My honest Ibotta review and how I’ve earned over $500 back on my everyday grocery and household expenses! Here’s how you can too!
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I joined Ibotta in June 2021 when I first started learning how to save money. Since then I’ve joined the “500 Club” and gotten over $500 in cash back! That puts me in the top 8.7% of club earners! I love how the app is user-friendly with great customer service and lots of offers. Ready to sign up? Use my code: CKQELSP to get a $5-$10 sign-up bonus!
Ibotta Review: Pros
User-Friendly: The Ibotta app is easy to learn for beginners. It’s laid out in a way that makes sense and has clear instructions for submitting offers. It also has a robust user guide if you have more questions. Ibotta is my favorite cash-back app available!
Customer Service: A couple of times my offers didn’t get reimbursed correctly. In every situation, customer service quickly answers and provides helpful information.
Volume of Offers: Ibotta has a huge selection of offers from almost every common retailer. They have offers for in-store, and online sites to ensure you get deals whenever and wherever you shop!
Account Linking: You can easily link your Ibotta account to other retailer accounts to get your money back automatically without submitting a receipt. I like to use this feature best when I do grocery pickups from Walmart!
Barcode Checker: The Ibotta app includes a barcode checker on every offer so you can easily scan the item’s barcode to see if it matches the offer before you accidentally buy the wrong product or package size.
Bonuses: Ibotta offers weekly, seasonal, product collection, and referral bonuses for additional cash back! These usually look like “Redeem 15 offers in one week and get an extra $3 back” or “Earn an extra $0.50 when you submit 2 separate Head and Shoulders offers”
Reimbursement: Easily withdraw earnings (over the $20 threshold) to PayPal, gift cards, or directly to a bank account!
Ibotta Review: Cons
Receipt Submission Window: Receipts must be less than 14 days old or they will not qualify for submission. The best way to maximize your money back is to submit immediately before losing your receipts!
Loading Time: Occasionally the app is slow to load which can be frustrating when checking barcodes while shopping.
Spend More, Save More: This is the biggest downside of Ibotta (and any cash-back app). Most offers available are name-brand products which are inherently more expensive than generic products. Sometimes the cash-back offer will bring the price down to the same or lower than generic prices but most are still more costly even after cash-back. If you are tight on money, it can be tempting to buy more name-brand products to earn more cash-back, but at the end of the day, you’d be spending much more and only getting a fraction back. If you want to learn more, you can check out my post about how Ibotta makes enough money to give away!
How I Became an Ibotta 500 Club Member
First, and most important, I used Ibotta relatively consistently over 4 years. I did not get $500 back overnight. I usually only earn a few dollars a week, but other times during seasonal bonuses I’ve earned more. I’ve also earned money back from referring friends. This is usually $7 per referral.
To find deals I typically scroll through Ibotta once a week before going out shopping. I look to see if there are any overlaps between my shopping list and the offers listed. I also like to coupon at Walgreens and often find that there are Ibotta offers for products on sale at Walgreens like oral care or body washes that can save me even more money! Check out my post about how to get free manufacturer coupons if you’re interested in maximizing your savings!
Have you tried Ibotta or any other cash-back apps? How much have you saved?
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