To start with, my favorite thing about SavingStar is that the majority of their rebates are exact duplicates of current coupons. For example, last month there was a rebate on SavingStar for $2.00 off one box of Garnier Fructis hair color, and there was also a printable coupon for $2.00 off one box of Garnier Fructis hair color. So basically I would pay $2.00 less at the checkout, and then receive another $2.00 back as a rebate. $4.00 off a box of something that is normally $7.00 is a pretty darn good deal. This method of using both the rebate and the coupon for the same purchase is also perfectly legal (it's listed in their policy), although they have specifically stated that they "might" implement methods in the future to limit coupons stacked with rebates. "Limit" does not mean "eliminate", so I'm remaining optimistic about this possible change.
How it works
To use offers on SavingStar, you simply have to push the plus sign at the bottom of the offer, and it reserves that rebate for you. Unlike Ibotta, you don't have to read or watch or answer anything in order to have the rebate available to you; simply mark which rebates you are interested in. However, SavingStar has a limited amount of their offers that can be redeemed, so you'll want to reserve yours before they are gone. Let's say they are only allowed to offer 50 people that $2.00 off one box of hair color rebate, then the first 50 people to push the button have the rebate reserved, and the offer is no longer open to anyone else. Even if none of those 50 people actually purchase the item or redeem the rebate, no one else is allowed to use it. I don't know the exact number of times a rebate can be reserved before there are no spots left (I just used 50 as an example), but I do know that health and beauty items go fast - sometimes they are all reserved after the first few hours of being posted. Tip of the day, reserve what you want as soon as you see it!New Offers
So how often are new offers posted on SavingStar? According to their FAQ page, they release a new "healthy offer" (explained below) every Tuesday. Every first of the month they post new offers, and they typically have new offers every Thursday, and Monday "although new deals may become available at any time". So pretty much...anytime they feel like it, although Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays would be ideal times to check out the list and reserve anything new that you might want. Even if it isn't on sale right now, it might go on sale later, so if you might purchase it, go ahead and reserve it. I've noticed that most of the really good rebates that match coupons (almost word for word) show up at the first of the month, so make it a habit to check back then, as well.Submitting Receipts
With SavingStar, you can upload receipts any time after the purchase, and even up to 3 days after the offer expires. Waiting to upload the receipt until after the offer expires only works if the item was actually purchased before the expiration date of the offer. So if you went shopping the day it expired, but didn't get around to submitting your receipt until 2 days later, you'll still get credit for the offer. Also, if you went shopping 2 weeks ago and still haven't submitted your receipt, and the offer is still available, you can submit the receipt without worrying that 2 weeks have already passed. You cannot purchase the item after the expiration date and still get the rebate (duh). Most rebate apps require that you submit the receipt within a certain number of days from the time of purchase, so I suggest uploading all of rebate receipts when you get home from shopping as you're putting groceries away. This is mostly because some apps (including SavingStar) require that you scan the bar code of the item to prove that you purchased it and to make sure the item you purchased actually matches their rebate. If what you purchased doesn't match the rebate, the bar code won't scan. Uploading your receipts as soon as you get home also takes away the risk of loosing the receipt before cashing out on the rebate. If you wait 2 weeks, you're more likely to not be able to find where you placed the receipt, and you won't get paid without it.Freebies
About once or twice a month, they will post a "freebie" rebate; they will pay you back the full price of the item (not including tax), just to be cool. These items are usually small, such as a candy bar or a single serve portion of ice cream, or a single canister of salt - stuff that costs under $1.50. These offers expire about 2 days after they show up on the offers list, so you'll want to do your shopping quickly after seeing one of those show up. I won't go out of my way to go to the store for a free Kit Kat bar, but if I already have a shopping list, and I know I'll get the money back for it, I might as well get my shopping finished and grab a candy bar on the way out!Healthy Offers
Another thing I like about SavingStar is that they always have a "healthy offer" for produce. It's a different kind of produce every week, and it can be any brand and any size of that item. However, rather than offering to pay you a set amount for purchasing a bunch of bananas, they offer to pay 20% of whatever you paid for bananas. So while on Ibotta I know that I could buy 1 banana or 100 bananas and I would only get $0.20 for the purchase, SavingStar will pay for 20 of those 100 bananas. Assuming about 3 bananas make a pound, and the price of bananas right now is around $0.39/lb, I would pay about $13.00 for 100 bananas, but SavingStar would pay me back $2.60 instead of just $0.20. Granted, I can't think of any reason why someone would buy 100 pounds of bananas, but still, it's a nice way to get paid more for buying produce, and in all reality, I'm going to use both the Ibotta rebate AND the SavingStar rebate.One or Many Rebates
Another interesting kind of rebate that is unique (as far as I know) to SavingStar, is a "one or many" rebate. Most rebates use the same wording as coupons: "$1.00 off any 2 (two) packages of ________". They pay you based on the quantity of items you purchase, usually regardless of the price. If the coupon (or rebate) requires more than one item be purchased in order to receive the discount, both items must be purchased in the same transaction. With a "one or many" rebate, you are paid only after you have spent a certain amount of money on qualifying items of a certain brand, and those purchases can be made throughout several transactions as long as they all fall within the specified timeline of the offer. The most common ones I see in SavingStar will pay you $3.00 after you spend $12.00, or $5.00 after you spend $20.00. I have only actually cashed out on 2 of these offers before, because I was buying a lot of the item anyway, and I knew I would reach the spending requirement in the one transaction. I won't spend a few dollars at a time on an item that counts for a "one or many" rebate, and just hope that eventually I end up reaching the required amount before the offer expires. My problem with this is that if the item hasn't gone on sale by the time the expiration date rolls around, I will feel pressured to go out and spend the required amount in order to make my previous purchases "worth it". In the end I will have paid a higher price per item than I normally would have, because the rebate won't make up enough of a difference for the full price I paid on the items. It's much better if the items that qualify for the rebate are also on sale, and I stock up on them, thus reaching the spending requirement. The only way I would use this rebate is if I know I will reach the full requirement in the same day (or week; if a deal is good enough, the stores will limit the number you can purchase in a single transaction, and therefore I would return to the store multiple times in order to stock up). It's still a nice way to get extra savings if the rebate happens to match an item that you already need to stock up on, and it also goes on sale, but I wouldn't advise going out of your way to get the rebate.Things to be aware of
There are a few con's to SavingStar, and I have to say it has caused me a lot of frustration when I first got started out couponing. Firstly, you have to purchase your items at one of the stores they partner with. Ibotta has the same policy, but with Ibotta it's not a big deal because they offer a huge selection of stores. Unfortunately, SavingStar doesn't have as many options to choose from, although the difference isn't by much. The nice thing however is that every rebate on their app works for any store they partner with, so unless the item I want to purchase is at a store they don't partner with, there is no need for me to price match at Walmart just to get a rebate.Another frustration I have with SavingStar is that there are a couple of the stores they partner with where you can only receive the rebate if you use your rewards card at the store. They call these "instant savings stores". My frustration with this is that if you forget to use your card, you don't get credited the rebate, even if you have the receipt and the item to prove you purchased it. There is no way to upload that purchase to the app (well, you can try, but I know from experience that they won't reward it), because they only credit those offers if the card was swiped at the store; the card syncs with the app, and they credit your account based on whatever purchases matched rebates you currently have reserved. This normally isn't a big deal for me since I have rewards cards with every store that offers them anyway, and I need to use my card at the register to get the sale price, so no biggie...except in the case of Albertson's. Albertson's no longer gives special prices for those with the rewards card, so there is no need for me to use it at the check-out. The only thing it is good for is if you save up points to use at their gas station (or at least that was the case last year when they stopped giving special prices to reward card members in 2014). So without the necessity of using the card for a certain price, I forget to use it at the register because it doesn't benefit me to do so. There have been at least 4 or 5 times that I've missed out on a rebate because I got home with my purchases and realized that I hadn't used my card, and now there is no way to upload my receipt. There have also been times when I know that nothing I'm purchasing has a rebate offer on their app, so I purposefully don't bother swiping my card. Then later that day they offer a rebate for an item that I purchased. If I had purchased it at any of the regular stores on their list, I would be able to simply upload my receipt any time before the offer expires, and I would receive credit for the offer. But because I purchased it at Albertson's and didn't swipe my card, I don't get credit for the purchase. I know, I'm just being picky :)
The last con to talk about with SavingStar is that it usually takes a few days for them to verify your receipts. With Ibotta, it's usually a couple of hours, sometimes only a few minutes. With SavingStar, it can take anywhere from 2-5 days for most receipts, and some store receipts take as long as 22 days. This can seem frustrating when you're waiting for rebates to come through, and it will make you wonder if there is something wrong with your submission. Don't worry though, as long as you purchased the item at the right store before the offer expired, AND took a clear picture of the receipt, you'll get paid for it. Even if the expiration date has passed and they haven't credited your account yet, you'll still receive the money, it just might take 3 weeks. The longest I've had to wait is 6 days. It was frustrating though.
Cashing out
And now to end on a good note about SavingStar: Cashing out. SavingStar only requires a $5.00 balance in order to cash out, and they deposit the money directly to your Paypal account. The transfer usually happens within 24 hours of your request to cash out. It's a lot easier to cash out of something that requires a minimum of $5 rather than waiting for $20 to build up (like on Ibotta or Checkout 51) before I can get my rebate money back.Overall, I really like SavingStar, and I've earned about $20 back using their service. That's about a quarter of what I've made using Ibotta, but then again, Ibotta has a lot more rebates to offer. It is much more common however, to find rebates that match coupons using SavingStar, since their rebates are usually exactly the same amounts (and quantity requirements) as the Sunday manufacturer coupons. I will definitely continue to use them!
No comments:
Post a Comment