The Zip Zero app has now closed, due to a lack of investor funding. A real shame as it was really trying to keep going, sadly Covid was the nail in the coffin for this app; it battled on to try ands stay active, but was forced to close, without notice, on the 21st November 2024.
ZipZero, which until the pandemic, was a great way to earn cash from your till receipts; however, Covid more or less wiped the popular receipt scanning app into oblivion after it lost its financial backers due to lockdowns and general shopping from home not in physical stores, meaning fewer people were using the app.
The app spent around 18 months looking for additional financial backers. It looked pretty grim for the service, however in very late 2021, ZipZero announced that they were launching an updated version of the app and re-launching their services, but were unable to honour the cashback earned that the user had processed on their account in the same way as previously, which could be redeemed as part payment towards one of your utility bills, once you hit £10 cashback in your account.
Also, ZipZero could not offer the previous 1% cashback rate, instead offering 0.5%, so you could still scan your receipts, and the 0.5% base cashback reward would still be applicable.
The most significant change was that to be able to claim the cashback reward, you had to match the reward with cashback earned using ZipZero's Premium Rewards system, which is a service where you earn cashback on purchases made via its online service in the same way as you might using a service such as TopCashback or Quidco, Cheddar or JamDoughnut.
The idea is that for every £1 you earn via its premium service, you can also claim £1 of your cashback earned via the receipt scanning-based reward system, meaning to earn cashback on your till receipts, you must also make purchases using the services online ordering system.
Sadly, in most cases, the 0.5 - 10% cashback offered by ZipZero for online purchases often falls short of what you could earn elsewhere, so users weren't getting a great deal, apart from Amazon purchases (which has now stopped, sadly), as ZipZero was at the time, the only retailers offering cashback on Amazon orders, so for many, this was the only way to monetise your Amazon orders. You can now earn 1% cashback on Amazon orders through JamDoughnut & Cheddar.
So what's changed?
In October, ZipZero announced some significant changes, which pleased many users who stuck with the app during its difficult times.
Users will no longer need to earn Premium Units to release Base Units. The only requirement for the release of Base units is for the grace period to have passed (90 days), so you no longer have to buy items through ZipZero to be able to grab cashback on your till receipts; you can scan your receipts and use the cash 90 days later.
ZipZero will differentiate rewards for the receipt and online confirmation sharing:
a) Get 0.5% as it is now for sharing receipts and online confirmations connected with shopping with our Premium partners (online &offline).
b) Get 0.1% (£0.01 in value as a minimum) for sharing receipts or online confirmations which have not come from shopping with our Premium Partners.
c) Introduction of in-store Premium shopping. You will be able to earn more than 0.5% from your shopping in brick-and-mortar stores!
So you have the potential to earn more than 0.5%, which is the current rate; however, receipts from retailers that ZipZero isn't affiliated with will have their cashback rate dropped to 0.1%, but it is still better than nothing!
Where can you spend your cashback?
You can earn up to £50 a month from ZipZero. Unlike other cashback sites, you can't spend the money wherever you want. Rewards earned each month can be used to cover any utility bill payment you choose:
Electricity
Water
Gas
Internet
Phone
Council Tax
So it's a good way to make payments or extra payments to your utility provider without affecting your bank balance, which during these difficult times is handy, and I, for one, will be making full use of it!
Use this app in conjunction with the other receipt scanning apps, as you can scan any receipt on ALL the apps, meaning each receipt could be earning you money with several apps simultaneously! Check out our recommended receipt scanning apps HERE.
You can download the app via the ZipZero website HERE.
