How much can you make with the Pogo app?
In my first two months of downloading Pogo, I earned $3.58. Don’t let that number deter you from using the app.
Similarly when I first downloaded Fetch, another app like Pogo, I earned $19.54 in my first 34 days.
Three years later, I’ve earned a total of $13,667 in Fetch rewards!
The key here is to learn how to use Pogo to optimize every avenue for making money with the app.
The good news is I did all the work for you.
In this Pogo app review, I’ll share the in’s and out’s of how to use Pogo to make Pogo worth it.
- What is the Pogo App?
- How Does Pogo Use My Data?
- Is Pogo App Safe to Use?
- How Does Pogo Work to Earn You Rewards?
- Pogo App Review
- Pogo App Pros and Cons
- Is Pogo Worth It? My Final Thoughts
What is the Pogo App?
Pogo is a free mobile app that rewards you with free gift cards and PayPal cash for sharing your data, completing surveys, and taking part in special offers.
Reward points can be redeemed for PayPal cash, Amazon gift cards and more once you reach a minimum of 3,000 points. Every 1,000 points is worth $1.00 in value.
For example, by sharing your location data you’ll receive location-based offers and rewards from nearby retail stores such as Walgreens, Target or your local restaurant.
You’ll earn rewards for simply opening the Pogo app and viewing the push-notification offers.
Additionally, you can securely link your debit or credit card to Pogo and passively earn rewards from your purchase transactions.
Pogo was founded in 2020 and has received $14.8 million in funding to date.
How Does Pogo Use My Data?
Pogo will use your data along with that of other Pogo users in an anonymized manner to aggregate data for market research and advertising.
As with similar rewards apps, Pogo will sell this aggregated data to businesses to help them better understand overall consumer behaviors and trends.
For instance, this means you may see personalized ads on other platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Google based on the collected data.
Example: Because you frequent Shake Shack, you see an ad for Five Guys’ new burger on Instagram.
The benefit to you is that whenever a company uses your data, Pogo will pay you a share of the money they earn. These rewards are called Data Dividends.
To participate in these rewards, you must opt-in to Data Dividends during the sign up process, or turn this feature on in your Pogo settings anytime.
If you’re comfortable with this, then download Pogo to start earning today.
Is Pogo App Safe to Use?
Yes, the Pogo app is safe to use, and you can securely link your bank and credit card to your account. Pogo uses Plaid, a reputable company that uses encryption and industry-standard security measures, to securely link your financial accounts.
By linking your card to your account, Pogo will be able to fetch rewards from your purchase transactions without you having to submit photo receipts.
How Does Pogo Work to Earn You Rewards?
The Pogo Rewards Program enables you to earn rewards from everyday purchases and activities and get paid for sharing your data.
Currently, the app is only available to residents of the United States who are at least 13 years of age or older.
To get started earning rewards simply follow these simple steps.
- Enter Pogo Referral Code BWX5V9 for a 250 Point Sign Up Reward
- Link Your Pogo Account to Any Bank Account or Credit / Debit Card
- Shop and Earn Points
- Answer Surveys
- Complete Challenges
- Save and Make Money
- Activate Location Rewards
- Refer Friends
- Cash Out
Now, let’s dive deeper into each of these steps!
1. Download Pogo App
The Pogo reward app is available for free download in the Google Play store for Android users, and in the App Store for iOS users.
At registration, you’ll be asked to provide the following information:
- Phone Number
- First and Last Name
- Birthday
- Zip Code
- Referral Code
Be sure to provide your correct phone number as you will be asked to verify it via a code sent by text message.
Entering a Pogo referral code is optional, but why would you want to give up free Pogo points? Keep reading to learn how to get 250 points with referral code BWX5V9.
2. Earn 250 Points Sign Up Bonus
New users can enter Pogo receipt app referral code BWX5V9 at registration to earn a 250 point sign up bonus reward. Alternatively, you can join with this Pogo promotional link, which already has the promo code embedded in it.
Then earn at least 5,000 points to qualify for the 250 point sign up bonus.
There’s no specified time frame for when you need to reach the minimum point threshold for your reward. So you’ll have plenty of time to reach this goal.
I received my 250 points instantly into my account once I reached the bonus criteria. It’s one of the easiest things you can do to start earning free Pogo points towards real cash rewards!
3. Link Bank Account to Pogo
As mentioned earlier, you can securely link your Pogo account to your bank or debit and credit card via Plaid.
I linked my SoFi online banking app to Pogo and instantly received a 300 point bonus reward, plus received points on my past purchases.
These free Pogo app points are only available at sign up. So if you plan on linking your card or bank account do it now to get the extra bonus points!
Also, I’m always a bit hesitant to give apps my information to my financial accounts, no matter how secure they claim to be.
For that reason, I use simple banking apps such as SoFi and Varo for these types of things. I usually carry small balances on these cards and mainly use them as my back up cards.
It’s one way I try to protect myself from any security breaches from hackers.
4. Shop and Earn Points
Shopping rewards on your everyday purchases can be earned in four ways:
- Linked Card Transactions
- Scan Physical Shopping Receipts
- Get Paid for Email Receipts
- Shop Online Boosts
Linked Card Transactions
Eligible linked bank and credit card purchase transactions will appear as ‘Claim Feed Rewards’ in your Pogo account. Typically these rewards will show in your Pogo claim feed within 3 business days.
So don’t worry if you don’t immediately see them after you make a purchase.
Many transactions remain in a ‘pending’ state with your bank, so it’s common for these rewards to take a few days to reflect in your account.
Once they show in your account, you’ll need to claim these points by hitting the ‘claim’ button next to each transaction.
This makes shopping reward earnings not truly as passive as Pogo claims, but it’s close enough to it.
Scan Physical Shopping Receipts
Use the Pogo receipt scanner to scan any receipt for money.
You can even scan a receipt on Pogo that you’ve already earned points for with your linked card and double dip on reward points!
It’s one way you can earn points faster with Pogo!
I’ve scanned gas receipts, Target, Costco, and Burger King receipts and have earned points on all of these.
Most users earn 5 points per receipt scan, but some earn more. In my case, I earn 10 points each time I scan a receipt to Pogo.
As per Pogo, they’re still in the process of testing out this feature and receipt reward points can change at any given time.
How many receipts can I scan per week?
Currently, you can scan up to 25 receipts per week on the Pogo app.
How old can receipts be to scan to Pogo?
Pogo does not give Receipt Scanning Rewards for receipts that are older than 14 calendar days (from the date of purchase to the date of submission).
Get Paid for Email Receipts
Pogo will pay you to connect your Gmail, Amazon, Walmart and other receipt email accounts. It’s similar to what other rewards apps such as Receipt Hog and Fetch already do.
Here’s how it works to get paid for your Gmail receipts:
- Connect your Gmail to Pogo and get a 300 point bonus
- Then open Pogo on a regular basis to automatically sync receipts
- You’ll earn 10 points per week just for staying connected!
For Amazon receipts, you’ll earn 5 points per week for staying connected.
A one-time connection bonus is not given to sync your Amazon account to Pogo at the time of this publication.
Shop Online Boosts
Pogo Online Boosts is a feature where you earn cash back rewards for shopping through Pogo’s online portal.
Essentially, Pogo acts as an affiliate partner and earns money by sending shoppers to partnered merchants such as Walmart, Sam’s Club and Dick’s Sporting.
When a Pogo shopper makes a qualified purchase, Pogo earns a commission on the sale. Pogo then shares a percentage of the profit with you.
At the time of this writing, there are only a small handful of merchants available to receive online boosts. This is most likely due to the Pogo app being relatively new in the rebate app rewards space.
Pogo Chrome Extension
If you prefer to shop from desktop vs the app, then download the Pogo Chrome Extension. It works similar to the Rakuten extension and SwagButton whereby you’ll be alerted to rebate offers on sites you visit.
Simply install the Pogo Google Chrome extension on your computer and browse as usual to automatically earn and save on your online purchase transactions.
You’ll have to wait up to 90 days for your points to be available to claim in your account. It’s not ideal, but this is generally also the case with other similar cash back browser extensions.
The good news is you’ll instantly earn 400 bonus points for installing Pogo’s desktop extension. So it may be worth it for the free points.
5. Answer Surveys
Survey sites have become quite popular over the years as a way to earn side hustle money. Sites such as Respondent and Swagbucks are some of the most well known and highly frequented survey paying sites.
Now Pogo has gotten in on the action by offering you Pogo reward points for answering in-app surveys.
Some surveys will be from Pogo partnered survey sites, while others are data survey questionnaires from Pogo. Prior to taking part in a survey, you’ll know how much each survey pays.
Points can range anywhere from 20 points to over 1,000+ points. The last two Pogo surveys I took earned me 20 points and 100 points each.
6. Complete Challenges
Pogo challenges will enable you to earn points for completing various challenges. Most of the ones I get are receipt scan challenges.
For example, I received 50 points for scanning 7 receipts in one week. Another time, I earned 50 points for completing a 9-week scan streak challenge.
7. Save and Make Money
The Pogo app works to save you money by offering you special deals and services from partnered brands.
These offers will not earn you points, but they have the potential of saving you real money on consumer staples such as auto, home and life insurance.
Additionally, Pogo’s make money feature will equip you with information on different ways to earn extra cash with side hustle gigs that pay.
They are worth checking out. I actually found a couple that interested me enough to try out!
8. Activate Location Rewards
Share your location data with Pogo to receive location-based offers and rewards.
Here’s how it works:
- Opt-in to share your location data with Pogo
- Then visit popular retail locations like CVS, Walmart, Target or your local restaurant.
- Receive location-based push notifications
- Open the Pogo app to view offers and get 10 points every time
- Earn up to 1,000 points per month!
This feature works similar to Shopkick’s walk-in points. Although, there is one major gripe I have with Pogo location rewards.
Unlike the Shopkick app where you can choose the option to share your location ‘Only While Using the App’, you can’t choose that option with Pogo.
Pogo requires you to select the option to ‘Always Allow’ access to your location whether you’re using the app or not.
I’m already hesitant to share my location with any app, and would feel much more comfortable with the ‘Only While Using the App’ setting.
Unfortunately, this is not an option which is why I opted out of Pogo’s location-based rewards.
9. Refer Friends
By far one of the easiest ways to earn tons of Pogo points is to refer others to Pogo. Currently, Pogo rewards you with 250 points for each referral you send to them that earns at least 5,000 points.
Pogo will also give your referral a 250 point bonus. So there’s incentive for your friend or family member to join via your Pogo referral link!
10. Cash Out
You can cash out your Pogo points to PayPal or gift card once you reach a minimum of 3,000 points. I redeemed my points for PayPal cash and received the money to my PayPal account the same day!
(Do note that the PayPal sender will say ‘Tremendous’)
You can also cash out gift cards including Amazon gift cards.
The Pogo support site states that you can also cash out to Venmo, although that wasn’t an available option for me.
It may be due to the Pogo app seeing ongoing issues with Venmo cash outs as stated in their help section here.
Pogo App Review
There are over 45k Pogo reviews in the App store, and most of them rate the rewards app as overwhelmingly ‘Great!’ In fact, Pogo has a rating of 4.9 stars out of 5, which is pretty darn awesome.
Still, I think it would be worthwhile to look at the Pogo app Pros and Cons before making a final determination as to whether the app is a great fit for you.
Pogo App Pros and Cons
PROS | CONS |
---|---|
Semi-Passive Rewards App | Low sign up bonus compared to similiar apps |
Real Money Payouts + Instant Pay | Still a very new app – Features + Rewards change often |
Easy to use app interface | Not enough partnered merchants to earn significant online cash back rewards |
Offers many ways to earn points | Few gift card merchants to cash out to |
Can stack rewards with other apps | No clear way of determining how many points each eligible transaction will earn you |
Is Pogo Worth It? My Final Thoughts
Yes, the Pogo app is worth it but only if you plan to stack it with other rewards and receipt scanning apps, such as Ibotta or the Fluz app.
At the end of the day, there isn’t anything particularly special about the Pogo app that hasn’t already been done with other similar reward apps.
The reward points are fairly low and it takes a long time to reach 3,000 points to cash out. I plan to keep Pogo in my arsenal of cash back reward apps and will continue to update this post with more Pogo hacks and tips as I discover them!
I hope you found my Pogo app review helpful!
You may be interested in reading next how I earned $17,636 in cash back rewards with the Ibotta grocery savings app!
Download the Pogo app using this link to earn a 250 point sign up bonus!
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