My FICO logo $$$$$$$$$$$ 9876 5432 1234 5678 CREDIT CARD KELLY SMITH 11/26 My FICO logo
SCORE
Skip Navigation
  • Why FICO
  • How It Works
  • Pricing
  • Education
  • Community
  • Support
  • Member Dashboard
  • Log In Log Out
  • Start Plan
 
  • Why FICO
  • How It Works
  • Pricing
  •  
  • Education
    • Credit Education
    • Credit Scores
    • What Is a FICO Score?
    • FICO Scores vs Credit Scores
    • FICO Scores Versions
    • New FICO Scores
    • How Scores Are Calculated
    • Payment History
    • Amount of Debt
    • Length of Credit History
    • Credit Mix
    • New Credit
    • How to Improve Your Score
    • How to Build Credit
    • Credit Reports
    • What's in Your Report
    • Credit Bureaus
    • Inquiries
    • Errors on Your Report?
    • Blog
    • Calculators
    • Loan Savings
    • Vehicle Payments
    • How Much Can I Borrow?
    • Should I Consolidate My Credit Cards?
    • Know Your Rights
    • Identity Theft
    • FAQ
    • Glossary
  • Community
  • Support
  • Member Dashboard
  • Log In Log Out
  • Our Products
    • Ongoing Credit Monitoring Track your FICO® Score & identity
    • One-time Credit Reports Be prepared for important transactions
  • How Can We Help
    • Monitor Credit & Identity
    • Mortgages
    • Credit Cards
    • Auto Loans
  • Credit Education
  • Community
  • Support
  • Our Products
    • Ongoing Credit Monitoring Track your FICO® Score & identity
    • One-time Credit Reports Be prepared for important transactions
  • Credit Education
  • Credit Scores
    • What Is a FICO Score?
    • FICO Scores vs Credit Scores
    • FICO Score Versions
    • New FICO Scores
    • How Scores Are Calculated
    • Payment History
    • Amount of Debt
    • Length of Credit History
    • Credit Mix
    • New Credit
    • How to Improve Your Score
    • How to Build Credit
  • Credit Reports
    • What's in Your Report
    • Credit Bureaus
    • Inquiries
    • Errors on Your Report?
  • Blog
  • Calculators
    • Loan Savings
    • Vehicle Payments
    • How Much Can I Borrow?
    • Should I Consolidate My Credit Cards?
  • Know Your Rights
  • Identity Theft
  • FAQ
  • Glossary
View all Personal Finance articles

How to Earn Cash Back While Shopping Online and in Stores

{% description %}Cash back apps, rewards portals, discounts and other deals can help you save money on almost anything.%}

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels

Coupons and discounts aren't the only way to save money on everyday purchases. Whether you're making the weekly grocery run or shopping for a special occasion, you can stack cash back apps, rewards portals, discounts, coupons and other offers to save money on almost anything.

Use Cash Back Apps

Cash back apps let you earn cash back rewards (or points you can redeem for cash back) for in-store purchases. These apps tend to start with a focus — such as cash back on groceries or at gas stations — and expand as they grow. Some of the most popular include Ibotta, Fetch Rewards and GetUpside, but there are others you could try as well.

Often, you need to accept an offer in the app and then purchase the item from an eligible retailer. Many, but not all, cash back offers are for brand-name products.

The offers may be for a percentage of your purchase amount or a specific reward. For example, you might get $1 cash back when you buy a specific type of milk. Or 5% cash back at a nearby restaurant. If you find the same offer in multiple apps, you can often double-dip and earn cash back multiple times from a single purchase.

You also may need to verify the purchase by uploading a picture of your receipt. But some cash back apps let you automatically earn the cash back rewards after you make eligible purchases with a linked debit, credit or store loyalty card or account.

Compare Online Portals Rewards Rates

If you're shopping online, there are also many opportunities to earn cash back, airline miles or hotel points from your purchase.

Online rewards portals are like intermediary websites. They have a list of online stores that you can shop at and rewards rates for each store. When you click on a link to an eligible site and make a purchase, the merchant pays the portal a referral fee and the portal shares part of the fee with its users.

The trick is that different shopping portals give you different rewards rates, and the rates can change at any time. Using a site like Cashback Monitor can help you quickly find out whether you can earn rewards from a retailer's website, and which rewards portal offers the best rates.

Stack Coupons, Discounts and Offers

Don't forgo other money-saving tips if you're using a cash back app or portal. Often, you can use coupons, discount codes or shop the clearance section and still earn rewards. Although double-check rewards portals' terms, as there may be limitations on which coupon codes you can use when checking out online.

There are also sometimes opportunities to combine store or brand coupons with cash back app offers. You may even be able to combine deals and offers and make more money than you spend — these are often called money-making (“MM”) opportunities in deal-hunting communities.

Pay With a Rewards Credit Card or Discounted Gift Card

As the final step, consider how you can save more money by strategically paying for the purchase. For instance, if you have rewards credit cards, consider which card will offer you the most rewards at the merchant.

When you can't or don't want to use a rewards card, you could look into buying a discounted gift card for the store. Sites like Raise.com buy people's unwanted gift cards and resell them for less than their face value. The discount can depend on the store and gift card's value, but there are popular brands' gift cards on sale with savings of over 20%.

By combining one or several of these money-saving approaches, you may be able to find a way to save (or make) money on almost any purchase. However, don't let the potential to save lead to spaving — spending money just to get a deal.

Louis DeNicola

Louis DeNicola is a finance writer based in Oakland, California. He specializes in consumer credit, personal finance, and small business finance, and loves helping people find ways to save money. In addition to FICO, Louis works with a variety of financial services firms, credit bureaus, and educational websites, including LendingTree, Credit Karma, and Experian.

Estimate your FICO Score range

Answer 10 easy questions to get a free estimate of your FICO Score range

740 - 790
Estimate for Free

Instant Access to Your FICO® Score

90% of Top Lenders Use FICO® Scores. Do you know yours?

Get Access Now!

Page footer

Products

  • Home
  • Why FICO
  • How It Works
  • Pricing

Learn

  • Education
  • Community
  • Support
  • Blog

Company

  • About Us
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Affiliate Program
  • Accessibility

Get Our App

  • Download iOS app on the App Store
  • fil_get
    Get Android app on the Google Play Store

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Credit Education

  • Credit scores
  • What is a FICO Score?
  • FICO Score versions
  • How scores are calculated
  • Payment history
  • Amount of debt
  • Length of credit history
  • Credit mix
  • New credit
  • Credit reports
  • What's in your report
  • Bureaus
  • Inquiries
  • Errors on your report?
  • Calculators
  • Know your rights
  • Identity theft
  • FAQ
  • Glossary

Copyright ©2001- Fair Isaac Corporation. All rights reserved.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

All FICO® Score products made available on myFICO.com include a FICO® Score 8, and may include additional FICO® Score versions. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than the versions you receive from myFICO, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more

FICO, myFICO, Score Watch, The score lenders use, and The Score That Matters are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation. Equifax Credit Report is a trademark of Equifax, Inc. and its affiliated companies. Many factors affect your FICO Scores and the interest rates you may receive. Fair Isaac is not a credit repair organization as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Fair Isaac does not provide "credit repair" services or advice or assistance regarding "rebuilding" or "improving" your credit record, credit history or credit rating. FTC's website on credit.

PRIVACY NOTICE: When you visit this website we collect your browsing activities on our site and use that information to analyze and research improvements to the website, and to our products and services. When you register for our products and services, we also collect certain personal information from you for identification purposes, such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, social security number, IP address, and date of birth. Further information is available in our FICO Data Privacy Policy. For visitors with visual disabilities, access to this website, including our FICO Data Privacy Policy, is available through assistive technologies, such as BrowseAloud, JAWS, VoiceOver, Narrator, ChromeVox, and Window-Eyes. More details on software and accessibility are available at WebAIM.org.