Have you ever wished someone would pay you for shopping online?
Maybe it felt like a hopeless dream - something just too good to be true - but it’s not.
Believe it or not, there are actually apps that help turn your not-so-hard work of shopping online into gift cards and cold hard cash.
In fact, here are 12 apps and websites that will pay you for shopping right now.
Checkpoints is an app that lets you earn points by checking in at stores and scanning bar codes on certain items (in physical store locations). They also let you get points for watching videos, taking quizzes, and more.
The points you rack up are redeemable for gift cards, airline miles, and “gadgets” as they say in their explainer video.
Shopkick calls itself “the app that rewards you for shopping.” Similar to Checkpoints, Shopkick gives you “kicks”, or points, when you walk into participating stores, scan barcodes, and a few other standard shopping tasks you would have to do anyways.
With Shopkick, you can even see the deals being offered at participating stores before you go shopping there. So you’re saving money on your purchases, and you’re getting rewards points for completing tasks while you're shopping. Then you can redeem your “kicks” for gift cards.
Swagbucks advertises that it not only gives you gift cards to major retailers for shopping online, but it also offers cash back into your PayPal account as well. Like similar apps, you can also earn points by searching the web, watching videos, playing games, and taking surveys.
Ebates is probably the most popular way to earn cash back for shopping. See, Ebates is an affiliate, which means they earn money every time you click a link from their website to the website of one of their partners. You get cash back because they’re simply sharing their profit with you. It’s pretty straightforward, and people have stood by it for years, so it’s worth checking out. As they say, you’re already doing it, why not get paid for it.
Ibotta is an app that lets you complete tasks (such as answering a poll question or watching a short video ad) to unlock rebates on everyday items so you can get cash back via PayPal or Venmo.
If you would rather get out and about while you earn rewards, Mobee is the app for you. Mobee shows you stores that actually pay you to go into their store and be a “mystery shopper.”
You just pick a store, start a “mission” with 5-10 questions to answer, then after your mission is checked (within about 24 hours), you’ll be credited points. You can then exchange your points for gift cards, prizes, or cash.
Top Cash Back is similar to Ebates in that you get cash back for using their site to find deals. As they say on their site, they’re simply being paid a commission whenever you use one of the deals on their site, and their sharing that with you in the form of cash back. Not a bad deal.
Dealspotr is a great site for finding coupons and promo codes. They actually eliminate the problem of expired coupon codes (a frustrating part of searching for codes at many sites). They do this by actually paying their members to post accurate deals, accompanied with screenshots and tips demonstrating that the code actually works.
If you receive tons of coupon newsletters that normally go into your spam box, you can take a few extra minutes to post those deals to Dealspotr and earn gift cards along the way. Dealspotr is also the best place to start your search for a coupon code, since they have more codes than any other site.
Dealspotr is the largest and most accurate database of online coupons codes, and if you’re looking to keep some extra cash in your pocket when you shop, it’s the perfect resource.
They have “Hot Deals” and “On Fire Deals” that will save you tons of money, and you don’t have to worry about getting excited about a deal only to find that it’s expired.
With Nielsen Homescan, you can earn rewards for scanning and transmitting your purchases to Nielsen. The only catch is, you have to be an authorized panelist before you can participate. Being on a “panel”, according to their website, takes about an hour per week, but you’re rewarded for your time with points that are redeemable for gifts from their gift catalog.
InboxDollars lets you earn rewards for online activities such as surveys, games, shopping, searching online, etc. You can earn cash back when you shop or try new products/services through their site. You can even earn cashback on purchases made on games and tokens. There’s a lot to look at on InboxDollars, so check it out to see if it’s worthwhile for the type of shopping you do.
Want to turn your receipts from everyday shopping into cash? Check out Receipt Hog. Basically, you just snap a picture of any receipt after you shop, and you earn “coins” which can be redeemed for Amazon gift cards or cash via PayPal.
If you’re wondering how they’re able to do this, it’s basically a way for companies to get market research data, and they pay Receipt Hog for the information. Then they’re basically splitting the profit with you.
Checkout 51 is simple - you buy groceries, upload your receipts, and earn cash back. When your account reaches $20.00, they send you a check.
When you create an account, you’ll see all of your offers in one feed, and you can “star” the ones you like. Then, after you’ve gone to the grocery store and purchased all the items on your “starred” list, you can select which offers you want to redeem.
Try these apps and websites, and see which ones you like the most. After all, you’re going to shop anyways, so you might as well earn cash and rewards while you do!
Mike is a husband and father of 2 who studies the art of never paying full price for anything.
