Fetch Rewards Review 2020: Is It Worth It?

On the top 10 list of fun things to do, it’s a safe bet grocery shopping is not one of them. Ditto for buying toothpaste at the drugstore. Or stopping at a convenient store for snacks.

Grocery shopping is boring, time-consuming and more than that, pricey. We know all the hidden dangers of going shopping while we’re hungry, being lured in by impulse items, and tossing in a bag of M&Ms while waiting to check out.

Unless you race grocery carts in the parking lot (which we do not recommend), it’s just no fun.

But if you don’t want an empty fridge and pantry with nothing in it, shopping for the things we need is just part of life.

Sure, there are ways to keep grocery shopping from taking a major bite out of your budget. You can pore through the daily newspapers and weekly flyers to make a painstaking list of items on sale. Or better yet, become a coupon-cutter. This entails lots of pre-planning on your part as you scout out sites to use the coupons. You may even encounter push-back from an impatient employee at the register who challenges your right to use coupons, while an equally irritated line of fellow shoppers queue up behind you.

Is it even productive to go through all the time and energy to save a few cents per item? Sometimes you even may end up buying something you really don’t need, just to put a coupon to good use. Then, that bag of veggie chips will sit in the cupboard until dangerously close to reaching its expiration date.

Oh, the horror.

What Is Fetch Rewards?

It seems there is just no reward for the time and money you spend shopping for items you need. But wait. That has all turned around with a game-changer called Fetch Rewards.

No, this isn’t something you say to your dog after tossing a tennis ball in the backyard. It’s an app that gives you points for buying items you use every day in the regular course of your life, like bottled water, cereal, orange juice and beer. Those points earn you rewards at any of a long list of participating stores. Once you’ve accumulated a few, you can exchange those points for e-gift cards.

In other words, you kind of get paid to shop.

The Story Behind Fetch

Fetch Rewards, LLC, was founded in 2013 by an extremely forward-thinking entrepreneur named Wes Schroll. Schroll was in his sophomore year of college in Madison, Illinois, when he decided to move out of his dorm and rent a place of his own. It was then that he was confronted by the daunting task of adulthood: grocery shopping.

He went through the same hoops as you and I, spending too much time and money on the yawn-inducing task. But then he did something you and I never thought of: he launched an app that issues points for everyday items that you toss into your grocery cart.

Fetch leaves the shopping up to you! You don’t have to buy tomatoes or onion rings or pretzels if you don’t like them. All you do is select things already on your grocery list, or the items that call out to you when you’re foolishly shopping on an empty stomach.

You can put Fetch to good use at grocery, convenience, drug, liquor and club stores. Most people frequently stop at convenience stores to avoid lines and time searching for a specific item. Or stop on the way home for a bottle of chardonnay.

With Fetch Rewards, you'll save no matter where you like to buy your groceries. Go ahead. Fill your cart.

How Does Fetch Rewards Work?

Once you’ve downloaded the app, all you need to do is scan in your receipt at the time of purchase. That’s when the magic happens, and you begin to accumulate points.

Don’t worry, Fetch isn’t going to send you out to the middle of nowhere in some obscure location where the money you spend on gas will be more than your rewards.

The list of participating stores is long and will likely include your favorites.

Here is just a sample of places where you can shop to earn rewards:

• Target
• CVS
• Dollar General
• Walgreens
• Publix
• Aldi
• Sam’s Club
• Shop Rite
• Costco
• Safeway
• H-E-B
• Food Lion
• Rite Aid
• Stop & Shop
• Walmart
• BJs
• Whole Foods
• 7-Eleven
• Shell
• Speedway
• BP
• Winn-Dixie
• Hy-Vee
• Trader Joe’s
• PetSmart
• Price Chopper
• Wegmans

But wait, there’s more. It’s absolutely free to download and use Fetch Rewards. You read that right; there are no fees, no minimums, no limits on how much you spend or how many days or weeks it takes you to rack up points.

Participating Brands

Still not convinced you can earn reward points for everyday items?

There is a seemingly endless list of brands that participate in the Fetch program. Here are just a few:

• Jell-O
• Godiva
• Coors Light
• Molson Canadian
• Aquafina
• Diet Pepsi
• Mt. Dew
• Tropicana
• Cheerios
• Heinz
• Kraft
• Oscar Mayer
• Breyers
• Claritin
• Kleenex
• Dove
• Doritos
• Hershey’s

And also a long list of magazine subscriptions that you can buy and earn points. The key point here is that these are not obscure products that nobody purchases, like apple cider vinegar gummies. These are products most households buy and use on a regular basis!

Every time you buy things from these brands (and there are even more), you will get points based on the cost of the item. You won’t need to scan barcodes or do any math on the amount per item that you spent. Just scan the receipt.

Once you accumulate a couple thousand points, it’s time to redeem them. The really cool thing is, you can earn back electronic gift cards from the same places where you originally shopped!

How To Earn Rewards

The easiest way to earn points with Fetch Rewards is to just shop for the products you already love. If you have any participating brands on your receipt, you'll get points based on the cost of the products. You don't need to clip any coupons or scan individual barcodes. Just scan each grocery receipt after you shop and let Fetch Rewards find the savings for you.

Here comes the fun part: All of those points you earned can be redeemed for rewards! Fetch Rewards shoppers have access to hundreds of rewards from the most popular stores and online retailers in the country.

Once you have accumulated enough points (as little as 3,000) redeem your Fetch Points for hundreds of different rewards in seconds

As you accumulate points with each scanned receipt, you'll be able to redeem more rewards. All rewards are redeemed as electronic cards, so the entire process takes seconds.

Participating Gift Cards

E-gift cards are redeemable for tons of venues you likely know and love, including:

• Sephora
• GameStop
• Fandango
• Athleta
• Gap
• LL Bean
• Home Goods
• Buffalo Wild Wings
• Chipotle
• Dunkin’ Donuts
• Panera
• Starbucks
• Adidas
• CVS
• Nike
• Lowes
• eBay
• Yankee Candle
• Airbnb

You can also be a philanthropist and use your points for donations for several non-profits such as the American Cancer Society and Habitat for Humanity.

Refer A Friend To Earn More Points

There’s also a valuable Refer-a-Friend Program that benefits both you and that friend (or family member).

Every time you refer someone and they sign up with your unique referral code, you will both get 2,000 bonus points when they scan in their first receipt. There is no limit to the number of referral bonuses you can earn. Seriously, no limits. Go ahead and refer everyone you know and watch the points come rolling your way.

Test Driving Fetch Rewards

We decided to put Fetch Rewards to the test by doing some shopping of our own. After downloading the app, we headed out to Price Chopper with our official list. Normally, we are more of a “run out and buy something to make for dinner” type of couple, but this time, we armed ourselves with a list of very specific items.

It was a quiet Thursday night and raining, so we were lucky to find a good parking spot and get through the aisles fairly fast.

In the dairy aisle, we tossed strawberry Yoplait yogurt and everybody’s favorite, Hershey’s chocolate pudding into our cart. While we were at it, we picked out a tub of Philly Cream Cheese for Sunday morning’s bagels. We were planning a small party Friday night, which meant stocking up on Redd’s Apple Ale, Cheetos and Pure Leaf iced tea for the designated drivers. Then we decided to add Aleve for the next morning.

Also on our list, Crystal Light drink mix packets in watermelon, Ore-Ida tater tots and Heinz ketchup, Wheaties cereal, Doritos and Scott toilet paper. Since we didn’t have time or the desire to make a second stop at the drugstore, we also added Axe deodorant and Suave shampoo.

We bravely decided to do self-checkout, struggling a bit to find the bar codes, but coming out unscathed. Our total bill: $77.60. Then it was out to the parking lot to scan in our receipt. We waited breathlessly to see what our points would be.

Then the waiting was over. We had earned 1,000 points in just one night. Victory! A couple thousand more, and we would be on our way to a $25 e-gift card to use next time at Wegmans. Or splurge and head to Chipotle for burrito bowls.

How Much Money Can You Earn?

So, the big question is how much can you earn while using Fetch Rewards?

Well, first of all, there is a limit of 14 receipt scans per week. That is still a decent amount! That is equivalent to 2 shopping trips a day.

When you purchase a qualifying product, you will earn 1o points for every dollar you spend. For example, if you bought a $3 Jell-O snack, you would earn 30 points. You also earn points for simply scanning receipts, and there are often special promotions going on that allow you to earn more!

Just for scanning your first two receipts, you earn 1,200 points!

You just need 3,000 points to redeem for your first gift card. We found one blogger who has been using Fetch Rewards since 2018. They simply scan their grocery receipts once a week. So far, they have earned over $500 in gift cards!

Final Thoughts

All in all, we heartily recommend Fetch Rewards. It makes a mundane task almost enjoyable and saves you cold, hard cash.

Now just remember the golden rules of shopping: don’t go hungry, ignore the end caps, and use the self-checkouts, because they don’t have a huge array of candy and gum there. At least not yet.

For most people, scanning receipts is an easy task. As long as you remember to do it, you can earn free rewards. Again, we don't recommend buying products that you don't ordinarily use! This is a waste. But if you already buy the products, and now you can earn some free gift cards, it is a win-win.

Lastly, here are a few final pointers on Fetch Rewards:

• All receipts are submitted electronically through the app, so unfortunately you can't send or mail them in.
• You have to submit your receipts within 14 days of purchase.
• Occasionally, Fetch Rewards runs a security scan on accounts to detect fraud.
• You want to keep your account active, because if you don't log on for 90 days or more you lose your points.
• If your receipts are too long for one photo, you can send them in multiple photos.
• Fetch Rewards is earning money from these retailers by offering special promotions. They also sell this consumer shopping data which is very useful to advertisers.