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Do you spend money? Of course you do! But are you earning cashback? Anyone who spends money should be. Here are 8 easy ways to earn cashback on purchase you make every day.
After the popularity of my post on how to make money with your smart phone. I thought I would share a few other simple ways you can make a little extra money. While there are plenty of ways to make money at home (one of my favorites being taking surveys online ), today I'm going to talk about one of the most passive ways to earn a little extra cash earning cas back. It makes the sting of buying groceries and other items a little bit less harsh.
I'll admit that cashback is something I haven't done much of until recent. I've signed up for all sorts of different programs, but I always seemed to forget about them (especially the ones online), until after the fact. However, I've recently started using them more, and it really is worth it. With the holidays quickly approaching, you can really make a decent chunk of change by remembering to use cashback options. Here are a few easy ways to earn cashback while shopping (both in store and online!) I believe if you are shopping online, there's no reason not to earn cashback!
SwagBucks
I started using SwagBacks back in high school. Occasionally I would complete games or surveys to earn SwagBucks, and I would always enter codes I found online to earn more, but after awhile, I kind of forgot about it. I think SwagBucks is most commonly known for letting you earn rewards for doing web searches. However, you can also use it to earn SwagBucks for making purchases online.
This method is a little bit different than most cashback companies I've worked with instead of earning a certain percentage or cash value back, you earn SwagBucks. While it might seem a little weird to earn SwagBucks instead of actual cash right away, if you look at their Swagbucks Shopping page, it shows you what percentage better the deal is over getting just cashback. Plus, you can get SwagBucks for using Amazon, which not a lot of companies allow. You can also redeem SwagBucks at any time for gift cards!
Ebates
This is the company I use the most for Ebates. I have found that they offer tons of different online retailers. You do have to activate Ebates whenever you want to use it, which can be hard to remember. Once I found out they had a browser extension that blinked whenever I was on a site they partnered with, it was a lot easier to remember to activate it! I've found that some cashback websites only have partnered with weird sites that no one shops at, but Ebates is a partner with tons of popular places such as Kohls, Sears, some products on Amazon, and even Groupon! They also offer an awesome referral program.
Giving Assistant
I recently learned about this company. It's similar to Ebates, but I like the way it's set up a little bit more. They even have 5% cashback from Amazon occasionally, which is awesome for me, because I practically keep Amazon in business. On Ebates, it's only 3%. Plus when you sign up, you'll get $5 back right away.
Ibotta
I talked about Ibotta in my smart phone money making post, but it definitely applies in this post as well! It's a great little app that you just download onto your smart phone, you can browse through to see if there are any products at local stores that you are going to buy, and afterwards, you can get cashback for scanning your receipt and the bar code of the product. My sister-in-law has made a ton of money using Ibotta, and if you coupon, it's a great way to make some products free! You usually have to answer a poll, or read a recipe or fact, to unlock the cashback, but it's super simple. If you buy groceries, you should definitely be using Ibotta. It's also worth it to get your friends to sign up under you, because you get $5 once they use it for the first time AND you can work together toward teamwork bonuses each month.
Top Cashback
I learned about Top Cashback earlier this year when they were offering a sweet deal for the Frozen DVD basically, you got paid to buy the DVD. I believe that Walmart had it on sale for $15, and when you purchased it through Top Cashback, you got $17 in cashback. It was an awesome deal! They work pretty similarly to Ebates, and they offer rebates, coupons, and cash back. I would definitely recommend signing up for both Top Cashback and Ebates and comparing the two before making a purchase online.
Checkout 51
Checkout 51 is pretty similar to Ibotta all you have to do is browse through what products and stores they've partnered with, and when you purchase one of those items, just scan your receipt in, and earn money back right away. This is another mobile app that's really easy to use.
BONUS!
This is mainly a bonus because I forgot to include it in the initial post!
Snap :
This is a fairly new cashback app that is very similar to Ibotta and Checkout 51 it even has similar items. It was launched by Groupon, and regardless of what store you buy the items at, you can get cashback. If you use this, along with Ibotta and Checkout 51, you could potentially earn a lot of extra cash!
Reward Cards
You know when you go to a store, and they always ask you if you have a loyalty card? As long as there are no strings attached (like an annual fee), then you should definitely signing up for these. Not all of them give you rewards, but some do, and it pays off. For instance, once I get a coupon on the mail from Smith's (a Kroger affiliate) worth $25 because of all the groceries I had purchased during one quarter. We also always get at least 20 cents off of gas because we shop at Smith's a lot. They will also target coupons directly toward you based on what you buy. Every so often, I get coupons for free products I buy often at Smith's, which is really nice. I also really like Best Buy's reward program we recently got a $15 Best Buy gift card because of all our reward points.
Thankfully, most companies are making it so you can connect your rewards card with your phone number, so you don't have to carry around tons of cards everywhere you go. Definitely look into what your oft shopped at stores to see what types of reward programs they offer!
Debit and Credit Cards
A lot of banks and credit unions will offer cashback options on their debit and credit cards. There are a lot of credit cards that will do this, but require a hefty, yearly fee, so I would steer clear of these ones. However, if you use your cards often, it's definitely worth looking into. We currently have a Southwest Credit Card that we love using for big purchases (obviously paying it off right away), because we can earn points toward flights. Credit Sesame is a great site to find the best reward and cashback cards, based on your current credit score.
