Shopping and Grocery Rebates My Ibotta App Review

I’ve been meaning to write an Ibotta app review for quite some time now.

When I find a service that I believe is worth your time and money–and therefore has value beyond a price tag–I want to share it with my readers.

For years I’d heard about the grocery rebates through Ibotta.

However, I never got around to trying it before this summer.

What was I waiting for?

Now was a time to write one of those Ibotta reviews.

What is the Ibotta app?

For starters Ibotta is a free app.

You download it on your Smartphone and go.

Ibotta is one of those apps that pays you for the grocery shopping you were going to do anyway.

Ibotta is a lot like Rakuten (formerly Ebates).

It is a cash back shopping solution in that it gives you cash back for the online shopping you were going to do anyway.

With Ibotta you’re getting cash back or grocery rebates for your food shopping.

Yes, that means that you can get paid to go grocery shopping.

It’s one of the easiest ways to make money with your Smartphone.

As part of this Ibotta app review, I’ve put together an Ibotta reviews FAQ, if you will.

How to Redeem Rebates on Ibotta?

How you redeem rebates on Ibotta is simple.

After you’ve shopped and you get home, you scan the barcodes of products you’ve bought and then snap a picture of your receipt, and submit.

That’s it.

That’s how you unlock rebates on Ibotta.

Within a day or so, Ibotta deposits the money you’ve earned for your grocery rebates.

Your Ibotta cash out options are easy.

You can get your money in PayPal or Venmo.

You can also trade in your earnings for gift cards.

There are other ways you can get cash back, too.

One, you can start your grocery shopping on the Ibotta app.

Or, two, you can load your grocery rewards cards onto the app.

Then it automatically adds any cash back you purchased using your rewards card.

What I like about Ibotta is that you can compare your grocery list to the items listed that week.

I find that if what I need to buy is on my list and I see it on the app, too, great.

If not, I often don’t change my grocery list to reflect the offers–unlike when I used to buy things I didn’t really need when I was strictly using coupons.

Why don’t I alter my list?

Because I know that Ibotta grocery rebates come back frequently, like week after week.

Unlike coupons from the newspaper, which cycle every few months, I can always count on the Ibotta rebates showing up often.

I mean, at least twice a month I can get cash back for buying milk and bananas.

When can you ever get coupons for those?

Is Ibotta a Coupon App?

Ibotta is not a coupon app, per se.

Yes, you are saving money on items you have on your grocery list, but, no, you don’t have to cash in any coupons to save the money.

In other words there is no transaction at the checkout counter.

With Ibotta the cashing in, if you will, happens after you get home.

I like that convenience.

That said, Ibotta offers deals beyond the grocery store.

You can use Ibotta as a cash back shopping solution when booking travel on Hotels.com, shopping online for Groupon deals or even buying items on eBay.

However, with this latter deal, you have to launch the eBay app from the Ibotta app for the purchase to count.

I recently bought shoes on eBay and tried to go back in and submit it for my 2% back on Ibotta.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t accepted.

So like Rakuten you have to start your shopping on Ibotta for that cash back shopping to count.

Is Ibotta Legit?

Ibotta is absolutely legit.

You can get cash back for your grocery shopping, simple as that.

As I explained in the section above “How to Redeem Rebates on Ibotta?” you buy products, you click on them in the Ibotta app, you scan the barcode, you snap a picture of your receipt, and you submit through the Ibotta app.

You get cash back.

It’s really that simple.

What Are Ibotta Pros?

One of the reasons I wanted to write this Ibotta app review is because I believe it has many pros over coupons.

Here are a handful of Ibotta pros.

Referrals and Ibotta Bonus When You Sign Up

Ibotta is so confident you’ll like the app that it rewards you with extra money.

Ibotta wants you to encourage friends to sign up, too.

You’ll get a $5 $10 referral Ibotta bonus for every friend you refer.

If you click on my Ibotta links in this blog post, I’ll get that referral bonus, too.

Also, once you refer friends, they become members of your “team.”

The more grocery rebates they do, the more money you can potentially earn in a month.

That’s an Ibotta bonus that keeps on giving!

Multiple Submit Rebates

You know how supermarkets limit how many coupons you can redeem when you shop?

Well, Ibotta actually encourages you to purchase an item multiple times and submit for a rebate each time.

I’m not talking about in a way that cheats the system but in a legit way.

For example, recently one of my grocery rebates was Land O Lakes eggs.

I got $.50 back for it.

When that rebate became active again in the Ibotta app, Ibotta let me know right in the app.

Like hey, if you’re out of eggs, you can get another $.50 for buying those eggs.

In other words you can’t “rebate-out” of an offer.

If you were always buying eggs for your family, why wouldn’t you get $.50 back for them each time?

With eggs as expensive as they are right now, who wouldn’t want a way to save money on eggs?

Grocery Rebates on Meat and Produce

We all know that organic food is often more expensive than “regular” food.

Therefore, finding a way to save on money on organic groceries is a good thing.

With the Ibotta app you can get grocery rebates for not only organic food but other healthy foods, like milk and produce.

Just this week I’ve gotten cash back for bananas and carrots.

Since you rarely find coupons for fresh produce, Ibotta fills this niche nicely.

In addition to milk and produce, you can get cash back for buying meat.

It doesn’t have to be meat in a brand name package.

It could be meat from the butcher counter.

Note: since first writing this review, I’ve gone vegetarian.

So, I’m not using the cash back benefit from buying meat.

However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t.

Extra Ways to Earn Cash Back

I mentioned that you can refer your friends for bonuses.

And once your friends start using the app, you get bonuses based on their spending and rebates.

Well, Ibotta offers additional bonus opportunities from time to time.

Last summer Ibotta offered a Labor Day bonus.

You just had to submit four offers to earn an extra $10.

Grocery Rebates on Beer, Wine and Spirits

Perhaps this “pro” isn’t for everyone, especially if you don’t drink.

However, if you purchase beer, wine and spirits, then you’ll want to know that you can cash in grocery rebates for those as well, via the Ibotta app.

The only challenge is if you live in a state that does not sell alcohol through traditional grocery stores.

I live in Pennsylvania.

Here, pretty much your only option for buying alcohol is a state store.

However, some Sheetz locations now sell liquor.

I’ve yet to see Sheetz in Ibotta, though.

So any liquor rebates in Ibotta would go to waste.

But in states like New Jersey, Ohio and Maine (where we’re moving this year), you can buy beer and wine in stores that you’ll find on Ibotta.

Recently, I shopped in a Target near Cleveland, Ohio, and I could have killed it with liquor rebates.

Hundreds of Ibotta Retailers and Stores

Like many apps Ibotta uses location to determine the stores nearest you where you can shop and qualify for grocery rebates.

Normally these stores fall into one of these categories:

• Grocery
• Pharmacy
• Clothing
• Beer, Wine & Spirits
• Beauty & Wellness
• Specialty
• Convenience

Just in the grocery category alone, the stores near me where I can get grocery rebates include Target, Stop and Shop, Costco, Dollar General and Whole Foods.

Here are some dollar store shopping hacks.

If you’re a military family, you’ll want to note this.

You can get grocery rebates from the military commissary, too.

Also, there are restaurant and bars offers from time to time.

These usually coincide with a holiday, like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day.

Finally, you can use Ibotta with online stores, too.

Amazon is one store that gives you cash back through the Ibotta app.

It works with Macy’s rebates, too.

Ibotta app “any item” offers

Usually at least once a week the Ibotta app loads an “any item” offer.

That means that you can buy any item in a certain category and you get the cash back.

You don’t have to buy a brand you don’t like or make a special trip.

These “any item” offers sometimes include fresh produce or healthy dairy products.

Sometimes all you have to do is simply submit your receipt, regardless of what you bought.

They’re a great way to add to your cash back earnings.

What Are Ibotta Cons?

Sometimes Ibotta doesn’t work the way I’d hoped.

For example, when I first started using this app, I would scan the Ibotta receipt and submit, but rebates were rejected.

I couldn’t figure out why so I created my own Ibotta hack or Ibotta app cheats–though I’m not really cheating.

My Ibotta hack

What is my Ibotta hack or Ibotta app cheats?

It’s this.

Now I mark up my receipt by putting an arrow next to the products I’ve purchased and which are eligible for rebates.

I figure by highlighting matches on the receipt, it makes it easier for Ibotta to process everything.

So far, so good.

This Ibotta hack has worked every time since.

So it might be seen as one of those Ibotta app cheats but, like I said, it’s not really cheating at all.

Details sometimes hard to understand

Another fix I’d suggest for Ibotta?

The deals listed in the app aren’t always 100 percent clear.

Recently, my daughter at college asked me to send her a care package of K-cups so she could caffeinate while studying for finals.

On the app it said that Dunkin Donuts K-Cup pods were eligible for a $1.00 grocery rebate.

So I bought some.

Only problem?

When I went to redeem them and scanned the barcode, it was rejected.

It was only when I looked closely at the picture with the rebate did I notice it was for pumpkin spice Dunkin Donuts K-Cups only.

Since you cannot enlarge the picture on the Ibotta app, if you don’t notice these subtleties, you are SOL.

Note to Ibotta: please make the description in the rebate offers clear, if there is a flavor or size necessary to qualify.

Ibotta App Review Conclusion

So is Ibotta worth it?

I think so.

To me Ibotta is a timesaver over traditional coupons.

I will still use coupons from time to time but not nearly as regularly as the Ibotta app.

For me Ibotta is so easy to use, convenient and almost like playing a game.

It is the grocery shopping app I’ll open first on my Smartphone.

I don’t have to have it open or activate it when I walk through a store door.

And I don’t have to bring anything up at the checkout counter.

At my leisure, after I get home, I can scan barcodes and receipts with the Ibotta app.

That’s how I get paid for the grocery shopping I was going to do anyway.