3 Best Couponing Apps you Should Download Today

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Are you looking for the best couponing apps that you should download today to help you save money? I’ve got you covered!

In 2022, couponing isn’t just about getting the Sunday paper delivered to your door and sitting down at the dining room table with a pair of scissors and some patience. In this day and age, we have some of the best couponing apps available to us to download. The best part is, it takes less than five minutes to download the app and set up your account.

I was always a good saver but after buying my house in 2016, I really began to dive into the world of couponing, which included utilizing other avenues other than the snip and clip my mother taught me growing up.

Benefits of Couponing Apps

Using a couponing app can have several benefits:

• Transportable – It is a lot easier to carry around your phone over coupon inserts and a pair of scissors.
• Accessible – Since we almost always have our phones with us, you can “clip coupons” from the passenger seat of your car while your partner is driving or while waiting for your child to get out of karate class.
• Multiple sources – I’m assuming you are not like me who has several people holding the coupon inserts for you so you usually don’t have multiple coupons at your disposal – but you can download as many couponing apps as you want to, no networking required.

While I am referring to these apps as “couponing apps”, it is important to remember that they are more considered “rebate apps” – meaning that a coupon will give you an immediate savings during the transaction, a rebate is cash back after the transaction is complete.

With my five+ years of experience, these are the three best couponing apps you can download today.

Best Couponing App #1 – Fetch

Of all the couponing apps out there, Fetch is the easiest to use. All it requires is scanning your receipts and voila! – you earn points.

How to use Fetch

Step 1 – Download Fetch. Remember to enter code NDC8M to earn 2,000 free points after redeeming your first receipt!

After you download and set up your account, you can immediately start earning points on every receipt.

To do this, click the little camera button from the bottom menu.

Then you’ll choose if you have a physical or an e-receipt. Physical receipts will use your camera to take pictures, so you have to give Fetch permission to access your camera.

Make sure you capture the date, the store, and the total before hitting submit. Fetch will tell you on the right-hand side what information has been captured and what is missing.

If you have a long receipt that can’t be captured in one photo, just keep taking photos until all the information bubbles turn green.

Finally, hit submit.

How to Earn Points

For every receipt you submit, you automatically earn 25 points.

If you buy a brand that partners with Fetch, you automatically receive 1% of the purchase price.
For example, if you buy a $5 Colgate toothpaste, you will receive 50 points.

Fetch also has special offers where you can earn more points on certain items.
For example, you can earn 1000 points back for buying one Colgate toothpaste or 5000 points for spending $20 on Colgate items.

Scroll down to the “Special Offers” section to check out any promotions.

For every 1000 points you earn, it is equal to earning $1.

Benefits of Using Fetch

• You decide how involved you want to be – You can put as much or as little effort into Fetch as you want. You will earn points for every receipt so you don’t have to pay attention to the deals or categories, but you can if you want to.
• Quick to use – All you have to do to earn points is scan your receipts, no adding offers or scanning products.
• Versatile – Fetch will accept (almost) all receipts, including restaurants, grocery stores, coffee shops, and parking lots. If it doesn’t recognize the name on the receipt, like a local restaurant, it usually fills in a name that is close.
• Stackable points – When you redeem a special offer product, you still receive the 1% back on the purchase price in addition to the special offer points.
• Can be combined with in store coupons – You can stack your Fetch rewards with in-store coupons.

Drawbacks of Fetch

• Limited offers – More often than not, you can only redeem an offer once no matter how many products you buy, while other apps allow you to redeem multiple offers if you buy multiple separate products.
• Redeem for gift cards – You cannot redeem Fetch points for straight cash, you can only redeem points for gift cards, and they only offer certain gift cards.

If you’d like a more detailed guide, check out this complete guide on how to use Fetch.

Best Couponing App #2 – Ibotta

Ibotta is another popular and easy to use app. You just activate any offers you want, scan your receipts, and earn cash back.

How to Use Ibotta

Step 1 – Download Ibotta. Enter code ABHYMGD to earn $10 after redeeming your first receipt!

Once you create your account, you can go to Account –> favorites to bookmark your most frequently shopped stores.

Then from your home screen, you can see your favorites stores listed at the top.

To activate an offer, you will select the store you plan to shop at and look through all the offers available for that store. You will then have to add the offer to your queue by tapping the little “+” at the bottom right of the offer picture.

To submit your receipt, you will hit “submit receipt” and take pictures of your receipt. Ibotta will need access to your camera in order to submit receipts.

Be sure to capture the store, all items, the date, and the total. If you have a long receipt, just click the “submit more photos” button at the bottom when taking pictures of the receipt.

Hit “submit receipt”.

Ibotta will search for offers it believes you have on your transaction, but it isn’t always accurate. If you are missing activated offers, just select “add more offers” and scan the barcode of the item you have an offer activated for.

How to Earn Cash Back

The first way to earn cash back is with activated offers.

The second way to earn cash back is through bonuses. There are two types of bonuses:

• Brand bonuses – Sometimes, brands will give you a bonus for buying multiple products from their brand. For example, if you two separate Cracker Barrel items and redeem the two separate offers, you could earn a bonus for that.
• Offer bonuses – Ibotta will also give you a bonus for redeeming a certain amount of offers. For example, redeem 10 separate offers and receive a $10 bonus.

Benefits of Ibotta

• Can redeem multiple offers – Ibotta is very popular for allowing you to redeem multiple offers. So if you buy 5 items, you can redeem that offer 5 times.
• Can be used in combination with in-store coupons – You can use a transaction coupon while you’re in the store and then still redeem an offer from Ibotta on the same item.
• Frequent bonuses – Ibotta will offer bonuses very frequently, usually as often as every weekend.
• Online shopping – You can also use Ibotta to shop online and earn cash back. Just search for the online store you want to shop at and click the “shop now” button.

Drawbacks of Ibotta

• More involved – Ibotta is a lot more involved to use. You have to search for rebates, instead of just earning points every time you shop.
• Offers don’t always go across stores – You might find an offer you want, but they only offer it at Walmart and not Target.
• Can be extremely specific – Ibotta can be extremely specific of the size or flavor that you can get a rebate on. Be sure to pay attention to the fine print or use the “check barcode” feature within the offer.

If you’d like a more detailed tutorial, check out my complete guide on how to use Ibotta.

Best Coupon App #3 – Coupons

This seems like a no brainer, but Coupons.com created an app. It is also another easy-to-use rebate app. You activate offers, scan your receipt, and then scan the barcodes of your items in order to earn cash back.

How to use Coupons

Go to the Google Play or Apple store and search “Coupons.com” to download the app.

Create an account and then activate any offer you are interested in by using the little “+” at the top right of the offer.

Once activated, the “+” will turn into a green check mark.

To redeem offers, you will hit “redeem” on the bottom right and then select which store you purchased the item from.

Then you will take pictures of your receipt and scan the barcode of all the items you have activated offers for. Be sure to capture the store, the date, the item, and the total in your picture.

Coupons will automatically take pictures of your receipt if you have it laid against a dark background and the setting is set to “automatic”. To override this and take pictures yourself, switch to manual.

Hit “Redeem”.

You can also link your rewards card directly to the app and it will (in theory) automatically redeem activated offers when you shop.

How to Earn Cash Back

With Coupons, you will earn direct cash. As an offer is redeemed, the cash will go into your account.

You can then choose to link a PayPal account or get a physical check sent in the mail. Coupons will send your savings out periodically.

Benefits of Coupons

• Fewer offers – There are fewer offers to search through with Coupons, meaning you are less likely to go cross eyed looking at them all.
• New offers released on regular schedule – New offers are released on Sunday. You can go in on Sunday and activate all the offers that are available.
• Can be used across stores – As long as the store is listed as a partner, you can use the coupon for that store.
• Can link your rewards card – You can link your store rewards card to Coupons and eliminate the need to scan your receipts.

Drawbacks of Coupons

• One offer per coupon – You can only redeem each coupon one time.
• Cannot be combined with in store coupons – Coupons will not allow you to combine rebates from their app with in-store coupons.
• Cannot choose when you get your cash – Coupons will send your cash back on their own schedule, not yours.

Final Thought on the Best Couponing Apps

With costs rising on everything from fuel to Funyuns, it is more important now than ever to keep more money in your pocket.

These three best couponing apps will provide you the convenience of being able to coupon from anywhere at any time, without having to wait for the Sunday paper to arrive, waste printer ink, or lug around a pair of scissors.

Start small and download just one today to start the habit. Then when you’re feeling more confident – download another.

The most important part about couponing is learning to take it slow or else you will get overwhelmed very quickly.

Be sure to tell me what you liked and didn’t like about each of these apps once you’ve set up your account!

Happy saving everyone!