Checkout 51 Review – Earn Money Back on Groceries and Gas
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Checkout 51 helps you identify offers on essentials you’re already buying and then earn money back on these purchases.
9/10
Cost
9/10
Ease of Use
9/10
Features
8/10
Services
8/10
With inflation at 4.83% in 2024, groceries and fuel costs have also increased. While the cost of food is 2.2% more expensive year over year, the cost of groceries specifically is up 3.5% year-over-year. With grocery and gas prices skyrocketing, saving money on essential items is even more crucial, especially as average US households find inflation is costing them $784 more a month.
Checkout 51, a cash rewards rebate app, claims to help you earn money back on grocery and gas purchases that you’re already making at stores like Sam’s Club, Safeway, Walmart, or any other grocery store you shop at. The premise is simple — scan the app for offers that align with your buying needs, select them, purchase your goods, and then upload your receipt to redeem your eligible cash-back.
Apps like this often seem too good to be true, so if you’ve been looking into Checkout 51, I’ll run you through everything you need to know: how it works, how to sign up, the key features, pros and cons, and compare it to alternative money-saving apps.
In this article
What is Checkout 51, and is it legit?
Checkout 51 is a cash-back rewards app that can help you earn cash back on grocery and gas purchases you’re already making. It’s free to sign up for but requires creating an account. Its cash-back coupons vary from specific store coupons to general coupons, though its gas coupons are tied to specific grocery store gas stations.
Like other popular cash-back apps, Checkout 51 functions on a rebate basis, meaning you’ll need to pay the full price upfront and submit a photo of your receipts that may be eligible for cashback. Once you reach $20 in cash-back rewards, the company will offer a payout via check or PayPal.
This company is owned by News America Marketing, which News Corp owns. It was originally formed in 2012, and its name refers to a secret “51st” checkout lane that customers can visit for discounts and savings.
Currently, Checkout 51 is only available for U.S. and Canadian customers. Still, its fuel rewards are only available in the U.S. (though its website mentions that the service will soon be available in Canada).
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How Checkout 51 works
To start saving with Checkout 51, you can download the app on iOS or Android or sign up via desktop. You can create an account using your Gmail or Facebook login or sign up with your email address.
Signing up will prompt you to provide your first and last name, email address, password, and gender. If you would prefer not to answer the gender question, you can opt out of it.
Once you’ve created an account, the real fun starts. You can browse a list of all offers, which updates every Thursday, and select the ones you’d like to take advantage of. For reference, you can view a portion of the current offer list here. You’ll need an account to view the full list of offers.
After you select offers, you’re ready to start shopping. Checkout 51 can be redeemed for online grocery shopping or in-store shopping, so you don’t have to change how you buy food every week. When you’re done, click “redeem” for any purchased items. From there, you’ll upload a picture of your receipt or online packing slip — make sure it’s itemized so the service can scan for any redeemed items.
You’ll need to upload your receipt by Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. local time to receive eligible cash-back rewards. Once submitted, the service will approve any eligible cash-back rewards, and you’ll start earning money. As soon as you reach $20 in cash back, you can receive a check or money transfer to a PayPal account.
In some cases, coupons are store-specific and require you to go to a specific convenience, grocery, or big-box store to earn the rewards. For example, gas cash-back rewards are always store-specific, so it may make sense to shop from a store offering the best gas offers that week.
How much does Checkout 51 cost?
You do not have to pay a penny to sign up for Checkout 51; no membership options exist. This cash-back service is completely free.
If you’re wondering how this app makes money if users aren’t paying for accounts, Checkout 51 is quite transparent about this — it's through brand partnerships. In other words, brands pay Checkout 51 to offer their products on its rebate list to encourage more people to buy them.
And, if you were worried about tax rewards being taxable, don’t worry. They’re not. Cash back rewards you earn by paying money for a product or service are exempt from taxes.
Who is Checkout 51 best for?
Anyone interested in reducing their grocery bill
Since Checkout 51 is easy to use and navigate, there’s little harm in trying it out and seeing if you could start saving on groceries. It’s easy to test out this service to see if it’s worth the minimum time and effort it’ll take you to review the offers, select the ones you like, and upload your receipts each week.
Those looking for a way to redeem cash back without incurring credit
While you can earn more in cash back with a grocery, gas, or flat cash back rewards credit card, that route is not the best option for everyone. For starters, you often need a high credit score to apply. And if you’re not great with managing credit cards, it can be easy to neglect your balance and watch interest quickly wipe out any cash back you may have earned. Plus, some credit cards have different rules involving what qualifies for cash-back rewards or different categories to opt into quarterly — it can be confusing. Checkout 51 takes the guesswork out of the equation.
Tactical shoppers
Depending on how you buy groceries, this app might be a huge asset. If you like to shop and plan meals based on sales, you might love the ease of Checkout 51. Plus, since it can often be combined with different coupons and other store sales, you may quickly realize significant savings with this app.
Anyone who hates physical coupons
Some people love to clip physical coupons from stores and other savings services — and for others, this process is a nightmare. If you can’t be bothered flipping through store ads and flyers, you may love that Checkout 51 combines relevant offers into one app.
Name brand shoppers
If you buy many name-brand items during your grocery trips, you’ll likely find more relevant offers with Checkout 51 since it tends to feature name-brand labels.
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Who shouldn’t use Checkout 51?
Anyone searching to gamify grocery shopping
If you’re hoping to maximize your rewards potential, Checkout 51 may help, but it’s not the best strategy. Combining store coupons and discounts with the right credit card will earn maximum rewards. Some cards offer as much as 5% back on groceries, which is pretty significant.
Grocery store loyalists
While Checkout 51 tends to offer coupons available at many grocery stores, it also includes store-specific deals that you may find cumbersome to sort through. If you’d rather stick to one store, shop your ads or online store loyalty program — and consider Checkout 51 as a supplement (or skip it altogether).
Thriftier shoppers
Sure, Checkout 51 can earn you free money, but if you’re pinching pennies and opting for store brands over name brands, it might be hard to find coupons that make sense for your budget using this app.
Pros and cons
Pros
- It’s free. I can’t stress this enough — the real benefit of earning cash back through Checkout 51 is that it won’t cost you a thing. Membership is always free and you can score decent cash back rewards on food and fuel. It may be more attractive than paying annual fees and APRs on credit cards.
- It’s easy to use. Navigating Checkout 51 couldn’t be simpler. The coupon redemption feature is really its only feature, making it simple to operate. The interface is helpful and sleek, albeit pared down, and you don’t need any major tech skills to move around. Even submitting receipts and invoices is quick and painless.
- Some offers are available to reuse. While this varies from offer to offer, in some cases you can cash out on a cash back offer more than once. This can score you even more cash back if that item is something you use often or want to stock up on for the future.
- Cash back offers can be combined with coupons. Most of the offers on Checkout 51 work with other store sales and coupons, as well as manufacturer coupons and rebates, allowing you to maximize your savings with very little effort. Some offers won’t allow you to use multiple coupon methods, but these terms are clearly spelled out, so you’ll know right away if there are limitations.
- You can link your loyalty cards. A real game changer is a fact that you can link your grocery store loyalty card account and take some manual work out of the process. While you’ll still need to redeem the offers you want to use, if you link a participating loyalty card account on the app, you won’t need to upload your receipts.
- Desktop and app functionality. Some of us love to navigate via smartphones while others prefer a more traditional desktop setup. Whatever your preference, you can still use Checkout 51 to select offers and upload receipts (though smartphone upload can be easier).
Cons
- Offers expire after one week. If there’s an offer you’re really interested in, you better snatch it up fast. Offers only last a week and then a new offers list is generated. This may be a con if you casually grocery shop or like to shop once a month or every other week. However, if you shop weekly, this is probably in line with what you’re already used to from store sales.
- It’s a manual process. Just like clipping coupons, you have to manually sort through offers and select them in order to redeem your cash-back rewards. Although the app makes this process rather painless, it still requires time and a bit of patience.
- You must upload receipts on time. Remembering to upload your receipts after every shopping trip may be in your best interest. If you forget to upload them by 11:59 at night on Wednesday (local time), you won’t receive any of the rewards you selected. If your loyalty card is linked, it’s a good idea to double-check before Wednesday to make sure your rewards went through.
- Some offers are limited. In addition, some offers are limited to a certain number of customers. That means even if you have it selected, if you don’t upload your receipt before the threshold is met, you could receive nothing back. While these offers are typically clearly marked, it can still be a bit of a bummer to go through all this work and end up with nothing to show for it.
- Most offers are for name-brand items. If you’re looking to save money on groceries, you might be skimping on name brands and turning to store or generic labels instead. Checkout 51, however, tends to feature name-brand items, which means even with the discount, it’s possible you’ll pay more than the generic version. And calculating this could be frustrating.
- Payment options are limited. Once you hit $20 in cash-back rewards, you can receive your payment, but your options are quite limited. You can opt to receive a paper check by mail, which could take some time, or turn to a PayPal payment, which only makes sense if you already have and use the service.
Checkout 51 vs. competitors
Company | Cost | How Rewards are Redeemed | Redemption Threshold | Manually Add Offers |
Checkout 51 | Free | Cash | $20 | Yes |
Ibotta | Free | Cash or gift cards | $20 | Yes |
Rakuten | Free | Cash | Quarterly | Yes |
Fetch Rewards | Free | Gift cards | $3 | No, offers are automatic |
Checkout 51 vs Ibotta
Both Checkout 51 and Ibotta are very similar cash-back apps. They’re both free, and both allow you to earn cash back once you reach $20 in rewards. Both also require you to manually opt into offers to earn rewards and upload receipts.
Ibotta tends to offer more store-specific offers, so if you’re a grocery store loyalist, you may prefer sorting Ibotta’s coupons. But, if you’d like more general coupons that you can use at any store, Checkout 51 may make more sense.
With Ibotta, you have to make online purchases through the app for them to count towards any offers you’ve selected, which may be a dealbreaker for some. Ibotta also only offers rewards on groceries, not gas, like Checkout 51.
Plus, Ibotta allows you to redeem rewards as cash back or gift cards and has more flexible redemption options (bank account deposit, PayPal, or Venmo). You can also earn welcome bonuses, get cash back on gift cards, earn additional bonuses, and earn rewards for referring friends.
Checkout 51 vs. Rakuten
Rakuten is a cash-back app well known for its high rates. Like Checkout 51, your rewards are redeemed for cash. Both apps are also free and can help you save money on groceries. Both also require manual offer activation and receipt uploads and have the same redemption methods — check or PayPal.
But Ratuken takes this promise further, offering discounts and offers at even more stores, including retailers like Chewy, Kohls, Old Navy, and more. It can earn you 1% to 10% (sometimes more) back on select purchases, a higher rate than most cash-back credit cards. Ratuken also offers its cash-back card to help you earn even more.
You can also earn welcome bonuses and referral rewards through Ratuken, unlike with Checkout 51. On the downside, you can only receive your rewards quarterly rather than when you reach $20. You must also acquire at least $5 to receive your rewards each quarter; otherwise, they’ll roll over to the next quarter.
Checkout 51 vs. Fetch Rewards
Fetch Rewards is a slightly different cash-back service than the others we’ve reviewed. That’s because, unlike Checkout 51 and its competitors, Fetch Rewards does not require you to activate rewards to redeem them manually. You’ll shop like normal, then upload your receipts into Fetch’s system.
The major difference is how these rewards are redeemed. You can redeem them for gift cards (different points translate to different gift card amounts) rather than cash back. While this might be a fine redemption method for you, others might prefer cash back.
Another pesky issue with Fetch is that the app only accepts receipts from Gmail accounts if you're an Android user. So, unless you have already used Gmail, it may not be worth using this app. Apple and iOS users won’t encounter this problem.
FAQs
How does the Checkout 51 refer program work?
While this cash rewards free app used to reward you for referring friends and family, its referral program officially shut down in July of 2020. At this time the company does not have plans to revive the program.
Can you use Ibotta and Checkout 51 together?
Yes — for most offers you could use coupons from both apps, submit receipts to both, and save. In some cases there may be stipulations, but the biggest downfall to doing this is the time you’ll invest looking for corresponding coupons, activating the offers, and uploading receipts. If that’s not a problem for you, you’re good to save even more by using them together!
Does Checkout 51 let you use other store coupons?
Yes, in most cases you can combine store coupons and Checkout 51 offers. There are some offers that might prohibit you from receiving discounts or savings from other store or manufacturer coupons, but they are well identified in the app.
Does Checkout 51 expire?
While you can use the app continuously, the offers available on Checkout 51 do expire on Wednesday at 11:59pm local time, each week. As a result, you’ll need to select and redeem offers and then shop and submit your receipts before this deadline in order to receive cash back.
Does Checkout 51 really work?
Yes, you really can earn cash back rewards through Checkout 51 — but it requires some manual work. You’ll need to select the offers you want to activate and meet their terms (like shopping at the store the offer is linked to) and then upload your receipt on time each week in order to qualify for cash back.
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The bottom line
Saving money on gas and groceries has become more important than ever. If you’re looking for an easy way to earn money back on the food and fuel you purchase, you might enjoy Checkout 51. This app works on Android and iOS and can even be used on your desktop. It helps you identify offers on essentials you’re already buying and then earn money back on these purchases.
On the downside, this app promotes brand-name labels, which might not appeal to everyone’s shopping tendencies. While it’s easy to use, it does require manually selecting offers, later redeeming them, and then uploading your receipts. However, it also allows you to submit invoices for online shopping trips, which is convenient. And it’s entirely free.
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Writer
Courtney Johnston is a freelance writer, specializing in finance, travel, and health. She has written for The Chicago Tribune, Benzinga, BestReviews, Mashvisor, Fundera, MoneyGeek, and The Culture Trip. She also teaches writing instruction at the University of Indianapolis. Courtney currently resides in Indianapolis.
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