[2019.7 Update 2] I checked the Spent APP official website today, and the app has officially shut down, moving from b2c to b2b. For those concerned about the money left in their accounts, the announcement says you can contact customer service on the announcement page, and the money will be transferred to your PayPal account. One nice thing is that this request does not have the usual $20 limit, so no matter how much is left in your account, you can cash out all of it. Go to this page and submit a request. Just leave the email address you used to log in and mention that you want to withdraw cashback.
- If you didn’t get a chance to request your cash-back, don’t worry. Simply send us a message below and we’ll look up your account and get the process started. Until August 15th, we’re cashing out everyone that requests their cash...no matter how little. (Don’t worry about the $20 minimum.) It typically takes about a week for it to show up in your PayPal account, but we’ll get it done.
[2019.7 Update] This app is no longer accessible, and it has been removed from both the iOS and Android app stores. Earlier, it attracted a huge wave of users with Amazon 1% card link offers. Later Amazon was removed and replaced by another batch of merchants, and then the number of stores you could add gradually shrank until the app finally died. In my opinion, there is no future for a small company doing only card link offers. The kind of data analysis that actually makes money for a company is not something a small team can easily pull off. Apps still doing reasonably well now, like Dosh and Drop, have added in-app cashback features and do some affiliate marketing, which at least helps them sustain themselves. So after earn by microsoft, another card link app is gone. Here are a few similar apps:
- Drop APP ($5 sign-up bonus; earn cashback after linking a card and making purchases)
- Dosh APP ($10 sign-up bonus; earn cashback after linking a card and making purchases)
- Ebates in Store Cashback ($10 sign-up bonus; in-store cashback at Macy's, BuyBuyBaby, Saks, and more, also enabled by linking a credit card)
- Ibotta ($10 sign-up bonus; upload receipts after shopping in-store to get cashback, good for household shopping)
- Shop Kick (500 kicks sign-up bonus; earn rewards for in-store check-ins and shopping, requires scanning or location access)
[7/7 Update] Costco has been added to Spent App’s card link program. As long as you use a credit card linked in this APP at Costco, you can automatically earn 1% cashback. This 1% stacks perfectly with your credit card’s own rewards and with Costco membership rewards. You do need to add the offer first before using it, so be sure to activate it. Also, Amazon, which used to be one of the most popular and useful offers in Spent, has temporarily disappeared, and it is still unclear when it will return.
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About Spent
Spent is also an APP that offers shopping cashback. You just add your credit card or debit card to Spent APP, and if there is a qualifying purchase on that card, Spent will automatically add the cashback to your account. This cashback does not conflict at all with the rewards offered by your credit card itself. Once your card is added, you do not need to keep track of anything—just spend normally. The main merchants currently offering cashback include Amazon, Starbucks, Uber, Whole Foods, 7-11, and more, so it covers a lot of everyday spending.
In addition, Spent also offers a cashback portal, nearby restaurant cashback, and expense tracking features, which are fairly useful. Personally, I like this kind of card link program because it is effortless cashback.
How to Sign Up and the Sign-Up Bonus
If you download Spent APP through a referral link now, then after signing up and earning cashback once, you can receive an extra $10 cashback bonus.
After downloading the APP and completing registration, you can see the sign-up bonus. To activate the $10, you need to earn any cashback transaction within Spent APP.
Spent APP Cashback Features
Spent APP has two types of cashback. One is Card Link Cashback: after you link a credit card or debit card, purchases made on that card will automatically earn cashback in Spent APP. The other is a cashback portal similar to a Cashback Portal, where you need to click through to a specific merchant from Spent APP and complete the purchase on the opened webpage in order to earn a certain percentage of cashback.
Card Link Cashback
At the moment, all merchants in the Card Link program offer 1%. You need to manually add each merchant’s offer to your account. The good news is that Spent did not set a merchant limit, so you could add all of these merchants to your account. The current merchant list is as follows:
- Amazon
- Whole Foods
- Lowe's
- Walgreen’s
- 7-Eleven
- Uber
- Starbucks
- Netflix
- McDonald’s
- iTunes
These are all very practical everyday merchants, so I would suggest adding them first. The merchant list changes frequently, and new cashback merchants are added from time to time.
All Card Link merchants work the same way. After you link your card, once a purchase on the card changes from pending to post, it will automatically import into Spent APP, and then you will receive cashback. Each activated card link offer can earn up to $100 cashback per month, which should be more than enough for most people.
Besides these fixed merchants, there are also some participating restaurants. You can search for them among nearby merchants. For people who eat out often, linking your usual dining credit card is not a bad idea either.
Cashback Portal Feature
In addition to Card Link, Spent also offers a feature similar to a cashback portal. However, I have not seen any especially high cashback rates so far. If you like shopping on your phone, I would recommend Ibotta APP instead, since the rates are higher.
Besides shopping, Spent APP also offers up to 25% cashback on booking Travel products. It will automatically redirect you to Spent Travel for booking. I cannot really compare the pricing, so just treat it as one more option.
Cashback Stacking
Based on readers’ testing, Spent APP’s card link cashback can stack perfectly with Drop, meaning both APPs can earn cashback on the same transaction, which is pretty nice. If you previously signed up for Drop and got Amazon cashback there, you can also sign up for this APP and double dip. However, the restaurant cashback here uses platforms similar to Dosh and Yelp, so if you link your card in this APP, it may automatically unlink from other APPs, which means you may not be able to double dip.
Payout Speed
I bought a few things to test the cashback tracking and found that Spent APP can track it as soon as the charge posts. Both Amazon gift cards and regular purchases earned cashback normally, and the cashback can be withdrawn after one month. For now, cashback can only be withdrawn via PayPal, with a minimum withdrawal amount of $20, and it will be sent automatically to the PayPal account linked to the email address used to register. Withdrawals usually arrive in PayPal within a few minutes, though sometimes they may be delayed by a few business days, probably because of manual review. Overall, it looks pretty reliable so far. The $10 sign-up bonus is credited to your account as soon as you have cashback pending.
Spent APP’s budgeting feature
In addition to cashback, Spent APP actually records all of the transactions on your credit cards. For each transaction, you can take a photo to add a paper receipt, add notes, and categorize it manually. Spent APP can also tally your total spending and spending categories for the next month, which is quite convenient.
Security and privacy
With cashback apps like this, people are naturally concerned about security. After all, when linking a credit card, you need to enter either your card number or your online banking username and password for various banks. For that concern, I can only explain it based on how the app works. The username, password, and card number you enter are not stored directly in Spent APP. After you log in, it is more like sending an authorization request to the bank; the app then periodically pulls your transaction records from the bank and imports them into Spent APP, similar to Mint. So there is no need to worry too much.
As for why Spent APP gives you cashback, one reason is that it can access your transaction data, analyze it, and possibly market better products to you or even resell the data to others. Another reason is that if you make purchases through its shopping portal or through Spent Travel, the merchant itself gives Spent some cashback, and then Spent passes part of that back to you. In this era of big data, when even the ads you see online can be customized, I personally do not care that much about the privacy of my bank transaction history anymore, as long as the account itself is secure.
Summary
Getting an extra 1% cashback in a few popular categories like Amazon, Starbucks, Uber, and Whole Foods is definitely worthwhile, especially since you only need to link your card and the cashback is earned automatically. If you are interested in cashback apps like this, you can also try the following:
- Drop APP ($5 sign-up bonus; earn cashback after linking your card and making purchases)
- Dosh APP ($10 sign-up bonus; earn cashback after linking your card and making purchases)
- Ebates in Store Cashback ($10 sign-up bonus; cashback at physical stores like Macy's, BuyBuyBaby, and Saks, also by linking your credit card)
- Ibotta ($10 sign-up bonus; upload receipts after shopping in-store to get cashback, good for household shopping)
- Shop Kick (500 kicks sign-up bonus; in-store check-ins and shopping rewards, requires scanning or location services)
Registration link
After you sign up and earn cashback once, you can receive an extra $10 cashback.