A Beginners Guide to Ibotta

If you're here scoping out prospective apps to earn a little cash on the side you've probably heard of Ibotta, you probably even know someone who uses it! Ibotta is an app that provides its users with rebates and bonuses for buying products they feature.
By far the most and highest rated app of all the ones I've written about before. An incredible 4.8 rating with over 568,000 reviews, but do all those reviews really mean it's worth the time? Or is it just temptation into buying things you'll never really use? Don't worry, we'll cover as much as we can.

How Can I Earn Money with Ibotta?

Ibotta Home page

There a few ways to make money with the Ibotta app, but they all stem around making purchases and receiving cashback. When you open your homepage you'll see a list of recommended retailers. Your app may have local stores, online retailers and chains. VG's Grocery is a local grocery chain near me owned by Spartans. I was surprised when it appeared in the app because it's a fairly small chain and it doesn't show up in very many of the shopping apps. So make sure you check for any stores you shop at regularly, big or small!

If you move over to the next tab, "Find Offers"  you'll see a list of stores you shop at regularly (once you get going) and a list of categories to find these offers. The best tip i can give you here is to take a few minutes and scan each category. It's worth your time, I promise! You never know where you might shop or what you might buy that will be listed. For example, the restaurants tabs is super under utalized and you never know what places may pop in and out. Right now, Applebee's is a featured restaurant. If you connect your credit card to the app (it is secure) you'll receive 5% cash back. Most often you'll see cashback specials on drinks but these offers aren't uncommon either. You can also find rebates at gas stations and convenient stores, so just give it a good eyeful and keep in mind what they've got listed when you go out. Restaurants and Bars will be cashback method number 1. The second and easiest way to earn cashback is with product rebates.

If your grocery has a loyalty card, you can save some time and effort by adding it to the app before you start shopping. The app will save your card information and then when you're shopping it will automatically add the rebates you've selected in the app to your account. No need to save and scan your receipts, at least not for this app.
You do have to select the rebates you intend to use BEFORE you shop though. I've gotten lucky and added a few later on and had them still credit, but I've also missed credit because I wasn't paying enough attention.
How do you add rebates? It's super simple! Go to the page for the store you intend to shop and look through the different rebates. You'll see tabs for nearly everything from Beauty to Dairy. One of the best tabs to keep an eye on is the "Any Item" tab, where there will be generic products listed like "suncreen" and you get a set amount of cash back for any brand that falls into that category. Once you
 really get into using the app, the "Buy It Again" tab may be your friend as well.
If your store doesn't have a loyalty card, you'll need to save your receipt and take a picture of it with the app to earn your credit. Using that loyalty card means you dont have to worry about those receipts. I will warn you though, the app takes longer to credit loyalty card purchases, my most recent taking nearly a week but it did show up! Receipt credits usually take around 24-48 hours to verify.
Also important to note: Once you connect a loyalty card, you can't scan receipts without removing the card from your account.

Another method of earning with Ibotta is the standard cashback method of shopping online through one of their links. Unlike some other apps I find that Ibotta's rates are fairly competitive with other sites that offer the same service (Ebates/Rakuten specifically) but they're not always the same. So a little extra shopping around could get you a few more percent cash back.

The third method of earning that sets Ibotta apart from other apps is that they are always offering bonuses! You can earn a brand bonus for buying multiple products from the same brand and they also offer contests and weekly bonuses all with their own guidelines.
Right now, there is a bonus going on called "Big Boom" when you redeem 15 offers you receive a $10.00 bonus credited to your account. They also regularly offer weekend and weekly bonuses that require you to fufill offers and the amount of offers you have to complete often changes, so always keep eye out.
They also offer their monthly bonuses! You see that Level 1 June bonus for $0.50. Now to be elligibe for these bonuses, you need to connect a Facebook. This is a great way to see really how many of your friends are using Ibotta (you might be surprised). These monthly bonuses put you and your friends on a "team" and when you reach a combined minimum earning and redeem so many offers individually you'll receive that bonus.
My July bonus has a $20.00 minimum and 15 offers that need to be redeemed.

Keep and Eye Out

On occasion stores will appear with these beautiful offerings. This means that you will receive a flat amount of cash back based on what you spend. It works just like the online cash back offers except you don't have shop online. It can be done in store. These are my personal favorite offers because they're super convenient and often times I earn a LOT more.
Another store that has similar offers frequently is JoAnn Fabrics. When I first started using Ibotta, they always had offers that read "Spend $30 and receive $5 cash back" and I am a crafting queen! And always remember to use your JoAnn coupons in combination as well.

What Can I Earn with Ibotta?

One of the reasons Ibotta is such a great source for cash back is because they have dozens and dozens of different methods to receive your cash back. I don't even have half of what's available pictured above. The best part is that you can also just deposit the money into your paypal or Venmo accounts and use it however you please! Ibotta does require minimum of $20 to withdraw your funds and some gift cards are a $25 minimum.

Do They Offer Referral Bonuses?

Absolutely! When you refer your friends to the app and they sign up, you receive $3 as long as they use it by the end of the month. They're always offering different referal bonuses and promotions so keep an eye out and pass on the savings!

If you're interested in signing up with my referal link just click below:

https://ibotta.com/r/oobltyi

So, What Do I Think?

First let me show you what my takeaway has been. My lifetime earnings with Ibotta is $152.17 includng the $52.17 I currently have in my account at the moment. According to the app I registered July 13, 2015, now like my trends with other apps even though that is when I signed up I definitely didn't make a commitment to using the app then. In fact, this is even now an app I try to use but really only get about 50% of its worth from it, and while I am working on getting the most of the app. I do find this one a little harder than some others.

The big thing with Ibotta is that I don't use a lot of the products they regularly promote, but I always feel tempted to get those bonuses and deals. On more than one occasion, I've felt like I wasted more of my time scanning the app for a deal than actually getting anything back. The reality of Ibotta is if you want to truly maximize the app, it's going to take some research. There are a lot of blogs that go through and break down which rebates to use to get those cash back bonuses and how to really maximize your ability to get cash back. This is something I plan on doing in the near future! Breaking down deals and really getting into depths of saving, especially when it comes to using multiple apps and coupons.

So my verdict on this app in terms of use: Does is really give you cash back? Absolutely! Is it worth the products? Only if you're really buying products you use.

I definitely recommend this app because it's even $0.10 per grocery trip adds up, thats where most of my $150 came from, but don't let the app talk you into spending on products your famliy doesn't need. If you can't avoid that temptation, skip the app because it will cost you more in the end. 

For those of you out there who can stick to your lists, definitely go for it! The Any Item offers are worth the app alone and they will take you less than 5 minutes  to sort through.