redeem.

5. Stack rebates with coupons

One thing that everyone who uses Ibotta should do is use coupons in conjunction with the app’s rebate offers.

You can earn yourself so much more money when you do this. For example, let’s say there’s an offer from Ibotta for $1 cashback on a $5 jar of coffee.

And, you have a store coupon for $0.50 off and a manufacturer coupon for $1 off. You use both of these coupons in-store and save $1.50.

Then, when you get home, you upload your receipt to Ibotta and get your $1 cashback.

You get a $5 jar of coffee for just $2.50!

More about Ibotta

Now you know how Ibotta works and how to make money with it, here’s what else you need to know about it.

Is Ibotta Trustworthy?

You might be wondering whether Ibotta is a legitimate platform or are there any dangers of Ibotta.

Overall, Ibotta is a trustworthy, legitimate platform.

It’s is one of the most popular rebate apps out there.

It’s well-reviewed on the Google Play and iTunes store.

And, it’s been featured by numerous popular media outlets, like:

• Today
• Forbes
• Good Morning America
• TechCrunch
• com
• Mashable

Consumer reports of Ibotta on TrustPilot are also good.

How does Ibotta make money?

You might be wondering, why would an app essentially pay me to shop?

Well, the answer is simple really…

Ibotta also makes money when you purchase stuff.

Essentially, the company partners with brands and retailers. Then, when a customer buys a brand’s product or uses its services and uploads the receipt to the app, the app gets a commission and it shares part of that commission with you.

Ibotta vs. Ebates: How does it compare to other similar platforms?

A lot of people ask which one is better, Ibotta or Ebates?

Well, the answer is that while both offer cashback, the way they work is pretty different, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Ebates focuses more on cashback for online shopping (although it does have a limited selection of in-store offers).

Essentially, it’s a shopping portal that partners with a plethora of different brands and stores. When you shop at a store through Ebates, you earn cashback.

Its offers are pretty great too – you can get up to 40% cashback!

On the other hand, Ibotta focuses more on deals for in-store shopping, although it does now offer mobile purchases.

It’s a rebate app that pays you cash when you upload your receipts.

Ebates offers a larger selection of stores – with more than 2,000 featured.

On the other hand, Ibotta only offers 300 stores.

But, Ibotta has more offers for in-store shopping, and that’s something that definitely sets it ahead if you do more of your shopping offline.

We recommend using a good mix of cashback apps and websites because you’ll find a wider range of deals.

So use Ebates and Ibotta, as applicable.

Awesome benefits of using Ibotta

Overall, we’d definitely say that Ibotta is an app that’s worth using.

It’s a really great way to earn some extra money and it’s entirely passive.

It gives you money to do something that you already do anyway – shop!

Here’s a quick overview of the benefits:

1. You can earn a surprising amount

Most people don’t realize that using Ibotta, they can earn a surprising amount of money.

It doesn’t just offer a few cents back to its users. Many of its offers are for a dollar or more.

This means that you can earn yourself a nice sum each time you go shopping.

Let’s say you go shopping at Walmart.

You buy about 20 items, and for each one, you get $1 cashback. For that trip, you’d earn $20!

That’s pretty amazing!

And, rebate offers of $1 are very common.

But, best of all, there are often deals for $2 or more back too.

So if for each of those 20 items, you got $2 back per product, you’d earn $40 from your shopping trip!

And if you want to see how much other people are making, all you have to do is search for something like “ibotta earnings” or similar phrases on Google.

And if you are a fan of Reddit, not only there is sub-Reddit dedicated to all things Ibotta where users share their tips and tricks for earning more.

Reddit is also littered with posts where users share how much they earn with the app.

For example, a user named “daperkstar” has earned $1700 in cashback in just 12 months through the app. That’s a lot of money just for doing something you were going to do anyway.

Here is the link to the Ibotta subreddit.

2. The offers available are varied and not too restrictive

One of the best aspects of the app is how varied its offers are.

You can find rebate offers on such a wide range of things, like groceries, clothing, travel and health products.

Handily enough, you can find more generic offers, like “get $0.25 back when you buy apples from any brand”.

This is great because the problem with a lot of rebate apps and coupon websites is that they only feature offers from certain brands.

And, if you don’t buy from that particular brand, then these aren’t going to be useful to you.

On the other hand, with a more generic offer, like get “$1.25 back on coffee from any brand”, you can purchase a product from a brand you like, and still get the saving.

Plus, when it does feature rebate offers for specific brand items, these are often flexible.

Here’s a quick example to illustrate – “$1 cashback on Malt O Cereals”. With this offer, you can purchase any variety of Malt O Cereal, so again this gives you a lot of flexibility.

It means you aren’t locked into buying a particular flavor – you can get the exact item you want, and you get the rebate.

3. You can redeem offers more than once

Many rebate offers can be redeemed more than once per receipt.

Some can be redeemed just once, but others can be redeemed two to three times per receipt.

So, if there’s an offer on for a product you like and it says you can redeem it three times, for example, then don’t be afraid to buy three units – you’ll get the cashback for each item.

4. There’s a wide selection of popular stores available

What’s great about Ibotta is that it features rebate offers for some of the country’s most popular retailers, like Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target, and Costco.

So, regardless of where you shop, you’ll most likely be able to find deals for the stores you visit the most on there.

Closing thoughts

As you can see from this Ibotta review, this app is a really useful tool for anyone on a budget.

Using it, you could earn yourself an extra $50 to $100 each month!

If you’re already spending money at the store, then why not use Ibotta and get some of that cash back?

It’s free, it’s easy and it’s profitable!