[Update 7/25/17: Yaarlo seems to have completely disappeared off the face of the earth.]
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Yaarlo Review
Yaarlo is a cash back site which offers a few ways to earn cash back, including using their online shopping portal, gift card purchases, and submitting receipts.
They encourage a trifecta whereby you earn cash back three times on each purchase: first buy a gift card and get cash back, then use their shopping portal to make the purchase and get cash back, then scan the receipt after purchasing and get cash back a third time.
There is no limit to the amount of cash back you can earn with the gift cards and shopping portals, but receipts do have an earnings limit of (at most) $5.75 per month.
Like many similar programs, a robust version of Yaarlo is available via the mobile app and a scaled down version is available on the website.
Online Shopping Portal
Yaarlo has an online shopping portal with a large selection of retailers. The portal can be used on a computer or via the mobile app. As always, be sure to check an aggregation site to ensure you’re always getting the best portal rate.
The only portal rate that jumped out at me is their eBay rate which is 3%. I made a couple eBay purchases on desktop and they tracked them properly after a few days. Update: eBay is no longer tracking properly at 3x (at least not gift card purchases).
Discounted Gift Cards
Yaarlo offers cash back on the purchases. Find the full list of available gift cards here. You can buy various denominations, typically $25, $50, or $100, and often other amounts too.
The cash back amount offered varies from 1% to 5%, depending on the brand. A few examples: Gap and Zappos get 5% back, Hotels.com and Sephora get 4%, American Airlines and many restaurants get 3%, Southwest and Macy’s get 2%, Staples and Toys R Us get 1%.
I tried one gift card purchase. It wasn’t available instantly, but it only took a few minutes. As soon as the gift card became available, the cash back appeared in my Yaarlo account.
Scan Receipts
After making a purchase, scan your receipt in the app to get cash back. You’ll get either .1% back or .25% back depending on the store and your level.
Receipts must be submitted within 14 days. Max $.50 cash back per receipt. You need to capture the entire receipt in one picture; main thing is to get the part of the receipt with the store name, date, and total purchase amount. Receipts typically take up to 48 hours until they are approved. No more than two receipts from the same store in a single day. Max 100 receipts per month. USA receipts only. Physical receipts only. You can use the physical receipt that comes from an online shipment.
Membership Levels
You start off at the Silver level, then progress to Gold, then to Platinum. The big perk of Platinum is getting an extra 10% on gift card cash back and portal cash back. So a Platinum should get 3.3% back on eBay, for example. And they should get 5.5% back on Zappos gift cards, as another example.
You become a Platinum member by shopping over $1500 quarterly through Yaarlo. I think gift cards and portal shopping count toward this number; not sure if receipt submissions count.
Cashing Out
You can cash out via Paypal or one of numerous gift cards like Amazon or Walmart.
One big caveat to be aware of is that the minimum cash out amount seems to be $50. However, the FAQ indicates that once you have $10, you’ll be able to cash out somehow. I don’t yet have $10, and I only see the $50 option. I imagine once you have $10, the option will pop up.
The terms have changed and now state that the redemption threshold is either $25 or $50. Gold and Platinum members can redeem at $25 while standard members need to wait until $50.
Referral Bonus
You can refer friends to Yaarlo and get a bonus. They don’t give much details on the bonus, but from Googling around it sounds like it’s a $.50 bonus. Your referral code can be found in the mobile app.
You will not get your referral points credited until your friend verifies their email and mobile phone number and completes some number of transactions on Yaarlo (Credit will be posted after they scan 10 receipts or Shop Online or Buy a Gift Card).
I actually pulled my referral code out of this post when I learned it’s just $.50, haha, but then I learned that there is a $1 bonus for the new user when they use a referral code, so here it is: CHUCKSIT725. It seems that you can get a $5 signup bonus instead by signing up via the app at this link.
Please don’t leave your referrals in the comments. I’m not going to bother making a referral thread for the $.50 offer.
Our Verdict
The shopping portal doesn’t look like anything special that you can’t get using Ebates, Topcashback or other big portals. The only exception to that is eBay purchases which are 3% with Yaarlo and have been that way for a while. And if you get to Platinum level, you should be earning 3.3%.
The other interesting part of the site is the cash back on gift cards. There are lots of other ways to get cash back on gift cards including Seashells, MPX (for miles), Mygiftcardsplus, and of course lots of second-hand exchanges.
One thing to beware of is their 60-day inactivity policy. If you have not logged in for 60 days, all points are forfeited.
Overall, I can see this as a good option mainly for big eBay shoppers and other extreme couponers who like submitting receipts for cash back. Double-dipping by submitting the same receipt to a few different receipt programs is another thing some people like doing.
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