Fetch Rewards Review 2024: Earn Gift Cards for Grocery Shopping

Fetch Rewards

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8.5

Overall

8.5/10

Strengths

• Free to join and use
• Don’t have to activate offers before scanning receipts
• Gift card rewards as low as $3
• Can earn points on over 300 product brands
• Earn points on most local and online grocery purchases

Weaknesses

• Must buy participating name brands to earn bonus points
• No PayPal or direct deposit redemptions
• Other receipt scanning apps may award more on select offers
• Cannot earn bonus points on fresh produce items

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If your monthly spending plan is like mine, groceries are a large monthly expense. The August 2023 US Department of Agriculture food plan estimates the average monthly food bill for a family of four is about $975.20 – a small fortune.

My family looks for creative and effortless ways to save money when buying groceries. Buying store brands, maximizing weekly specials and meal planning are three great starter ideas. But I’m going to let you in on another way to buy your grocery staples for less.

Using grocery shopping rewards apps is another way we can save money. One of my favorites is Fetch Rewards because you only have to scan a receipt without having to activate offers to earn rewards.

This Fetch Rewards review can help you decide if this is the best shopping app to save money.

🔃UPDATED: Updated with the latest USDA food bill data for August 2023 and updates to the Fetch bonus (the bonus changes very frequently, especially during the holidays when they run promotions)

How Does Fetch Rewards Work?

Fetch Rewards is a free mobile app that lets you earn rewards points on most grocery and retail purchases. Fetch can track online grocery receipts too.

Many of the largest grocery and household brands partner with Fetch Rewards. You earn bonus points by purchasing their products. Your points are redeemable for gift cards starting with a $3 balance (3,500 points) to Amazon and Target. If you build up more points you can get a $5 gift card for 5,000 points. This means 100 points are worth about 10 cents. 

You earn at least 25 points per eligible receipt, even if your purchase doesn’t have any qualifying bonus items.

It’s possible to earn bonus points on these product categories:

Filling medical prescriptions with SingleCare and Magazines.com subscriptions can earn bonus points too.

You may notice that buying fresh produce won’t earn bonus points. Fetch Rewards and most receipt scanning apps are best for buying packaged food and alcohol.

What I like most about Fetch Rewards is that you don’t have to activate offers. Fetch doesn’t require you to scan product barcodes, watch 30-second videos, or answer three-question surveys to unlock offers. These extra steps can make it feel like saving money isn’t worth the effort.

You simply scan a receipt and sometimes there are bonuses, like when I scanned a recent Costco receipt and discovered Kleenex products gave me bonus points. A nice surprise.

As a parent of three, I find myself having less time to perform the mini-tasks that other shopping apps require. However, you can use other rewards apps with Fetch Reward to “double-dip” your potential savings. Here’s a list of other grocery store receipt apps you can use to double-dip.

Get started with Fetch Rewards

Earning Fetch Rewards Points

It’s possible to earn rewards points on most purchases at national or local stores that give you an itemized receipt listing the brand and product name. Online purchases can earn points by linking your email account.

I also receive the basic 25-point scan bonus at gas stations and home improvement stores. After pumping gas, I scan the receipt and earn 25 points.

You can still earn Fetch Rewards points even when you redeem digital coupons with another app like Ibotta.

Earning Fetch Rewards is a similar process:

1. Browse offers for participating brands and products (no activation necessary)
2. Snap a picture of your store receipt using your phone camera
3. The app matches your purchases to qualifying offers and gives you rewards points
4. Redeem for gift card rewards

Fetch Rewards doesn’t require you to activate offers first like Ibotta or grocery store loyalty card apps (i.e., the Kroger app). You must scan your receipts within 14 days from the purchase date to earn points.

The Fetch Rewards receipt scanning technology is brilliant and quickly itemizes items you buy. Because of this advanced technology, you don’t have to spend time activating offers first. But apps requiring you to activate offers may award more points on similar offers than Fetch.

You can spend time browsing current offers in the Fetch Rewards mobile app to find participating brands. For instance, you might buy Heinz ketchup instead of Hunt’s to earn bonus points.

Or, you can simply buy the best-priced products and scan your receipt to effortlessly collect points. However, you run the risk of missing offers by purchasing a non-participating brand.

What Stores Work with Fetch Rewards?

Most grocery stores print receipts that Fetch can analyze. We shop at national brands like Kroger, Harris Teeter, and Walmart. Fetch also recognizes receipts from the independent grocery stores we periodically visit.

You can earn bonus points when you buy participating items at stores that primarily sell merchandise. Examples include Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target, and Dollar General. Convenience stores like 7-Eleven and Wawa may sell participating items too.

It’s also possible to earn points for online purchases if Fetch can track your eReceipts by linking your email address.

Some of the participating online stores include:

• Amazon and Amazon Prime
• Boxed
• Costco
• Instacart
• Peapod
• Petco
• Shipt
• Thrive Market
• Ulta

Food delivery apps like DoorDash and UberEats currently don’t work with Fetch Rewards.

You can also earn the basic 25-point scan bonus for most gas stations, home improvement, and retail purchases. For instance, I get points by scanning Lowe’s Home Improvement and Walmart receipts when buying merchandise.

Get started with Fetch Rewards

How Many Points Do You Get with Fetch Rewards?

There are two ways to earn points for eligible receipt scans:

• 25 points per scan (this is the least amount of points you receive per receipt) – once per day, you spin a wheel for bonus points on your first receipt scan
• 10 points per $1 on participating items

Every eligible receipt earns 25 points per upload plus 10 points per $1 you spend on participating items. Limited-time special offers can earn additional points.

On a recent purchase, for instance, I bought several boxes of Annie’s Mac & Cheese for $2 each. Annie’s is a participating brand, so each box earned 20 points. This same grocery receipt had a $3.99 participating item worth 40 Fetch points.

If you only buy store brands, you only earn 25 points per receipt. As Fetch Rewards requires fewer points than other apps to earn gift cards, Fetch can help you save money.

(Some of the) Participating Brands

Over 316 food and household brands partner with Fetch Rewards. Here are some of the brands you might consider buying:

Most beer, wine, and spirits brands earn bonus points too. Leading brands include Coors, Leinenkugel’s, Miller, Redds, and Vizzy.

The quickest way to earn points is by purchasing participating items or redeeming special offers.

To earn bonus points, the store receipt must display an itemized description of the qualifying items. For instance, if you buy Annie’s Mac & Cheese, the receipt must clearly state you’re buying Annie’s.

Most grocery store sales systems provide itemized receipts. All you have to do is scan your receipt and Fetch Rewards determines how many points you earn.

What if Fetch doesn’t properly track a purchase? You can correct the item in the app and scan the participating item’s product barcode to receive proper credit.

Special Offers

One of the best ways to accumulate points quickly is by finding limited-time special offers. These offers are an easy way to scoop up additional points when you use these items.

Most special offers earn between 500 and 1,000 points each. Each offer has different terms and conditions to see if you must buy a certain product size. Most offers let you buy multiple quantities but there is a per-receipt limit.

Below are some recent special offers and how many points you can earn per product:

• Axe antiperspirant deodorant (1,000 points)
• Love Beauty and Planet Body Wash (1,000 points)
• com subscriptions (5,000 points)
• Brownie Brittle snacks (750 points)
• Suave body wash (500 points)
• Dove hair care or hair styling products (500 points)

The offers change regularly and it’s worth checking this section before each shopping trip. The best special offers are the first screen you see when opening Fetch Rewards.

Refer Your Friends

Another easy way to earn Fetch Rewards is by referring your friends to join Fetch. Your friends can enter your unique Fetch referral code and you each earn bonus points.

If you use my referral code XJW7Q5 then you can get 1,000 points after you snap your first receipt.

Get started with Fetch Rewards

How Old Can Receipts Be?

You must scan your store receipts within 14 days after the purchase date to earn points.

Also, Fetch only lets you scan up to 20 receipts in a seven-day rolling period.

Can I Use Fetch with Ibotta?

It’s possible to “stack” Fetch Rewards points with your Ibotta rewards. Fetch Rewards can be an easy way to earn bonus points as you don’t have to activate offers like Ibotta requires.

You can also redeem paper coupons or activate digital coupons using your grocery store loyalty app too.

Do Fetch Rewards Expire?

Your existing Fetch Rewards balance expires after 90 days of account inactivity. You can renew your balance by scanning a receipt – even if it only earns the base 25-point scan bonus. It’s easy to keep your account active because there are so few hoops to jump through.

Filling SingleCare prescriptions, referring friends and redeeming points doesn’t renew your expiration date.

How Much Can You Make with Fetch?

You will not get rich using Fetch, or any receipt scanning app.

What you do get is the ability to earn a few cents off your receipts, which don’t have much value to you but are valuable to marketing and advertising companies. It’s a lot like when you install an app to sell your browsing behavior to marketing companies, you earn a little bit on something where you otherwise won’t.

In Jim’s case, most of his earnings have been from referrals. He scans a lot of receipts but you only get receipts if you spend money, so that’s only a handful of receipts each week. At 25 points a pop, with a few daily bonuses, you’re really only talking around 200-300 points a week.

Getting a referral bonus, especially when it’s 1,000 or 2,000 points, can have a big impact.

But even at 300 points a week for four weeks, that’s 1,200 – not quite there for the lowest gift card on the marketplace. Add in a few bonuses and maybe you get to a gift card every few months (if you have no referrals). Stick in a few referrals and maybe you get a Starbucks every month?

Not bad for scanning receipts you’d be throwing away in the trash, right?

How to Redeem Fetch Rewards Points

You have several ways to redeem your Fetch Rewards for purchases. Point redemptions start at 3,500 points. This point balance is currently worth $3 in gift cards. Other grocery rewards apps require a balance closer to $20 before you can request awards.

Gift Cards

Your best reward options can be store gift cards. Gift cards are available in $3, $5, $10, $25, and $50 increments to retail stores, restaurants, media, and travel brands.

The cheapest gift card reward is currently $3 Amazon gift cards and Target gift cards for 3,500 points. Each point is worth slightly less than waiting to get a gift with a balance above $5. Most $5 retail gift cards only require 5,000 points.

Visa and Mastercard Gift Cards

If you prefer cash-like rewards, you can request Visa and Mastercard gift cards. You have the flexibility of cash but a $5 Visa gift card requires 6,000 points. Your points are more valuable when redeeming for $5 retail vouchers instead.

Direct bank deposit and PayPal rewards are not available.

Sweepstakes

You can buy entries for 100 points each into monthly cash sweepstakes by winning Visa gift cards. There are only a handful of winners each month – the odds are not in your favor.

Entering the sweepstakes can be a good option if your points are about to expire but don’t have enough to get a gift card. But it might be a better idea to just scan a receipt to reset the 90-day clock on inactivity.

Charity Donations

Like most survey sites and receipt-scanning apps, you can donate your points to select charities. Donations start at 3,000 points for a $3 contribution.

Get started with Fetch Rewards

Is Fetch Rewards Legit?

Fetch Rewards is a legit app to earn points by scanning receipts and buying groceries from most local and online merchants. You will earn the most points if you buy name-brand items, but you don’t have to.

Being able to redeem your points for Amazon and Target gift cards as small as $3 (3,500 points), makes it easier to request gift cards on a routine basis.

The Fetch Rewards app started in 2013 and its corporate headquarters is in Madison, Wisconsin. Regional offices are in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. According to Fetch Rewards, over 281 million receipts have been scanned so far.

The Fetch Rewards app ratings are favorable with 4.6 out of 5 stars on GooglePlay (965k ratings) and 4.8 out of 5 stars on the App Store (4.7M ratings) – they get great ratings on nearly six million reviews.

For full transparency, Fetch Rewards has a “D+” Better Business Bureau rating based on 20 customer ratings. Some customer complaints report trouble receiving Amazon gift cards and changing their Amazon login info due to a potential account hack. Others report unexpected account closures or difficulties using the mobile app.

20 complaints vs. 6 million largely positive ratings on the app stores is actually a ridiculously good ratio.

Fetch Rewards has many happy users (including myself and Jim). Scanning a receipt at least once every 90 days and redeeming your points for $3 and $5 gift cards can prevent you from losing points, which is very easy.

If you have trouble using Fetch, send an email to [email protected] to submit a ticket.

How to Join Fetch Rewards

Joining Fetch Rewards is free and easy to join. You also only need to be at least 13 years old.

Download Mobile App

Fetch Rewards works on most Android and Apple phones. Ensure you have a functional device camera as this is the only way to upload receipts.

Clicking this link takes you to the appropriate marketplace to download the compatible app for your mobile device.

Get started with Fetch Rewards

Fetch Rewards Pros and Cons

Pros

• Free to join and use
• Don’t have to activate offers before scanning receipts to earn points
• Gift card rewards as low as $3
• Can earn points on over 300 product brands
• Earn points on most local and online grocery purchases
• Works with coupons and most discount apps

Cons

• Must buy participating name brands to earn bonus points
• No PayPal or direct deposit redemptions
• Other receipt scanning apps may award more on select offers
• Cannot earn bonus points on fresh produce items

Summary

Fetch Rewards is one of the best apps to earn rewards on shopping purchases. You don’t have to remember to activate offers before scanning your receipt and even receipts that don’t have any reward offers on them still earn a little something. Also, being able to redeem $3 gift cards also makes it easy to earn frequent rewards.