If you’re like me, your purse or wallet is probably overflowing with old receipts. You might keep them for budgeting, returns, or price checks, but they usually just end up as junk. What if you could make money from those receipts? Well, with Receipt Hog, you can!
Receipt Hog is an app that lets you use your phone camera to take pictures of your receipts in exchange for points or ‘coins’. Once you collect enough coins, you can cash out. You can download the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Receipt Hog works by selling the data from your receipts to marketing companies. This data is valuable because it shows what people buy, where they shop, and when they shop. Don’t worry, your personal information stays anonymous.
In Receipt Hog, your receipts earn you ‘coins’ which can be exchanged for cash via PayPal or Amazon vouchers. The system is a bit complicated, with different rewards based on the type of store and amount spent. You earn coins from receipts at places like supermarkets, convenience stores, chemists, pet shops, toy shops, and discount stores. The number of coins depends on how much you spend; for example, a supermarket receipt over £100 earns you 20 coins, while one under £10 earns you 5 coins.
The app also has a mini-game called ‘hog slots’, where you can win extra coins by matching symbols. You get spins on the hog slots when you buy items like clothes, electronics, office supplies, books, arts and crafts, sports goods, and home goods. Additionally, each receipt earns an entry into a monthly sweepstake for up to 5,000 coins. You can also earn entries from receipts for fuel, restaurants, and bars.
You can earn extra spins by completing weekly or monthly challenges, like scanning receipts every week, and by referring friends. When you sign up, you get a referral code. For each friend who signs up with your code, you get 10 spins, and they get 5.
You can redeem your coins for Amazon vouchers or PayPal cash once you reach certain thresholds:
– Amazon vouchers: £3 for 1,000 coins, £10 for 2,850 coins, £20 for 5,300 coins, £50 for 12,000 coins
– PayPal: £5 for 1,500 coins, £10 for 2,850 coins, £20 for 5,300 coins, £50 for 12,000 coins
Keep in mind, you can only scan receipts from the past two weeks, so if you’ve been hoarding receipts, don’t expect a huge payout right away.
I’ve been using Receipt Hog for over four months and I’m only halfway to my first payout, which is a £3 Amazon voucher. While some people have positive experiences with the app, I find it not worth the effort. Scanning each receipt takes just a few minutes, but it feels like a chore when there’s no instant reward. I prefer cashback apps like Shopmium and CheckoutSmart because they pay real money into your bank account within days.
At my current rate, it will take me about eight months to earn £3. Maybe I don’t shop enough or generate enough receipts. We do one big shop and a couple of smaller ones each week, mostly shopping online, so I only have 3 or 4 receipts to scan weekly. Progress is slow. If you shop a lot and have many receipts, you might see faster results.
It annoys me that the payouts are so low because the data must be worth a lot to marketing companies. Receipt Hog has also started adding more surveys each time you submit a receipt. These are usually just one multiple-choice question, but it’s still extra value they’re getting from us for free.
Since I’ve already invested time in this app, I’ll continue until I reach my first payout. But after that, I won’t bother.
Boost My Budget rating: 2/5
For me, the payout isn’t worth the effort. But it’s still essentially free cash, so you might find it worth a try.