Checkout 51: Cash Back Savings Reviews

by Brucilini

I thought this would be ok for a couple bucks here and there. The quality and diversity of the products is much lower than similar apps. (Edit due to typo) $20 cash out threshold is hard to get on this ap. My main problem is the disappearing offers... I’ve had multiple times where I looked at the offers right before going to the store, just to have them say ”0” available a short while later when I get back home and want to redeem. Of course, 51 will take no responsibility for it while they pass the blame on product manufacturers. I would ask, why don’t any of the other big rebate apps get these unicorn “weekly quotas”??? And what ever you do... don’t complain to them. Nicely voiced my frustration about the disappearing rebates.... got a canned response that had nothing to do with what I was asking about. Then, found out my account was suspended from redeeming. Screw these guys!

Edit: Notice how the developers response is canned and makes no mention of the problems I addressed except to push off the blame.

by Tromboneboss

I mostly used Checkout51 for their gas rebates. Their offers were the best compared to other gas apps. It worked great for a couple months. Then something changed with their computer system. After that they started giving rebates about 95% less than advertised. I would always have to email back to get the proper rebate. I would often have to resend the receipt that they already had. Eventually they would see the problem and manually correct the rebate. I had to do this for about 10 consecutive receipts. Eventually I got tired of always having to fight with them just for a few bucks so I cashed out and closed my account. Overall, beware of their gas rebates. If you decide to try it then be ready for a fight.

Update: I just complained to the company about all the problems they have given me. I asked to just close my account if they can’t correct their problems. They closed my account with no apology or attempt to try to give them another shot. Beware of these guys.

by Kmkatiemarie

Checkout51 was wonderful when I first started using it . Who doesn’t love some cash back on product you’ve purchased . But recently, I’ve bought products and then when I tried to redeem my offer , it said it was out of stock or there’s 0 remaining . When I add my offers from ibotta it also says that 0 are remaining , so I have to switch over and use ibotta . I recently tried to cash out for $184 , and when trying to cash out they suspended my account . If they had already honored my receipts and put the cash back into the “account” , how are they able to not pay me. When contacting them, since I find it pretty unfair that they suspended my account AFTER trying to cash it. I got an around the bush answer with you violated the terms and agreement . Asked them once more which term did I “violated” and got “by signing the terms and agreement , we are able to suspend your account due to the fact we’re not sure if you purchased the items. My friend also had the same issue when she tried to cash out for $346 for their trip her fiancé and her were taking. She has Yet gotten an email back from them . I’ve cashed out before (less than $50) and never had an issue . I wouldn’t recommend waiting cashing out for a large amount because it seems like they just want to suspend your account for trying to cash out any large amount of money .

by Frcust

I used to enjoy using this app. Not anymore. They are being really aggressive now in the measures they take to make sure you don't "double dip" savings on the same product across apps. I'm not talking about when you try to claim an offer with this app AFTER you've claimed it on another app like ibotta -- I'm talking about even when you activate an offer on ibotta and if it features the same product for a similar offer in this app, this app will deny you access to that offer by labeling it with a "claimed limit" stamp -- BEFORE you even buy the product or claim the offer on the other app or any app. How ridiculous is that?! In response to your inquiry they will claim it's all manufacturer's decision blah blah. Yes blame it all on the manufacturers. I find that hardly convincing. Another recent change for the bad this app has adopted is locking up the 25cents fresh produce offers. You'll have to meet a certain saving $ threshold to unlock those offers for the NEXT week. In the past when I rarely found anything interesting on their long rebate offer list, the only reason I kept Checkout51 was that at least I could still save a couple of dimes on bananas or lettuce etc no matter where I bought them. With this any brand produce offer going away on top of the new intrusive restrictions on savings I will most likely be deleting Checkout51 very soon.

by EasySave

I have used Checkout 51 for several years, but after finally reaching that $20 mark again - I am deleting! It took months to rebate that last few dollars so I could cash out. Earlier this year I contacted support because all of my items were “0” remaining and nothing seemed to be updating. I was told to delete and reinstall and that should fix the problem. It did not. It wasn’t until I read reviews that I found out “0” remaining is because Checkout 51 is scanning your other rebate apps and don’t want to you to claim duplicate rebates on the same item. I’m ok with that, what I’m not ok with is that those items will remain as ”0” even after they are no longer available on another app. Ibotta and SavingStar both have rebates that reappear after claiming, but not Checkout 51.... “0” is what you get. The offers that aren’t “0” remaining are food & cleaning items I don’t use or booze, plenty of booze! I’m also not ok with being denied a rebate because the store has a sale that discounts an item that Checkout 51 has a rebate on, store discount and manufacturer discount are two completely different things.
Checkout51 might work for some but certainly not for me any longer! If you do try Checkout51, if you keep it and make it to $20 for a rebate, the checks (yes checks) do come in the mail in about two weeks.

by Nothappy1010220

BEWARE!!! I had an issue with an offer showing as available, I checked right before I purchased the item that it was still available, yet right as I submitted my receipt it said zero offers remaining and would not accept it! There was no warning like “not many left”, I thought maybe it was a glitch, wrote customer service and they could care less. Here is there response:
“Quantities are limited for all offers, so hot offers like this one can run out quickly. Unfortunately, there are no rebates left for that offer. We encourage our members to refresh Checkout51 before and while purchasing the item, and upload their receipt right away to avoid disappointment.”

Ha! I did just that. They are unethical and do not honor any glitches such as I had. I’m close to cashing out, once I do, I am not going to use Checkout51. I just end up buying things that I end up paying more for because I don’t receive credit for the item. This has happened to me several times, even when taking precautionary measures such as verifying the offer is available and submitting my receipt right away. I’m done with your games Checkout 51! Very unethical business practices!

by Snow_junkie94

I liked C51 at first but now there’s really no point in keeping Checkout51 . I’ve never heard of a rebate app that can actually run out of rebates. They say it’s because the manufacturers of the products will only allow so many rebates but how is it that Ibotta NEVER has this issue? There have been countless times where I’ve added a rebate in Checkout 51 and then gone to the store within 20 minutes and right after I’m done and try to scan my receipt there are “0 remaining.” It’s ridiculous! Checkout 51 has made it nearly impossible to redeem rebates now. Every once in a while they’ll add the rebates again aside from their normal Thursday reset but even then it seems you only have a matter of seconds to redeem the popular rebates before they’re all gone. Unless you’re sitting on Checkout51 24/7 at the store waiting for the offers to reset and checkout you’ll never be able to redeem. Saving Star is a better rebate app and that’s saying a lot! Last thing; you have to wait nearly a month to get your rebate check in the MAIL. Why can’t they do PayPal and make it simple?Think I’ll stick with Ibotta unless things change with Checkout 51.

by Kimberlyk88

Checkout 51 use to be one of my favorite apps. Unfortunately, I’m now at a point where I’m just looking to claim offers to cash out for the last time. It is happened to me for months where I will have offers saved to redeem, and by the time I leave the grocery store, minutes after I activate the offers, they are already claimed. It is extremely frustrating. Checkout 51 launches their offers on Thursday. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve tried to go to the grocery store as early as I can on Thursday morning, and the offers are still claimed. I’ve emailed support about this and they have been extremely unhelpful. I also mentioned that my offer feed is filled with offers that are already at their claim limit, and that is a bug that should be examined. They note this issue to be a good thing for consumers - because you know what you can claim and what you cannot. Unfortunately, until last week, I haven't been on able to claim an offer for nearly 6 months. Also, it’s important to note that you cannot do a PayPal transfer like other apps. You will receive a check once you hit $20 and cash out. It’s very antiquated.

by Bridie06

I love money saving apps like ibotta and SavingStar, and I used to like Checkout 51. Now I hate it. It’s always been inferior to ibotta and other apps in terms of design and the variety of offers. But it has really gotten worse in the last several months. There are never any offers to claim b/c if you’ve ever even clipped an offer in another app, Checkout 51 shows you “0 remaining” for that offer. In other words, the language “cannot use this offer with any other print or in-app coupon or rebate” doesn’t just prevent double-dipping on deals when buying one item of a product. No. According to Checkout 51 customer service, it means that if you’ve ever “clipped, claimed or redeemed” offers on “another savings app or website, they will no longer be available for you on Checkout 51 and will display as ‘0 remaining’ even when the new offer week just started.” It’ll be unavailable even if you never actually redeem the offer elsewhere!!! What a waste of time. Unless you are willing to make Checkout 51 your one and only app, it’s completely worthless. In my mind, it’s the worst app of it’s kind, and I will be closing my account.

by AeGbanaglo

Yes, I do enjoy occasionally being able to save a dollar or 2, but sometimes I do get pretty frustrated with Checkout51. The products seem to hardly ever change and there ends up being products that, in my opinion, people don’t really ever buy or use. On top of that, common things like Advil, Tylenol, bandaids, or even paper towels and toilet paper can only be bought at sams club or dollar general. Not saying it’s all the time, but more often than not for the first 3 things I mentioned. About the products hardly ever changing, I’m specifically talking about the beverages, home and personal care items. I think I’ve been using this for about a year, and the same or almost the same lotions, perfume gift sets, beer, wine, etc. are always on there. It’s almost like they purposely put things on here that people don’t buy! And yes, I have emailed about this a few times and they change things for about one week and then it goes back to the same. Because of this, it takes FOREVER to even reach $20. In the year that I’ve been using this, I can only remember getting 1, maybe 2 checks.

by The23inLA

It just is not worth it.

They’ve declined my receipts several (over 20) for approval of the rebates I purchased on the receipt. I’ve gotten $100+ back from iBotta in 6 weeks. Been 7 weeks and I have only $4. And I’ll say this: I go shopping for both individual apps such as checkout 51 and purchase only rebate items and when I submit my receipts I should ha s $5-$10. But since November of doing this every two days bc I Shop a lot ... I have gotten pretty much nothing to be credit to my account. IBotta is same concept just much better bc u can actually make enough to cash out within a month......

Feel free to email me $ or $10-$20 credit Checkout 51 and I will update this review... but as of now.... you’ve turned down a good $30 of rebates that I would never take the time to go through and point out again.... it’s bad when a customer has 1-5 receipts a day submitted and after 6 months can’t get $5 when you need $20 to cash out ...

by DCKJ84

Checkout51 is fairly easy to use. I’ve been disappointed with many of the offers though. Not a great number of deals available and not many new offers come available. I’ve had Checkout51 a month and not many of the offers have changed. Also, not a lot of products I’m all that interested in.
I also had an issue with a claim. There was an issue with the barcode on the product I bought so the product didn’t show up appropriately on the receipt. It showed up as “merchandise” as the cashier had to manually enter the product and so the claim did not go through and I did not get the cash back from the deal. There is a review process where I can circle the item on the receipt in case they miss it in their initial review, but of course all I could circle was the “merchandise” line and not something that matched the product name. In the review process, I’d enjoy an option where I could explain what happened and take a picture of the product or its barcode. The only reason I bought the product was because after the rebate, it would have been cheaper than a competing product... I just ended up paying more than planned and would have just bought the cheaper competition instead if I knew the claim wouldn’t go through.
Just hasn’t been what I had hoped for but tough to complain too much about a free app.

by Ddc!!

So...Checkout51 is OK. You do have to submit your receipts right away because of their strict date policies.
The problem I have with Checkout51 is the products available for rebate. It’s either a bunch of products I would never purchase or products I would purchase but are only available for rebate at certain stores that are nowhere in my area. Not every store on Checkout51 is located in every city.
Another thing is, I do not shop at Walmart and a lot of the rebates are available only at Walmart. And at that they run out super fast. It takes so long to get money saved up for redemption.
Also, I feel like it’s slow. Is, it’s just not like other apps (Ibotta, coupons etc.)
In my opinion, a massive improvement is needed and a huge revamp is necessary to make it more user-friendly and more competitive with other apps.

by Colesmomma0515

Well initially starting out using this app I really enjoyed it I was excited to upload receipts and then it got even better when they started offering cash back for gas purchasesAt gas stations near me one that I frequent at least 4 times a week. And then two weeks ago I did an update and now I’ve not been able to logon I press the icon for the application it opens up and closes up every time I’ve restarted my phone I’ve deleted Checkout51 altogether and then download it again and still so the update that was done “ a bug fix” CLEARLY DIDNT WORK!!! So now I wonder how much money I’ve missed out on and now what happens with the money that’s in my balance I mean it’s just under the $20 limit to be able to cash out which is what I would do is cash out and the deactivate my account completely but I can’t even do that conveniently overall extremely frustrating!!!! To say the very least!!! Especially when I used it DAILY!! 😡😡😡

by Allison E F

Checkout51 is okay. I installed it years ago but almost never redeemed any offers, due to the very limited and random grocery offers available. They added cash back on gas about a year or so ago and I then started using it much more. I used to get my cash back on gas receipts after a day but they’ve since changed their process and it now takes a week or more. They’re also not always approved in the order they were redeemed. This can make it difficult to keep track of, because I’ll often redeem 2-3 gas receipts in a week and have to dig through emails to determine which ones were approved and which ones I’m still waiting on. Sometimes they also won’t approve and you’ll have to wait 10 business days just to be told to submit additional verification of purchase. The support team is helpful and I’ve pretty much always gotten any issues I’ve had resolved eventually but it would be nice if the process was a little quicker.

by Blu3Sk1

I love using Checkout51! Its real simple and it give instructions to submit your receipts. I even love that once in a while they’ll have videos you can watch to earn a couple extra cents. However, I gave it a 4 star rating because of the offers they have. I check it quite often but usually they have things that I would never want to buy or have never seen so wouldn’t even know which store to find it at. The offers are hit or miss and if you want to partake in a popular one, you need to do it the day it comes out. I love the Pampers deals that have finally popped up! They only thing I don’t understand is why some of the offers say not to be combined with other offers? It gets super annoying when you really want to save some money.

by GromJay

Had Checkout51 for a few months and my only complaint is the continuous repetition of the same products week after week. Very little variety.....same products over and over, with an occasional item addition, not like Ibotta that adds new items every few days. I got really excited when I saw 2 new items FINALLY added to their list that I was going to buy anyway but missed out when I wasn’t fast enough to get to the store to buy them. The manufacturer’s limit had been reached, so my advice is to quickly claim an offer and buy it immediately.

There are also a lot of rebate items that are not commonly purchased and/or limited popular branded named products.

Still, this is a great app to save money if you can take advantage of the offers. Hoping that the developers can add more items every week to enhance the saving experience.

by C Tru

I have had Checkout 51 for quite some time, alongside my other savings apps. One thing that was lacking was a search function within Checkout51 to quickly look up and find products or categories without having to scroll through the entire list. This is a great time saver and has made Checkout51 much more user-friendly. I would suggest that another way to draw users and get attention would be to have more rebates on staple items, like bread, milk, eggs, cream cheese, ketchup, etc. Even a dime or a quarter is useful to get back and like one of the other reviewers said, it keeps us motivated to browse Checkout51 and use it when at least we have a generic offer like that available. In all, I’ve saved well over a thousand dollars on other apps and only $41 using Checkout 51, but I still use it every time I go to the store in hopes there are a couple items I can pick up through Checkout51 . Thanks for helping me save!

by Tschirharts

I am skeptical about the claims of apps in general. This one? I have not been disappointed! I follow the instructions, take notes of the specific items, snapping pics of my receipts then wait for the email confirmation that money was added to my account. I especially like how I can go thru all the items for that week and add them to “my list”. Then I don’t have to think about which items I will claim. Some weeks, there is only one item I claim, but over time, even multiple .50 claims add up!! One day, after months of using Checkout 51, I reached over $100 in my account!! I cashed out using the simple instructions, and guess what?? I received my check as promised!! We needed it to pay a recent bill too! If you shop and you want to save money, Checkout51 is for you!!!

by Cash Back PhD

Been on Checkout51 since more or less this past mid-October. When I got started the only product for which they offered cash back that I was both familiar with AND bought in the past was 4505 chicharrones (pork rinds) - disappointed they discontinued it but hope they will bring it back. When it was offered there was a $2 cash back offer for ONE multiple serving bag with 5 maximum chances per deal period/week and I routinely amassed $6-10 per deal period just on 4505 chicharrones. Then I got introduced to this Asian food specialty brand called Ocean's Halo. Miso-pho-ramen is miso-pho-ramen is miso-pho-ramen, except when you have to buy 2 packs of the Ocean's Halo brand on the same receipt for $5 cash back from spending $8-11 (practically a semi-investment). Ditto with Ocean's Halo kelp/de-salinated sea water drinks (2 bottles on the same receipt for essentially $6 with a $2.99 cash back award)

by Green_eyez

I use to not have any problems with Checkout51, but for the last few month it seems like every receipt is an argument. Once you scan a barcode and circle it for them, that should be the end of the discussion. But no, every receipt has to be argued out to 3 or 4 reviews. I can't even imagine how many pictures of my fridge these people have just from me having to submit my claims 2 or 3 times every time. It's so annoying. If your employees can't see an item on a receipt, then just make scanning barcodes part of your app. No other rebate app is this much of a pain.

Also their "double dip prevention" is just getting creepy. Did you claim it in another app? Did you use a coupon? Did your store have the item on sale? Was there a discount involved? Don't worry Checkout 51 KNOWS!!! It always knows!!! And even when you haven't done anything, it assume you have. Muahahaha. Creepy.

by Moenlisa

First let me say that I love Checkout51! I have been using Checkout51 for about 3 years now. Some other apps that are similar are only useful at designated stores, while checkout 51 can be used at my local rural family owned grocery store. This is really nice!
Now on to what needs improving... the last few months more and more of my receipts are rejected because the item was not found. One example was I purchased 1 bottle of vodka and it was the only item on the document complete with date, name of store, size of bottle, and it was not found by the scanning computer.
To the developers credit I can contest it and circle the item but that is just another delay in receiving the incentive.
So my advice is use Checkout51 and save your receipts until it is completed.