Cash out while you can – if you can.
The writing has been on the wall for a while, and SavingStar’s owners have done nothing to refute evidence that the app was on its way out. So the news that the cash-back app will now be shutting down at the end of the month should not come as a big surprise.
SavingStar’s offers have slowly been migrating onto Coupons.com, ever since Coupons.com owner Quotient Technology bought it two years ago. Once the rest of its offers, and its entire cash-back model, moved to the Coupons.com app in a major redesign last week, the deed was all but done.
“SavingStar is shutting down November 30, 2020,” reads a notice on the SavingStar website. “You’ll likely see offers begin to wind down over the next few weeks.” Instead, users are invited to download the new Coupons.com app.
In fact, you’ll have to if you haven’t reached the $20 earnings threshold and want to cash out your balance before SavingStar disappears and takes your money with it.
The good news is that you can cash out now if you have more than $20 in your SavingStar account. And if you don’t, SavingStar is waiving the minimum balance requirement. But you’ll have to follow several steps in order to get your cash. First, you’ll need to download the new Coupons.com app, sign in, link a PayPal account and activate at least one offer. Then log into your SavingStar account online and fill out the form requesting your balance.
So you’ll need a smartphone in order to download the Coupons.com app. And you’ll need a PayPal account to get your payment. SavingStar didn’t require either of these things before, but if you don’t have both of the above now, you won’t be getting your cash.
It’s disappointing, but not as disappointing as when other savings apps have shut down without warning, denying users who have less than the minimum balance the ability to cash out at all.
SavingStar was one of the original cash-back apps, launched back in 2011 by two former executives from the college-savings site Upromise. But now it joins a long list of savings apps that have come and gone, whose names you might remember but may well have forgotten – BerryCart, MobiSave, Hopster Rebates, bevRAGE, Endorse, Snap by Groupon, Shopmium, SnapStar and Shrink. And even though it predated today’s largest savings apps Ibotta, Checkout 51 and Fetch Rewards, as well as the newer, specialty cash-back apps Makeena and Merryfield, SavingStar never quite reached their level of popularity.
But now, with its parts absorbed into Coupons.com, it just might. By emphasizing SavingStar-style cash-back offers over its traditional printable and digital coupons, Coupons.com has just become a much more formidable competitor to the leading cash back app Ibotta than SavingStar ever was.
So SavingStar had its moment. It was once popular as the only app with automatic loyalty-card-linked offers, until others started offering the same. It once had the lowest payout threshold of just $5, before raising it to match everyone else’s $20. It once turned a blind eye to users who combined its offers with other coupons and rebates, before leading the way in cracking down. And it was once the longest-lived cash-back app, a title that will now be claimed by Ibotta itself.
“As much as you love SavingStar, we have something even better in store for you,” SavingStar wrote in its farewell message to users. And now, Coupons.com certainly hopes you’ll agree.
I concur. Are you all going to start saying the opposite now? I still haven’t gotten my money either. I also don’t like the long verbose emails they write. I don’t really like their manner of writing/speaking. They got like crows feet hands or something. It should not take this long to get a payout. It doesn’t even make sense to link it to Coupon.com to get a payout. I also don’t like the redirect from SavingStar straight to Coupons.com. All these types of sites are becoming scams. Complete scams. I have had enough of them. All the time, steal your money, and make you argue for it. Who had got time for this negativity or rather life. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start trying to steal people’s life too. Not just the companies related to the offers for which they do not give you money for. Maybe I am a little different on an individual basis, but on the whole, all they are doing is stealing companies.
I cash out like you said you also said it would go into coupons.com it didn’t . Where my money
Repeated messages to savingstar/coupons.com keep generating an automated response from them stating the same thing over and over. I can’t seem to get any resolution to them STEALING my money.coupons.com is a scam, I repeat, A SCAM!! Please do not sign up with them.
I can’t access my account. I had earned $35. I was not informed that savings star was shutting down. I thought that there was a problem with the website. I’m very upset and disappointed in their unfair business practices. Please advise
Thank you!!
So I cashed out my savingstar for 43,14. The deposit came through my bank and the a day later there was a reversal of funds. I messaged them and they said there was a problem with my bank account number!! Well if so, then how did the deposit go in? Now I can’t access savingstar to see where my money is. I REFUSE to install coupon.com as I absolutely HATE that site AND I will not open a paypal account, my friends have had lots of issues with paypal account scammers draining there linked bank accounts.
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We can no longer log into saving star, it just routes you directly to coupons.com
i tired to cash out and the money never made it into my pay pal
The info on Savingstar said they have until December 31st to pay out.
Except that what they are proposing is ILLEGAL!!!!
There is NO LAW IN THE US THAT PEOPLE NEED A PHONE – you should be able to load the app to your computer JUST LIKE THE PROGRAM ALREADY.
Otherwise, they are committing THEFT by STEALING MONEY PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY EARNED!!!!
No reason they can’t fix that!