Receipt Hog Review: Can You Earn Money From Scanning Receipts?

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What do you get every time you go shopping that’s only useful if you need to return something?  Yes, it’s those pesky receipts. Receipts that normally end up screwed up in your pocket or at the bottom of your bag. Well, not anymore. This Receipt Hog review takes a look at an app, available in the UK and USA, that allows you to use those receipts to earn a little spare cash on the side. 

Before I download an app, I like to do a bit of a Google research on what peoples’ opinions are.  I was pleasantly surprised at the high star rating for Receipt Hog, earning 4.5 stars on Apple’s App Store at the time of my review.

I did notice, delving a little further, that opinions are rather divided, as is so often the case with this kind of service. While some people say it’s an excellent app that makes you money for nothing, others say it’s rubbish and not worth spending time on. I remained intrigued, as the idea of being able to turn receipts into money was incredibly tempting!

Looking for other quick money makers to pay for treats? Try:

• PrizeRebel and SwagBucks, for surveys and other money making options. 
• Prolific, to earn money from academic research. 
• This list of reliable side jobs.

What is Receipt Hog?

Receipt Hog is an app where you can upload your receipts from many stores, to earn “coins” which you can turn into vouchers and cash rewards. 

It’s an incredibly simple process requiring just a small amount of your time. In my opinion, it’s a decent little side earner. You can use Receipt Hog in both the USA and the UK.

Unlike earning money completing surveys, earning using Receipt Hog is incredibly quick – a quick snap of a receipt and you’re done. It takes only seconds of your time.

Is Receipt Hog Legit?

Receipt Hog is legit. We tested the service throughly and received successful payouts more than once.

Like many online side gigs that thousands of people get involved in, it’s easy to find negative online feedback. We found nothing to indicate that Receipt Hog is a scam after conducting a thorough review. It’s important to know that this is a side gig for extra money, not a way to make a living!

Receipt Hog Review: Getting started

Once you’ve downloaded the app, you go through a very simple sign up process. You can use your email address or link the app to your Facebook account. If you choose to use your email address. you then just need to input your birthday and gender.

Once you have filled these details in, you can “request to join.”  As they have a large number of people now using the app you could – in theory – be turned down. However, I tested the water on this. I had another go at signing up and was accepted straight away. That said, there are mentions of occasional waiting lists in the service’s documentation.

Once you have signed up, you are taken through to a visually appealing and simple to navigate interface. Whereas survey sites typically require you to fill out lots of demographic questions before you can do anything, this app allows you to start earning “coins” straight away.

The screenshot below was taken straight after the initial sign up.  As you can see, you receive 50 coins in your account without having to do anything at all!

First off, it’s worth checking out the “Rewards” tab at the bottom. You will see three options to earn a few extra coins:

The first option is to complete a user questionnaire. It is a fairly short survey, taking less than five minutes, and it earns you 30 coins. Unfortunately, it is all the typical demographic questions you are normally asked for survey sites, but it is essential to complete if you want to earn one of the other bonus coin rewards. (From time to time other surveys pop up here too, normally dependant on the receipt data you have uploaded. You can fill these out to earn further bonus coins).

Next, you can earn 100 coins by linking your email account.  This allows e-receipts that you receive into your email inbox to be used to collect rewards.  Receipt Hog state it must be an email account that has at least one e-receipt in it at the time of connection, and it cannot be a Yahoo!, iCloud or AOL email address.  For this reason, I have never signed up as I use a Yahoo! address. However, there is nothing stopping you creating a new email account for the sole purpose of e-receipts if this is the case for you too.

Obviously, you’ll want to think of privacy implications before linking an email account you use for lots of different purposes. There’s more information on Receipt Hog privacy below.  

Finally, you also have the option of earning 40 coins for the “Hog Household Bonus.”  To be eligible for this, someone else in your household must already have signed up to Receipt Hog, completed the User Survey, and scanned at least 20 receipts.  You send Receipt Hog the email address linked to their account.  The person then receives an invite in their app which they must accept.  Receipt Hog then confirms the shared household, and within 24 hours you receive your coin bonus.

Uploading Receipts to Receipt Hog

Your next step is to start uploading those receipts. This is a very easy task that you complete by accessing the camera tab at the bottom of the app. 

There are a few rules of thumb when uploading receipts.  You must make sure that the following are visible:

• Store name
• Transaction amount
• Transaction date (must be no older than 14 days)
• Items purchased

This may mean taking multiple photos of the same receipt.  It is also important to keep your phone straight and not take blurry photos – these get rejected.

Handwritten receipts, cinema tickets and delivery receipts (like those from a supermarket delivery service) are not accepted. 

Once you are happy with your photos you then have to tap to say who was with you in the shop, and to rate the transaction.

What Do You Get for Scanning Receipts?

You can receive three separate rewards for scanning your receipts:

Firstly, you earn “coins” from:

• Grocers and supermarkets
• Corner shops and convenience stores
• Pharmacies
• Cash and carries
• Health and chemist shops
• Bargain and discount stores
• Beauty suppliers
• Pet shops

The number of coins you earn depends on the transaction total on your receipt – but even if you spend just 50cents/pence, you still earn coins on an eligible receipt.

This applies to receipts up to a maximum of 100 coins per week.  Once you have reached this total, each receipt is then only worth five coins, regardless of the total.

You also receive one sweepstake entry for every receipt you upload.   

Winning on the sweepstake is achievable – you just have to be in it to win it. I may have only won in a small way, but I have won 20 coins before with a sweepstake entry.

The final reward you can earn (shown above) is “Hog Slot Spins.” You earn one spin for receipts from stores that sell:

• Clothing
• Electronics
• Office Supplies
• Books
• Sporting Goods
• Arts & Crafts
• Home Improvement
• Home Furnishings

Once you’re awarded spins, they’re accessible on the “Spins” tab on the home screen. You can win between two and 2000 coins, real money, or a “daily trip winner” prize, depending on the outcome of the spin. It is never a guaranteed win, but I have won quite a few coins using the spins on some occasions.

Receipt Hog Review: Redeeming Rewards

If you upload enough receipts to gain 100 coins per week, and complete all the bonus coin activities, it could realistically take as little as two months to earn your first reward.

You can redeem your coins towards Amazon and MasterCard vouchers, or choose PayPal credit. Obviously the more coins you have to redeem, the better the value of the reward.

It’s an easy process to follow, and you receive an email voucher or a credit in your PayPal account within seven days. (In my experience, rewards arrive a lot faster than this).

As you can see, in just over a year of having the app I have managed to redeem twice, averaging £10 roughly every six months. No, it’s not a huge amount of money – but this is a side gig that takes seconds.

Can I Earn Coins Quicker on Receipt Hog?

This is a burning question – because it is quite a slow process. 

In my experience of the Receipt Hog app, the best thing to do is to just keep plugging away and uploading receipts. You get monthly upload bonuses for each week you scan at least one. These change depending on the “Level” you are on.

You begin on “Level One,” and it doesn’t take too long to progress through the early levels. The key is to regularly scan new receipts. The higher your level, the longer it takes to level up, but the better the rewards.

Receipt Hog Privacy

I feel that privacy is an important topic to cover before I conclude my Receipt Hog review. 

What does Receipt Hog gain by having my receipt data? I decided to have a check on the app and easily found the privacy policy. In several places, it tells you that “all data is anonymised and summarised for market research reports.” It seems that they can afford to give you rewards for your data, simply because companies pay them for the data held in the reports they create.

Receipt Hog do not have access to your credit card or bank account details as rewards are processed through vouchers or PayPal credit.

If you are at all worried, you can always delete certain receipt details such as card numbers before uploading.

Using Receipt Hog to Store Receipts

One interesting question a reader raised after we originally published this review is whether Receipt Hog is useful as a place to store records of your receipts for future reference.

You CAN use Receipt Hog in this way, and we found we could still see receipts dating back a couple of years. However, that’s not what it’s intended for, and there’s no guarantee the service will always retain your receipts. If you want something for record keeping, we wouldn’t suggest relying on Receipt Hog for this purpose.

Receipt Hog Conclusion

How Much Money do you Get from Receipt Hog?

Receipt Hog is not going to earn you a fortune; It is an app where it may take you a year to earn around $30 / GB£20.

But unlike survey sites that often require a large amount of your time and effort for a small reward, this app just needs a few seconds of your time to earn you some money. 

I do believe this app deserves its high star rating on the App Store. There are a few flaws, and sometimes you do have to resend receipts that they think are blurry. However, like other areas of the app, this is slick and easy. In a world where time is so valuable, who wouldn’t want to make money for hardly any time or effort?

If surveys aren’t your thing, or you want to something to add to a portfolio of other regular side incomes, then this app is well worth a look. 

You can sign up to Receipt Hog here – why not give it a go?

• If you’re interested in other reliable side gigs, find ten of the best here.
• To see a real-life income report that demonstrates how quickly income from multiple side gigs adds up, check out this article.