Upside

I'm sure you have heard a million commercials for this app and it can be helpful. I think that anything that saves a little money or makes a little money is a good thing and worthwhile. This app is not one that I am a big fan of. After the first fill up where you get 25 cents off a gallon the saving gets significantly smaller. It gets so much smaller that I basically get better rewards just by going to Speedway and getting 5 cents off anyway and at Walmart I get 10 cents off a gallon for being a Walmart plus member. After the introduction period the rewards on Upside just aren't high enough. I kept it installed though and after a while they sent me another promo that said I could get another 20 cents off the next fill up. When they do rewards like that it makes it worth it. I have made a total of $9.64 in the matter of two and a half months. While I'm grateful for any money made or saved it just isn't very much. 

Not every gas station qualifies for the Upside discounts and you have to have your card linked. So if you have problems sharing your credit card information online then this would not be a good option for you. Basically you have to log in to the app, claim an offer, get your gas, and then send in a picture of your receipt showing the time, date, gallons, price, etc and then when the receipt is processed they put the cash back money into your account. You then have several ways to redeem that money how you want it. You can link a bank account and have the money sent directly to your bank account if you are comfortable with that. I am not comfortable with that, so I go the gift card route. There are about 40 different gift card options including the major ones like Walmart, Target, Papa Johns, Burger King, and Amazon. I will typically get Walmart or Amazon so that I can get groceries and things like that, but it is a nice way to pay for a date night if you want to use it for more discretionary spending. There is also an option to cashout the money to PayPal. I have done that on other sites before when I wanted money in my bank account but wasn't comfortable putting in my bank account information. You cashout to PayPal and then can transfer the money into your bank account that way and I think that is more secure as I trust PayPal a lot. 

Upside is not a bad app to save money or earn money, especially if you don't have other ways to get discounts on gas like I do with Speedy rewards and Walmart Plus, but you definitely aren't going to get the kind of money that they talk about in the commercials. If you are interested in trying out Upside and would like to use me as a referral my code is REBECCA849973. If you use my code you will get an extra 15 cents per gallon cash back on your first fill up.