Yelp has helped me avoid wasting cash on potentially disappointing meals more times than I can count.
The review platform, which lets customers rate their experiences at nearby restaurants and other local businesses, is ideal for deciding whether a spot is worth trying. When I’m choosing where to eat or drink, Yelp is my first stop to see if a restaurant or bar lives up to its reputation and prices.
What I didn’t know until recently was that Yelp can also put a bit of money back in your pocket.
While organizing birthday drinks with my sister, I discovered Yelp’s cash-back program, launched in December 2016. Getting details on a place and earning money back sounded too good to pass up, so I dug in. Here’s what I found out.
How Yelp’s Cash-Back Program Operates
The initiative, run in partnership with Empyr, is straightforward to use. Just visit the Yelp cash-back sign-up page to register and input your frequently used debit or credit card information.
After you’ve added your cards, there’s nothing else to do. Each time you dine at a participating restaurant using one of your linked cards, you’ll automatically receive 7–10% cash back. Note that cash back doesn’t apply to online orders or delivery.
There’s no need to activate offers like with other cash-back services, there aren’t special exclusions, and you don’t need to meet a minimum purchase amount.
Yelp will return any cash back you earn to your primary payment card by the 18th day of the following month. You can add or remove cards and change which card is primary anytime by signing into your account.
Cash back is available only at food and beverage venues such as restaurants, bars and cafés. Yelp hinted at plans to include other kinds of local businesses in its cash-back system, but no timeline has been provided yet.
Worried About Giving Out Your Card Details?
If you’re uneasy about sharing personal information, Yelp’s privacy statement assures users it won’t share your data with third parties for marketing without your permission. Additionally, it notes, “When you submit credit card numbers, we encrypt that information using industry standard technology.”
That said, like many online signups, joining enrolls you in Yelp’s “targeted offers.” You can easily opt out by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of the first promotional email you receive to stop further messages.
Which Restaurants Participate?
At launch Yelp’s cash-back program included about 8,000 businesses nationwide. With more venues joining regularly, that total is almost certainly much higher now. How many eateries take part near you depends on where you live. Big cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago will have many more options than a small town.
In my region (Buffalo, New York), only 11 restaurants offered cash back via Yelp. But switch to New York City and you’ll find hundreds of participating spots across all price ranges.
To see if a specific restaurant participates and how much you can earn there, visit the restaurant’s Yelp listing and look for a box near the top right (just below photos) that states, “Dine here for X% Cash Back.”
When scanning search results, check under each business’s name for a green dollar sign in a circle with “X% Cash Back.” In larger cities you can filter results to show only “Cash Back” places. If you live in a smaller area and don’t see that filter, try typing “cash back” into the search field along with the neighborhood you want to search.
Stack Savings for More Value
There’s no cap on the number of cards you can attach to your Yelp cash-back account, so maximize rewards by linking your cards that offer perks to boost savings on purchases.
You can also stack Yelp cash back with existing restaurant deals and coupons to save even more.
Is It Worth Signing Up?
When I took my sister to Rust Belt Bar and Grill for drinks, I spent $10.57 and received $0.74 back. It’s not a huge windfall, but since we planned to go there anyway, the cash back was an enjoyable perk.
You won’t strike it rich with Yelp cash back, but there’s no reason to decline some free money. As with other cash-back services such as rakuten cash back, if you’re already going to spend the money on eating out, getting a small rebate doesn’t hurt. It’s like a restaurant loyalty program without carrying a punch card.
You only need to link your cards once. After that, do a quick Yelp search before you head out. If you dine out often or visit pricier establishments, you could accumulate a respectable sum in cash back monthly. And if you don’t, the occasional rebate is still a welcome bonus when you do treat yourself.
