If You Aren’t Using Shopkick You Should Be!

Shopkick App Overview and Review

Shopkick is an app available on Apple or Android phones.  This app has been around for a while, but I think there are a lot of people that are not aware of it.  If you are one of those people then I am about to make your day!

Shopkick allows you to earn points for various activities that you turn into gift cards.  There are a slew of gift cards available including Walmart, Target and Amazon.

For this article I will go over the ins and outs of Shopkick and give you my thoughts on the program.

If interested in the app you can use our referral link.

Earning Points

There are four main ways to earn points.  There are walk ins, in store scans, purchases and a shopping portal. I am going to focus on the first three since the shopping portal is an inferior product.  Always check cashbackmonitor for the best portal payouts.

Walk Ins

Walk ins are the easiest way to earn shopkicks or “kicks”.  Basically you earn kicks for walking into a store.  You need to have the Shopkick app open and your Bluetooth on (to connect with the store’s system).  Then the kicks are registered and added to your account.  It usually doesn’t work when the store is closed (most of the time you don’t need to actually enter the store to earn them).

Shopkick usually offers increased walk in payouts on the weekend.  Many stores will be worth 150-200 kicks and I have seen them as high as 350 kicks solely for entering the store.  Kicks are worth $0.004 a piece so just walking into a store you were going to anyways can get you 80 cents or more.

There is a limit to how many times you can earn walk in kicks for each store before they give you a “cool down” period.  You usually have to take a few days off from that store and then the offers will come back.

Pro Tip: My wife and I like to do a thing we call slow rolling for kicks.  Most stores will give you kicks if you open the app and slowly drive by the front of the store.  I earned walk in kicks at CVS while I was sitting at a red light once too.

Store Scans

The kicks earning doesn’t stop once you walk into the store.  Once you are inside you can earn more kicks for scanning items that they want to promote in the app.  I have earned up to 250 kicks for scanning a single item.  Most items are for 10 kicks but there are usually some 25 and 50 kick items mixed in there too. The Airheads in the picture above will get you 30 kicks for scanning them and 200 kicks if you purchase them.  You can double dip on these earnings too.  I only do scans if they are at least 25 kicks an item and I know I can easily find the item.

Pro Tip: Hallmark stores routinely offer the best in store scans.

In Store Purchases

This is where the app really shines for resellers.  This app lets you earn kicks for items you purchase in store.  There are two ways this happens.  They offer bonuses for buying certain items.  Like 500 kicks for buying instant pasta etc.

Some stores also offer you a kick per dollar rate.  There are 3 ways to earn these extra kicks and it varies by store which one you will have to use.  Some stores have you link the credit card you are going to pay with to the app and it registers that way.  Other stores have you send a picture of your receipt.  Lastly, some stores will have the store scan a barcode before you make your purchase (shown above).

Walmart was offering 1 kick per dollar during the whole holiday season.  That would have been huge for toy resellers! (cough cough Shawn). Best Buy also regularly offers 1 kick per dollar on in store purchases.  There are only a few ways to earn portal bonuses for in store purchases and they rarely include stores like Walmart and Best Buy.

Pro Tip: I tried submitting a money order receipt from Walmart just to see what would happen.  I didn’t get credit as expected but I thought I may save you the effort if you were thinking the same thing.

Redemption

As I noted above Shopkicks are worth $0.004 a piece. You can redeem them towards gift cards at the available retailers starting at 500 kicks, worth $2. Most stores offer a 500, 1250, 6250, and 12500 kicks redemption offer.  Those are for gift cards worth $2, $5, $25, and $50.

Once redeemed there is a gift card code and barcode in your app so you can use the gift card in store or online.

Conclusion

Shopkick is a rewarding app that works properly 99% of the time.  I have had an issue with one particular Marshall’s store never giving me walk in kicks but other than that it works properly.

This is an app that will add to your cash back/portal arsenal.  It gives you money for simply shopping. If you find the right mall or strip mall you can rack up $3-4 in kicks within minutes. It unlocks bonuses for in store purchases too.

I do recommend focusing your shopping trips “kicking trips” to the weekends since the walk in payouts are higher.  Don’t go out of your way during the week.

In the past month my wife and I have been able to rack up $50 in Amazon gift cards with minimal effort.

If you are interested in signing up you can use our referral link. We each get 250 kicks (worth $1) once you earn your first walk in or scan kicks within 7 days.

Do you currently use Shopkick?  What do you think of the program?  If not, do you think you are going to give it a try?  Let me know in the comments!

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.