The 12 Best Card-Linked and Cashback Apps (10 Get You Completely Free Rewards)

Lord knows I love playing around with new apps on my phone, especially in the interest of free, passive cashback just for linking my cards one time.

And other apps can save you money too, but require more interaction. I’m happy to click a few buttons to earn a few free bucks.

There are a LOT of card-linked and cashback apps out there.  Here are the 6 best card-linked apps, and 6 best cashback apps.

Between the 12, you stand to gain $95+ right out the gate!

 

These apps get you ongoing rewards for linking your cards. Set and forget!

Between them all, I’ve gotten back $100s in free rewards in the form of cash and gift cards.

12 Best Apps for Free Rewards

First, a distinction. Card-linked apps require you to link your cards and/or your bank credentials one time. From that point forward, you don’t have to interact with the app ever again if you so choose, except to get your rewards. They’re literally set-and-forget.

The other cashback apps do require interaction, whether that’s activating offers, scanning receipts, or some other task. So while not entirely effortless, I find they’re worth poking around.

Here are my picks!

6 card-linked apps
Acorns

Acorns – $5 free to start investing

Acorns is an investing app that costs $1 a month. Within it, there’s a feature called Found Money, which lets you earn extra investment money from partners. Some of them are card-linked.

Found Money is mostly a click-through shopping portal, but does have a few card-linked partners

They’re always rotating, but I’ve gotten free cash just for having my cards linked in my profile. Nothing to activate – the cash literally just appears.

~$53 free for doin’ nothin’

While not a crazy amount, I’ve earned ~$53 so far for making normal purchases I didn’t even know would trigger cashback.

Plus, the returns I’m getting from my “Aggressive” blend portfolio are ~7%, which is right where I wanna be when I invest.

Dosh

Dosh – Get $5 for signing-up and linking a card

Dosh brands itself as “effortless cash back” and that’s really the case. It’s one of my favorite apps because it’s always popping random cash into my account.

While there’s a shopping portal component to it, you can also earn at nearby businesses when you spend on a card that’s linked to Dosh.

Dosh has a varied selection of merchants

And it’s not just restaurants. I have World Market, Sephora, Sam’s Club, and The Body Shop showing up near me. In the past, they’ve had gas stations. And sometimes have promotions to get 5% cashback at Sam’s Club (which is one of the ways to save every time you shop there), and at other stores.

Drop

Drop – Get $5 free

Drop lets you pick your 5 favorite merchants to earn between 8 and 12 Drop points per $1 you spend. 10,000 points is worth $10. And you can only redeem for gift cards.

I actually spend quite a bit at my top 5 merchants

That said, the merchants and gift card selections are super useful. And the app is free to have.

Drop is always depositing points – I use them for free stuff at Amazon

You can activate other offers and bonuses if you want, but I open it up every few months to cash in for Amazon gift cards and get on with it. Though you need a lot of points to redeem, they really do add up fast – especially if you leave it alone for a while.

Hooch

Hooch – Get $5 free

I wrote about Hooch back when their dealio was a free drink every day for $10 a month. While that’s still on the go, they’ve also added automatic 1% earnings with several national brands, including Netflix, Spotify, and Uber.

Get 1% cashback on many popular categories

While 1% isn’t anything radical on a $10 subscription or cup of coffee, like everything else on this list – it all adds up.

I did not take a $111 Uber ride, for the record

This offering is still new, so I’m not entirely sure how to redeem the rewards or what the minimum is, although it looks like you can get free cocktails, gift cards, or dining certificates. I’m gonna roll with it and see how it goes – but mark this one as very “in progress.”

Pei

Pei – Get 500 points ($5) – My code is “2pur1z”

Pei wasn’t doing much when I first installed it, but all of a sudden, I’m earning points like crazy on nearly everything I buy. I’ve gotten $43 in free cash so far, and it’s only been a couple of months. Pretty cool for a free app.

For real, just points rolling in everywhere

Pei’s big thing is you can choose between cash or Bitcoin, but duh, I’ll take the cash.

Earning rates are between 1% and 5% back, depending on the merchant. But wow, there are a LOT of them. I highly recommend giving this one an install. It’s perhaps the most rewarding of them all as of late.

Stash

Stash – $5 free to start investing

I mostly have Stash to compare them with Acorns, but manage to earn enough in dividends to justify the $1 monthly fee. They now have a debit card offering (which isn’t that great). I’m interested to see where Stash goes, and how they’ll differentiate themselves from similar services.

Stash cashback is mostly for restaurants

Anyhoo, they have a card-linked offering with decent cashback rates. I only see restaurants in my area – and a few of them are pretty good. Whatever you earn gets folded into your investment account, so it’s worth linking your cards and getting a free boost here and there.

6 more best cashback apps

The apps above are basically effortless: link your cards and let the rewards build up.

There are others that are equally rewarding, but require more participation. For your consideration…

Cash App

Cash App – Get $5 free when you send $5+

The Cash App is from Square, and a fee-free way to transfer funds between bank accounts. Kinda like PayPal or Venmo, but even simpler.

When you request their free debit card, you can get “boosts” and cashback for using the card. I prefer points & miles (obvi), but will definitely use the app for quick cash transfers to friends.

And you can get $5 in your account when you sign-up and send $5+ to anyone. So you could send $5 to a friend, get $5 instantly in your account, and your friend could send the $5 right back.

Pretty neat app, even if you just get it for the free $5. I ordered the debit card out of pure curiosity, so might write about it more in the near future.

Ebates

Ebates – Get $10 when you make your first purchase

While mostly a shopping portal, Ebates (or Rakuten as they want to be called now