App Recap

In a recent "girls night" I got together with some friends to talk about some of our favorite money making apps. It was a lot of fun and very enlightening. In fact, we plan on doing it again sometime, although we will probably open it up to the males, too :)

Here is my best write up of what we talked about, as I understood it. If any of my information is wrong or unclear, please correct me!

First, the ones that were new to me:

CrowdTap

By signing up with Crowdtap, you’ll be presented with a variety of surveys, ranging from 1 question to multiple qustions. These surveys and feedback are used to help brands make major marketing decisions.For your time and input you can Get rewarded with gift cards (Amazon), product samples and more. 
Our friend, Talia is an avid Crowdtapper. She says it is one of her favorites. She signs in a couple of times a month to do some quick surveys and earns a $5 Amazon.com gift card. She has a friend that has had a ton of success with Crowdtap, and even was given free Puma workout gear as a part of a survey. Read about her Crowdtap experience here. 
From what I have read, the more thoughtful and honest the feedback on surverys, the greater chance you have to earn bigger gift cards and samples. 

Pros:
You don't have to sign in every day or anything like that. It is a go-at-your-own-pace program. 
You don't have to have a smartphone. This is something you can do from a computer or tablet.
The surveys (called "Quick Hits" I think) aren't long and time-consuming. You can pick and choose what you want to answer. 

Cons:
It seems like the rewards are somewhat based on luck. You may or may not get picked for the good ones.

Click "Read More" to see the rest!


Viggle

Viggle is an app for your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Android device that lets you earn rewards just by watching TV. You earn points for watching TV, although I am not entirely sure how you prove you are watching TV. You collect and then redeem your Viggle Points for real rewards in the Rewards Catalog, including music, gift cards, electronics, entertainment experiences and more. 
I don't know much about this, except that our friend Talia has used it to earn Amazon gift cards, so it DOES work. 
Android download here
iOS download here

Pros: It sounds really easy.
Cons: You may not watch a lot of TV.


Second, the ones I had heard of, but still haven't tried:

Smoopa

This is a smartphone app for Android or iOs that we actually didn't talk about during our girls night, but our friend Mike has graciously written a quick blurb for us about how it works. 
-- You scan any item you are going to buy (it doesn't even have to be groceries, I don't think). You tell the app which store you are at and how much the item costs (so I just scan them as I put them in my cart instead of doing it all later and trying to sift through the receipt). This app will show prices that that item has been scanned for by other users and sometimes recommend a better place to buy it where another user scanned it for cheaper. Once I was in Target and it recommended me to go to guest service and tell them to match their online price as it was cheaper. Anyway, once you scan something, it will either give you a recommendation, say its a good price, or give you a reward. Then you will have the option "buy it now and earn $.XX". [After you buy it] then you simply take a picture of the receipt just like many of the other apps and they normally credit your account within 2-3 days.
I've gotten between $.05 and $.20 back on various items that I've purchased and currently have $9 saved up on the app. They payout with Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Paypal, or various charities. I like the app because it works for basically every item, not even just groceries. If I had to guess...I think I have gotten some sort of reward on maybe 1/3 of the items I buy. It definitely adds up when you use them with all of those other apps. --

Pros: 
It offers rewards on a huge variety of things, not just groceries.
It works for things you were going to buy anyway.
You can price check to see if you are getting the best deal in the area.
There are several payout options, each with a different minimum amount that must be reached before payout.
Enter the code 10aab897ad when you sign up (there will be an option for promotional code) and get a free $2 to get you started.

Cons: 
The individual cash back rewards per item are not that big. 

Swag Bucks

Swagbucks is an online rewards program. It enables users to earn virtual currency and real life rewards for their everyday web activity.
There are a variety of ways that you can earn "Swag Bucks" that you then use to purchase gift cards. The best value is the $5 Amazon gift card for 450 Swag Bucks. 
Some of the ways you earn them are by surfing the internet through their search engine, watching videos, taking surverys, or shopping through their site (like Ebates). Use it wisely and get money for very little effort. 

Pros: 
There seem like a lot of pros with this one. Our friend Talia even told me that if you use Swag Bucks to go to coupons.com you can get 10 Swag Bucks for every coupon you print and then redeem.

Cons: 
It seems like it would be easy to get sucked into the time-wasting surveys that don't really give you much for your time. 

Receipt Hog

This one seems worthwhile and very easy. It is an app for Android or Apple. 
Simply "feed" the pig by taking pictures of your reciepts from grocery, supermarkets and drug stores and get Receipt Hog coins for it. As your coins add up you can cashout for gift cards. 

Pros:
SO easy.

Cons:
It takes a while to let your points add up.

Third, the ones I use frequently and know a lot about:

Ibotta 

Chances are good that you have already heard of this app. It is becoming increasingly popular, and frequent updates and improvements are being made to keep it fantastic. This is one of the apps that can only be used on a smartphone (or iPod with a camera)

How it works: After downloading from your phone's app store (available for iOS and Android) and setting up your account, you will see a list of participating stores. Clicking on a store will bring up a list of "rebates" available at that store. The amount of rebates varies.  In order to "earn" the rebates you must do the tasks that are associated with the specific product.  These usually include watching a video clip, answering a survey question, or allowing Ibotta to share the offer via your Facebook or Twitter. After you have completed the tasks, you can redeem the rebate by buying the product (pay attention to any specific count or variety that is listed) and uploading your receipt in the Ibotta app with your smartphone or iPod's camera.  Once you have redeemed a minimum of $5 you can "cash out" by sending your money to your Paypal or Venmo account (which you can then use to transfer to your bank account) or by applying it to a gift card (Redbox, Starbucks, iTunes, etc.). 

Pros: 
There is a HUGE variety of rebates, from grocery to electronics, restaurants, movie 
theaters and everything in between. There are bonuses for redeeming certain products' rebates or a certain number of rebates a week, etc. It is NOT rare for there to be rebates and manufacturer coupons available at the same time, which makes for great savings. There is a referral bonus ($5.00!) for any friends that sign up using your unique link. This is mine. :) Plus, you get special bonus offer for opportunities to earn even more in your first couple of weeks using it.

Cons: 
You must have a smartphone or compatible iPod to use the app. The list of participating stores is very long, but it doesn't include Albertsons, Broulim's, or K-Mart. The only Rexburg stores it has are Walmart and Walgreens, and often our much-less-than-perfect Walmart doesn't even carry some of the available rebates (this is a bummer, and does frustrate me sometimes, but is not grounds to entirely dismiss this app's usefulness... in my opinion). 

SavingStar

This is a program that links to your existing store rewards program. All stores are not offered, and the only one that we have in Rexburg that is available is Albertsons. So, if you are an Albertsons shopper, this is for you!!

How it works: Go to savingstar.com and create an account. Link your Albertsons shopper card to your account by entering the numbers under the bar code on the back. (Albertsons no longer requires shopper cards for weekly grocery deals, but they still offer the gas program so I think you can still obtain a shopper card if you don't have one yet.) After your card is linked to your account, you can activate any of the offered deals. Then, go shop at Albertsons and don't forget to have them scan your card! They will probably tell you that it isn't required for the store sales anymore. I always just say that I do the gas program.  NOTE: the deals you activated will not show up when you scan your card at the store! This is a cash back program, not an instant coupon. You have to wait 5 or 6 days for it to show up in your SavingStar account. Once you reach $5.00 in your account, you can cash out with either Paypal, direct deposit to your bank, an Amazon gift card, or Americanforests.org (I have no clue what that is!). 

Pros: 
With a low cash out level, a weekly Healthy Offer, a Friday Freebie, and a large variety of deals, this is a great tool for us here in Rexburg. Albertsons often has good sales, so when you add SavingStar and coupons... you are going to save a nice little chunk of money. To give you an idea: I have accumulated $9.75 in my account in 3 months of using it. I really enjoy using this program.

Cons: 
It usually takes 5 or 6 days for my savings to reflect on my online account. The website says it can take up to 28 days, but I thin that is an extreme and definitely hasn't been the case for me.  The only Rexburg store it works with is Albertsons. Sometimes it is really hard to remember to have your store card scanned. If you buy the product and forget to have your card scanned to get credit... well that would stink.

Checkout 51

This program is much newer than Ibotta, at least here in the U.S.  Its headquarters is in Canada. So maybe you Canadians know more about that. What I do know for sure is that this is another good way to cut the costs of things you buy all of the time.  

How it works: Just like Ibotta, you create and account and then see a list of offers that you can redeem for cash back by providing proof (a picture of your reciept) that you bought the product. The list isn't nearly as long as Ibotta's but it does guarantee an updated list weekly, which does give you a frequent "change of scenery" but also requires you to act on an offer quickly. "Cashing out" is done with a good old fashioned check.

Pros: 
You DO NOT need a smartphone or any such device to upload your receipts! You can take a picture with a normal camera, save it to your computer, and upload it to the Checkout 51 website. You can stack  the offers with paper coupons. You can purchase the product from ANY store you want. This is a huge benefit that I wish Ibotta had. This gives you much more freedom to find the absolute best price. There is a great variety of offers, including produce, eggs, milk, etc. Coupons don't often come around for produce or milk, so this is great!

Cons: 
The list of offers is small (around 15 or so). Before you can "cash out" you have to accumulate $20.00. This is a pretty big amount in my opinion and will take a while if you don't use it often. There are a variety of different offers though, and they change frequently, so it is more than worth it to me. You just have to decide for you!