This article was also co-written with KUKU.

[Update 2022.3] The current referral bonus is now $20 per referral, while the referred user still gets $4.5.

[Original article below]

About Bitmo

Bitmo is a website for buying discounted gift cards, and it is also a powerful card-linked cashback program that supports a large number of popular merchants. The gift cards supported by Bitmo, as well as the merchants offering card-linked rewards through Bitmo, have continued to expand. This article provides a simple introduction to Bitmo. I will regularly update gift-card-related deals in this article, including discounted Bitmo gift card deals.

Sign-up Link

If you sign up for Bitmo through our link now, new users will receive a bonus of 4,500 points, worth $4.5. Here were the bonuses I received at the time: a few days after registering, I received two new-user bonus emails. In the first email, buying a $20 gift card got me a gift card worth $25, equivalent to a 20% discount. In the second email, buying a $50 gift card earned 10,000 points, also equivalent to a 20% discount.

Bitmo Points System

Bitmo points are worth 1000 points = $1, which can be redeemed toward gift card purchases on Bitmo. Since this is not direct cashback, the real value of 1000 points is actually slightly less than $1. For simplicity, in the rest of this article I will use 1000 points = $1.

Buying Discounted Gift Cards

Bitmo's discounted gift card offers usually appear in two places: 1) at the top of the Earn page when you first open the Bitmo app; 2) on the Activity page, where the Private section shows your points-earning history (including gift card purchases and card-linked cashback), with targeted offers inserted between activity entries. Below are some examples of discounted gift card offers that have appeared recently.

Example 1:

  • Buy a $100 DoorDash gift card and get 15,000 points back, equivalent to $15 toward future gift card purchases, or 15% back
  • In addition, Bitmo normally gives a base rate of 1x points on DoorDash purchases (based on data from 7/20/2021), so buying $100 with this offer also earns an extra 100 points, worth $0.1
  • Final total return: 15.1%

Example 2:

  • Buy a $25 Chipotle gift card and get 5000 points back, equivalent to $5 toward future gift card purchases, or 20% back
  • In addition, Bitmo normally gives a base rate of 20x points on Chipotle purchases (based on data from 7/20/2021), so buying $25 with this offer also earns an extra 500 points, worth $0.5
  • Final total return: 22%

Example 3:

  • The cashback rate on GameStop gift card purchases was increased to 150x, capped at 15,000 points. Buying $100 gets 15,000 points back, equivalent to $15 toward future gift card purchases, or 15% back
  • Note that this type of offer temporarily changes Bitmo's base earning rate for GameStop purchases, so there is no second component like in Examples 1 and 2. With this type of offer, you can also buy less than $100

Example 4:

  • Buy a $15 Uber gift card and get 3000 points back, equivalent to $3 toward future gift card purchases, or 20% back
  • In addition, Bitmo normally gives a base rate of 25 x points on Uber purchases (based on data from 7/20/2021), so buying $15 with this offer also earns an extra 375 points, worth $0.38
  • Final total return: 22.5%

Card-linked Cashback

Bitmo also offers card-linked cashback: you add the payment card information to Bitmo, then earn Bitmo points when shopping online or in-store. Bitmo offers rewards at a 1:1 points rate, so that works out to 0.1% back. While the cashback rate is not high, the key advantage is that it supports a very large number of merchants, including many that other card-linked apps (such as Dosh) do not support. Even when the same merchant is supported elsewhere, it should not conflict with other card-linked apps, so you may be able to stack them. Next, I will first share some examples of cashback I personally received and a few patterns I noticed, then provide a list of merchants supported by Bitmo's card-linked rewards so readers can search more easily.

Example 1:

  • I used Walmart Billpay with PPK + credit card and received cashback through Bitmo
  • The purchases shown in the screenshot at other merchants, CVS and GameStop, also received the corresponding cashback

Example 2:

  • I received cashback on a purchase at Lowe's home improvement
  • But note that although I spent 2500+, I only received 1000 points. So I suspect there may be a cap of 1000 points per transaction. If you do not mind the hassle, you may want to split one large purchase into multiple transactions or swipe the card multiple times...

More About Card-linked Cashback

  • The Bitmo card-linked system can add either credit cards or debit cards (Target RedCard, Point Debit Card)
  • Sometimes only one card from the same issuer can be added at a time. For example, at one point I could only have one AMEX card added, although I could add multiple Chase credit cards at the same time. However, if needed, you can switch it to another card from the same issuer at any time
  • The card limit appears to be 14 cards

List of Merchants Supported by Bitmo Card-linked:

Note: this was the list at the time the article was published (2021.7), and merchants may change over time. 7-Eleven, ABC Spirits, Albertsons, Aldi (thanks to EW), AllHeart, ARCO (thanks to Andy), Barco Uniforms, Baskin-Robbins, Beaming Organic Superfood Cafe, Best Buy, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Booking.com, Cherokee Uniforms, Chick-fil-A, Citgo, City Market, Costco, Crate & Barrel, Dagacci, Dairy Queen, Delta Air Lines, Dickies, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, DoorDash, Drizly, Expedia, Exxon, Family Dollar, FIGS Scrubs, Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer, Giant Eagle, Global Hotel Gift, Healing Hands, H-E-B, Hotels.com, Hy-Vee, Jaanuu, Kayak, King Soopers, Kroger & its affiliate stores (Ralphs, King Soopers, City Market & more), Kum & Go, Landau, Life Threads, Love’s Travel, Stops, McDonald’s, MedCouture, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, Mobil, Orange Julius, Orbitz, Phillips 66, Priceline, Princess Cruise Lines, Publix, Ralphs, Red Mango, Rita’s Ice, Rite Aid, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Safeway/Albertsons & its affiliate stores（Tom Thumb, Shaw’s, Vons & more）, Sam's Club, Scrubs & Beyond, Shell, Sinclair, Smart & Final, Smoothie King, Southwest Airlines, Sprouts, Star Market, Starbucks, Steam, Subway, SweetFrog, Target, Texaco, Tom Thumb, Trader Joe’s, Travelocity, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Uniform Advantage, United Oil, United Supermarkets, Valero, Vons, VRBO, Walgreens, Walmart, Walmart+, Wegmans, Wendy’s, Whole Foods, Winco, WonderWink Scrub Shop, Yogurtland

The participating merchants cover everything from supermarkets, gas stations, airlines, hotel OTAs, department stores, and food delivery. The rates start at 0.1%, with some at 5% and a few even as high as 20%, which is very strong for a card-linked app. For example, major North American retailers such as Costco (0.1%), Sam's Club (0.1%), Target (0.1%), Walmart (0.1%), and Best Buy (0.1%) are all included. If you spend a lot at these merchants, this is a pretty nice extra reward opportunity. Some department store merchants go as high as 5%, such as Belk.

Redeeming points

You need at least 5,000 points to redeem, which means the minimum redemption is a $5 gift card. There are not that many supported merchants, but there are still some decent options.

Is there any risk?

Bitmo’s card-linked tracking is provided by the third party Plaid. Other apps that use Plaid include Drop, Dosh, and POGO. If you already use Drop, Dosh, or POGO, then your data is already being shared somewhere anyway, so adding one more may not make much difference.

Any card-linked cashback program carries some risk of data exposure, such as your spending habits. If you really care about that, then this is probably not something you should use.

Referral bonus

The current bonus is as follows:

  • Referrer: 20,000 points each time, worth $20
  • Referred user: 4500 points, worth $4.5

Other notes

  • Bimto seems to have a hidden limit on how many cards you can link (possibly 12-14 credit cards?). If you have enough real mobile numbers, this may not matter. If you do not have many numbers, it is recommended that you link the credit cards you use most often. Or, based on where you shop most, link the corresponding cards. For example, if you spend a lot at Costco, then it is probably not ideal to prioritize linking an AMEX account.
  • The hidden cap on rewards per transaction is 10,000 points, or $10.
  • Based on current merchant recognition, it seems that as long as the posted charge comes from the merchant, it can be tracked. The payment method in the middle does not seem to matter (such as using PayPal), YMMV.

Summary

  • Bitmo is a mobile app that offers both discounted gift cards and card-linked cashback. The discounted gift card deals are quite good and appear fairly often.
  • The card-linked feature is very powerful and supports many commonly used merchants. Even if you are not interested in buying gift cards, Bitmo is still worth downloading for the card-linked feature alone.
  • The selection of merchants available for points redemption is a bit limited, but extra rewards are extra rewards, and hopefully more useful merchants will be added in the future.

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