With another Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the books, the holiday season is in full swing and apps are widely available to get through the chaotic shopping season.
Here are a few to use with ease and to save a few bucks.
EBATES
Have you ever thought to yourself that you’re so good at shopping you should be getting paid to do it? Services such as Ebates offer rebates just for going through their website or app for shopping.
The cash back and perfect five-star review on the App Store might seem too good to be true, but it’s more simple than you might think.
Ebates, which acts as an aggregator, is paid a percentage of each item that a user buys from different stores in exchange for making a connection to the site. For example, if you go to Ebates and they direct you to the Wal-Mart website to buy a new $500 laptop, Wal-Mart pays Ebates 3 percent of the sale and you get half of that percentage in a cash rebate — about $8.
Sophomore Spanish major Smeet Butala said he would definitely want to get money back for shopping.
“I’m getting money back from what I spend, so of course, I would be interested,” Butala said. “I’d have to look into it.”
IBOTTA
The Ibotta app is a lot like Ebates in that you can get cash back for shopping, but Ibotta is more focused on grocery shopping. And yes, that could mean alcohol, too.
You can gain points by shopping online through its app and website by linking a loyalty card or taking a picture of the receipt the next time you go shopping. You’re limited to the stores that are partnered with Ibotta, although it includes about 500,000 locations, according to its website.
So next time you’re out buying Burnett’s, you can get a $2 rebate if you shop at one of the dozens of stores that participate in Ibotta.
“I like the idea that me buying stuff results in me getting money back,” said Lizzy Fletcher, a sophomore communication major. “It’s stuff I’m going to be buying anyways; I might as well get money back.”
RetailMeNot
Whenever you see the section on the online checkout form that says “Promotional Codes,” you might feel like you’re missing out because you don’t have a code to use.
You don’t always have to end up paying full price for everything when you can use RetailMeNot to find coupons and discount codes for several products and websites.
With coupons at your fingertips and a stable Internet connection, the app allows you to get coupons and codes just with a download, with no need for an account.
