I’ll be honest. For someone who spends a lot of time writing about cashback and loyalty schemes, I should have been using the Everup app a lot sooner. Despite being a big fan of making every pound work harder, I somehow managed to overlook it until about two months ago. So here’s my experience so far, with a plan to come back and update this once I’ve had a bit longer with it.
What is the Everup App?
Put simply, Everup lets you buy gift cards and earn cashback on your spend in return. I use it mainly through their iPhone app, and the premise is straightforward: you buy a gift card for a retailer you were already going to shop at, and Everup gives you a percentage of that spend back as cashback.
You also earn “coins” alongside your cashback. Think of these a bit like arcade tokens. You can use them to enter games and raffles, with prizes ranging from extra coins to cash. I’ll be transparent: I’m still a little undecided about the coin element. There’s a slight gamble-y feel to it that sits a bit awkwardly against what is otherwise a clean cashback tool. That said, I have used it, and I did win the daily raffle once, picking up 10 million coins, which was a nice surprise.
What Cashback Rates Can You Expect?
Rates do move around, so here’s a snapshot of what was available as of May 2026:
| Retailer | Cashback Rate |
|---|---|
| Tesco | 3.1% (was 4% a week ago) |
| M&S | 3% plus coins |
| Adidas | 11.3% plus coins |
| B&Q | 3% plus coins |
On the face of it, a few percent doesn’t sound like much, but it really does add up. After two months, here’s what I’ve earned:
£67.84 in cashback and £5.39 in coins.
How Do You Access Your Cashback?
Once you’ve built up cashback in the app, you’ve got two options.
Option 1: Withdraw as cash. You can transfer it to your bank account, but there’s a 30p fee per withdrawal. Not a dealbreaker, but worth knowing.
Option 2: Use it to buy another gift card. This is the smarter move in most cases. You’re essentially recycling your cashback back into the same system and earning again on top.
Personally, I tend to use the cashback to buy a new gift card and then manually move the equivalent amount into my savings account outside the app. It means the cashback effectively becomes cash savings without me touching the bank withdrawal option very often.
What Are the Downsides of Everup?
It wouldn’t be a proper Sensible Spender review without the honest bit, so here are the things I think you need to be aware of.
Gift cards are non-refundable. Once you’ve bought the voucher, you can’t get a refund. This is the big one I always think through before using any gift card service. Take Apple as an example, currently offering 2.7% cashback on Everup. If I bought an Apple gift card then decided I actually wanted an Android device instead, I could return the physical product to Apple, but they’d refund me with store credit rather than cash. That’s not an Everup problem specifically, it’s just the nature of gift cards. Companies love them for exactly this reason: they get your money upfront and lock you in as a customer. My approach is to only buy gift cards for retailers where I know I’ll always have a use for them. Tesco is a firm favourite for this reason.
You lose some credit card purchase protection. Paying via gift card doesn’t give you the same Section 75 or chargeback protection you’d get from a credit card. Worth factoring in for larger purchases in particular.
You need to be a bit more organised. You can’t just tap your card at the till, you need to have your gift card ready. Honestly, I’ve only found this a minor inconvenience. For shops I visit regularly like Tesco, I buy the gift card in advance, particularly when the rates are running high. For somewhere I’m visiting less regularly, I tend to do my shopping first, roughly tot up the total in my head, then buy the gift card before heading to the till. The app is quick enough that this doesn’t cause any real delays.
Your money isn’t protected like a savings account. I always withdraw the cashback promptly rather than leaving it sitting in the app. There’s no FSCS protection on balances held there, so I wouldn’t be comfortable leaving a large amount in it.
Is the Everup App Worth Using?
Two months in, yes, I think so. The cashback rates are genuinely decent, the app is easy to use, and you’re earning money on spending you’d be doing anyway. The coin and raffle element adds a bit of fun, even if it’s not something I’d factor into my core reason for using it.
The key, as with all of these things, is being sensible about which gift cards you buy. Stick to retailers you know you’ll use, don’t let the cashback rates tempt you into spending somewhere you wouldn’t otherwise, and withdraw or redeploy your cashback promptly rather than leaving it sat in the app.
I’ll come back with an updated review once I’m a bit further down the line.
Want to Sign Up to Everup?
I’ve popped a referral link below. If you sign up using it, I do receive a small reward once you’ve earned £10 cashback and redeemed it against a gift card, and you’ll also get 10 million coins to get you started.
https://everup.onelink.me/9lgD/654bdbi9
For a full guide to cashback sites and apps, including how Everup compares to Quidco and TopCashback, take a look at my cashback apps guide.