Is Upside a good way to save at gas stations, restaurants and grocery stores?

This page was originally published in January 2022 and reflects the pricing, rewards rates and the author’s experiences of that time. The rest of the article has since been updated.

Upside is a cash back app that is best known for offering cash back at certain gas stations (along with some restaurants and grocery stores). Any savings are welcome these days. Nationally, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gas was $3.52 in July 2024, according to AAA. While this isn’t nearly as high as it was in 2022 when gas prices were soaring at an average of around $4.00 a gallon, it’s still higher than it was in 2021. Upside’s promotions stack with your existing credit card rewards. Like store coupons, shopping portals, card-linked offers and other cash back apps (such as Dosh and Ibotta), Upside is another way to save money. And when you combine multiple savings strategies on the same purchase, the 1 to 6 percent cash back that you can get on gas, dining and groceries with a rewards credit card is just the beginning.

How Upside works: The fine print

Even though Upside’s website touts relationships with national brands such as Shell, BP, Phillips 66, Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King and many others, it’s important to note that only some of these retailers’ locations offer cash back via Upside. And in my experience, it’s a distinct minority. You might get lucky and find something that works for you. I’ve found you’re more likely to strike gold with a restaurant deal than at a gas station or grocery store, but it depends. And it’s not just well-known franchises; many small local restaurants are on Upside, too. The app’s pitch to businesses is that it’s targeted advertising that increases sales and can be attributed to specific purchases. If you see a deal you like on the Upside app, you need to do the following to take advantage of it:

1. Click “claim offer.” This has to be done before you make your purchase.
2. Proceed with your purchase using your credit or debit card. You only have four hours to make a purchase.
3. Click “I paid with this card.” Make sure your payment method on file is the same as the payment method you used to make your purchase.

After clicking on the “I paid with this card” button, the transaction will move into your “History” tab and be shown as pending. Upside will use partner data to confirm that you’ve paid with that card, so you won’t need to upload a receipt like you used to. However, if it can’t find your transaction in its partner data within 10 days, it won’t give you the cash back, even if you know you’ve paid. Once you receive your cash back, you can redeem it as often as you like, with no minimum redemption amount.

Can Upside help you save at gas stations?

In my area (a suburb of New York City), GasBuddy data and my personal experience indicated that a good price for a gallon of regular gas was around $4.25 in 2022. Upside was advertising an 11-cent discount off a $3.79 per-gallon price a few miles from my house. That sounded too good to be true, so I drove to the station to check it out. Sure enough, the price was actually $4.69 per gallon! I visited another gas station touting 15 cents off $4.33 per gallon via Upside. The actual price was again higher than the app promised, but only by six cents this time. I elected not to fill up since I could have gotten a similar price at my usual station without the hassle of waiting to receive my cash back from Upside. However, more recent deals in other parts of the country show more lucrative deals. In North Carolina, for example, offers can range anywhere between 56 cents to 61 cents in cash back per gallon.

Gas credit cards to pair with Upside

In general, gas rewards credit cards are my favorite tip for saving on gas purchases. I use the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, which gives 3 percent cash back at U.S. gas stations. That’s solid, although not top of the line (my main reason for using that card is its exceptional 6 percent cash back at U.S. supermarkets — on up to $6,000 in annual purchases, then 1 percent cash back after that). Some popular cards which offer potentially higher gas rewards are the:

• Citi Custom Cash® Card: Earns 5 percent cash back (on up to $500 each billing cycle, then 1 percent) on your top eligible spending category each billing cycle, which could be the gas station category if that’s all you use the card for.
• Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi*: Earns 4 percent cash back on eligible gas and EV charging purchases, including gas at Costco (on up to $7,000 per year, then 1 percent)
• Sam’s Club® Mastercard®*: Earns 5 percent cash back on gas from any U.S. gas station, not just Sam’s Club gas stations (up to $6,000 per year, then 1 percent)
• PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® Card*: Earns 5X points on gas paid at the pump and at EV charging stations.

You can use these cards to pair with the Upside app to save even more. However, I like to stack my credit card rewards with gas stations’ loyalty programs whenever possible. Most of the major gas brands have apps that reduce the price by 5 to 10 cents per gallon on top of the credit card rewards you earn. Whether those loyalty programs offer you more or less than Upside will largely depend on what deals pop up where you live. But you can’t fully combine loyalty program discounts with Upside discounts. Upside’s fine print section within each deal states that other discounts (aside from credit card rewards) may reduce your Upside discount.

What restaurant deals can you find on Upside?

In my area, I could’ve used Upside to earn 14 percent cash back at a neighborhood deli and 7 percent cash back at several other mom-and-pop restaurants (all of these rewards are capped at $10). None of my nearby Dunkin’ Donuts or Burger King franchisees appeared to be offering deals. Outside of New York, some of the more recent promotions that I was able to find include:

• 22 percent cash back (up to $10) at a Taco Bell in Texas
• 21 percent cash back (up to $10) at an Arby’s in Delaware
• 20 percent cash back (up to $10) at a pizzeria in California
• 18 percent cash back (up to $10) at a bar in North Carolina
• 14 percent cash back (up to $10) at an ice cream shop in Florida

What about using Upside for grocery store savings?

I was excited when I first heard Upside offers cash back at grocery stores since food is one of my family’s most significant spending categories. But this is the most limited of Upside’s three classifications. I couldn’t find any participating merchants in my area. Hopefully, you’ll have better luck. Upside’s website claims that it has deals from more than 175 grocery store locations nationwide. Some of those grocery brands include:

• Woodman’s Market
• Piggly Wiggly
• Gelson’s Markets
• Vicente Foods
• Cardenas Markets
• Price Chopper
• Northgate Market

I found a couple of Cardenas Markets locations in the San Francisco Bay Area that advertise discounts, one with a whopping 21 percent cash back, but again the cap is just $10. Don’t get me wrong: I’ll take a free 10 bucks, but my family often spends $300 per week on groceries, so I’d love to get 21 percent off that.

The bottom line

I don’t see a lot of savings opportunities when I peruse Upside’s available deals near me. It also concerns me that the app isn’t showing the latest gas prices. While you might fare better, my opinion is that Upside sounds better than it really is. Still, the app can help you save quite a bit here and there if you’re able to find good deals in your area — especially if you pair it with a solid cash back credit card. You’ll likely find deals at gas stations and restaurants, especially chain restaurants, before you find deals at grocery stores. Have a question about credit cards? Email me at ted.rossman@bankrate.com and I’d be happy to help.

*Information about the Sam’s Club® Mastercard®, PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® Card and the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi has been collected independently by Bankrate. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the issuer.