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Grocery shopping is an activity almost everyone has to do at some point in their life. If you want to eat anything at home without ordering takeout for every meal, you’ll probably buy it at a grocery store.
Groceries cost money and food is often one of the biggest line items in the average American budget. You can save money by hunting for sales or couponing, but that takes a lot of work.
Fetch is an app that can help you save some money on your grocery shopping by earning rewards each time you shop.
What is Fetch Rewards?
Fetch Rewards is a grocery rewards app available for both iPhone and Android. When you go grocery shopping, you can use Fetch to earn rewards points that you can redeem for gift cards, effectively helping you save money when you buy groceries.
Unlike similar apps, Fetch doesn’t make you shop at specific stores or pre-load offers to your account. All you have to do is upload a photo of your receipt and Fetch automatically rewards you.
How Does Fetch Work?
Fetch tries to keep things as simple as possible, so it’s pretty easy to use the app once you download it.
Scan Your Receipts
The primary way that people earn rewards with Fetch is by scanning their receipts. Unlike other apps that make you look for specific offers, the majority of Fetch’s offers are automatic.
Fetch partners with popular brands like Frito-Lays, Kleenex, and Aquafina to offer rewards to customers who buy their products. When you upload a photo of your grocery receipt, Fetch automatically finds any partner products that you purchased and gives you rewards points for those purchases based on the amount that you spent.
Related: Best Grocery Receipt Scanning Apps
Shop for Special Offers
On occasion, Fetch has special offers which give you bonus rewards for buying certain products. Just like normal offers, there’s no need to pre-select the offers to qualify for them. Just upload your receipt and Fetch will give you credit for any special offer you qualify for.
Special offers update regularly and are clearly displayed on the app’s home page, making it easy to identify opportunities to earn some bonus points.
eReciepts
Another way you can earn rewards is with eReceipts. You can link your account with some major online retailers, like Amazon and Walmart, to the Fetch app. Whenever you buy a participating brand from a linked website, you’ll also earn Fetch rewards.
Earn Rewards Points
When you buy products from partner brands or complete a special offer and upload a photo of your receipt, Fetch automatically adds rewards points to your balance. You can track your balance and view your earnings over time so you can get a sense of what shopping trips earned you the most points.
Redeeming Your Points
Fetch offers many ways to redeem your points.
The most common option is to redeem your points for gift cards. You can often redeem your points for gift cards as small as $3 or $5, making it easy to turn your points into money you can use. You can get gift cards to popular stores like Amazon.com, Best Buy, and Sephora, typically at a rate of $1 per 1,000 points.
You can also redeem your points for subscriptions to magazines like Real Simple, People, and Entertainment Weekly. Most subscriptions last for a year and cost about 5,000 points, the equivalent of about $5 in gift cards, making this a good deal for people who like magazines.
If you don’t mind taking a risk, the app also runs regular sweepstakes for things like $500 Visa gift cards. You can redeem your points for entries into the contest, with higher redemption levels getting you more entries per point redeemed.
Promotions
Fetch regularly has special offers available in the app, giving you the chance to earn some extra rewards points on your purchases.
You can also share a referral code with friends or use a friend’s referral code when you sign up. Each friend you refer earns you 2,000 points. You also get 2,000 points if you sign up using a friend’s code.
Pricing and Fees
One of the best parts of using Fetch is that there’s no cost and no fees to use the app.
You can download the app for free from the App Store or the Google Play Store and create an account, free of charge. You never have to give the app any payment information and you receive your rewards in the form of gift cards or magazine subscriptions, with no attached fees.
The minimum redemption amount is just $3 and there are no fees to redeem your points, so you don’t have to worry about losing out on some of your rewards when you redeem.
Signing Up
Signing up for Fetch is pretty simple.
The first thing that you have to do is download the app from the App Store or Google Play Store.
When you open the app, it will ask you to create an account. You can create a brand new account or sign in using Google or Facebook.
Once you create your account the app will ask you for some basic information, including your cell phone number, birthday, and gender. It uses this information to customize your experience in the app to display the brands you’re most likely to purchase.
Once you’ve provided that personal information, Fetch will ask you to enter a referral code if you have one from a friend. After that, you’re ready to start using the app.
Mobile Support
Fetch is a mobile-only service. You can’t access the app, upload receipts, or redeem rewards from Fetch’s website.
The good news is that Fetch’s app is well-designed and easy to use. The main page shows the special offers currently available and makes it easy to upload photos of your receipts. The app is easy to navigate and use, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding where any feature is.
Support/Customer Service
Fetch makes it easy to contact customer service. You can access a Help Center directly through the app and view answers to dozens of frequently asked questions.
If the FAQs aren’t enough, you can click the “Contact Us” button and provide a short description of why you’re reaching out. The app automatically opens a chat window that you can use to talk to a customer service representative.
Fetch Pros and Cons
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Completely free to use — Fetch Rewards has no cost to sign up or use the service, so almost everyone can give it a try.
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Low redemption minimum — Many shopping rewards apps lock your rewards behind high redemption minimums. With Fetch, you can redeem your points for gift cards as small as $3, so you can quickly turn points into money you can use.
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Simple to use — Many apps make you pre-select offers, giving you more work to do to earn rewards. Fetch does that work for you, automatically rewarding you for qualified purchases.
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No clear information about how much you’ll earn — Fetch lists brands that offer rewards but only tells you what you’ll earn from special offers. It doesn’t give information on what you’ll earn on regular purchases from partner brands.
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No cash redemption option — Cash is king and while gift cards can be as good as cash for some people, not everyone will shop at the stores that Fetch offers gift cards to. People who can’t use any of the gift card Fetch offers won’t get much value from the service.
Alternatives
There are some alternatives to Fetch that you might want to consider before signing up.
Ibotta
Ibotta, like Fetch, is mostly focused on groceries and staples like paper towels and soaps. Also like Fetch, Ibotta bases its rewards on the brands that you buy.
You might want to use both apps for a while and compare your earnings to see which app is better for your shopping habits.
Rakuten
Rakuten is one of the most popular online shopping portals. You can earn cash back when you’re shopping online by visiting Rakuten and using its portal to click through to the stores you want to shop from. You’ll earn cash back as a percentage of your purchase and get a check in the mail every three months for all the rewards you’ve earned. Rakuten also offers an in-store rewards program so you can earn cash back when you physically shop at a partner store.
FAQs
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Who is Fetch For?
Fetch is for anyone who does the grocery shopping for the household and who wants to earn some rewards for the things that they buy. You don’t have to do much additional work; just upload a photo of your receipt. There’s little reason for anyone who goes grocery shopping regularly not to try it out.
Bottom Line
Fetch Rewards is an app that rewards grocery shoppers for uploading photos of their receipts. You automatically earn points based on the purchase of products from brand partners. Given how easy the app is to use, the low redemption minimums, and the fact that you can sign up for free, almost everyone should give the app a try.