In the good ol’ days, you might spend a weekend morning clipping out paper coupons and rebates before hitting the grocery store.
However, these days, cutting up a bunch of coupons simply isn’t as practical.
After all, thanks to the rise of reward apps, it’s now easy to earn rewards from daily shopping trips without much extra effort.
Of these apps, receipt scanning apps like Checkout 51 and Fetch Rewards have grown in popularity due to how easy they are to use.
ReceiptPal, another popular scanning app, has also created a way to scan your receipts and earn rewards on the go, no matter where you shop!
If you want to earn approximately $1.25 per week just for scanning receipts, this app is worth checking out.
Hang around until the end of this ReceiptPal review to see if this receipt scanning app deserves a spot on your homescreen!
Looking for even more easy money-making apps? Checkout:
- Drop – Earn free gift cards for shoppig at your favorite retailers with the Drop app!
- Mistplay – Play new Android games and earn free gift cards in your spare time!
ReceiptPal App Review - At A Glance
Name: ReceiptPal
Description: ReceiptPal is a reward app that pays you for scanning pictures of almost any receipt. Reward options include a variety of free gift cards!
Operating System: Android, IOS
Application Category: Reward Apps
Author: Daniel Friedman
Overall
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Earning Potential
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Ease of Use
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Earning Options
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Reward Options
Table of Contents
What Is ReceiptPal?
ReceiptPal is a receipt scanning app developed by NDP, a massive market research company, in 2013.
Like other scanning apps, ReceiptPal lets you shop at various stores and earn rewards by scanning your receipt.
With a company like NDP, which has been around for 50+ years, you’ll be certain that ReceiptPal knows what they’re doing.
So, in a nutshell, an enormous market research company is offering their rewards in exchange for a bit of consumer data.
Now don’t get scared.
ReceiptPal does not store any of your personal information. They simply want to know where and how consumers are shopping!
How to Sign Up
The ReceiptPal app is available on both Android and IOS for free. Here is how you can get started with ReceiptPal:
- Download ReceiptPal from your app store.
- Create an account using your email address. ReceiptPal also requests your date of birth, gender, and some other basic household demographic information.
- Start scanning receipts after shopping to earn rewards.
It’s really that simple! Once you’re past the account creation, you’re completely free to use the app and start earning rewards.
From there you can also connect your email and Amazon account for digital access to rewards (will go into further detail below).
The four tabs at the bottom of the app’s homescreen are labeled as follows:
- Receipts (shows your points).
- Rewards (shows your rewards value from earnings and future goals).
- Messages (shows any notifications from ReceiptPal).
- Account (shows history of points and basic account info).
You will also receive a few welcome bonuses for things like connecting your email or scanning your first receipt.
How Does ReceiptPal Work?
One of the main drawbacks of receipt scanning apps is their limited earning potential.
In reality, ReceiptPal isn’t going to make you rich or serious diversify your income.
However, if you want a simple source of extra income and are willing to add another reward app to your phone, ReceiptPal has some potential.
There are actually four main ways to earn ReceiptPal rewards on this app to help you make the most out of your shopping.
1. Upload Receipts
As you might have guessed, this is the most common way to earn rewards. Simply scan your receipt after shopping and wait for the earnings to come through.
Now, ReceiptPal uses Point Cards to track how many receipts you’ve uploaded, which is different than most other apps.
Here’s how Point Cards work:
Point Cards are worth 100 points (each one allows you to upload 4 receipts). Meaning, each receipt is worth 25 points.
You’re allowed to have 5 point cards maximum in your account at all times and you receive 3 new points cards at the beginning of every week.
Apps like Receipt Hog pay you rewards based on the value on your receipt, which can be useful if you have expensive bills.
In contrast, you earn earn 100 points for completing a Point Card regardless of how much you spent on the receipt. This is useful if you make multiple smaller shopping trips per week and can quickly fill out Point Cards.
2. Amazon and Email Options
Another way to earn points is by connecting your Amazon and email account.
This allows you to shop online and gives ReceiptPal access to your e-receipts so you can earn rewards without having to do anything but shop.
Connecting your Amazon account will also grant you extra benefits for being connected longer than a month.
If you have an email with AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook.com, or Yahoo, you are eligible to sign up for e-receipts access on ReceiptPal.
If you already shop more online than you do in stores, you might find that signing up for these accounts will be worth your while.
However, I also suggest checking out the Amazon Shopper Panel program to earn even more free money from your receipts!
Extra Reading – 19 Ways To Make Money On Amazon.
3. Sweepstakes
Everytime you submit an eligible receipt, you earn one entry into the sweepstakes to earn a prize!
The sweepstakes prize is worth $250 and the raffle occurs 3 times a week!
That’s pretty often give away $250, and while your odds aren’t great, it’s another reason to keep on scanning receipts.
If you’ve completed all your Point Cards, any extra receipts you scan will give you 2 entries per receipt into the sweepstakes (however, you won’t earn any additional points).
Extra Reading – Trivia Apps That Pay Real Money.
4. Bonus Games
Everytime you complete a Point Card, you’re also given a bonus game. It will appear on your Receipts tab.
When you play the bonus game, you have a chance to win either extra points, or extra entries into the sweepstakes to earn the $250 prize.
You can receive up to 5 bonus games a week, which can yield a pretty nice boost to your rewards.
Games have on-screen instructions you have to follow, so this is really just a fun add-on for the app to help you earn more points.
Extra Reading – The Best Apps That Pay You To Play Games.
What Kind of Receipts Work?
The only thing that matters with a receipt scanning app is the type of eligible receipts and how much you can earn.
Here is an easy list of receipts and retailer types that are eligible to earn rewards with ReceiptPal:
- Convenience stores.
- Travel and entertainment.
- Restaurants.
- Grocery stores.
- Clothing stores.
- Sporting goods stores.
- Electronics stores.
- Gas stations.
- Car dealerships.
- Online retailers.
Essentially, any retailer store for consumer goods will be eligible to scan, which is a good sign for ReceiptPal.
Now, the receipt must be in English and purchased with U.S. dollars from the United States, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, or Guam.
It must also include the store name, purchase date, amount spent, and phone number or zip code of the store.
ReceiptPal Rewards and How to Redeem Them
Once you have enough points to redeem the ReceiptPal rewards of your choice, you can go on to cash out by following these instructions:
- Go to the Rewards Tab.
- Choose the free gift card reward you’d like to redeem.
- Select “Redeem.”
From there you’ll be given an email confirmation with the code of the reward that you redeemed.
Their rewards system is broken down into 3 levels:
- Level 1 – $5 gift cards (2,200 points minimum)
- Level 2 – $10-$25 gift cards (4,000 points minimum)
- Level 3 – $50-100 gift cards (17,250 points minimum)
You’ll need to reach that 2,200 point threshold before you can redeem any ReceiptPal rewards. When you first sign up and scan, you should be able to reach half of that fairly quickly.
In terms of gift card options, you have several retails to choose from, including:
- Amazon.
- Target.
- Lowe’s.
- The Home Depot.
- Prepaid Visa Cards.
However, after that initial jump, earning points will get increasingly harder unless you really grind out those receipts.
How Much Does ReceiptPal Pay?
Let’s break down a few numbers given the information above…
The 2,200 points minimum earns you $5 in gift cards.
Meaning, 1 Point = $0.0023 or 100 Points = $0.23
With a 5 Point Card maximum, you can really only earn a perfect score of 500 points ($1.15) per week!
Realistically, this app is not going to become a side hustle. It’s probably not even going to buy you a lunch every month.
Clearly the earning potential for ReceiptPal is extremely low. It should really only be used as a little extra boost on your amazon account to chip in some more money for holiday gifts.
However, if you stack ReceiptPal with other scanning apps and reward apps like Drop and Rakuten, you can maximize how much money you save on your shopping trips.
Granted, if you want to make more serious income or don’t want another app clogging your phone, you’re probably better off using some other passive income apps or gig economy app to supplement the difference.
Plus, those can actually turn into side hustles if you wanted!
ReceiptPal vs Receipt Hog
ReceiptHog is another large receipt scanning app that pretty much serves the exact same purpose as ReceiptPal.
The stores that are eligible to earn rewards are almost exactly the same along with the earning potential and most other small features.
The main difference you’ll find between the 2 apps is the way you earn rewards…
ReceiptPal earns rewards through Point Cards (mainly) which goes based off of how many receipts you’ve scanned, not how much money was spent on those receipts.
ReceiptHog on the other hand, calculates the amount of money spent on the receipt to help you maximize your rewards if you spend a lot of money at one place.
If you checkout various beermoney communities on Reddit, you’ll see it’s common for people to use both apps on their phone to maximize receipt rewards.
However, how much effort you put into receipt scanning is ultimately up to you.
If you’re a big spender, try out Receipt Hog. Otherwise, stick with ReceiptPal.
Extra Reading – The Best Beermoney Apps & Websites.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are a few FAQs to ease your mind if you are still a little skeptical or want some extra information on ReceiptPal:
Why Was My Receipt Rejected?
Your receipt may be rejected if it does not include the purchase date, store name and total price.
A receipt could also be rejected if it’s not from an eligible retailer store type such as bills, gambling receipts, payment processors (ex: Paypal), or business related purchases.
Is ReceiptPal Safe?
In a short answer, Yes.
ReceiptPal does not store or share any of your personal information. They only analyze the consumer data such as where your receipts are from, what is purchased, etc.
Again, you need to be comfortable sharing this data, but ReceiptPal is safe and a legit company.
Is There a Referral Program?
Yes, there is a referral program.
You can invite friends to download and use the app and you will earn 250 points for every referral with a maximum of 6,250 points per month.
Note that your referral has to sign up with your ReceiptPal referral code for these points to credit.
Where Does ReceiptPal Work?
Currently, ReceiptPal works in the United States, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and Guam as long as you spend U.S. dollars when you shop.
Is ReceiptPal A Scam?
ReceiptPal isn’t a high-paying app or lucrative side hustle by any stretch of the imagination.
But this app isn’t a scam…if you upload eligible receipts, you earn points, and your points are redeemable for various free gift cards.
ReceiptPal Pros & Cons
The Pros
The main advantages of using ReceiptPal include:
- Ease of use.
- Ideal for frequent shoppers.
- Simple reward structure.
- Wide receipt eligibiltiy.
- Rewards are stackable with other receipt scanning apps like Fetch Rewards.
The Cons
It wouldn’t be a fair ReceiptPal review without talking about some of the downsides of this app:
- Low earning potential.
- Lack of PayPal cash and direct deposit rewards.
- Not global.
Realistically, the only negative is the extremely low earnings.
However, that’s a big part of using this app and other similar reward apps, so if you’re looking to significantly boost your income, other side hustle ideas like driving for DoorDash or trying other driving apps that pay are a better idea.
Is ReceiptPal Legit?
In a short answer, Yes. ReceiptPal is legit.
NDP, the creators of ReceiptPal, have been around for over 50 years in market research. ReceiptPal also has over 4.7 stars on the app store and don’t share any personal information.
There are plenty of users who report that the app pays out, and it’s definitely one of the leading scanning apps around.
Other Receipt Pal Reviews
As mentioned, this app has a fairly high rating on both the Google Playstore and IOS store.
If we take a look at Reddit, you’ll see the consensus is essentially that ReceiptPal pays but takes a while to earn rewards:
This is, frankly, to be expected from the world of reward apps.
However, serious savers get around this slightly by stacking scanning apps to maximize how much they earn from a single receipt.
This is a decent amount of work, but if you’re serious about this sort of thing, it’s probably the best way to use ReceiptPal.
If you want more scanning apps, checkout out CoinOut app review and Shopkick review!
Other Apps Like ReceiptPal
If you like the idea of earning rewards for scanning receipts and want some ReceiptPal alternatives, you can also checkout:
- Checkout 51.
- Fetch Rewards.
- Ibotta.
- Caddle (for Canadians).
- SavingStar.
- Receipt Hog.
- CoinOut.
- Ampli (a passive income app for Canadians).
- GetUpside, a receipt scanning app for gas cashback.
None of these apps like ReceiptPal will transform your finances, but hey, it’s never a bad idea to save more money when it’s easy to do so!
Who Should Use ReceiptPal & What Makes It Unique?
ReceiptPal is one of many receipt scanning apps you can use to earn free gift cards for your everyday shopping.
And, unlike many receipt scanning apps like Ibotta or Fetch Rewards that require buying specific products, ReceiptPal works with almost any receipt.
This makes apps like ReceiptPal, Receipt Hog, and CoinOut incredibly beginner friendly…you can just upload your receipts when you’re done shopping and you should earn something for your efforts.
So, if you do most of the shopping for your household, I think this app deserves a spot on your smartphone, alongside other apps.
If you frequently upload receipts, you will earn free gift cards over time, and it’s easier to get started with than most other receipt scanning apps.
Just remember, the earning potential is very low, so don’t use ReceiptPal if you’re looking for a side hustle idea that can pay off your bills.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, this app isn’t going to earn you much more than $5/month.
If you’re already shopping at retailer stores often and you don’t mind scanning your receipts every time, then ReceiptPal will help you earn a few free gift cards each year.
If you do most of your shopping online or simply feel that the earning potential isn’t worth your time, you’ll probably find better use in other apps that pay you.
Ultimately, it all boils down to how you decide to spend your time and how willing you are to work to earn free gift cards.
However, this wouldn’t be a genuine ReceiptPal review without my opinion, so here goes…
I can find plenty of other ways to supplement that potential $5/month with other apps or side hustles that will be more worth it for me!
But, will it be worth it for you? Give it a try and let us know!
Daniel is a 22 year old blogger from Los Angeles with a huge love for everything entrepreneurship, finance, and investing. When he’s not blogging at Modern Teen, you can catch him playing volleyball, shooting archery, or finding new ways to make money.