This page was originally published in January 2022 and reflects the prices, rewards rates, and author’s experience at the time. The rest of the article has since been updated.
Upside is a cashback app best known for offering cash back at select gas stations (and some restaurants and grocery stores). These days, any savings is welcome. Nationwide, the average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline was $3.52 as of July 2024, according to AAA. That’s not as high as 2022, when gas prices were soaring, averaging about $4.00 per gallon, but it’s still higher than 2021.
Upside promotions can be used in conjunction with your existing credit card rewards. Like store coupons, shopping portals, card-linked offers, and other cash-back apps (like Dosh and Ibotta), Upside is another way to save money. And when you combine multiple savings strategies on the same purchase, rewards credit cards are just the beginning, earning 1 to 6 percent cash back on gas, restaurants, and groceries.
How Upside Works: The Fine Print
While Upside’s website touts its relationships with national brands, including Shell, BP, Phillips 66, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Burger King, it’s important to note that only a select few of these retailers offer cash back via Upside — and in my experience, they’re a distinct minority.
With any luck, you might find something that works for you. In my experience, you’re more likely to find a bargain at a restaurant discount than at a gas station or grocery store, but it depends. A lot of small local restaurants, as well as big-name franchises, have signed up with Upside. The app touts to businesses that it can boost sales with targeted ads that can be tied to specific purchases.
If you find a deal you like on the Upside app, here’s what you need to do to take advantage of it:
- Click Claim Offer. This should be done before you buy.
- Proceed with your purchase using your credit or debit card. Only four hours are available for purchase.
- Click “I paid with this card.” Please make sure the payment method on file is the same as the payment method used at the time of purchase.
Once you click the “I paid with this card” button, the transaction will be moved to the “History” tab and will show as pending. Upside will use your partner data to verify that you paid with that card, so you won’t need to upload a receipt like before. However, if we can’t find the transaction in our partner data within 10 days, we won’t issue you cash back even though we know you paid.
Once you receive your cashback, you can exchange as much as you like with no minimum exchange amount.
Can Upside help me save money at the gas pump?
Where I live (suburban New York City), GasBuddy data and my personal experience indicate that a fair price for a gallon of regular gasoline in 2022 is about $4.25. Upside was advertising 11 cents off the $3.79 per gallon price a few miles from my house. It sounded too good to be true, so I drove to the gas station to check it out. Sure enough, the price was actually $4.69 per gallon.
I went to another gas station that offered 15 cents off the $4.33 per gallon price via Upside. The actual price was again higher than the price the app suggested, but this time it was only 6 cents higher. I decided not to fill up because I could have gotten a similar price at my regular gas station without the hassle of waiting for the cash back from Upside.
But recent deals in other parts of the country show better deals: North Carolina, for example, is offering cash back of 56 to 61 cents per gallon.
Gas credit card combined with Upside
In general, gas rewards credit cards are my favorite for saving money on gas purchases. I use the Blue Cash Preferred® card from American Express, which offers 3 percent cash back at U.S. gas stations. It’s not the best, but it’s nice (the main reason for using this card is the exceptional perk it offers: 6 percent cash back at U.S. supermarkets on purchases up to $6,000 per year, and 1 percent cash back thereafter).
Some popular cards that may offer higher gas rewards include:
- Citi Custom Cash® Card: Each billing cycle, you’ll earn 5 percent cash back (up to $500 each billing cycle, and 1 percent thereafter) on your most eligible spending categories (if you only use your card at gas stations).
- Citi Costco Anywhere Visa® Card*: Earn 4% cash back on eligible gas and EV charging purchases, including gas purchases at Costco (up to $7,000 per year, 1% thereafter)
- Sam’s Club® MasterCard®*: Earn 5% cash back on your gas purchases at any U.S. gas station, not just Sam’s Club gas stations (up to $6,000 per year, 1% thereafter).
- PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® Card*: Earn 5x points on gas you spend at gas stations and EV charging stations.
Combining these cards with the Upside app can help you save even more. However, I try to combine credit card rewards with gas station loyalty programs whenever I can. Most of the major gas brands have apps that can give you 5 to 10 cents off a gallon in addition to any credit card rewards you’ve earned. Whether these loyalty programs offer more or less rewards than Upside depends largely on what deals are popping up in your area.
However, loyalty program discounts and Upside discounts cannot be combined exactly, and the Upside fine print section within each transaction states that other discounts (excluding credit card rewards) may reduce the Upside discount.
What restaurant deals can you find on Upside?
In my area, I was able to use Upside to get 14 percent cash back at a local deli and 7 percent cash back at a few other independently owned restaurants (all of which have a $10 cap). None of my local Dunkin’ Donuts or Burger King franchises offered any rewards.
Some recent promotions I could find outside of New York include:
- 22% cash back (up to $10) at Taco Bell in Texas
- 21% Cash Back (Up to $10) at Arby’s in Delaware
- 20% cash back (up to $10) at California pizza joints
- 18% cash back (up to $10) at North Carolina bars
- 14% cash back (up to $10) at ice cream shops in Florida
Want to use Upside to save money on groceries?
Food is one of our household’s most important spending categories, so I was excited when I first heard that Upside was offering cash back at grocery stores. However, this is the most limited of Upside’s three categories, and I couldn’t find any participating stores in my area.
Hopefully, you’ll have better luck. Upside’s website states that it lists specials from more than 175 grocery stores nationwide. These grocery brands include:
- Woodman’s Market
- Piggly Wiggly
- Gelson’s Market
- Vicente Foods
- Cardenas Market
- Price Chopper
- Northgate Market
We found several Cardenas Market locations in the San Francisco Bay Area advertising discounts, including one offering a whopping 21 percent cash back, but again, only capped at $10.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to receive the free $10, but my family often spends $300 a week on groceries, so getting that 21 percent discount would be nice.
Conclusion
Looking at available deals near me on Upside doesn’t reveal many opportunities to save, and I’m also concerned that the app doesn’t show the latest gas prices. There may be better deals out there, but in my opinion, Upside sounds better than it actually is.
Still, if you can find deals in your area, the app can help you save a ton here and there, especially if you pair it with a solid cashback credit card Before you find deals at the grocery store, you’re likely to find them at gas stations and restaurants, especially chain restaurants.
Have a question about credit cards? Email me at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to answer it.
*Information about the Sam’s Club® Mastercard®, PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® card, and Citi’s Costco Anywhere Visa® card was collected independently by Bankrate. Card details have not been verified or endorsed by the issuers.
