Ibotta

I've been thrilled with this app since I signed upon June of this year. I earned my $20 new member reward, which was the hardest part this far since you really have to "learn as you go" unless you happen to have an Ibotta life coach nearby. I've accumulated over $200 since June and I'm still going strong! Please people, read... read all the exclusions and rules on how to get the cash back. You have to follow what it says and you will earn cash back. I feel like people don't want to put in the effort to read and expect to reap the rewards based on what is written in bold letters and numbers percentage you can get back on qualifying purchases.
I've been very satisfied with Ibotta's customer service. Their response time is within reason and they've always credited my account when an error occurs... hey, no system is perfect, but theirs comes very close to it.
I have no affiliation with Ibotta. I am not a robot. I am very happy to have discovered Ibotta and think all you haters should really learn to read. You must be doing something wrong. I shouldn't be telling you because all you have to do is READ, but I will say this... When you launch an online merchant through the Ibotta app, any items in your cart do NOT qualify, you must remove them from your cart first and re-add them through the Ibotta app itself and you can NOT apply any other promo codes to the order because you will NOT receive cash back. Cash back will be pending for at least 90 days and will only be released if the item was not returned.
Please people, make sure you're doing everything right before you point the finger and criticize something for not being legit when it seems to work fine for others... not to sound too harsh, but, most of the time people complain is due to user error.

Ibotta isn't as bad as some reviews make it out to be. I've gotten locked out once from ibotta and it was Bc their system flagged me thinking I had redeemed more offers than what my receipt stated. When I contacted ibotta, Ibotta did response back to me within 2-3 days and eventually unlocked my account once a review was completed. I've also contacted them several times since then and have gotten back quite professional and helpful responses. I honestly don't think they're just going to lock & terminate your account so they can steal the money.
A tip: if you are going to contact them, try using the app directly instead of their email address. Basically click the bell' icon top right corner when you first open the app. That will list all the activities from your account. Select the first or whichever one you have an issue with. Then click the question mark' icon top right corner then select report an issue' and write from there. They seem to respond to this quicker than sending them an email.
The only time I had an issue where I wasn't credited was Bc the receipt didn't state the brand of product. The store, Sprouts farmers market, is very minimal with their receipt and has no product numbers shown unlike say Walmart. So if Ibotta system doesn't recognize a brand from the receipt then it will likely flag your account. Whenever I scan my receipts from Walmart I always, always get credited accordingly.
So in conclusion, ibotta is a pretty great app to save on groceries. I don't buy everything from ibotta. I only buy what I need or use often especially if the items are on sale as well plus ibotta cash back. Score! Customer service can be slow yes, however very reasonable and helpful whenever I report an issue. And always withdraw as soon as you reach withdrawal limit of $20. Would I recommend Ibotta? Absolutely yes. But I would also explain how to use ibotta as well and don't try to cheat the system.

I signed up for Ibotta at the end of May, and was and actually am enjoying using it and seeing what deals and bonuses I can accomplish. I have had two weird issues in the last week. One, my husband signed up on HIS device under me, which was my 3rd referral. The very next morning his account was deactivated. He did nothing wrong, validated a valid offer, and I never got my bonus for refering. Sent emails out a few days account and still nothing back. So whatever, I move on and have had several friends sign up. By several I mean like 4 total. My fourth (but third according to Ibotta) friend signed up and used her Ibotta. I live in South Carolina, her in Michigan. I got a 25 dollar bonus, plus had a little money in my account. I had a total of 41.75 in there and went to cash out. I had gotten locked out due to, to many password attemps, and after doing internet search I found maybe that is why I could not transfer my money. I re set my password, and can get in my account, however it will not let me cash out and to contact support. Which I have through email and facebook. I would like to see the infraction I made or if Ibotta will correct it, that would be awesome. I am not aware of ANY rules broken, all my referrals and receipts have been legit. I am hoping for a response to be able to try and continue the use of this, I have told so many people how awesome this was, now I feel like I lied and need to go back and tell them not to do it. Hoping this was an honest mistake on their part (or even mine if I did something I was unaware of) but I went a READ all the terms and can't find anything. If I did, I feel they should show me the infraction.

I leave the house and check my "any item" offers, deciding where to shop the night before my 20 dollar "join" redemption ends. Ibotta were set to expire in six hours. I return home a couple of hours later to redeem, one receipt redeems just fine. Cool, 9 more offers to go/something similar and I get the 20 bucks... WRONG. The second receipt is photographed, it wouldn't redeem my ay item offer. So, I went back to search the store the other ways it shows up; the any item category was gone... I search stores for my other receipts; 1 product shows up under the any item for all the other stores instead of that generic receipt icon that should be there. When I left the house, my 20 dollar bonus was set to expire at 1:59 AM. I hit "any item" on a couple more stores, the only one that shows the offer the correct way says it expires in two hours. Great, I have a receipt from there. I click it, it says "not available" on a red icon after jumping pages. I go back to my 20 bonus offer and click it, and it shows the same message for the first time. I still have time before that bonus expires, right this very second. It seems pretty scammy, so I search "any item" in general search, and the same 1 product that took over the general any item receipt category shows up: a mixer set for alcoholic drinks. There website also says you don't need a barcode, so why does it ask for one and produce offers that are product specific for scanning and not any item before the expiration of the any item offer... They didn't want to cash out on the bonus and they removed any item close to bonus check out time to reduce the refunds given. Deceptive.

With the Ibotta app, it was fun to see the savings grow! I did not withdraw any savings for a while and then I claimed a $20 gift card as a birthday present for a friend. I was supposed to get an e-mail with a link on how to obtain the actual card and I didn't get it. I asked for help in the app and hit the "resend" button. Didn't get any response either. Finally, I contacted customer service and after a few days I got the link and it worked (my friend had a belated birthday gift). I thought Ibotta was still sorting out how things worked with the app and that was the reason for the delay. Fast forward six plus months and I decide to withdraw two $20 gift cards from two different retailers. Same story: I got no e-mail with the link to retrieve the cards. After ten days of zero, zippo, nada, I e-mailed Ibotta again and this time Ibotta answered they had "manually" sent the link to my e-mail. I've been carefully checking the junk mail and inbox and have yet to see why their magic fingers didn't work on that manual task. I will e-mail them until I get my response. Nope, I'm not forgetting my hard-earned rewards! I haven't had any problems redeeming the offers and increasing my savings, but cashing in those savings has certainly been problematic.

Wish it had the option to give less than a star, Ibotta don't deserve a whole star. This company is screwed up on so many levels. The app conviently acts up when you want to cash out, offers disappear, they hold back the amount they owe you a little at a time, HORRIBLE customer service with no phones.
For example, your at the store and you see a rebate being offered, so you buy the item, but when you get home the offer disappears. This happened to me and it took a month and 10 representatives to get my money.
Because I've seen the offers disappear before (and I returned the items) I took pictures of the offer showing the date available and that it was in "my offers". After emailing them along with pictures of the product(2 bags of purina dog food) and receipt, letting them know what happened, they started with you didn't put them in " your offers" by clicking the pink "+" symbol. Which was ridiculous, because that's precisly what the pictures show. Then I sent the picture again, this time with the properties of the photo showing it was taken the day I bought the item, letting them know what a ridiculous claim that was. They didn't pursue that idea any longer. Next idea they came up with was that the pictures were too blurry when I submitted the rebate. (I never submitted it because they removed it!) Obviously there is just a list of general denial reasons they can use and they don't even look into your case! So I went out and bought something, took a blurry picture through Ibotta, and submitted it. Within a few mins they credited me. 50, no problem. I let them know how hard it was to actually take a blurry picture because it kept focusing, making a clear picture. But eventhough it was blurry, it went through. I asked that they send me the "blurry photo" I submitted and they said they couldn't find it and to send a 2nd time.
I withdrew every penny to see exactly how much they would be depositing when/if they deposit, or if they decided to cancel my account for no reason, which they're known for They responded back that my account was credited the $4 I was owed. When I looked in the activity it did say $4 was deposited, but they actually only put in $2. When I asked them about it they said it's because I withdrew money before the $4 was submitted, taking $2 of $4 of it. Now what kinda sense does that make?! If it wasn't there, how can I take from it? So I emailed back some elementary math so they could figure it out, but they wouldn't give up with the nonsense. So then I went back into the emails ibotta 1st sent up till now which is a record of every submission. I sent it to them, detailing the date, business and amount, along with bonuses and withdrawals. They amount at the end didn't add up! They still owed me $21! Once again they said they deposited the full $4 with out even a comment on the $21! I told them I was sick and tired of it all and if they dont deposit the money now I would tell everyone I know and strangers how corrupt the company is, along with adding to the long list of bad reviews on the BBB website, not to mention emailing the retailers and companies they represent and make money off of. The next day they deposited the missing $2. Nothing yet on the full amount. But if it took a month and 10 representatives to give me $4, I wonder how long it would take those morons to get the rest of the money to me. My suggestion is to follow how much your owed the whole time, with clear pictures of the offers and never give up! Those morons are stealing from people!

Adding to this review about 3 years later... I bought 4 packs of Oscar Meyer lunchables because it was listed on Ibotta. It says Oscar Meyer natural lunchables, any size, any variety. So I tried to submit the natural turkey and cheese and also the natural ham and cheese, but of course it doesn't accept it. So I went to the page to check if it was the correct product and it said they were not. This is ridiculous because they're both Natural Oscar Meyer lunchables, any variety, any size; so I scan them a couple more times. It finally accepted the ham, but not the turkey. So then it asked if there was a product that needed to be added, I guess because I kept scanning them. I took a picture to see if it could be added. They sent a message back saying it was the wrong product :( So then I took a picture of the receipt and the ones that were accepted. The next day I discover they didn't give me credit for the other two either, the ones that were approved on their site.

On another note, they also took off the date offers expire which is what I used to go by when selecting products before shopping. Now you don't know if they're gonna remove it before you can scan it. This company is a waste of time

Don't get me wrong, this app is by far my most favorite app I like to use on my phone. The only reason I gave it one star is because of the way Ibotta handled my situation. My account was permanently deactivated for having multiple accounts associated with my device as well as trying to exploit the referral bonus. I explained my case to Ibotta in multiple e-mails. My friends and family whom I referred, logged in using my phone. Ibotta did this so I could show them how the app. Works. I argued that if Ibotta had the ability to see this information on my account, why weren't they able to see that my referrals created their accounts on a SEPERATE device first, BEFORE logging in on my device? Even the people whom I referred offered to verify their accounts and allow Ibotta to contact them. I also mentioned other points to Ibotta in my appeal, but their decision did not change. Several other people have had the same thing happen to them. I am planning to file a complaint to the BBB. All I can say is Ibotta Inc. has poor customer service! They should update their terms of use to state, "Ibotta Inc. does not permit the helping of friends and family, this action is prohibited"

I've been using iBotta for several months now and thought I'd cash out some of my earnings yesterday. Since I've been a member, I've earned nearly $500. I've never had any issues entering rebates, scanning receipts, etc. When I tried to Venmo myself the cash, I received a message that my account was locked out and I should contact support. I have an iPhone and when I clicked the button, it verified my identity through the thumbprint reader, so I just assumed I needed to redo it or enter the password manually, but it didn't work. I sent a message to support since I wasn't still able to earn rebates, surf the app, but just not redeem. I received a canned response that my account had been deactivated for violating their policies. I had no idea what Ibotta were talking about as the e-mail was a form letter and very vague, stating that it could be from multiple accounts on the same device, reuse of receipts, etc., but since I didn't think any of those applied to me, I responded and asked for an example of when I violated the policy. I received a response that an item was returned and I received credit and that I submitted the same receipt for rebates that already received credit. I did return two pair of jeans to Kohls that I received credit for (which I told them and there was no way of undoing a rebate once it was submitted), but I NEVER NEVER NEVER reused any receipts for multiple rebates. I responded and let them know I had never done that and asked for a specific example. I received the following response: "At this time, we are choosing to end further communication about this issue." Sooooo... they kept my $498 bucks I earned honestly and closed my account permanently so I can't view anything or do anything about it. As soon as it happened, I googled "Ibotta complaints" and this seems to be a common practice by this company. There has to be something we can do. They're basically using us to buy items, gain money from advertising, and then take the money we've earned by helping them.

Ibotta has gone to great lengths to cheat me out of legitimate earnings time and time again. So many times it cannot be a coincidence. I have purchased items and never received credit and then contacted them to get a reply saying you must have done this or that incorrectly. There was a recent offering on Amazon where there was 10% cash back on amazon devices. I bought a Blink camera during that promotion only to receive a 2% cash back bonus. I emailed Ibotta customer service and 4 days later i received a reply saying I do not qualify for credit on that offer because it was in my cart prior to launching into Amazon from Ibotta. No, it wasn't. Ibotta even go to the trouble to scramble your earning records to make it more difficult to keep track of what you have been paid and what you have been cheated of. It's march, I use ibotta almost daily why when I look at my transaction and payment history is it showing transactions in December and January at the top of the list? Because they want it to be more difficult for users to identify their earnings or lack there of. I see a class action coming... These people are thieves, cheats and liars.

Ibotta app is such a waste of time! Most of the times app functionalities doesn't work, ex: i was unable to withdraw cash, never received rebates for Uber rides, had taken 10-12 rides, never got a rebate! When i contacted support team, Ibotta closed the ticket forcibly and mentioned they will investigate and get back! Its been a month, i am not bothered contacting them anymore!
Ibotta smartly collects personal info, which they sell to 3rd parties, ex: whats ur annual income, do u own a house, whats ur ethinicity, how many kids in your household, these are never related to any rebates but just personal data that they can sell! Never share these details, avoid rebates when asked these questions or choose a wrong option!
There is always spike in automated calls/spam emails after registering with ibotta, thats bcos ibotta has traded personal info with these!

###updates###
Ibotta has introduced new policy to authenticate with mobile no! This is complete non-sense. Ibotta wants customer phone no and hold on to earnings which ppl cannot withdraw! Never ever give your phone, as it will lead to spurge in spam calls. Ibotta has blocked my earning bcos i didnt provide my phone no. Just to prove Ibotta sells user info, i update my name purposely, changed to ex: "abc", next day i had 20 emails on email id registered on ibotta with "Hi abc". This not only proves ibotta shares personal data but can misuse it in any way!
U can try it urself, ibotta will never delete ur email once u register with them, even if u wish to delete ibotta account permenantly. So atleast avoid sharing phone no! Hope this help!

I have now contacted customer service at least 6 times as Ibotta wont honor my items bought in store at Walmart. Ibotta claims that the items are ordered online while I bought and proven by submitting the receipt, that this was in store purchase. Walmart has a code for certain items even thought that reflects the items that qualify under Ibotta, but Ibotta won't honor them. Since I used Walmart pay through the App, during my in store purchase I had to email through the App, the receipt to my email and make a picture and submit the picture, I should have received $ 3.50 dollars in credit and this is not the first purchase not honored by Ibotta. Ibotta now claims no emailed receipts will be honored but I made a picture of my receipt from the App. That receipts saves paper and is what I get for all in store purchases by using Walmart pay App. Even with a linked Publix phone number and using the App, there were missing items. Too much effort and nuisance to make this App qualify as a decent App. I just emailed Ibotta my response of how dishonest Ibotta are for not honoring an in store purchase with a real receipt that shows store, date and all items. Now Ibotta claims that only "paper receipts" will count. Ibotta is probably awaiting a class action lawsuit if they keep handling their clients like this. I do not recommend this App.

I heard all the hype about Ibotta so signed up. What a nightmare! Don't waste your time thinking you're going to save tons of money. The exorbitant time you have to spend chasing down the rebates and then emailing back and forth with customer service is better served by clipping real coupons. Take the Walmart receipt code hype for example... supposedly you just take photo with your phone and Ibotta will in fact know what you bought and give you the rebates immediately. NOT! It doesn't work and now I've wasted several days with going back and forth with customer service and I still don't have the correct rebates. I even tried only purchasing 4 items for each receipt and that doesn't work either. Excuse after excuse and still no resolution.

I could have saved more money by just using regular coupons or store sales and saved the money on the front end rather than spending full price and hoping for a rebate. There are terrific coupon clipping services where you can pay very nominal clipping fees and obtain newspaper coupons.

I was optimistic at first because of the hype but now I see that's all it is... hype. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.

I would stay away from e-bate apps. I have had issues with all of them and have had to file more than one BBB Complaint to be issued a rebate. Today, I'm looking into filing an FTC complaint against iBotta. Every time I've come close to cashing out, Ibotta send an email on the very last e-bate that says they can't read the receipt or don't see the product on the receipt. You can then click on "View the Receipt", at which point you will see your crystal clear, perfectly legible, unambiguous receipt. Basically, these e-bate apps are trying to track you and your shopping habits for free. Don't let them. This is your privacy we're talking about. They need to pay for it. Their sole function is to issue rebates, yet they engage in tactics to prevent having to pay. I initially liked iBotta because they offered solid rebates on liquor. I was willing to stick with it even though I had a couple of glitches. I initially gave them 4/5 stars; with a star being shaved for the small problems I had with them. But small problems culminated into bigger ones. The problems also show a distinct pattern of fraud. Stay away.

Hello, I downloaded this app because a friend showed it to me and then referred me. We did all the proper steps to use referal code and then since I have used app so much I have gotten 70$ back in two months. My main two issues with app are: the customer service is horrible. Takes days and sometimes weeks to get a responce ans a lot of times Ibotta send you articlws to read, which is not what you want. You want your issue to be solved or credit to be given that is missing. Also the friend referral is either scam or they do not want to honor it. Person who referred me two months ago never get her 5$ and now 3 days ago I referred a friend, who used the app, and they never honored it. My last straw was when I did a liquore store purchase of 1.75L smirnoff for the 3$ rebate and got reciete from store. Ibotta told me it was not a valid reciete. Well ladies and gentleman I dont know how much more valid it can get or wha they want from me because that is what the store gave me. So i did everything right on my part and they never paid me. Then they took the whole offer away next day. Once again, poor customer service, do not honor their friend referral and now telling me that my store reciete is nof valid which was from a actual liquore store.

Overview: Don't invest time in this app. After using it for a few weeks and accruing $17 in rewards, my account was deactivated by Ibotta. I lost all earned rebates and about $10 in pending rebates. I feel like Ibotta is a scam. My experience is corroborated by 42 complaints out of 50 reviews on Ibotta with the Better Business Bureau.

My specific experience: Ibotta de-activated my account after we disagreed. Ibotta declined giving me a rebate because my "purchase did not match the vendor offering it". The purchase did match so I resubmitted the receipt with a note explaining how it matched. Ibotta responded saying "the tax isn't visible" in the receipt but it was. I then resubmitted the receipt for other products I had not redeemed yet. Ibotta said those products were not eligible. Ibotta were eligble though based on what was advertised. I questioned Ibotta and they emailed that I had submitted "fraudulent" receipts. I called Safeway to verify the receipt and products purchased. I resubmitted the verified receipt, got a few of my rebates but not all. I complained that I received some rebates but not all. Then Ibotta deactivated my account saying I falsified information. But Safeway independently verified the information. Ibotta canceled my account including all the rebates I had earned even before this issue arose. So it feels like Ibotta stole my money. Ibotta is a Class Action Lawsuit waiting to happen and I am ready to join it!

Alternates to Ibotta: Since "breaking-up" with Ibotta, I moved on. I found "Fetch Rewards". You get compensated for scanning receipts plus bonus rewards for buying products they promote. It took me some time to care about Fetch Rewards but now that I started it, I wish I had done it earlier because rewards do accrue quickly and it is the easiest of all the rebate Apps. When you join Fetch Rewards if you enter my referral code Y8TEB you will get a $2 reward to start.

I also enjoy "Receipt Hog" a Smartphone app that pays you money once you accumulate $5 in points. Points accrue based on how much money you spend in shopping trips.

Also, I have been enjoying Checkout51, an online grocery site that gives cash back also. It requires reaching a $20 minimum before pay out but there is no product scanning like Ibotta, just receipt uploads. I've already received $42 in rebates.

Also try SavingStar, another rebate App. Many of their rebates are automated and you get them when you link your grocery store or pharmacy club card to their App. SavingStar is also good when buying in bulk. They have quarterly deals so when you buy so much of a product (e.g.$15 worth of Butterball you get $4 back, or 1 percent on Coca-Cola). They also have rebates on particular individual products. I've already received $33 in rebates.

Neither SavingStar, Fetch, Receipt Hog, or Checkout51 has given me any trouble on any receipt. Although I miss the variety of items at Ibotta I do not miss the frustration of buying a product I might not normally otherwise buy for Ibotta rebates AND feel duped.

Ibotta also did not give me money for rebates earned from Mobile uploads. A lot of the "Free After Offer" products advertised at stores are not even in stores. I found myself attracted to shopping at a certain store because of the "Free After Offer" product on Ibotta but I would go to the store and the store never had heard of it. I feel like the "Free After Offer" is geared at making you ask for the product to help its marketing. 1 out 10 times I could find the Free Product after Offer so I just gave up on even looking for them.

The app is supposed to give you a rebate when you use it to shop at different stores. After several months of using the app I'd nearly earned enough of a rebate so that I could cash out. But then the app suddenly locked me out of it. When I contacted their customer service, first Ibotta told me that the phone number I was using was a 3rd party number, so I was locked out, but that everything was fine and service was restored to my app. That wasn't the case. I still was unable to access my account. I contacted them again and they just reworded the excuse, and now it was because I was trying to "login" with a 3rd party phone number. But this is also false. I was trying to login using my email, not my phone number. There isn't even a way to login using a phone number, so I knew they were lying. I even tried to do a password reset, using my email, but I kept getting the same error. It just kept saying "please try again later". So it has nothing to do with my phone number. If it did, I shouldn't have been able to set up an account in the first place. But it was never about the number. This is Ibotta trying to avoid paying me the money that I earned through the app. This has been going on for almost two weeks now and I've not been able to access the app during this time. They are preventing me from being able to cash out. The Ibotta company reeks of SCAM!
I've filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and with the Google store. I recommend everyone does the same.
And try Rakuten instead. The are legit and actually pay you what you've earned.

I've earned $160 in a month including the sign up bonus & progressive monthly bonuses. The key is, to READ the 1) overall instructions esp. Re: readable receipts, store names on receipts 2) requirements for each $ back rebate. It may be good for only a single (new) flavor or scent or you may have to purchase two. 3) SCAN the item in-store to verify. If it doesn't scan, reread reqmts.

I have had 2 problems occur out of 30 receipts submittrd. I asked custimer service for help. It DID take 4 days but Ibotta responded each time & credited me correctly.

I do have experience being a mystery shopper where this kind of attn to detail is required or you simply don't get pd. (Due to volume, they just don't have time to deal with non-perfect reports.) so perhaps my expectations of Ibotta are different than the average person in regards to attn. To detail. But if you read, scan in store & keep products out when you submit your receipt at home (You may be required to re scan a product when you submit your receipt on some items), and be patient regarding online customer service, you should have a positive experience.

A good friend of mine turned me on to Ibotta about a month and a half ago. There was a little bit of a learning curve but I got it down now. Easy Peasy once you learn how the app works. When I first got the app I clicked on a 1.5 litre of Smirnoff Vodka which Ibotta would give me $5.00 when I purchased. I accidentally scanned the credit card receipt by mistake and then tried to scan the correct itemized receipt but the item was no longer available. I emailed customer service with a picture of the correct receipt and Ibotta responded the next day and credited my account with the $5.00. So yeah, booze, Tide, Grocery items that I usually buy and some that I tried for the first time that I liked worked out really well. Lots of participating stores, local grocery, Wal-Mart, Amazon, Groupon etc etc. Most the negative reviews I think come from folks who don't understand how to properly use the app resulting in frustration hence the bad reviews. I don't know about them all I know is I just transferred effortlessly $95.05 that I racked up in less than 2 months that I would not have had otherwise. Highly recommend Ibotta!

Beware of the online shopping offers. Even though you shop through the ibotta app as it tells you to do, the offers don't always register. I am constantly tracking this company down through help tickets for my money. Ibotta take over a week to respond a lot of times and don't correctly address the issue. When I booked through hotels.com, to get a measly 3% cash back through ibotta it wound up being the worst hotel and I couldn't cancel it because it was booked through a third party service. Ibotta made me wait over 60 days to get my $10 credit, I had to track them down twice for it. They kept telling me it will take more days. It's like they are trying not to pay on their own promises. Also they wouldn't accept my grocery walmart pick up receipt because it was printed out. (The only way Walmart gives you receipt is through e mail for grocery curb side pick up). I explained the story to them. They owed my $7 worth of credits for junk items I would have never purchased and refused to pay. I'm tired of chasing them down for due money I am owed. They used to be good a few years ago but have really gone down hill. The only thing that The app is good for now is the any item measly 20 cents off each grocery store purchase. Which is probably more work to scan the receipt than it is worth. I would seek out other apps and leave this one aside.

Is this for real? This is by far THE WORST app going! Hard to use - hard to figure out - just plain BAD! I thought it was me, but I got my niece to try and figure it out (who, by the way handles a very large Amazon account so she knows her way around these things), and she said it was just plain unusable. Here's a clue, why not let the receipt and THE APP do some work. Why not have the user just upload their receipt and have THE APP find the deals, match them up and give the user the credit. Gee, wouldn't that be simple and make people want to use it. Ya, I really want to go hunting around on your unusable app to get 25 cents back on a can of peas from Market Basket. Right!

After fidgetting with it for an hour and a half, I finally got it to take my items and receipt. - Wow! $15.00 I was going to get. HA! You know what I got? A great big email with "Your receipt wasn't readable and so I got NOTHING! Don't waste my time! And if you are looking for someone to call and walk you through it, forget that too - you get a recording that says no one can take your call. If this app continues to be so user UNfriendly, it's going NOWHERE!
I thought I'd give it a try, but it's impossible.

Recommend it to someone? Sure! I'll recommend Ibotta stay the heck away from it! I'm going to look right now to find other places I can give this app a bad review so others aren't caught up in IBOTTA HELL.

I have been emailing Ibotta customer service since Oct 2017 because I can't withdraw funds from my account due to my cell phone number got deactivated and do not have a working phone. I have emailed them at least 20/30 emails and Ibotta say that the only way you can withdraw funds is through the app, but the app does not let me log in. Everytime, i login to app it keeps giving me error "OOPS... Forbidden". I have the most updated app and the operating system. I tried downloading app on galaxy S6, HTC U11, samsung note 3 etc, but the app does not let me log in... it seems like they have BLOCKED my account. Their customer service is so worst that they do NOT understand my problem. Not sure where to go and who else to complain. I do not like to bring the issues to the internet, but this is ridiculous and it is so frustrating since the emails are going back and forth between me and ibotta since Oct 2017. I even asked them to send me the check of my earnings and they say NO. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS CHEATER COMPANY to anyone.

I have used Ibotta for over 2 yrs now. I have made just over $400 in lifetime earnings. I loved using this app. It was like a blessing to my family to make money back on stuff I'm gonna buy anyway... Well the other day I get an email about a tampered receipt then another one shortly after that my account has been deactivitated. I emailed them and just got emailed back today that Ibotta have reviewed my case and they are permanently closing my account. I messaged them back saying I'm sorry if I violated any terms and I'm sure it won't happen again. I get another email shortly after saying they're firm on their decision. Wth?! I have $68 on there that I just don't get now? I earned that by purchasing items and they basically just get away with stealing what people earn whenever they feel like it. I have not recieved a response after that email but I basically said that it's one thing to deactivate an account but it's quite another for them to steal from people! IDC it's a rebate I earned for purchases I've made. I can't believe that they can get away with this!

Joined Ibotta about a year ago. I have just recently reached the "$100 Club". This is not a get rich quick app. Think about what you save using coupons, or with a mail-in rebate. That is simiilar to the savings you get with Ibotta. The cool thing is, I can pick up a sale item AND use a digital coupon AND still get an iBotta rebate when I snap the receipt. To be fair, much of Ibotta deals are for name brands though you can get a handful of "any item" rebates that are worth a smaller amount. Often I look at the rebate for my item of interest, the store price, consider if I'm getting any other discounts (sale, coupon, etc) and make a choice as to whether I'm saving with the brand item, or saving more with the store brand item (BTW, I have no shame in purchasing store brand items. Store brand is 90%of what I buy, and I still get $ money back with Ibotta). Sometimes it's a regular purchase of mine anyway and just seeing the Ibotta saving opportunity feels like a bonus. You have to be willing to go through the (small) trouble of seeking out your deals on the app, and photographing the receipt. Sometimes you need to scan a barcode which can be annoying if you already used the item and threw the box away. Ugh! But aside from that annoyance, it's pretty simple. Is it for everyone? Don't know. But why not try at least.

I don't understand what everyone's problem is & why people are trying to bash this app, but in the past 3 weeks I've accumulated almost 40 bucks on stuff I was going to buy anyways... PLUS YOU GET TO USE MANUFACTURER/STORE COUPONS, as well! Sounds too good, right? I know...

A friend of mine kept on and on about how she was making money, and while I was leery at first, that soon subsided. Yesterday I "withdrew" money for the first time. After hitting submit, within seconds I had an email saying "Ibotta Colorado has sent you $38.50..." then, transferred that money to my bank account (waiting on PayPal mastercard)

There's a few caveats, make sure you read the fine print under the rebate (sometimes you have to buy more than one to get rebate) also look if it's a bonus buy, you get extra money and NEVER scan the receipt, only the QR CODE. Scammers out here are trying to photoshop receipts and they're smart, they'll shut your account down. Scanning the QR CODE off the receipt also credits your account within minutes.

I'll keep using it. If you're honest & not trying to make this a side hustle, then you'll be fine...

If you're could give that scam of a company Zero stars I would... Ibotta are nothing more than a bunch of scammers and thieves. Starts with the face that every time I want to take out my money as a gift card I get an error message and when I try again I'm told I already claimed it. Goes on with the fact that you can scan all the receipts you have that QUALIFY for a "reward" just to have your account blocked and when you ask them why is it happening they pretty much tell you that you steal from them and claim things you never bought... so what if you scanned the receipt shows you ACTUALLY DID. And to sum up, they say it takes up 60 or 90 days to process some purchases but here I am over 120 days later trying to get answers about purchase still showing "processing"... they say it takes 48 hrs to get an answer... well the best I got in the past WEEK was a stupid link to an article showing me I should pretty much zip it cause they have ZERO intention to reply back.
A DISGRACE OF A COMPANY
Save yourselves the trouble.

I've had Ibotta for years and never found it to be very useful. In fact, it almost felt like I was begging for money. Ibotta provide coupons and discounts but they mostly apply to "name brand" products which are priced higher to begin with so you're not saving much. An example of a situation would be like going to Target and see how much less Target's generic brand costs versus the leading name brand. The generic brand costs less and is almost the same.

That's fine and that's my experience as a shopper, however, Ibotta sent me an email recently saying they will remove $3.99 every month if the service hasn't been used for 3 months. The problem with this is that if you don't always need the products they have coupons for, then you won't buy anything. If you don't buy anything, then you can't add more to the balance. You need a certain balance to withdraw from their platform too. To me, this is a bit unfair. While one could argue and say Ibotta has expenses to pay, keeping inactive users shouldn't even be that expensive compared to how much info customers have to share with them in order to get a few dollars back.

Overall, it's a decent app/website but the $3.99 deduction situation really deterred me and the fact that a lot of the coupons were for items that didn't apply to me.

Hands down worst customer service.

I had an issue with receiving the funds I had earned from Ibotta. It was about $45. Once I got to the point when I was ready to withdraw the funds and connect my Ibotta account to my Paypal account all of the horrible things that I read (on all of the sites that AREN'T GETTING PAID BY IBOTTA TO SPEAK GOOD ON THEM) seemed to foretell my horrible experience with their customer service department.

First, in order to ensure I didn't get locked out of my account I reached out to Ibotta. (The app was asking me to verify my number and since I didn't remember ever linking a phone number and had just changed my work and home number I reached out to customer service for assistance.) It took about a month before Ibotta finally fixed this issue. During that month I repeatedly asked to speak to a manager or a supervisor. They never allowed for this to happen. I honestly think that the only reason (that part of) the Ibotta issue was solved in that month's span is because I went to the BBB and filed a complaint.

After them finally verifying my telephone number you would think I would have been able to connect the two accounts (Ibotta to Paypal). Nope. I kept getting an error message on my mobile device stating that my Ibotta password was false. How could it have been false when I had to log into the app to be able to even attempt to link the accounts? They finally said (YESTERDAY after another few days of waiting on their response) that they will link my accounts manually.

The idea of the app is cool but don't ever have to need their "customer service". They are very mal-mannered (never once apologizing for the inconvenience) and they also aren't the smartest. You'll be in for a ride. I've never seen anything like it. Because of the fact I've been going back and forth with them for an entire month (30 days) in order for me to get my issue resolved it's like I worked double time for the $45. It made it not worth it and I'll be deleting the app.

I have used Ibotta for several years. Used is a loose term, as I have had more problems with this app than my time was worth.

My phone was hacked at one point, and I was never able to retrieve almost $60 I had earned. I went in to try to reset my info, and everything seemed to be alright putting in my receipts, but when I tried to get my new money out, I was told my phone number belonged to another account.

After several attempts trying to get anyone at the company to listen... One person suggested I get a friend to let me use their phone number to retrieve my money... I contacted the BBB.

The BBB wrote me several days later saying entire thing had been cleared and since Ibotta hadn't heard from me, they were closing the investigation. I wrote back and said nothing has been cleared and was sent a copy of the email I was supposedly sent. Imagine my surprise when I went to my account and my phone number was now connected.

Tonight, however, I tried to retrieve my money, again, and Ibotta now won't recognize my email and password.

This isn't a huge amount, only $25, but for someone on Social Security, it makes a difference.

I don't like writing bad reviews, but I believe it a person puts in the time and effort, and now has been, frankly, fleeced twice by a company, others should know.

They'll end up getting $85, but I shan't be doing anything more with them at this point.

You all may do as you please, but be aware.

[This is a second update to the original review, below.] The combined efforts of Ibotta and their partner's customer service folks are worth a sincere "thank you". Ibotta were attentive and thoughtful, going the extra mile to get everything ironed out, and I'm grateful to them.

[This is an update to the original review, below.] Give Ibotta credit for trying. After several back-and-forths and escalation, people with discretion became involved, things were sorted out, and a full rebate was issued. Not exactly a sterling experience, but they've tried to be fair... and to give them the benefit of the doubt, it could be that the Ibotta platform is intended, and works better, for regular repeat purchases than for one-time rebates like my own. I'm raising my rating from one star to three to reflect their efforts and a satisfactory outcome.

[Original review, with some redactions.] My introduction to Ibotta was in the form of a neck tag on a bottle of Kahlua, offering a $40 "cash back" rebate for the purchase of six (6) bottles. Having purchased the same, saved my receipt, brought the Kahlua home and unpacked it (from the gift-box packaging), I went down the Ibotta rabbit hole of installing a phone app, setting up an account and trying to find the process for obtaining a rebate.
News flash: There is none. The offer is not a rebate, and not cash back, and not $40 for six bottles. Instead, it is some sort of earn-credit-by-buying incentive system. Moreover, the offer is not a $40 cash back rebate, but rather $7 unless one purchases multiple brands (and no more than three of a single brand)... Of course, along the way Ibotta obtains as much information as possible about users' identities and buying habits, and no doubt plans to market this information to third parties...
Multiple email exchanges with Ibotta's customer service group shows them to be well-meaning... but ineffective. Their handling has been more or less robotic, and time spent taking and uploading product photos and UPC codes per their requests for supplemental information yielded absolutely nothing apart from the automated, inadequate $7 credit.
I would give Ibotta zero stars, if that were possible...

To anyone who is claiming that this App is "great", they're probably being paid for their positive review.

Don't fall for this App!
It is a COMPLETE scam!

It has been WELL over 5 days.
Ibotta now owes us a total of over $60.00. I should not have even informed anyone of this App, because lately it has been a waste of time, and people are upset with me because I look like I've lied.
My Account, My Mothers Account, And NOW my Brother's account, all got locked from cashing out.
We are using all 100% real receipts,
We are all using our own Mobile Devices,
And we have all wasted our time and money, only to get shut down.
This is now a more serious matter, because now I know I'm not the only one they've done this to, and I refuse to let my money be taken from us.
I've sent over 10 Emails, trying to cash out.

This App is a scam.
And my comments and bad ratings will increase. My Friends are all currently deleting their Account.
At least until I see otherwise.
But I'm definitely being ripped off,
By a business that can't even respond.