Kroger Introduces Cash Back Program – A New Way to Save!
Many of us in the hobby love Kroger and the other stores in its family. Fuel points are easy to earn, and they routinely offer money-saving coupons on gift cards. And those two items stack! Now, Kroger introduces Cash Back to their portfolio of rewards options. Let’s take a look!
How it Works
Kroger cash back offers work in a similar fashion to their existing digital coupons. Here are the steps from the beginning:
Load Offers: Once logged into the app or your online account, load qualifying cash back offers to your Shopper’s Card. The cash back offers are located at the bottom of the Savings screen in the app. Online, simply locate the Savings menu and click “Cash Back”.
Buy & Earn: Buy the item(s) you previously loaded offer(s) for. Don’t forget to scan your Shopper’s Card during the transaction to earn cash back and fuel points.
Cash Out: When you’re ready, transfer the cash to your Shopper’s Card or your PayPal account. In order to cash out to your PayPal account, a minimum of $20 total cash back is required.
My Initial Take
In general, the cash back offers span a variety of items at Kroger, similar to their existing digital coupons. No cash back offers for gift cards exist currently. However, there are variety of beer and wine discounts, moreso than I have historically seen in the digital coupons section. While I haven’t tested yet, I would expect the cash back offers to stack with paper/digital coupons, fuel points, and other apps, such as Shopkick.
Without gift card deals, is it really worth bothering with cash back offers? My immediate opinion is yes, especially if you were going to buy the items anyway. As I mentioned, the coupons span the majority of Kroger departments, including many staple items. I consider the cash back coupons to provide more rewards value for spend.
For instance, let’s say I had a $2 off digital coupon and a $2 cash back offer for a Red Baron Pizza. The pizza costs $4.99. With the digital coupon, the pizza would total $2.99 (before tax), and I would earn credit card and fuel rewards for $2.99 spend (plus tax). With the cash back offer, the pizza would total its sticker price of $4.99 (plus tax). I would earn credit card and fuel rewards for $4.99 spend (plus tax), and I would receive the $2 cash back later. For the same purchase, I earn more credit card and fuel rewards based off a ~$2 higher purchase amount. Yes, you would also pay a small bit more in tax, too. Make sure to crunch the numbers for your situation.
Kroger Introduces Cash Back – Final Thoughts
At this point, the Kroger Cash Back Program is not super lucrative, but it can provide solid, steady cash back on purchases you already make. I will continue to watch out for gift card availability in their cash back offers. Regardless, I’m a fan of new ways to save money, and I appreciate stores and programs creating new options for us all to do so. Have you used the Kroger Cash Back Program? What do you think so far?
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Yes, I’ve been using it for a while. Previously it was only available on the website. The new part is that it is now in the app. It has been pretty quirky for me, and I often have to email them to get proper credit.
Retired at 39,
Thanks for the data points!
The cash back program is over a year old.
Parts Unknown,
If that’s the case, it could be a new push or enhancement. This only started appearing in the app a few days ago. Indeed, as I currently look at the app, cash back is advertised as “New”.