If you're a person that loves shopping online chances are you love saving as much as possible too!
One of the things I love to do when shopping online is to use a cashback program where I can save some serious money!
Earny is one of those programs that can help you save money!
But is it even legit? Or just another dangerous scam to avoid?
I've tried the Earny app and below I'm going to give you a detailed review about it.
You don't want to miss this review so keep reading! 😉
Earny App Summary Review
Summary: Earny is a very good app to save money without doing anything, the only problem about it is the privacy as I explain here.
This app literally sends emails on your behalf!
I talk about more issues about Earny inside this review!
Rating: 4/5
Recommended? Yes, if you don't mind your email being controlled
What Is Earny?
Earn is a cool website that allows you to earn cashback from purchases that you have made online.
Earny is different than the usual cashback websites like Ebates, Trunited or Shop Smarter.
Usually, the cashback websites would give you a percentage of cashback of things you buy online.
Earny is different as this app is going to give you some money back on purchases you have made in the past!
Lots of retailers have a policy about refunds & price drops.
Let's say you have a bought a smartphone for $500 but after a month it's price has dropped to $200 some companies will give you a partial refund!
That's a retail practice which is available in the US and it's called Price Adjustment policy (aka price protection policy).
If you have bought a product from a store with the price protection policy and its price has dropped you're eligible to get a partial refund of your purchase.
Some of the most popular stores with the price protection policy are:
- Macy's
- GAP
- Staples
Finding retailers with this policy is easier said than done!
That's where Earny comes in!
This little app will automatically find the stores with the price protection policy and asks them for a refund, gets a percentage of it and send you the rest to your Earny account for you to cash out!
Isn't that cool?
Below I talk about how this works exactly and how you can get started doing it!
How Does Earny work?
You can use Earny on your laptop, desktop, tablet or on your smartphone!
To get started you need to:
1) Allow Earny to Access Your Email Account
Earny needs to access your email account so they are able to find all the purchase receipts you have in your inbox.
They will automatically scan your receipts and find stores where they can get refunds from!
Many people are concerned about their privacy and wonder if it's safe to use this app, if you're wondering if Earny is safe or not just jump to read this section where I explain if it is safe.
2) Link Your Amazon Account
This is an optional step but if you're a person that does a lot of shopping on Amazon you want to link your Amazon account.
Earny will give you a form where you have to add your Amazon email & password.
Looks like they are starting to ask for too much info now! 🙂
3) Link Your Credit Card
There are many credit card issuers that offer an extended 90 days price protection policy if you have a have a credit with this policy.
If you don't have one, Earny has a list of credit card issuers where you can get your own!
This is a great opportunity to save hundred dollars per year!
4) Refer Your Friends!
As soon as you link your cards and everything you will see your own referral link if you share that link with your friends and family you will start earning some referral commissions.
Let's say you refer your friends, you will start earning 5% of his/her refunds and 5% of his friend's refunds!
Now that your account is all set up you can start getting refunds from purchases you have already made!
Here are the stores that Earny works with.
What Stores is Earny Partnered with?
Earny will track and scan your email inbox and try to find receipts of the purchases you have made on the stores with the price protection policy.
These are the stores covered by the protection policy:
- Best Buy
- Bloomingdale's
- Costco
- the Gap Group including Gap
- Banana Republic
- Old Navy
- Athleta
- JCrew
- Jet
- Kohl's
- Macy's
- Newegg
- Nike
- Nordstrom
- Overstock
- Sears
- Walmart
- Zappos
- Home Depot
The Earny Refund Flow
One thing that has made a lot of members confused is the Earny refund flow, but in this review, I am going to explain it to you.
So when Earny gets access to your email they will start importing all the purchases which you will see in your dashboard or app.
Here's how it will look like after Earny imports your purchases.
So besides the products you have purchased it says:
- Tracking.
- Claiming.
- Or Refunded.
These 3 words have confused many Earny members.
The purchases that are labeled "tracking" are being monitored by Earny to see if they are eligible for a refund.
When Earny detects a product that it's price has just dropped it will label it as "claiming"
When your refund has been approved it will read "refunded"
Want to Learn How to Work from Home?
Here's My Top Recommendation Here!
How Much Can You Save with Earny?
How much you can save depends on how many items you have purchased in the past and how much of these purchases are eligible for a refund.
I heard about Earny from a friend who has been using it and saying good things about it.
He is the reason I wrote this review.
My friend has earned a quick $50 after 10 minutes of setting up his account, that's not bad for doing nothing!
Be he could have earned more if he was able to connect his other email because he has two emails that he uses to purchase online.
But unfortunately, Earny does not allow you to connect two email addresses.
I think if Earny makes it possible to add two email addresses they will earn more and so will the members because many people use more than one email to purchase online.
How Much Does Earny Cost?
Earny is 100% free to use!
But they will earn a commission from the refund they get from the retailers.
Earny gets 25% of the refund they find for you. That's really good because without Earny you would have NEVER got anything back from the purchases you have made!
A Quick Note!
If you don't have a credit card that comes with the price protection policy, Earny will recommend you to get one and it may come with an annual fee.
How Do They Pay You?
There are different ways to get paid from Earny.
On your dashboard, you will be able to see how much cash you have generated.
You need to have $10 in your account in order to be able to cash out.
The payment methods offered by Earny are:
- Paypal
- Check (by your credit card issuer)
- Direct debit.
Quick Note!
The check is delivered by your credit card issuer because Earny uses your credit cards price protection program to get your refund.
That's why the check is going to be delivered by your credit card issuer and NOT Earny.
Does Earny Have a Mobile App?
Yes, Earny has a cool app which will allow you to save money on the go.
The Earny app is available on both IOS & Android devices!
The good thing about the mobile app is you don't have to open your computer to check how much money Earny has saved you.
You can open the app to see your savings or even get notified when Earny finds a refund opportunity!
Is Earny safe to use?
This is the biggest concern that many Earny users have.
And I'm going to be honest here although I love Earny I think it's NOT 100% safe.
Earny needs to have access to your email in order to work.
But what most people don't pay attention to is that Earny literally gets 100% access to your email.
I mean they can even send emails to whoever they want.
In fact, that's what they do.
As I was researching this problem I came across an article posted by CNBC.
The author explains how his CNBC colleague has tried Earny for a while.
While her colleague managed to earn some refunds she immediately deleted her Earny account when she realized one thing.
She found out that Earny was sending emails on her behalf!
So Earny was contacting retailers asking for refunds using her name!
Here's a screenshot of the email that Earny has sent to the store!
As you can see Earny is not safe!
Do you think it is ok for an app to send emails using your name?
What guarantees you that Earny is not going to access your most private stuff like your bank accounts that are linked to your email?
How to Use Earny Safely?
An article by USAToday suggests in order to be safe with these kinds of apps, you can create a different email.
So even if they access your email they are not going to have access to any sensible private data.
While I think this is a good idea I don't agree with it because this will compromise the benefits of Earny by 99%!
Earny uses your email to find old receipts of purchases so they can get refunds.
By setting up a new email account they are not going to find any receipts!
So what's the point of that?
If you want to benefit from Earny you have to make purchases with your new email and you WON'T earn anything from your old purchases.
Saving Money is Cool! How About Earning it?
Here's My Top Recommendation Here!
Earny Reviews - What People Are Saying
I did my research and read all the reviews related to Earny that are available online and I have found mixed reviews.
The good news is that most of the reviews are positive.
The only complaints I have found are ONLY about the privacy concerns.
As I have explained above Earny is NOT safe because they literally send out emails using your name.
What I Like About Earny
- Free to join
- You can save money without doing anything.
- it has a lot of positive reviews.
- Earny has an "A" BBB Rating.
What I don't like About Earny
- Earny is not a safe app (Learn why here!)
Earny Best Alternatives
While Earny is a nice app, there are some other alternatives and competitors you can check out:
The main alternative to Earny which is very similar is called Paribus.
Earny vs Paribus Review
Earny & Paribus are both free.
Paribus in the past had more features than Earny like the hotel reservations deals & the late shipping features.
But Earny has just added the Amazon late shipping feature and this hotel deals feature as you can see in the screenshot below!
Here's a video overview of Paribus so you can compare it with Earny!
Other Earny alternatives that are worth mentioning are:
- Acorns: This app allows you to save money like Earny the only difference is this app encourages you to invest what you have saved!
- Billshark: Allows you to save money on your monthly subscriptions.
- Qapital: This is an app that makes saving money more fun however it costs money while Earny is free
Here's a video that talks about these alternatives & give you more info about them!
Is Earny a Scam?
Earny is NO WAY a scam! It's a great app that will help you save money on purchases you have already made!
The only thing I hate about it is how they control your email and send emails using your name.
That's really creepy as CNBC said in their article!
If you don't mind Earny controlling your email and tracking what you do, you can sign up to them.
Ready?
Join Earny & Start Saving! (affiliate link)
If Earny is not for you check out my top recommendations to earn & save money!
- Wealthy Affiliate: (work-at-home training for newbies)
- Mr. Rebates: (earn cashback online)
- Swagbucks: (earn money doing surveys)
What is Your Experience with Earny?
Did you use Earny in the past?
How much money did you save?
What is your opinion on the privacy concerns I talked about above?
I'm curious to know your thoughts about this app!
I have heard about Ebates and Trunited, but this is the first time I hear about Earny! I am really careful though when it comes to giving my personal information online, and from what you say here, our personal information (emails) would be accessible to them. The only way I would use this is with a junk email account. By that I mean an email account used to subscribe to junk mail. I think everyone has that kind of email account, I have one anyway! I will check this out as it seems to be worth it! Thanks for your great review!
Hi Denis, it’s a good idea that you will use a junk email to join Earny but remember if you did not use your junk email to make purchases in the past Earny won’t help you earn some money back.
Anis, great article on Earny, I’ve not heard of this app. It sounds like a great idea to get a little extra money back! My concern would be, with the access it has to your email, and your credit card, that’s a big security risk. And if it is sending emails in your name, what else can it get access to.
Good ideas are sometimes like weeds, when you pull them up, sometimes the dirt comes with ’em! And then it’s hard to get rid of them. Hehehehe I actually would like to make a little extra money online, do you have any suggestions to accomplish that? Thanks for pointing this weed out, your article was information packed!
Steve
Yeah, this Earny app is a bit risky, and when it comes to an alternative I highly recommend Wealthy Affiliate which is going to help you build an income online not just save! 😉
Thank you for this great post ,Your review was honest and unbiased and I really like to be cautious and careful before venturing I to any online stuff. I have been a victim of so many online scam and I wouldn’t want a repeat of that. I don’t think the Earny app is legit going by your review.
Thanks for your feedback Clement I appreciate it! 🙂
Wow, I can’t believe they send emails on your behalf. I have been done before online but really want to earn online at the same time.
I know you think highly of Earny except for the intrusion. However, once bitten twice shy and ill be moving on to the next online opportunity. In your opinion what’s the best way to earn online reasonably quick.
Hi Steven, there is no way to earn quick, if you have patience and you want to build a real profitable website then I recommend Wealthy Affiliate.