Upside- Cash Back for Gas (1 Viewer)

[supermike80]

I feel like I'm too old for all these apps. I know my wife is. She hates them with a passion.

 

[Alex P Keaton]

Weird. I’d love to understand the business model and how it makes sense (for the app company, not for you). Always skeptical of stuff like this.

I assume the selling point for the early adopters (among gas stations) is that it'll send them more business. Once some of them are participating, everyone else has to for fear of losing business to those who are.

From the point of view of the app company, i assume they're get some small affiliate fee of a fraction of a percent for every purchase made on it (from the participating gas stations where the sale took place).

So essentially it's a clever way for the app company to get a small cut of all gas sales, while the gas stations unwittingly get sucked into a price war.

I mean, think of it like Grubhub..... it costs the restaurants money but they do it because they gain business. Most gas stations the gas is a loss or breaking even and they make their money on the convenience store..... which some have offers as well.

Yeah, I just don’t believe gas stations will gain enough business to make this worthwhile. That’s ultimately my stance.

Well... I will ride the wave as long as long as there is a swell

Yeah, this is definitely a net negative for the gas stations. Once they're all (or mostly) doing it, there's no net increase in people buying gas, but there is a net decrease in how much of the purchases price goes to the station. Different from grubhub, where you might actually order food out because you can get it delivered, when you'd just cook at home if you couldn't get it delivered.

Exactly. But in the meantime, kudos to Chad and any others who benefit from this!

 

[Chadstroma]

I feel like I'm too old for all these apps. I know my wife is. She hates them with a passion.

I honestly really felt the same.... this one is super easy and user friendly though. I mean, if you can operate an app on a smart phone you can do this.

I did try out some other similar cash back apps and stuff for other things, they all sucked and I got rid of them.

 

[Chadstroma]

Further update on my experience with Upside.

Near the start of June until now, I have $41.19 in my Upside account. $20 of that was a bonus for having my wife sign up but $21.19 isn't bad for a months worth of usage on stuff we would have bought or bought something similar to anyways.

I have used it mostly for gas and a couple of convenience story stops for water or something. We did use it twice for food. The first was a nearby pizza place that I did not even knew existed let alone us try it before. My son raved about the pizza and it is his favorite pizza now. This is a Mom & Pop type place so when you claimed it, instead of the super easy "I paid" button, you did have to take the extra steps to take a picture of the receipt. I am still waiting for that to be processed 4 days later. The other was a quick stop at Taco Bell for my kids. I spent under $20 and got almost $4 back. Just like the gas, you just claimed it, put in what card you are paying with and then when complete hit the 'I paid' button. Super simple.

Yesterday, we had to go to a conference meet for my sons down further state in Bourbonnais which is about an hour drive from us. They apparently do not have any Speedway, BP's or Shell there but when I looked at the gas there were several gas station brands (that I am not familiar with) as options. They had restaurant options down there too. Since gas is significantly cheaper there than by us, we filled up our tanks down there. I used the same transaction for both of our cars on my wife's account as she still gets the bonus cents from signing up from my referral link.

The one thing that I would really like to see is that they should have a filter to do 'nearest' or 'cheapest' or 'most refund' etc. The listings they have in there are very random. There does not seem to be any order to them. I can only guess it is based on how much profit they get from it. As someone said, having a feature to show nearby options on your particular route would be great but as I was trying to figure out where to eat, you can use the map and do your own sort of 'what is on our route'.

I am a big fan of this. Super easy. Worthwhile.

I will say that is has changed my habits on getting gas though. Before, I pretty much exclusively used Speedway only using Shell or BP when I really needed gas and they were the nearest. Now, I can scan and see what is the best value and then what is near and make a decision based off that. I have used Shell a couple of times since and a BP convenance store once as well.

 

[PlayaHata]

I saw this thread a week or two ago and installed the app. Being the skeptic that I naturally am, I did some Googling and found the Upside subreddit. I did a little reading there and found the thread on stacking promo codes. I followed their little guide, entered a bunch of promo codes and all of the sudden the $0.15 off per gallon near me rocketed up to $1.85 off per gallon. I filled up with about 13 gallons on Saturday and by last night, it had already processed my $24.74 earnings. On top of that, the little hole in the wall Thai restaurant near me that I order from all the time has 16% back in the app as well. Big fan so far!

 

[Chadstroma]

I saw this thread a week or two ago and installed the app. Being the skeptic that I naturally am, I did some Googling and found the Upside subreddit. I did a little reading there and found the thread on stacking promo codes. I followed their little guide, entered a bunch of promo codes and all of the sudden the $0.15 off per gallon near me rocketed up to $1.85 off per gallon. I filled up with about 13 gallons on Saturday and by last night, it had already processed my $24.74 earnings. On top of that, the little hole in the wall Thai restaurant near me that I order from all the time has 16% back in the app as well. Big fan so far!

Ya... I am very skeptical and picky but when something wins me over, I am an advocate gor for it.

 

[Chadstroma]

At $107.22 back so far.

Gas and some eating too. I am eating more Jimmy Johns than before because I have one nearby and they usually offer somewhere between 26-31% back plus still get the rewards with them. Also, in the last week or so I have found two new restaurants that were really good. Both were with one of my kids and a good bit away from home.... went into upside and found these places giving 6% back. So tried them.

I have had one thing happen twice now that is not so good, both with Shell gas stations, where the price it showed on the app was not the actual price, both were annoying since I drove to them because of the deal it was showing only to see it wasn't as good as it looked. Since it has only happened with Shell, I am going to say it is not Upside's issue but Shell reporting wrong or however they do it.

 

[PlayaHata]

I have had one thing happen twice now that is not so good, both with Shell gas stations, where the price it showed on the app was not the actual price, both were annoying since I drove to them because of the deal it was showing only to see it wasn't as good as it looked. Since it has only happened with Shell, I am going to say it is not Upside's issue but Shell reporting wrong or however they do it.

I have noticed this as well. I think I read somewhere that the price shown in Upside isn't necessarily "live". Not sure if it's just the price from the last Upside user that used the app there or what. What I've been doing the past week or two is checking Upside to see the current gas discounts for the stations nearest to me, then using the gas station app or web site to see what the real gas price is at the moment. It makes things a little more clunky for me but usually I have some flexibility as to when/where to fill up next so it's worth it for me at least.

 

[Chadstroma]

I have had one thing happen twice now that is not so good, both with Shell gas stations, where the price it showed on the app was not the actual price, both were annoying since I drove to them because of the deal it was showing only to see it wasn't as good as it looked. Since it has only happened with Shell, I am going to say it is not Upside's issue but Shell reporting wrong or however they do it.

I have noticed this as well. I think I read somewhere that the price shown in Upside isn't necessarily "live". Not sure if it's just the price from the last Upside user that used the app there or what. What I've been doing the past week or two is checking Upside to see the current gas discounts for the stations nearest to me, then using the gas station app or web site to see what the real gas price is at the moment. It makes things a little more clunky for me but usually I have some flexibility as to when/where to fill up next so it's worth it for me at least.

I favor Speedway for most gas stops and they have been right every time. I was trying to remember if I did Shell other than those two times and can not recall. If I see a significantly better pricing on Shell again, I think that doing what you are doing is going to be what I do if I am driving any bit out of my way to it.

 

[coyote5]

Downloaded it and there isn't a single gas station participating in my area. I'm probably doing something wrong lol. All I see on the map are restaurant deals.

 

[Chadstroma]

Downloaded it and there isn't a single gas station participating in my area. I'm probably doing something wrong lol. All I see on the map are restaurant deals.

Do you live in a rural area?

 

[coyote5]

Downloaded it and there isn't a single gas station participating in my area. I'm probably doing something wrong lol. All I see on the map are restaurant deals.

Do you live in a rural area?

No, Madison. A little googling suggests it's not supported in Wisconsin. bummer

 

[beer 30]

I started using this a few weeks ago, free money, why not? Not gonna retire on it but a couple shekels here and there is always nice

I've had the same thing happen with the Shell stations by me, they are always a penny or two off what Upside has.

 

[Chadstroma]

Downloaded it and there isn't a single gas station participating in my area. I'm probably doing something wrong lol. All I see on the map are restaurant deals.

Do you live in a rural area?

No, Madison. A little googling suggests it's not supported in Wisconsin. bummer

huh..... odd. I guess WI has some law that would bar it.