ReceiptPal

ReceiptPal review:

ReceiptPal is a market research firm that pays you — in gift cards — to submit receipts that show what you’ve purchased, when and where. The site’s payment formula is a little complex. But the summary version of how it works is that you receive “point cards” that you fill with points by uploading receipts. (

How it works

You sign up and upload receipts by taking a photo of the receipt while in the app. Each receipt is worth 25 points. You can accumulate roughly 500 points per week.

Pay

What are the points worth? Not much. It appears that you need to have between 370 and 450 points to earn $1. However, the smallest rewards are for $5 gift cards, and you’ll need at least 2,200 points to claim them. So, assuming you claim the maximum points each week, it would take a little more than a month to get the $5 necessary to cash out.

Little effort

That said, the amount of time required to upload receipts is minimal. In fact, if you buy things online, you can connect your email or Amazon accounts to ReceiptPal and the site will automatically collect receipts / points on your behalf. (You’ll also get a points bonus for making these connections.)

Notably, unlike Fetch Rewards that pays you back for specific purchases, ReceiptPal simply pays for uploading qualifying receipts. It’s essentially selling aggregated shopping data to the firms that want its market research.

You don’t need to make any specific purchase to qualify for rewards. Receipts can be from almost any retailer, such as convenience stores, travel and entertainment operations, restaurants, grocery stores, clothing stores, sporting goods stores, electronics stores, gas stations, car dealerships, and online retailers.

For each 100 points you accumulate here, you also get entered into a sweepstakes drawing.

Not accepted

But you cannot claim points for business purchases, receipts that go through a payment processor, such as PayPal or Square, nor can you claim someone else’s purchase. Receipts can only be submitted to ReceiptPal once. If you re-submit the same receipt, the site will dismiss it as invalid.

However, it appears that claiming rewards here doesn’t preclude you from using the same receipts to claim rewards with other apps, such as ReceiptHog and Fetch Rewards.

Caution

One caution: If you don’t upload any receipts for 90 days, you cease being an “active member.” If the site deactivates your account, your accumulated points expire.

Receipts also need to be submitted within 10 days of purchase. So if you want to use this app, you need to be prompt about uploading purchase information.

Recommendations:

What’s the down side? We’d suggest that you scan receipts the moment you get home — or even in the car on the way home — so you don’t forget. And scan the same receipts on other apps, such as Fetch Rewards and ReceiptHog. It’s not a ton of money, but it involves a tiny amount of time. So the effort/reward seems equivalent.

By the same token, we don’t recommend sites like Ibotta, that require you to “unlock” rewards before purchase. These simply take too much time to make sense given the fairly negligible payback.

Want to try ReceiptPal?

Here’s a direct link to the ReceiptPal site, where you can sign up.

What their users say (from the Apple App Store)

“This app is a great one to get gift cards free. They do have a limit on dates receipts can be excepted, so you really need to log your daily receipts on the same day you get them. You can only get a total of 300 points per week for filling each of the cards they issue weekly. Plus you get extra points on top of each card of 100 for completing a card. But don’t stop scanning in cause those will give you a ticket to try and win the $250. drawing.”

“What I do like about this app is that receipts from most places are accepted and they all get the same amount of points regardless of the amount. What I don’t like is that you can only submit a maximum amount of 12 receipts per week to get actual points. You can submit more that will earn you sweepstake entries but there are typically near 500,000 total entries so your chances of winning are extremely slim.”

From Google Play

“Great and easy to use! Just take a picture of your receipts and rack up your points until you have enough to redeem your reward! Which is great considering I’m getting money back to spend from receipts that would otherwise usually be thrown away. Parking lots of fast food restaurants like McDonalds for example, is a great place to snag a bunch of receipts. They also don’t make you wait to get your reward, once you cash in your points you get the reward instantly.”

“Honestly, this is great for binge shoppers. Legit, but earning coins takes time. I had this app since August and just recently I was able to redeem a $5 gift card. For people who love to shop and go to different stores every trip, this is perfect for you. For those who don’t well, it’s great to have on hand and use when needed. It’s really easy to navigate and with the online receipt check it’s great when ordering from Amazon or buying something from a game. Rarely any ads, but overall 3/5.”

2/24/2023