Grab Your Phone! The Box Tops for Education Program is Going Digital
No more baggies and scissors! Box Tops are going high tech!
The Box Tops for Education program is going digital with a new mobile app which will allow parents to scan their store receipt and earn money for their kiddo’s school!
To earn Box Tops, just purchase products with the new Box Tops label, scan your receipt with the new Box Tops app (for iTunes or Google Play) and earn 10¢ per participating product.
After the receipt is scanned, money will automatically be added to your school’s earnings online. Note that your receipts must be scanned within 14 days of purchase but you can scan 50 receipts per day, per registered account.
The mobile app will also allow you to track your contributions as well as your school’s running total. Pretty cool!
Here’s how it works:
- Download the new Box Tops App (iTunes or Google Play) – it’s free
- Create a username and connect it to your child’s school
- Scan your grocery store receipt
- Items with the new Box Tops label will be automatically credited to your school
Prefer to shop online?
General Mills is currently working on the functionality of the app to accept electronic receipts for Box Tops redemption and hopes to have it up and running by the end of this summer.
Send the kiddos back to school in style with these cute Cat & Jack shoes!
This is all well and good but usually I split all of our box tops evenly between all of my school age kids since their schools do “box top contests”and the class that collects the most, gets a prize. Not sure there will be a way to do that now.
Make multiple acts if it’s that important
Shocking how little you understand how very important these Box Tops are to schools, Laura. 🙁
Same here! It would be one thing if they were trying to go green and eliminate the “paper” BoxTops, but since the packaging is there, regardless, it doesn’t eliminate any waste.
The old way was very tedious, but I’m concerned this will actually drop our box tops contributions lower. Before parents just had to tear off the box top and send it to school. I am the one who collected them from school, trimmed them, counted them, and shipped them in. It was a lot of work for me, but I’m saddened now because I feel like less parents will participate. That means lost money for our school.
I always collected the paper box tops. Pretty simple to do since I was breaking down the boxes anyway. Now I’ll have to download an app, set boxes aside, and remember to scan each box. Seems like a lot more of a hassle to be honest. I fear you are right in that less people will want to bother with it.
Post says receipts will be scanned, not the boxes. Not sure that makes it an easier process or one that will be participated in as much as before though.
I also think it will discourage participation but in the note sent home to parents at our school about box tops it also says kids can just bring $2.50 instead of 25 box tops each 9 week period to still get rewarded and our school still gets the money that way. I could never collect that many for each of my 3 kids anyway so was very glad for the cash option!
That is a GREAT idea! NO expiration date to worry about either! I will have to suggest that idea at the first Room Parent’s meeting for this year!
I haven’t participated before but with it going digital, I will. I’m sure other parents will as well.
Glad you will, cause I am a lot less likely. I don’t want to have to remember of my receipt has the box top items included and don’t want to share with them all my receipt info. Could definitely be wrong, but feels like a way for them to get shopping trip info.
I stopped doing Kelloggs rewards when they did this. I just forget about receipts.
Ditto. How annoying and it does feel intrusive.
Same. It was so much more annoying to do rather than save the codes via pics or cutting them off the boxes and inputting them once a week. I won’t be doing this either.
I did too. I never remembered to scan my receipts for kelloggs. Glad I am not the only one.
See I think it will increase them. I don’t like cutting and all that and half the time I forget them. Then the ones we do remember to cut out or tear off end up all over the house because the baggie es spilled and the cat plays with them or whatever. So I think this will increase the amount the schools get!
Your right, now it is more work for I the parent. I am less likely to scan my receipt, if my phone is outdated then I can not participate. Plus I use to collect them from friends and family, so now the school is going to lose those points too.
So disappointing.
What about the original box tops? I have several saved while school was out.
You can still send them in. Actually you can double dip by scanning your receipt and turning in the original box tops since they are just starting this.
I hope it will work if we can just send our receipts to the school we want to donate to & they can scan them in. Maybe have a drop off box???
Wondering the same thing, Would need to get those receipts turned in quickly with the 14 day deadline to scan.
Love this idea as a teacher, however we would need a volunteer to scan all those in
Ughhh… I don’t like this at all. I clip for my nieces, as my boys are in HS and they don’t participate in btfe. The girls school’s do contests for ice cream or other monthly contests. Unless the school really pushes the program, I’m sure overall there will be a drop as there are lots of parents who won’t upload receipts or forget. I do that with Kelloggs rewards. I buy something and get sidetracked when I get home, the receipt gets filed away and then I miss out on points. Then the brand wins.
Exactly how I feel. Sad about this change.
I usually lose my receipts before I can remember. I quit participating in kelloggs and huggies when they made the switch. Too much of a hassle for me.
Same here
Same here. I never remember to scan receipts…I miss a lot of Kellogg and ibotta because if it.
Me too. I’ll either forget to add the items to Ibotta before I go shopping or I forget to scan my receipts in time. I also do not like the fact that if I use apps, like Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go, that I don’t get credit because there’s no receipt printed and that I can’t get credit for the things that I purchase online unless I go through their link, which I always fail to remember…
Same feeling, I’m one of those who will forget, my kids remind me now.
Same here. I think it will definitely affect the “bottom line” for the schools.
I agree. I do not like this change. Why does everything have to go digital? When we finished a product we tore off the box top and split them between the kids. Not that interested in scanning receipts….
Not to mention we get them from grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. who will tear them off before throwing them out. They will never do the app/scan thing!
Exactly!!!!
Agreed. I don’t have a phone that will scan these. My relatives won’t do this either….they can barely figure out the grocery store apps. I also think that this will reduce the participation. I actually think that this might be what they want though. People would be mad if they did away with the program entirely, and this way the company does not need as many people (working for them) have to collect the paper. It’s like self check out at the store.
That’s what I was thinking too, a way to bring down participation. this bad idea will deter people and participation is def going to go down. Myself like others noted, stated it is so easy just to tear off when you flatten the box, very easy for grandparents to also help save, not all are very tech savvy and will follow through with new way.
That is what the company is hoping for. The older generation will refuse to do this so they will not have to give the schools so much money. It is all in their favor for sure.
I actually tried to download this from something that I purchased with the digital boxtop. It didn’t work, and I ended up giving up. So far, it has just been a hassle in my opinion. 🙁
I tried to submit a receipt a few days ago but it didn’t go thru so I had to send an email. I attached a picture of my receipt and a picture of what I bought. I also told them I was disappointed in the change and how I had little incentive to purchase GM cereal ( when there are store brand versions, etc.). They said they would credit my account but didn’t comment on the change in the btfe program.
I certainly won’t be going to this much trouble again!
This is what I was afraid of. I had one heck of a time with the Kellogg’s free book program. I used to do that religiously. Lots of free books for our school. Then it went digital and had nothing but problems submitting and babysitting any issues to make sure they made it right. They didn’t fix the last one and I swore off the program forever.
I have already downloaded app struggles with it and dumped app I will support kids on another way..huh
Not a fan either and then I saw this which just added to my dislike! Hefty, Kleenex and Ziploc were where I got most of ours from:
“A few brands have opted not to participate in the digital program; however, you can still find Box Tops clips on these products during the packaging transition. Be sure to send them to your school before they expire.
Select Finish® Products
Select Hefty® Products
Select Kleenex® Products
Select Reynolds® Products
Select Scott® Products
Select Ziploc® Products
I may be the only one excited about this! I rarely took the time to cut them out. When I did, they sat in the junk drawer and never made it to school. I scan receipts all the time on my phone for Fetch and Ibotta, so this will be a breeze!
This sounds like too much work. I have have barely enough space on my phone as it is.
I don’t like this at all. I’m a teacher who has dealt with BTFE for countless years. We do several organized giveaways for kids to encourage they bring them in. We even have a carnival every October and the cost of admission and games are box tops. It’s a HUGE event for our community. This makes me so incredibly sad.
I believe our donation rate will fall drastically. That’s too much effort for some people. I’m not sure it’s worth having an app take up space on your device for an occasional scan.
Ugh, no more receipt scanning apps! It’s not easy if you have to submit 1 receipt through 5 apps to get all the various rewards/cash back, especially since they often need to be corrected, like I have to do at least 50% of the time with Fetch. Also, my parents will never use this, but they did always collect the physical box tops for my kids. I think fewer people are going to participate for various reasons which means less money for our schools. Sad.
I stopped Fetch cause they never accepted my receipts on the first time or the second time. Not worth it to me.
Yeah I’m always not a fan of this change. The kids like to cut out the box tops for thier own seperate bags and turn them in. I know I won’t scan recipes as often. Bummed
Anyone else doubting that people will want to go through the hassle of the download and scanning? I collect for our small Christian school, and many of those who bring box tops in are older and are very particular about their privacy and many don’t have smart or even cell phones. Also, I can’t image he that many people will want to go through the hassle or hand me their receipt to scan myself. I think the program will really see a large loss of participation due to the change.
I REALLY dislike this change. It will absolutely lower participation and reduce money earned for the schools. In my personal opinion it’s just another way for big companies to gather personal data from us for their own purposes!! Think about all the information provided on your receipt, purchasing habits, location, method of payment, and then you have to tell them the school your child(ren) attend, not to mention all the information they doubtless require you to give them permission to access on your phone when you download the required app. Ugh, what a scam!!
I agree, it’s a giant invasion of our privacy to give them our complete grocery purchasing history, just to earn 10 cents or 20 cents for a school! Plus, scanning long receipts needing multiple sections, and dealing with balky apps, is too much of a bother and takes up TIME! I’m disappointed.
Wondering about my online shopping orders. How can I upload those receipts?
Not a fan of this new changed, it will most likely decrease participation in the program.
I will just do it at the same time I’m scanning my receipt for Ibotta!!! Thanks HIP 2 save!! I can’t wait to share this with other moms at the school! And my MIL can save a stamp. She used to collect box tops them mail them. Now she can just scan them!!
I wouldn’t count too much on non-couponers doing this new procedure!
I used the old app to scan my receipts for bonus box tops for our school. Today I updated to the new app and scanned my Dollar General receipt. The box tops were processed immediately and added to our school’s account. I didn’t have any problems. I don’t mind scanning my receipts, but I also feel it will decrease participation.
Not a good process for grandparents who love saving the tops for their grandkids 🙁
All the rewards programs are changing to the scanning receipts thing. Starbucks, Huggies, Kellogg’s. It’s such a pain! Huggies always rejects my receipts for no reason and I have to send an email. I used to collect the box tops for my dads school (small, private school he works at) and I know my parents save all their box tops. But my dad is older and very concerned about privacy and would NEVER scan a receipt. Pampers changed their points tiers and made it more points to get anything. Sigh. Gone are the days of awesome free stuff from brand loyalty rewards programs!
I’m honestly bummed about this. My kids love collecting them and bringing them to school. They had little contests at school and it’s fun. Sad it’s going digital.
I get a lot of mine from coworkers. I doubt they will be giving me their receipts.
I’m excited! Always felt guilty for forgetting to cut them out and collect them and send them in. Now all I have to do is scan it 👍🏻
Not sure I like this new way. To me it sounds like more work than just cutting them and knowing me I will forget to scan it within the days allowed 🤷♀️🤦♀️
I do like being able to collect them myself but as a mom who served on the PTA and had to sort and organize house things for over 1100 students, I like this idea better provided I can still distribute them amount my kids. While I admit I too stopped the Kellogg reward when it went to receipts, but this is going towards the kids’ school and I’m sure I’ll make the effort to do it.it can be very for some schools to get parent involvement in activities like sorting and weeding them out and the task let to one person can be a lot. Plus getting relatives to do it from out of area would be a big boost. We have grandparents that save and mail them in, how many more might do it because of the ease of not having to mail.
So dissappointed in this. I have family members who save box tops for my kids along with the fact I work in a kitchen and if we ever get products with box tops they save them for my kids as well. That is a huge loss for my kids school as I can tell you now that no one I know will download that app and scan receipts. I tried it when they had bonuses and when I watched the amount change it only changes when I uploaded it. I was the only one in my daughters school using it. I even quit because it was glitching a lot and I gave up. My kids love to print off the coloring sheets and add the box tops to th and send them in. So disappointing. You’ll see less incentive from the schools for the kids too. Think this change will result in box tops eventually disappearing altogether. Too many people hate apps.
I seem to be the only one doing it for my son’s old school that I still like to support, also!
Seems like I’m in the minority, but I love this! So easy and quick to scan a receipt. I seem to forget to cut out the box tops and the ones I remember usually end up in my junk drawer. My routine for Kellogg’s is to put my groceries away then scan my receipt. Takes an extra 20 seconds once a week. This will definitely be a time saver for me and for my school.
Well that really sucks. People like me who rip the box tops off of my customers boxes that I see in the garbage or whatever will no longer be able to help their local schools. I don’t have any kids but I would give them to a customer who collected them. Receipts just makes it more complicated and definitely not something I could do. Bummer!
Seems like a way for them to get personal info from receipts. I’m not doing it.
I prefer clipping them. I’m much less likely to remember to scan plus it’s more work. I’m disappointed with this change 😒.
As a busy mom I don’t have time to scan a receipt into another app 🤦🏻♀️
My relatives (Grandparents, cousins, aunts) all clipped box tops for years to benefit the school where I teach. I think this will effectively eliminate their participation in the program.
My son enjoys collecting box tops and turning them in. He gets little prizes for it. I feel like this will really lower what the school receives . I also have a lot of people send them in to me, and I’m not going to be asking for their receipts . This removes the student from the activity . Kids also like to feel out those little pictures for box tops. If it completely switches to this, I guess we won’t participate. Sounds like that’s what they are wanting anyway .
I have to say I’m surprised by the comments! I heard the heading about scanning in box tops earlier today and was way excited! I thought we could scan a special barcode like a QR code ON the packaging. Open app, take pic, done. App sends info to school of choice already set up in app. Not sure why we couldn’t do that. Too complicated for each package to be individualized?
I’m one who cuts out the box top and loses it. Some are so very tiny!
Although I feel the process could be refined. I’ll try it.
A lot of us get them from our family members and friends to send in. By this method the schools are goin to end up receiving less. Also children love to participate in this program and this removes them from it .
My son enjoys collecting box tops and turning them in. He gets little prizes for it. I feel like this will really lower what the school receives . I also have a lot of people send them in to me, and I’m not going to be asking for their receipts . This removes the student from the activity . Kids also like to feel out those little pictures for box tops. If it completely switches to this, I guess we won’t participate. Sounds like that’s what they are wanting anyway .
They don’t want the kids and the elderly to be involved. They want a way for them to pay less to the schools is my opinion.
Does this mean the cardboard coupons will not be on the cereal boxes anymore? Scanning my grocery receipts to show everything I’ve bought… no, I can’t/won’t do that! I’ve supported this program for MANY years, but I’ll just stop donating.
I wish they would allow both ways – scanning receipts and sending in the paper. That would be the best of both worlds!
I so agree less will participate. I don’t know that I want to download another app to my phone. Maybe I will download it to my grandsons and let him scan them. I would rather cut and put them in a baggie and send them to school.
I had to quit getting rewards from Huggies and Pampers cause they went digital. I didn’t have room on my old phone for another app. Now I don’t have to buy them LOL
Low income schools will suffer the most. Those parents won’t have the phones to scan. The boxtops were easy for kiddos to tear off, trim, etc. I wonder if they surveyed schools and teachers before switching to this. I understand how much easier it must be for the company and what great data they can get from receipts. As a former low SES educator, I know how this will impact the schools and I know I won’t scan my receipts. (I do collect the boxtops and give to my former school)
You’re exactly right. Even if those parents have cell phones, they may not have a lot of space on them for yet another app. I think the biggest issue would just be time. You’ve got single parent households where the parent is working 2 jobs and raising kids…tearing off a boxtop takes seconds (and something the kid can do) but scanning a receipt, without losing it and within 14 days, takes longer.
It’s always about money. It’s so disappointing.
This is also what I thought when I saw this. This is very skewed against lower income areas that NEED any extra money they can get through this program. Many don’t have computers let alone a phone to scan these in. And yes, scanning the receipt. Even I forget about the receipts some times. Wow, just wow. If they offered both a scan option AND a mail in option I would buy it that it was for OUR convenience. But since it is scan ONLY, it is most definitely for THEIR convenience.
If you have a moment, people should get on the BTFE website and send and e-mail about how they should at least allow both ways for the given reasons in this thread. The lack of participation from other family members and friends or co-workers . How the kids are no longer involved. How it is a pain to scan things when you are a busy mom or dad before that 14 day deadline or before your kids spills juice all over your receipt if it doesn’t get lost in the car on the way home. Etc, etc, etc. If enough people state their disappointment in the digital only change, perhaps they will allow both ways so a bigger amount of people can still participate.
I was very disappointed when I saw this. I know that I won’t be able to contribute to our school’s program like I did before. When Kellogg’s and Huggie’s went with using receipts, I stopped doing the rewards program.
I have collected box tops for my school for about 10 years. I have always been able to motivate children to bring box tops through contests. In the next few years scanning will eliminate contests. My fear is that people who collect for our school that don’t have students there are not going to go to the trouble. Hopefully they will turn in the receipts. I have scanned and did find it very easy. Might have to go to whole school rewards when we reach a specific goal. Am glad that for a while you can clip and also scan. Great to get double credit.
The new Boxtops app didn’t work very well for me. I had to write to customer service every time after I scan my receipts due to missing credits. Recently, I scanned two receipts and the app just wouldn’t accept the 2nd receipt. It kept on saying it’s duplicate just because both receipts had 2 Yoplait items. =(
I have not read this thru but is there anything preventing people from scanning everybox on the store shelves??? Shoud the put the LOGO INSIDE THE BOX??
Hi shirley! You would actually need to purchase the product as you would then have to scan your receipt with the app to collect the cash for your school. Hope that helps!
yes it does thank you.
You’re so welcome. Have a great night, shirley!
Since the reboot, the app won’t work for me. I tried to reset my password – that won’t work. Contacted the developers, and they did nothing to help. AND were dismissive of my concerns about both privacy and the fact that low income communities will have significantly decreased participation. They claim that there is a high percentage of mobile users in low income areas, so it’s no problem. I’ve watched the disaster that is app information in my local school – the poor parents DON’T have smart phones! They can’t afford them! A mobile phone isn’t necessarily a smart phone that can take apps.
This is just a disaster. And it’s just going to hurt the schools that needed the help most.
Oh darn! So sorry to hear about that. Maybe try deleting and reinstalling the app. Hoping that might help!
Did that. Also contacted their development support. Completely unhelpful. This change really, REALLY sucks.
Bummer! Hoping it works better for you soon!
Not sure if I like the idea…we used that time together to cut and glue the box tops on the papers from the school and my kids always enjoyed doing it… I’m a bit too forgetful to get on the app and upload every receipt 🤷
I really do NOT like this! There are a LOT of older people out there that collect box tops for their grandchildren and even for their great-grandchildren that either do not have smart phones &/or are not tech savvy that will miss out on being involved with collecting box tops and feeling needed and useful to these kids and their schools. All schools will lose money that they count on in the process to benefit the school’s budget. This is a mess! WHY not keep the ability to cut box tops for those that still want to, and make this app available to those that are tech savvy and want to go that way? Then we will have the best of BOTH worlds! Another thing to think about, I am not comfortable scanning my reciepts and have total strangers tracking my purchase history! That is private and it is no one’s business but my own! NO THANK YOU!
I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of collecting as many of these as I can for my gfs son. I pester all the guys at work, friends, neighbors… for them and I always end up with hundreds by the time the turn in happens… Well I guess that’s over, since I’m sure they’re not going to give me all thier receipts, nor am I going to ask for them. Besides that, I’m not going to waste my time downloading just one more stupid app. As weird as it may be to some, many of the people I know don’t mess with their phones beyond calling, texting, and the occasional looking something up online. That’s if they even have a “smart” phone and I’d say 25% of them don’t. All in all I just don’t see it working out that well…
Used it for like two to three weeks and then the app just stopped working. Even redownloaded it. I scan the receipt and then just get am empty pink screen. I told them about it and no solution to the glitch was offered. They sent me the generic email for if the app doesn’t pick up some of your products. Bottom line is that they don’t want to give money anymore.