HOW-TO NOTES & DETAILS I’VE LEARNED FROM EXPERIENCE:
Step 1. Tap here to easily put the free Upside app on your smartphone -- built right in to this link is your promo code 5BRMP to score an EXTRA BONUS of $20 when you make your first $10 or more gas purchase!
~ Don't have a smartphone? See my footnote ** at the bottom of this page for the cheapest and best deal out there.
2. Open the app. It will prompt you to turn on location if it’s not already on (so it can show the nearby gas stations in their network that you'll earn cash back at).
~ Just to give you an idea: in my city of 22,000 residents, 7 gas stations within 3 miles of my house show up in the list of offers, plus 5 more stations that I pass by during my normal course of work and errands ... so there's plenty to choose from!
3. Hit the “Gas Stations” icon to see nearby offers. The current price at each gas station will be shown along with the price you will pay after cashback. (Per gallon prices sometime show as a penny or two off because there's sometimes a lag in real-time updates). Whatever the cash back amount is -- the cents-off per gallon offer shown in your app -- that's how much money YOU'LL get back from the price at the pump. You can hit “More Info” to see the fine print, a photo of the gas station, driving directions, etc.
~ If it says there are no offers for you, it means you’re not close enough to any gas stations. I’ve noticed it does that in certain neighborhoods. Check again when you’re in the area where there are some stations.
~ Offer amounts change daily because gas prices change daily. The good news is with this Upside app, you'll ALWAYS end up paying less than the sign price! You’ll always get money back that no one else is getting!
4. Choose an offer by tapping the Claim Offer button. Within 4 hours you have to make the purchase. I like to Claim my offers right when I get to the gas station.
~ Only hit “Claim Offer” once. The first time I used the app I got confused because it didn’t look like it was working, so I tried again. Then there were 2 items showing in my History, the 2nd one was stuck in “Processing” status for several days until I received an email stating that I didn’t get cash back. No worries though, it was a mistake anyway. I got cash back on the 1st one.
5. Select the credit card you’ll be paying with. The first time you use the app, you’ll enter part of your credit card number. Upside doesn’t have access to your entire credit card number, they’re only asking for the first 6 and last 4 numbers. Those numbers are saved in your “My Wallet” for the convenience of just hitting the “Use Card” button every time you get gas instead of having to re-enter the numbers. You can add or change cards easily whenever you need to.
NOTE: You can’t pay for gas with cash or a gift card – no cash back unless you pay with a credit card or debit card.
6. Pump your gas as you normally do. AT THE GAS STATION BE SURE TO USE THE CREDIT CARD(S) YOU SELECTED IN YOUR UPSIDE ACCOUNT. This is how the transaction earns cash back.
7. When done, hit the "I've Paid" button.
All done. The transaction will show up in your History right away, it shows as "Processing". It takes anywhere from 1 to 10 days for Upside to confirm purchases by checking against the gas station's transaction data. You'll be notified when your offer has been processed – it will show in your History and you’ll also receive an email and/or text confirmation, whichever you prefer.
I know it sounds like lots of steps, but the reality is: the part you'll be doing each time you buy gas takes less than 30 seconds. Easy and fun.
~ Your first gas purchase has to be over $10 and through my signup link in order to receive the free $20 cashback newbie bonus. I'll get $20 also!
~ When money is added to your balance, it never expires.
~ You don't have to fill up your whole tank every time to earn cash back -- you can get cash back on any amount of gas.
~ You can cash out (get your earnings out) anytime you want. Choose what you prefer: a gift card (many different popular stores, restaurants, etc to choose from), PayPal, or a transfer to your bank account.
~ At times you can find extra promo codes to stack in your account for even bigger cashback deals per gallon. If you signed up through my link, send me your email address and I'll send you new promo codes that I occasionally find that give extra cash back to members (not first-time users) ... special ones Upside doesn't send you.
~ Upside will be sending you regular emails about news, bonuses, promos, etc. If you don’t want the emails, just unsubscribe.
DOWNLOAD THE APP & BONUS
FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT, YOU CAN EARN EVEN MORE GAS CASH BACK AND HELP OTHER PEOPLE SAVE MONEY!
You automatically get your own referral link / promo code that you can share with friends, family, and the public by email, social media, chat, etc. When they sign up through your link, you’ll get a $20 cashback bonus on their first time gas purchase over $10 when they receive their cash back! You’ll also make 1 cent on every gallon they purchase, forever. Doesn’t sound like much but it’s free money for doing nothing. If your referrals have gas hog vehicles and/or frequently use a lot of gas, it really adds up. From time to time Upside runs extra bonus offers – for example: $15 for each new referral bonus, or if you get 3 referrals you'll get an extra 50 cents per gallon on your next 6 fill-ups, or $10 off at restaurants, etc. Surprise bonus offers arrive in your app Inbox.
Cha-ching! You can multiply your cash back earning potential in a really simple way: the Upside program isn’t limited to one just person per household, so if you get every vehicle owner in your house to get Upside through your referral link, EVERYONE saves extra money on gas!! Do you have a network of business associates? Friends? Share your referral link all around and cash in even more. The only thing Upside asks is that you don’t post flyers with your referral link at gas stations or food establishments.
To find and share your referral code:
Menu > Free Gas
Your unique Invite Code will show there. Add it to the end of the main link. For example, here is mine: https://upside.app.link/5BRMP ... yours will look like that but with different numbers and letters. Simply replace my code with your own if you want to get referral credits. (If you don't want to, please feel free to share my code or my link -- thank you so much!) Share the link anywhere -- email, social media, on websites, in texts, chats, etc. This is the easiest way, both for you and the receivers because it's a reusable link that opens right up to the app store and it automatically populates the new user's account with your promo code so you get the cash back bonuses for their first purchase.
Or a different way to share is to directly send someone their own unique invitation. This will generate a specific link just for that person. I'm not a fan of this method because it's extra work on my end.
Menu > Invite Friends > blue Invite Friends button
Enter someone’s phone number or choose the person in your contacts, hit “add number”, then hit “Send 1 invite”. The wording, code, and link will populate in a message. (For some odd reason it puts all the wording in twice, so just delete the duplicate wording.)
You can keep track of referrals in the My Referrals section of the app. If you know someone signed up through your link but it’s not showing in your account, it’s ok because you’ll get the credit when your referral's first purchase is processed. Just try nudging the person to try their first purchase to benefit from the app. If they did spend at least $10 their first time and they see the transaction showing as Processed in their account History but for some odd reason you didn’t get credit, contact support@upside.com -- their customer service department is really good about responding.
Feel free to share this webpage with your referrals if you’d like to give them detailed instructions on how to get the most out of the program. (Tell them to use your invite code instead of mine if you want the credit.) You want them to use Upside correctly because if they don't follow the instructions, they won't earn cash back, which means neither will you. If you don't want to be involved in the referral program, thank you for sharing this page with my invite code on it so I can earn from their purchases. << big happy smile >>
The direct URL's of this webpage:
short one -- https://tinyurl.com/cashbackgas
or
longer one -- https://sites.google.com/view/thriftydeb/gascashback
P.S. – As if up to 25¢ per gallon cash back on every gallon of gas plus referral income isn’t fantastic enough, Upside also offers up to 45% cash back at restaurants, and (in some cities) up to 30% cash back on groceries. What will you do with all that free money you didn’t have to work for?
Earning cash back at restaurants (dine in or take out) is super simple. Just claim the offer, pay for your order within 4 hours of claiming, hit the "Upload Receipt" button and snap a photo of it. The app will walk you through the simple steps. It literally takes 10 seconds.
Surprise bonus offers arrive in your app Inbox. Recent deals that showed up in mine:
$5 off a $10 purchase at any Upside restaurant
an extra 20 cents per gallon off your next gas purchase when you claim a restaurant cash back offer
$2 Tuesdays -- earn a $2 bonus every time you spend $10+ at any restaurant on Upside — up to 3 times!
DOWNLOAD THE APP & BONUS
And if you want to add yet ANOTHER layer of cash back earnings to this whole mix, for your Upside account wallet use a no-monthly-fee credit or debit card that gives you cash back on every purchase! That way everything you spend with Upside will earn you even more money.
A great one I've used for many years: PAYPAL DEBIT CARD.
If you have a PayPal account: contact PayPal customer service or look in your account to see how to get a 1% cashback debit card (MasterCard). They'll send it to you by mail. Your purchases come out of your PayPal account and your cash back is deposited into your account after each qualifying purchase.
If you don't have a PayPal account but you want one: sign up through my invitation link here, spend at least $5 in one transaction or send an individual at least $5, and you'll get $10 and I will too! PayPal is a popular online global payment service used by over 426 million users to securely send and receive money.
** What if you don't have a smartphone or a cell plan? ** You won't believe how cheap it is to get one! Check out a great secret: a $15/month plan with unlimited talk, unlimited text, and 5GB of 5G high speed data at Mint Mobile. Learn more here and choose your awesome discount and deal -- free months, free phones, etc ... take your pick. We ditched our landline and got this $15 plan and love it, it's absolutely the best deal we've found after lots and lots of comparison shopping, and it operates on the nation's largest 5G network. Need 15GB or 20GB or unlimited GB of 5G high speed data per month instead? Check out their different plans, always the cheapest around!!
Have fun earning money just for getting gas and food! With just a few tiny extra minutes of effort, Upside is just one more way you can squeeze more drops out of your precious greenbacks in this crazy economy. S-t-r-e-t-c-h those dollar bills!
P.S. -- Upside was formerly known as GetUpside.
