Are you Pre-Paid rich?

[cheryl_123]

This is a fun topic! This year I started sweeping the money earned from my cash back apps (Ibotta, CDC, CoinOut) into an investment account and buying stocks and ETFs (I'm able to buy fractional shares for as little as $5). So, my stash is this investment account. I tend to use my GCs right away so no stash there.

[Xiao]

@Janet1964  I forgot about Restaurants.com certificates! I have $15x2 but one of my favorite restaurants left the network - so disappointed and I don’t see any new ones joining. I guess I won’t be able to cash in those after all. 

[Xiao]

@cheryl_123  That’s so inspiring! I’m curious which app you’re using to invest. Also, if not too intrusive, what kind of a return you’re getting. I may follow suites. 

[mickootay]

I was about to go into a long, drawn out story, but the long and short is this, I'm a GC hoarder! During the crazy coupon days, I  made it a point to buy GCs equivalent to the value of coupons I had used. That was the only way I could justify my spending/saving. I have a box full of Target, Fry's, Safeway, and Walmart GCs.  I will start gifting them to my sons at some point, but only if they promise to use them in conjunction with store sales and coupons! Old habits die hard here 🤫😏🤭

[SaverGirl67]

@Xiao   I think if you go into the app you can exchange your restaurant.com certs at any time. Unless you’re saying there’s nothing in your area you want - but I’d rather gamble on somewhere questionable than loose $30 if I had the choice. Lol

Hope it works out so you don’t loose them. 

[Xiao]

Thank you, @SaverGirl67! I should correct myself - those are gift cards and not yet converted to certificates yet. None of the restaurants listed in my area appeal to me. Also, one of many things this pandemic have changed for my household is that we almost always cook at home and only do carry outs a couple of times a mouth. So, it’s even less likely for those gift cards to be used.
Btw, if you have smaller denomination of gift cars that are not enough to purchase a certificate, like you have $15 x 2 but the certificate is $20, you can call their customer service and they’ll combine the gift cards into one for you. It may be a known fact for many savvy shoppers in this forum but I just learned this trick last year, so wanted to share. 

[MelissaR]

Great topic!  I like to have a stash myself.  Never know when the extra $$ will come in handy.  My son wanted a google play card, so I cashed out $10 from Fetch the other day w/out needing to whip out my cc to buy one!

I'm always rolling my Ibotta funds, and like to cash out at $30.  I believe I've mentioned before, that I've been setting aside all of the bonus money earned.  I used Jan - April bonus $$ to treat myself and May, June, July have been going towards our road trip at the end of the month.  I think I have $100ish set aside so far! 

Looking through all the apps, I have

• Fetch - $8 
• Shopkick - $11
• CO51 - $32
• SB - $56 (this is the highest I've ever let it build up, I usually cash out once a month for a $25 GC that I use for Ibotta deals!  But I've been good not touching it, as it's going towards our road trip too)
• MyPoints - 1700 pts, which I think is enough for a $10 GC somewhere!
• Merryfield - $11 (I use these pts to cash out for Whole Foods gc's)
• CVS Eb's - over $40
• Walgreens - $4
• Amazon - $30ish

Also have stashed - over $30 in Panera bread GC's and $20 on my Starbucks acct.

[Rickibotta]

So I was not even thinking about rebate sites, so I have added those below.

I have never looked at it all together in one place before, and I am not very good at cashing out.

I need to cash out all of the online cashback monies because I don't really buy as much junk anymore

• $2,300     home depot
• $279        lowes
• $154.46   Amazon Gift Card balace
•   $12.18   Amazon Promo Balance (must be sold by / shipped by
•   $58       menards
•   $50       target
•   $50       best buy
• $351.93  Swagbucks
•   $90.86 Shopkick
• $157.75   Checkout51
• $176.05   FETCH
•   $36.87 balance  ($30 earnings)  FIELD AGENT
• $842.35   ibotta
• $562.47   Kroger Cash Back (KCB)
•   $13         CVS EB
•  $26.53    Samsung Pay
• $132.17    Be Frugal
•   $94.27   EBATES (now Rakuten)
• $112.36   Mr Rebates
•   $75.48  Top Cashback
• $3,099.83 PAYPAL  (ebay sales + rebate cashouts less stuff bought via Paypal)
• Another $372.59  at various other places in gift cards

Restaurant.com - where I am at, the selection is sort of garbage, and there is only one place I use.  I have six $25 +two $10 that I can exchange, but the one place I use only has $10 cert and it is always sold out.  And I typically can get a deal for that place on Groupon for about same.  This is why I have $170 in restaurant.com certificates since 2009.......lol

[cheryl_123]

@Xiao I'm using SoFi for my investment account. I stumbled upon it through CoinOut where they were offering a sign up bonus at the time. CoinOut offers bonuses for other investment apps like Acorns and Stash, but I like SoFi because it doesn't have fees plus I get points for logging in, reading articles and other stuff that can be converted to cash or to buy more stocks. As for returns, it depends on the stocks you pick! I'm up about 8 percent since I started in February, but I picked some stable, unexciting stocks and ETFs plus the market has been good. 

[Xiao]

@cheryl_123  Thank you for the info! I’ve seen SoFi’s commercials but sounded to me like it was mainly for loans, so I didn’t pay close attention. I’ll definitely look into it.