Can you save money on your shopping with JamDoughnut?

Nick Daws introduces JamDoughnut, an app for up to 20% cashback through gift card purchases, sharing benefits and personal experience.

Today I’m spotlighting an app called JamDoughnut which can help you save money on your shopping. I have been using JamDoughnut myself for several months now and highly recommend it.

JamDoughnut is an instant cashback app that allows users to earn cashback when they spend money with hundreds of leading supermarkets, restaurants and shops (see sample screenshot below).

Rather than cashback on specific purchases (as with platforms such as Top Cashback and Quidco), you get cashback of up to 20% when you buy gift cards from retailers on the app. These gift cards can then be used just like money, both online and in store (in most cases). 

How does it work?

The first step is to download the JamDoughnut app to your mobile phone from Google Play for Android or the Apple iStore. 

Open the app and follow the instructions to create an account (if you enter my referral code GBGN you will get an initial 200 points [£2] bonus – see below). This should only take a couple of minutes.

Then check the list of retailers on the app and find one you shop with regularly. Most of the big supermarkets (with the exception of Waitrose and Ocado at the time of writing) are included, for example. 

You can even get cashback on Amazon gift cards, though admittedly only at a rate of between 1% and 2%.

Once you have found a suitable retailer, buy a gift card for that retailer using the app. This is straightforward and you can get cards of up to £100 in value. 

Once your gift card purchase has gone through, cashback will immediately be credited to your account in the form of points (100 points = £1). Once you have accrued 1000 points, representing £10 cashback, you can withdraw the money to your bank account. 

Note that there is a standard 30p transaction fee when making a withdrawal via bank transfer, and more than that if you use Apple Pay or Google Pay (so I don’t recommend doing this). It may be best to let cashback build up a bit before withdrawing, to reduce the impact of the transaction fee. 

Alternatively you can withdraw in the form of a gift voucher (e.g. an Amazon voucher). In that case no charges are payable and you also get bonus points added to your account. That is what I do personally!

In most cases, as mentioned, you can use gift cards either online or in store. In the latter case, you can show/scan the code on your mobile phone at the checkout (be sure to select Gift Card as your payment method). You can also take a printed version and use that if you wish. 

You can use gift cards for full or part payment. If you don’t use the whole amount on the gift card in one go, you can use what remains towards another purchase at a later date. You do just have to remember which cards still have a balance left on them – I’m not aware of any easy way of checking this.

Other benefits

Another attraction of JamDoughnut is that you can use the app in addition to your existing cards and loyalty programme points, allowing you to earn and/or save even more.

In addition, JamDoughnut offers a range of other benefits. These include a daily £100 (10 x £10) giveaway, free competitions, ‘Jammy Deals’, double discounts, and more. These are all listed on the ‘Daily Doughnut’ page of the app (see below).

JamDoughnut have also recently introduced a daily live-streamed video show, where you can win cash prizes and shopping vouchers up to £100 in value. All you need to do is have the live stream running on the JD app (you don’t even have to watch it if you don’t want to!) and you could be selected at random for a prize. You can access the live stream at 1 pm every weekday.

Finally, if you’re so inclined, you can invite friends and relatives to join JamDoughnut using their ‘refer-a-friend’ scheme. If someone signs up using your referral code (see below), not only will they get an extra 200 points (worth £2) when they buy their first gift card, you will receive a bonus as well when they cash out for the first time (400 points, equivalent to £4).

Special bonus offer

Speaking of which – as mentioned earlier – if you download the JamDoughnut app and enter my referral code, GBGN, you will get an extra 200 points (£2) when using the app to buy a gift card for the first time – bringing.you that much closer to receiving your first £10+ cashback payment!

Closing Thoughts

In summary, I think JamDoughnut is a great little app and I have been pleased to add it to my armoury of money-saving tools and resources. 

I do most of my grocery shopping at my local Morrisons, which is currently offering 3.25% cashback on JD gift card purchases – so in effect I am getting a 3.25% discount on all my shopping there. And I am still getting all the benefits of my Morrisons Card as well, including extra discounts and regular £5 vouchers. 

In these challenging times, the JamDoughnut app really can help your money go a little bit further. 

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this article, please do post them below.

Nick Daws writes for Pounds and Sense, a UK personal finance blog aimed especially (though not exclusively) at over-fifties.