Ibotta Review: Can You Really Make Money Buying Groceries?

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ibotta review

Ibotta is a shopping app that can help you save or even earn money. In this Ibotta review we’ll show you exactly how that happens.

If you haven’t already heard of Ibotta and its powerful money-saving app, read on to see it is right for you.

4.1
Overall Rating

Summary

If you like earn cash back while you shop and are willing to put in a little bit of effort to do so, the Ibotta app could put a nice little amount of change in your pocket.

  • Easy to Use

    4.5

  • Availability of Offers

    4

  • Customer Service

    3.5

  • Cash Out Options

    4.5

Pros

  • Easy to use app
  • Cash out to PayPal and more
  • Multiple ways to save

Cons

  • Credits can take time
  • Mediocre customer service ratings

What is Ibotta?

ibotta home page

The Ibotta app works with you to find coupons and other discounts on the things you buy whether you are shopping online or in person.

To be honest, when I first started looking for info related to Ibotta I was a little wary and I even thought – is Ibotta legit?

I’ve tried out programs like these before and found in some cases that the savings weren’t really savings at all.

Ibotta is different, however. It is not a scam at all.

Because you don’t necessarily have to shop through the Ibotta portal, but instead add your coupons after you shop at the store, you can be sure you’ll be saving real money.

Here’s how Ibotta works to help you save money when you buy.

How Does Ibotta Work?

To find out how it works, I figured it was best to just sign up and try Ibotta for myself.

The idea behind Ibotta is simple. When you create an account with them, Ibotta gives you cash back on qualified everyday purchases you make at your favorite stores. These can be in-store or online purchases.

The process for signing up with Ibotta is pretty straightforward.

Just download the free app onto your smartphone (available on Android and iOS), give them basic information such as your name, email address and birthdate, and create a password.

After you’re signed up, you’ll be asked to pick your favorite stores that you shop in person and or when you are shopping online so you can earn cash back.

The list of stores they have to choose from is pretty substantial.

You’ll find grocery stores, drug stores and more on the Ibotta shopping list. You can use this list to determine which in-store or online purchases to make.

Once you’ve chosen the stores you want to see offers from, you can start browsing the offers from each store and adding them to your account.

You can find offers via the type of item you want to buy or by store, which is my favorite way to search.

Other times an offer will require you to watch a short video; short as in less than ten seconds in my experience.

Also, some offers require that you answer a short and simple question, such as “How much schooling have you completed?”

The videos and survey questions that were attached to some of the money saving offers were nearly unnoticeable. They are not at all a deterrent to using the app.

How Much Does Ibotta Cost?

The Ibotta app is free to download and free to use. It doesn’t cost you anything to earn cash back through any of the avenues.

However, it’s important to note that you will get charged a maintenance fee of $3.99 per month if your account is inactive for a period of six months or longer.

The fee is taken from your Ibotta balance and not from your bank account. If you return to active status by using the app again, the fee stops.

Key Features

Ibotta offers a few different ways for you to earn cash back for online shopping or making purchases at a physical store. The first one listed here is the simplest way to earn extra cash, but the others are great options as well.

ibotta payout screen

Earn by Shopping

Shopping is by far the easiest way to earn with Ibotta, at least in my opinion. You can shop online or at physical stores to earn cash back on your everyday purchases.

As I stated earlier, Ibotta has you choose the stores you shop most at when you open your account.

This helps them find all available offers at your favorite stores, whether you are doing online shopping, checking out at convenience stores or buying groceries at a supermarket.

One thing I really liked about this free app was how well it organized and cross-references offers that were available at multiple stores.

My Personal Experience Shopping With Ibotta

For instance, on my store list I have both Target and Walmart.

ibotta on mobile phone

If I’m browsing Walmart offers on the app and find a coupon for something that will be valid at Target as well, Ibotta automatically puts the offer into my Target offer list as well as into my Walmart offer list.

This makes it really easy to save even more money, especially if one store has something on sale.

For my first Ibotta experience, I went through all of the Walmart offers, added relevant ones to my list, and waited for shopping day. I opted to shop in the store vs. online shopping.

On shopping day I put everything into my cart, checked out and went home.

At home I scanned my receipt barcode and the Ibotta app went to work checking to see which items I’d purchased.

In some cases, the item manufacturer will require you to scan the barcode to prove you purchased this item.

This was super easy. I just did it when the items were still sitting on the counter from our grocery shopping trip.

After I got done scanning the items, the Ibotta app showed me that I had earned $8.50 in cash back.

Here is the breakdown of cash back using Ibotta

You Just Earned $8.50 with Walmart
  NESTLÉ® Coffee-mate® Creamer $0.50
  Bread – Any Brand $0.25
  Bananas – Any Brand $0.25
  One Dozen Eggs – Any Brand $0.25
  Colgate® Toothpaste $1.00
  Lindsay® Naturals California Green Olives $0.50
  Ben & Jerry’s® Pints $2.50
  Contadina™ Tomatoes $0.25
  Lay’s® Kettle Chips $1.00
  Reese® Artichoke Hearts $0.50
  Lay’s® Potato Chips $1.00
  Any item Coupon $0.50

Add this $8.50 to my welcome bonus of $10 and I’m already at a savings of $18.50! This is a great way to earn cash back.

Earn by Referring Others

ibotta referral program

Ibotta will also pay you money if you refer a friend who signs up and uses the app.

When you get friends to sign up with Ibotta using your referral code, and they redeem a qualifying offer, you get $10 for each referral.

There’s no limit to how much you can earn for referring others!

There’s no requirement to make extra money by referring others to the program, but who wouldn’t want to help friends save money?

Sign Up Bonuses

Many times (likely not always) Ibotta will run promos where they give you a bonus for signing up. This means you can get extra money while you earn cash back.

When I signed up they were offering a $10 signup bonus for those who redeemed at least $10 in offers. Free money!

The app made it so easy to save money and earn cash back. I probably put in less than 15 minutes of time to find the offers, scan my receipt and scan the barcodes of items that had manufacturer-required verification.

$8.50 in cash back for 15 minutes of work isn’t bad money.

Offers for Necessities

Some coupon sites and apps only have coupons for stuff you don’t need or wouldn’t normally buy, making it difficult to earn cash back.

In our case, we really don’t buy a lot of non-necessity items. We don’t buy clothes unless we really need them, and we keep processed and junk food purchases to a minimum.

We try to stay on task with our budget in order to reach our financial goals.

Ibotta had plenty of coupons for stuff you need, not just extras you wouldn’t normally buy.

If you look over the list above that shares what I saved on when we went on our short shopping trip that Wednesday, you’ll notice I had an Ibotta coupon for bananas, bread, eggs and other stuff we would normally buy.

This helped me to know that Ibotta would help us save money even though we don’t buy a lot of extras or processed foods.

Cash Back Coupons for “Any Brand”

Ibotta offered me a couple of cash back offers for “any brand” items, meaning Ibotta will give me extra cash back on the generic items I love to buy, enabling me to save even more.

As an example, our $0.87 per loaf generic bread only cost me $0.62 cents on the first day I went shopping, thanks to an “any brand” coupon.

Bonus Random Coupons

I also got offered a coupon for fifty cents cash back on any item on my receipt on that first day I went shopping with Ibotta – woohoo!

So even if I didn’t take advantage of any other Ibotta offers, I still would have saved 50 cents.

That might not seem like a lot of money, but it will add up over time. This made couponing nice and easy.

Many Options for Cashing Out

After you’ve earned your money savings from Ibotta, you can go to your account and have your cash deposited into your PayPal account where you can spend as you please.

You can also take your Ibotta earnings and get a transfer to your bank account or get a gift card to one of many stores.

Some of the stores Ibotta offers gift cards to include:

  • Whole Foods
  • Sephora
  • Target
  • Walmart
  • Amazon
  • Best Buy
  • Costco
  • and more.

If you would rather have gift cards either for spending or for giving as gifts, this could be the way to go for you.

The minimum requirement for cashing out to your bank or PayPal account is $20. However, some gift cards may have a $25 minimum cash out.

Ibotta Reviews

Ibotta has a Trustpilot score of 4.2 out of 5 stars as of this writing, which is considered “Excellent.”

While most Ibotta review excerpts we read were positive, there were several negative reviews from Ibotta users that cited having to argue with customer service when trying to earn cash back.

Ibotta has a “B” rating on the Better Business Bureau website. The BBB gives them a 3.82 out of 5 star rating.

My Personal Experience

So, after I did my first shopping trip with Ibotta on Wednesday, I woke up Thursday morning to an email from them.

It outlined my money savings from the prior day’s shopping trip and notified me that the money had been deposited into my Ibotta account.

Not only was my $8.50 deposited into my account, Ibotta had given me a random $2.00 bonus deposit, meaning I had $10.50 into my account!

Here’s a copy of the email I received from them. It outlined each item I had saved on and how much I’d saved.

Notice that there are a few extras in there (like potato chips) as we did some holiday food shopping.

You Just Earned $10.50 with Walmart
  NESTLÉ® Coffee-mate® Creamer $0.50
  Bread – Any Brand $0.25
  Bananas – Any Brand $0.25
  Any Item $0.50
  One Dozen Eggs – Any Brand $0.25
  Colgate® Toothpaste $1.00
  Lindsay® Naturals California… $0.50
  Ben & Jerry’s® Pints $2.50
  Contadina™ Tomatoes $0.25
  Lay’s® Kettle Chips $1.00
  Reese® Artichoke Hearts $0.50
  Lay’s® Potato Chips $1.00
  $2 Boost Bonus $2.00

Getting that confirmation email from Ibotta was definitely a bright moment in my daily morning email checks.

I’ve personally found communication from Ibotta to be great, but clearly not all customers who want to earn cash back are experiencing that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some answers to some frequently asked questions about Ibotta.

Is Ibotta easy to use?

Not only is signing up and collecting offers easy, but getting your Ibotta cash back is easy as well.

Ibotta works to have your cash savings deposited into your Ibotta account within five days of earning it. This makes it easy to save money when online shopping or buying items at a physical store.

Can I get cash back for Amazon grocery orders?

Yes! You can get cash back when shopping online at Amazon.

If you install the Ibotta browser extension for Google Chrome you can earn cash back on groceries purchased through Amazon. See the Ibotta website for details.

Is there a limit to the number of friends I can refer?

No! You can refer as many friends as you’d like. Just be sure they’re all registering from different devices.

Does Ibotta work with store loyalty accounts?

Yes! You can connect your store loyalty account with your Ibotta account by visiting your Ibotta app.

Ibotta Alternatives

Here are a few alternatives to Ibotta that you may want to consider.

AppApple App Store
Fetch Rewards4.8 out of 5Read Review
Dosh4.7 out of 5Read Review
Rakuten4.8 out of 5Read Review

Summary

Regardless of if you shop online or in-store, it is smart to look for ways to maximize savings on items you were planning on buying anyway.

Plus, it never hurts to occasionally try a new brand or item you may not have otherwise tried if it weren’t for the money savings offered.

You may find that these truths make the Ibotta app worth it for you. Ibotta offers cash back both in-store and online to help you save more money.

Hopefully this Ibotta app review was helpful in your quest to make money while couponing in the modern world.

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18 Comments

  1. Hi Laurie. If you acquired only $17 instead of $20 in a given month, will any credit rollover to the next month? Thanks.

  2. Tamara Herz says:

    Ibotta will not honor my purchases at Walmart in the store. Their ridiculous and lousy excuse now is that the picture of the full receipt that I took is not the paper receipt. The receipt is from the Walmart App, as I paid in the store with Walmart Pay through my credit card, which automatically triggers an online receipt. This is exactly the same kind of receipt as you get on paper. This way Walmart saves paper, and your receipt is automatically stored in case of a return. Ibotta requires a picture of that receipt. From the app, I had to email the receipt to my email, but Ibotta customer care now claims that only the store print out counts but a print out (same receipt) from online won’t count. The Walmart app receipt is identical to an in store receipt. Saving trees and paper is not what Ibotta likes. I probably will just return the items as I bought from them earlier for the $3.50 discount, which was nice. Ibotta is not worth the nuisance and Ibotta deserves the bad reviews I saw on other websites if they do not honor what they promise.

    1. I’m sorry you are not having a good experience with Ibotta. Did you let them know it was from the Walmart app? If not, I would certainly do so. If you did, and they won’t work with you, you might have to try saving through a different app with your next purchases. Thanks for your comments.

  3. Hi. Is this app available in the Philippines?

    1. I did not find a specific list of countries it does or does not work in on the website, unless I simply missed it. However, on their main website you can go to the bottom and click the link for “research” and at the bottom is a way to contact them and ask directly. If you live in the Philippines, I hope you get a positive answer. 🙂

  4. I love using ibotta, but lately they’ve been annoying about Amazon cash back. They aren’t giving the amount they are supposed too. I have been emailing regarding issues.

    1. If you don’t get it resolved, you could try posing the question on Facebook or Twitter. Sometimes putting it out there publicly will get a response from them.

  5. I have been trying to cash out my Ibotta account for 3 months…there is no real customer service when you have a problem. Ibotta has no telephone contact information. Ibotta is a scam!
    Beware!

    1. I am sorry you have had trouble with them. I do not know if you have tried this or not, but there is a “Terms of Use” link on the bottom of their website. It has their address as well as an email address you might be able to use to reach them. I hope you have luck getting in touch.

  6. Glenn DuBois says:

    I would like to know why I can’t get paid from Ibotta from Super Saver when the Miracle Whip and Angry Orchard beer are both listed. I have taken a picture of the UPS codes, but the system won’t allow me to take a picture of my receipt to prove that I really bought it. The system can really be very aggravating at times.

    1. Yes, sometimes there are difficulties and glitches with those types of programs. I would try contacting them about it.

  7. That’s great that you are making money with it. If you are having trouble with the bonuses, have you tried contacting them? That may help.

  8. Jim Nastic says:

    I’ve been using Ibotta for 2 months. I have received 40 bucks back – for things I was going to buy anyway. That’s not bad.

  9. The only thing I didn’t like about Ibotta is that most of the coupons/rebates seemed to be for name-brand items, and didn’t always knock the price lower than the off-brand or generic versions. It’s been over a year since I’ve used it, though.

    1. Laurie Blank says:

      Hi, Joe! So far, I’ve found at least one coupon for “any brand” items or for produce on every shopping trip. I haven’t liked some of the other rebate apps I’ve tried, but I’m really liking Ibotta so far, even as someone who doesn’t buy a lot of name brand stuff. I’ve made $27 in the last week using it!

      1. Josh Patoka says:

        My wife and I were surprised at what we found too. We quit looking at the Sunday circulars and even the digital coupons offered through our grocery store’s loyalty program because they were for products and brands we didn’t buy.

        What I like even more is that Ibotta works at Walmart, where we tend to go, because they have a better selection than our small town grocer.

      2. Laurie Blank says:

        I agree, Josh! We are loving Ibotta. I just cashed out our balance of $30 in order to give my high schooler a little spending money as a gift (normally our family rule is that the kids have to earn any spending money). She was so happy, and it didn’t cost us a dime!