Six cashback apps that earn you money on your shopping -- reviewed and rated

Photo by Nicolas Thomas on Unsplash

Who doesn't like free money for not very much effort? Cashback apps offer just that -- a few coins back on your supermarket shopping, just by using your smartphone. Here, I've rounded up a few cashback apps that I use to cut the cost of my food shopping. None of them are going to make you rich, but getting money back on the shopping you already do sounds a bit of a no-brainer to me.

Below you can find my summary of six different cashback apps, divided into two categories: apps that offer cashback on supermarket shopping, and apps that pay a few coins for taking pictures of your shopping receipts. Most of them take a few seconds to use, and pay the money you earn straight into your bank account. I've included the pros, cons and the vegan friendliness for each app where appropriate.

From left to right: Shopmium, GreenJinn, Clicksnap

GreenJinn (free, available on Android and iOS)
GreenJinn has lists of offers on food and other grocery items like cleaning products. You choose the offers that you want, and when you want to redeem it, you need to scan the barcode of the product and then take a snap of the receipt.

Pros: The app is simple to use and there's a fresh list of offers every Monday. And talking of fresh - Green Jinn is one of the few apps that always has offers on fresh fruit and veg, and also includes non-supermarket retailers, like Superdrug, Boots and Holland and Barrett.
Cons: The minimum payout is £1.50, but you can typically make that up from two or three offers. The money won't be paid to you automatically - you have to request it.
Vegan friendly: You can filter which offers you see, so you can remove things like milk and meat from showing up on your feed. As well as fruit and veg, I've saved money on falafel, sausages, jam, and non-dairy milk and butter.

Shopmium (free, available on Android and iOS)
Like a number of other cashback apps, Shopmium shows offers on grocery items from a number of large supermarket chains. To claim cashback from an offer, users will need to snap the product's barcode from their phone as well as upload a picture of their receipt to prove they bought the item. Cashback is paid into the user's bank account a few days later. New offers are added several times a week. The offers tend to be larger than other apps, but equally they're on more expensive items so you'll need to spend more upfront to get the discount.
Bonus: if you use my referral code 4e6u8, you'll get something free (it changes from week to week, so I'm not sure what the current offer will be when you download the app!)

Pros: There's no minimum payout, the app is well designed, cashback is easy to get.
Cons: More vegan offers wouldn't go amiss, but apart from that, it's one of the more user friendly options.
Vegan friendly: Most offers aren't vegan friendly, but vegan items regularly crop up. In the past, I've saved money on beer, peanut butter, soup, yoghurt, and vegan sausages.

ClickSnap (free, available on Android and iOS)
Another mobile app that gets you money back on your supermarket shopping when you buy any of the listed products. It's connected to Quidco, so the payment will end up in your Quidco account automatically once your claim is accepted.

Pros: Cash is paid automatically rather than having to request it. There's a decent selection of offers, and they tend to stick around for a reasonable time, so you've got a while to pick up what you need.
Cons: See below!
Vegan-friendly: There are vegan offers, but obviously not anything that's grabbed me -- I haven't managed to get any cashback on this one yet.

From left to right: CheckoutSmart, Shoppix, ReceiptHog

CheckoutSmart (free on Android and iOS)
CheckoutSmart is like a less good version of Clicksnap. It has a lot of the same offers and works the same way. The cashing-out process is a bit less good, though: you have to have a minimum of £5 to claim your money, and you'll be charged 5 percent of the withdrawal amount if you take out under £20.

Pros: A good long list of offers, regularly refreshed.
Cons: The minimum withdrawal limit is a pain. Most offers have a chunky cashback attached, but you can still take a while to get to the withdrawal amount.
Vegan friendly: Yes, I managed to hit the £5 limit just on a single offer on almond milk!

Receipt Hog (free on Android and iOS)
Every time you go shopping, snap a picture of your receipt through the app and you get points. The bigger the spend, the more points you get. Eventually points don't make prizes, they make cash - you can take withdraw it as PayPal, Amazon or Mastercard credit.

Pros: A slick app that accepts most types of receipts, and you can earn bonus points through the Hog Slots game in the app.
Cons: If you're not a big spender (like me) it can take a while to build up enough points to withdraw any cash.

Shoppix (free on Android and iOS)
Shoppix works on the same principles as Receipt Hog: you snap a picture of your shopping receipts, you build up tokens. When you've got enough tokens, you can swap them for Amazon, iTunes, or Love2Shop vouchers. You can also get extra tokens for uploading the receipt on the same day, and for completing surveys. Uploading a certain number of receipts and completing surveys also earn you scratchcards - more often than not, they cough up extra tokens too.

Pros: It's easier to build up a cash bonus, as you get the same amount of tokens for a receipt, whether it's for £1 or £100. Surveys and scratchcards all add to your total too.
Cons: None that I can think of. It's definitely an app worth trying!