Shop and Earn Rewards with These 7 FREE Mobile Apps

Wanna make money just for shopping?

There are free mobile apps for that! With mobile apps, you can easily earn cash or rewards by purchasing products you’re planning to buy anyway (and possibly with coupons). Here are a few completely free mobile apps that will save you time and help earn you money!

1. Dosh – FREE!

Dosh is a free cash back app that finds you money for shopping, dining out, and booking hotels and travel activities across more than 100,000 merchants and brands nationwide.

To get started, simply grab your phone, download the Dosh app, complete the easy signup process by linking a verified credit/debit card, and live life as usual – let Dosh do all the work for you!

Here’s how it works: every time you use your verified credit/debit card, Dosh searches for available offers or coupons that match your transactions (restaurants, grocery stores, etc). When it finds one, Dosh automatically redeems the offer and then deposits it directly into your Dosh wallet. You don’t have to do a thing! There’s no coupon clipping, receipt scanning, or code entering!

Earn Dosh cash with these simple steps:

1. Connect your credit and debit cards with Dosh’s bank-level, encrypted security.
2. Shop, dine out, or even book a hotel. Use any one of your connected credit or debit cards to make a purchase from a Dosh merchant – or to book a hotel or travel activity through the app. As an extra perk, when you book hotels through Dosh, you get the most competitive prices available.
3. Get cash back! All cash back from offers and hotels goes directly into your Dosh wallet.
4. Spend or donate your cash. Transfer your cash into a bank account or PayPal or donate it to a charity via the app.

2. Ibotta – FREE!

With the free Ibotta App, you earn cash by purchasing items at participating stores. Just unlock offers by completing various tasks (such as learning a fact or watching a short video). You can also search for offers while shopping in-store by scanning the barcode of the products you’re buying.

After making a purchase, easily submit a rebate by tapping on “Redeem” for eligible items purchased. Then scan the product barcode (if necessary for that store) and submit a picture of your receipt. (Watch my detailed video on how to use the Ibotta App – just note that this video was filmed back in 2014 so some info is out of date).

The awesome part is that in addition to getting cash back on your purchases, you can also use manufacturer’s coupons to lower your costs even further!

Here’s how to earn cash with Ibotta:

1. Before you shop, add offers for qualifying products by completing simple tasks.
2. Buy the products you selected at any participating store (don’t forget your receipt!).
3. Redeem your offers by taking a photo of your receipt. They’ll match the items you bought to the offers you selected and give you the cash.
4. Your cash back will be deposited into your Ibotta account within 48 hours.
5. Redeem for gift cards to popular stores like Amazon, Starbucks, Kohl’s, and other stores – OR request a cash option via PayPal or Venmo.

3. Checkout 51 – FREE!

Checkout 51 is an easy-to-use cash back app that saves you tons of money on your favorite brands. It’s free to sign up, and you can start saving right away with coupons and cash back deals on everyday items from all your favorite stores. It’s updated every Thursday so you can browse through hundreds of local offers to save money on grocery and household products.

Save money with Checkout 51 by following these simple steps:

1. Browse the offers updated every Thursday.
2. Buy the products from ANY store – you choose!
3. Take a photo of your receipt to redeem your offer.
4. Earn cash back.
5. When your account reaches $20, request a check!

The Checkout 51 app can be downloaded for free in the App Store and Play Store. And the best part is that in addition to getting cash back on your purchases, you may be able to use manufacturer’s coupons to lower your out-of-pocket expense even further (some offers can’t be combined with coupons).

4. Fetch Rewards – FREE!

Fetch Rewards makes it easy to save on your everyday grocery purchases – there are NO store limitations, NO having to clip special offers, and NO worrying about missing out on savings. All you do is snap a picture of your receipt and points will be put into your account. It’s that easy!

Plus, Fetch Rewards works for ANY grocery receipt. Take a picture of your receipt each time you purchase groceries and you’ll earn points for every item you purchase from the 250+ popular brands in the app. Accumulate points and redeem them for free rewards to hundreds of popular retailers.

Earn Fetch rewards with these simple steps:

1. Scan your grocery receipt from ANY store. You can use receipts from grocery stores, convenience stores, drugstores, liquor stores, and more.
2. Every time you purchase a product from one of Fetch’s participating brands, you’ll earn points.
3. As your points accumulate, you can redeem them for gift cards to popular retailers like Amazon, CVS, Target, Build-A-Bear, or even virtual MasterCard/Visa Rewards gift cards!

5. Receipt Hog – FREE!

Receipt Hog is a fun, free, and EASY way to turn your receipts into cash and rewards. Unlike similar rewards apps, Receipt Hog pays cash regardless of where you shop or what you buy!

Earn Receipt Hog cash with these simple steps:

1. Take pictures of your receipts from ANY store, restaurant or cafe – ALL receipts earn rewards.
2. Earn Receipt Hog rewards like coins, spins at the virtual slot machine, or sweepstakes prizes.
3. Cash out your coins for PayPal or Amazon gift cards! It’s that simple!

6. SavingStar – FREE!

SavingStar is a free service to help you easily save money on your groceries. Earn cash back when you shop at your local grocery store without clipping or printing coupons. You can redeem grocery offers by linking them to your supermarket and drugstore loyalty cards OR by submitting a picture of your receipt.

SavingStar automatically adds the value of each offer you redeem into your SavingStar account, which you can cash out to your bank, PayPal, or Upromise account, or to a gift card for Starbucks, iTunes, or AMC Theatres. You can also donate to the charity American Forests to help plant trees.

Here’s how to earn SavingStar cash:

1. Add the stores you shop at so you can redeem rebates there. Each store is either an “Automatic Store” (rewards earned via your store card) or a “Receipt Store”, but not both.
2. Activate rewards before you shop from the following offers:

   • Always On Programs are the easiest way to save. Sign up once and save every time you purchase.

   • One or Many Offers gives you huge savings when you meet a spending goal over one or many shopping trips, purchased all at one store or across many stores.

   • Healthy Offers helps you save on fresh produce.

3. Use the SavingStar iPhone or Android app to scan UPCs, take pictures of your receipt, and submit the receipt before you’ve even left the grocery store.
4. Every time you redeem a rebate or make an “Always On” purchase, you’ll earn a SavingStar reward. Your cash rewards will be automatically sent to your SavingStar account.
5. Once your SavingStar account balance reaches $20, you can cash out!

Each week, SavingStar adds new offers, plus a savings offer on a fresh produce item.

7. Shopkick – FREE!

Shopkick is free location-based shopping app for iTunes or Android devices that gives you reward points that can be redeemed for amazing retail gift cards. Simply walk into stores, scan items, and buy everyday products to earn points!

Once you’re a Shopkick user, you can collect kicks and bonuses at millions of stores and restaurants in America including Macy’s, Target, Best Buy, JCPenney, and more. Then redeem your kicks for rewards for various gift cards, such as Amazon, Target, Starbucks, Best Buy, and others. Most Shopkickers can even earn their first gift card in a week!

How to earn gift cards with Shopkick:

1. Walk into stores and earn kicks right at the entrance of select partner stores.
2. Scan barcodes of select products. Hunt for select products in-store and earn kicks when you scan barcodes using their in-app scanner.
3. Purchase with a linked credit card to earn kicks for every dollar you spend at select partner stores.
4. Purchase select items and submit your receipt through the app to earn kicks.
5. Earn and redeem kicks for digital gift cards to stores like Amazon, Best Buy, Sephora, Walmart, Target, and others!

What’s YOUR favorite shopping app? Please share!