The Best Guide to Ibotta on the Internet!

Have you heard of Ibotta? If you have, and you are like me, you probably think it’s some stupid app that claims to save you money but is really a giant waste of time. My sister made me try it anyway, though, and I have to say, I’m impressed! It really does save you money! What strange sorcery is this? I dug in to find out more and came up with this ultimate Guide to Ibotta to help you save money!

The Best Guide to Ibotta on the Internet

What is Ibotta

Ibotta is an app that gives you cashback on your purchases. I mainly use it at the grocery store, but the app can also be used at malls, big box stores, Amazon, travel websites, and even a few restaurants! Pretty much anyone can find a use for this app.

How Do I Make Money with Ibotta?

No guide to Ibotta would be complete without a comprehensive section on how it benefits you! It’s super easy to make money with Ibotta. The first time I used it while grocery shopping, I got six bucks back in rewards! I only spent $100 bucks total, so this app basically saved me 6%. Who doesn’t want to save 6% on groceries?

Earning cashback is easy. First, you make your grocery list. Next, you log into Ibotta and check out their deals at your store of choice (and don’t forget to check the “any offers” section!). Six of the items on my list matched offers on Ibotta! Half of those were the same brand that I use (or would apply to any brand), and the other half were similar brands that I could easily switch to. The offers ranged from as little as twenty-five cents back to as much as a few bucks back! That all adds up.

Many travel sites and big box stores offer a cashback percentage on all purchases (with restrictions, as always). Barnes & Noble offers 2% cashback, Express offers 3%, Hotels.com offers 4%, and Orbitz offers up to 6%! So many different companies partner with Ibotta that it’s basically impossible to list them all here. Check out Ibotta and see if your favorite stores participate!

You can also earn money by shopping online! Check out the 5 Best things to buy online here!

You can also earn cashback through bonuses and referrals. I earned two bucks via the “in-store purchase” bonus, and I’m more than halfway through to my ten-dollar sign-on bonus. My sister (who referred me) earned her five-dollar referral bonus when I uploaded my first receipt! So, if you sign up using my referral link, you can get ten bucks, and I can get five! Refer your friends to collect even more bonuses! How cool is that?

 Many brands also offer additional cash bonuses if you redeem their offers multiple times. Usually, this is only an extra fifty cents, but that adds up if you buy the same stuff repeatedly.

Is Using Ibotta Time-Consuming?

This was one of my top fears in using the app. I’m not doing anything tedious to make a few bucks. That’s not worth my time. But fortunately, using Ibotta is easy and only takes a few extra minutes. Scanning Ibotta for offers took about ten minutes and scanning the receipt took less than a minute when I got home. Six bucks for 11 minutes? That’s too easy! It took me a bit longer than it normally would because it was my first time using the app. I’m sure I’ll be able to cut it down to five minutes for future shopping trips.

When Do I Get Paid?

One of the drawbacks to using Ibotta is that you don’t get paid immediately. You have to earn twenty dollars before being able to redeem anything. But I earned six bucks with one shopping trip, so I’m sure I’ll get to that twenty-dollar threshold soon.

Team Feature

One interesting feature (that could be fun or terrible, depending on your point of view) is the teamwork feature. When you join Ibotta using someone’s referral code (Like Mine!), you automatically become a member of that person’s team (And when you refer someone, they automatically become a member of yours). The team can work together to earn even more bonuses! There are negatives to this team thing, though, the major one being that you can see each other’s earnings (some people may not want that information out in public!). I haven’t found a way to opt-out of this feature either, so if you are super private about your earnings, Ibotta may not be for you.

Ok, What’s the Catch?

Everything has a catch, and Ibotta is no different. The catch is that if you aren’t paying attention to what you are buying, you may spend more money than you normally would have. For example, Ibotta had a fifty-cent cashback offer on Ball Park hot dog buns. Sounds good, right? But Ball Park buns are generally two bucks and some change, and the generic brand is only 87 cents. If I had used that deal, I’d have spent a dollar more on hot dog buns than I usually do! It’s easy to avoid that trap, though. You just have to pay attention to prices.

The other catch is that you sometimes have to switch brands to get a deal. I usually buy Coffee-Mate creamer, but there was a $1 cashback offer on Dunkin Donuts creamer. The Dunkin creamer was a dollar more (paying attention to the price!), but it was the larger quantity. Using the deal got me the bigger creamer bottle for the same price as the small one! I don’t mind switching brands on a few items to get a better deal, but as I said above, make sure you pay attention to the price! Don’t use an offer if you’ll spend more in the long run.

One final catch is that you have to earn ten dollars’ worth of cashback rewards within 14 days of signing up to earn your ten-dollar sign-on bonus. One trip to the grocery store got me more than halfway there, so I’m sure I’ll get there after next week’s trip.

How Does Ibotta Make Money?

The best guide to Ibotta would be incomplete without talking about how Ibotta makes money. Do you have to buy anything? Are there in-app purchases? The answer to both of those is no. Ibotta does make money off of you, but not directly. They make money by having users watch videos, complete surveys, or answer simple questions on some of their offers.

They also make money through affiliate sales by making a small commission on some of the offers that you redeem. I’m guessing that they also sell your data, but I haven’t found any information to verify that. But hey, we give our data away for free to Facebook, so why not get some rewards?

What Are You Waiting for?

If this ultimate guide to Ibotta didn’t make you want to join right now, I don’t know what will. It’s easy to use, and it actually does give you cashback! Sign up today!

Do you have any questions about Ibotta before signing up? Let me know! And if you enjoyed this guide to Ibotta, be sure to share it!