Starfish Perks: Instant Cash Back App
By now, virtually all of us have download some sort of loyalty and/or cash back shopping app to our phones. Approximately 3 billion of the world’s population currently have smart phones, and that figure is estimated to reach 6 billion within the next five years. And even for those holdouts who are not smart phone inclined, money saving extensions such as Rakuten and Honey have become quite popular for computer browsing. Now, however, we are beginning to see the next wave in this phenomenon, an app combining both of these features along with a slew of additional ones, and the best of these I’ve seen thus far is the Starfish Perks app.
The brainchild of Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady (who have both been named among the top 40 figures in the industry, according to Inc. Magazine, among other accolades), Starfish Perks is relatively new on the scene, but already includes partnerships with many of the top restaurants, retail outlets, online merchants, and travel companies around the world. As someone who has used other somewhat similar apps — like Ibotta and Saving Star, to name a couple — I have a pretty good handle on the pluses and minuses of what Starfish Perks has to offer.
The downsides are actually pretty limited. There is a $100 minimum for loading cash from your bank account, although this is not a problem if you plan ahead. Plus you can always use a credit/debit card instead if requiring lesser amounts. And the grocery store offerings are not plentiful, although they are constantly adding more options, and they’ve hinted that there’s a “major” announcement coming in this category, any day now (I’ve heard that it might be Kroger!). Aside from that, I think this app is crushing its competitors in a number of major categories. Here’s a quick list I’ve drawn up:
1) Better cash back percentages. This has been true at every head to head comparison I’ve checked, comparing Life’s Super App to Ibotta and Rakuten. Saving Star, too, where applicable, although that app is pretty limited, featuring pretty much just grocery stores and nothing else. So for the most part, I would say Ibotta and Rakuten are the major competitors in this category, and I’ve yet to discover any outlet where they are offering better percentages.
This is true at the most basic level, without getting into how you can actually make an even higher percentage everywhere (more on that in the next point). Recently I was at Petco, for example, and whereas Ibotta offers 4% back, Starfish Perks is at 5.4%. The cashier was impressed enough to ask what app this was, because she had never seen it before. “Is this like Ibotta?” she asked. “Well, yeah, except this is actually more than twice as good,” I replied. Domino’s Pizza is currently at 10.1% on this app, Jiffy Lube is 8.1%, Shutterfly 8.1%, Bass Pro Shops 7.2% — just to name a few that are really jumping out at me. As I scroll through the Starfish Perks merchant list, though, I would say at a glance that 5.4% appears to be the overwhelming average, and there’s no way you’re getting this from Ibotta or Rakuten.
2) Loading cash directly onto the app. You can just pay with debit or credit card everywhere, of course (even Bitcoin!), but if you upload cash into the app itself, then all of these companies offer anywhere from an extra 1% to 4% more in instant savings. The explanation here is that it saves them on card processing fees, so they’ve decided to pass that along to you. So that would bring your Petco purchase, for example, up to a whopping 9.4% cash back.
3) Travel deals partnership with Priceline. Well, this point is probably self explanatory. But when you enroll with this app, you are given $30 in trip credits, too, per month. Priceline looks for the best deals, and you are then able to apply trip credits on top of that. Not to mention you have begun to build your purchase volume on here, which brings me to my next point…
4) Instant cash back. One of the more annoying features, to me anyway, with Ibotta and Rakuten both, is that you either have to wait a certain number of days, or to reach a certain dollar amount, or both, before you see a nickel in cash back. Starfish Perks gives you the cash back instantly, loading that into your available balance…which you can of course apply to future purchases, if you like. Seriously, as soon as you hit “Done” at the checkout line, it shows your available cash balance on the app — the rewards hit that fast.
5) Groupon and coupon tabs. I wouldn’t claim to be a Groupon expert, but the deals shown here look pretty aggressive to me — half off at a local martial arts academy, 44% off in cellular phone repair, 40% off at some local museums, et cetera. And then over on the regular ol’ coupon tab, they have everything ranging from 20% off at some name brand hotel chains (Ramada, Wyndham, Days Inn, and so on) to a 25% off at Papa John’s to 20% off at Auto Zone. I’m also pretty amused to see that it’s GPS-coordinated enough to show a $1 off coupon for this family owned video store just a few blocks away from where I live. Ah, this crazy, modern technology!
6) The opportunity to turn this into a business. Okay, so in the name of full disclosure, I should tell you that this is an affiliate link and I will earn a small commission if you decide to sign up. This app is currently only available by invite only, so to request an invitation, please either leave a comment below or else visit this Facebook page. A lot of people, probably most people, begin by testing the waters as a customer only on this app. There’s certain nothing wrong with that, as you can actually come out ahead within minutes of signing up. It’s a $60 yearly fee to join, but you can cancel at anytime, and that works out to only $5 a month. By my math in a typical month our household would get $5 cash back from Walmart alone. So that part’s already a wash, at a bare minimum. Everything else on top of that is gravy. My parents signed up, for example, then went straight to Home Depot and saved about $90 on blinds that same day.
They also have had a couple of experiences similar to mine, though, in that the cashier checking you out at these places is inevitably curious about how you’re accomplishing this. Not to mention, you’re most likely talking this app up to friends and family. This is where you may decide, after testing the waters using Starfish Perks, that you would like to upgrade and become a member. This is where you can get into making commissions for signing up other people. While I wouldn’t profess to have wrapped my head around the complete ins and outs of this program, it’s safe to say you are likely to make your money back in no time on this, too, with the added advantage that you are then able to make even higher payouts from the app. I eventually chose to go this route, and after paying a one time yearly fee of $60.
The major advantage here is escalating monthly bonuses. My first month I seriously don’t even feel like I did all that much, but I nonetheless accumulated enough “purchase volume” to qualify for a 6% bonus. You can either have this deposited into a bank account, or directly into your e-wallet on the app itself (I would recommend the latter, for reasons outlined in point #2 above). This volume bonus can reach as high as 30%, though.
So that’s basically Starfish Perks in an ultra-condensed nutshell recap. There’s a bunch of other stuff on here, from educational materials to podcasts to a free prescription savings card, which I haven’t quite had time to ingest yet. Also a marketplace with some products you can order directly, I forgot to mention, as well as some other promotions that don’t fit into any of the previously mentioned categories. But anyway, if you think what you read here sounds interesting, definitely check it out by clicking here. I will actually go as far as to say if you tried it for a month and for some weird reason weren’t happy, I would just give you your $30 back.
Okay, that’s all for now. Talk to you soon!
