Fun with Apps: Shopkick

Author’s note: I am in no way being compensated for writing this review and everything in it is my own personal opinion.

I’ve talked about shopping and rebate apps I use before, but recently I’ve discovered a new app called Shopkick. Shopkick’s primary use seems to be earning “kicks” by walking into stores, scanning items on that store’s list, and purchasing items. When you get enough kicks, you can roll them out into a gift card or items, or even use them to donate to charities like Feeding America or the American Red Cross.

Using Shopkick is almost like a scavenger hunt: each store gives you a list of items to scan each week, and you get kicks for the ones you scan, and each item has a different amount of kicks you can earn. It’s fun, and it costs you nothing. You only need 500 kicks to  earn a $2 gift card to Walmart of Target, and that doesn’t take very long at all, especially if you’re good at finding the items to scan.

When you’re ready to cash in your kicks, you get e-mailed a digital gift card. I haven’t tried this yet, but I’ll update you when I do!

(NOTE: There have been some bad reviews on this app saying that if you complain to their “customer service” department they will block you from using the app and take your kicks. Since this app is free and you don’t have to purchase anything to get gift cards, I think I’ll continue to use it and see what happens.)

Do you use Shopkick? Any tips/tricks I should know?