As you may have heard, the app Bumped recently underwent a major makeover, while finally exiting its years-long beta. For those of us lucky enough to have been a part of that previous pilot program, this change has come with some pros and cons. Among the latter category is the fact that, now, users need to shop via Bumped’s links in order to earn stock-back on their online purchases from select brands. Well, just in time for Black Friday, Cyber Money, and the rest, Bumped has debuted a web version of its Stock Marketplace, allowing you to shop offers from a desktop computer or other devices.
If you’re unfamiliar with Bumped 1.0, the basic premise is that you earn a percentage of your purchases back when shopping online or in-store as you would with other tools such as Rakuten. However, instead of just earning regular old cashback, Bumped rewards you in fractional shares of stock. Specifically, the app will yield you shares of Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF ($VTI) by default, but you can also select up to four other stocks to earn in. Personally, I have mine set to split my rewards between $VTI, Delta, Disney, Starbucks, and T-Mobile. However, some of the other stocks available include Netflix, Uber, Amazon, Apple, and several more.
While I don’t hate online shopping via my phone, I also don’t love it. For one, somehow it always seems that I need to access another app or browser tab to confirm something before I can complete my purchase. This can be a problem when using Bumped or similar apps as I fear that navigating away will break the affiliate link and, thus, blow my shot at earning rewards. Because of this, I’m very glad that there is now another option for tapping the service.
More importantly, however, is that Bumped has increased its offers for select brands. This includes a few places that might be great for gift giving such as The Body Shop (currently 15% back in stock), Harry & David (13% back in stock), Sephora (10% back in stock), and others. According to an email from Bumped, these enhanced deals are set to last through December 1st.
Overall, although it will still take some getting used to on my end, there’s a lot to like about Bumped 1.0 — and this new web version of the Stock Marketplace is certainly no exception. In my view, this not only makes it easier to claim offers from Bumped but also simplifies the process of comparing deals to ones found on Rakuten et al. On that note, I also hope that increased offers such as the ones currently featured on the app will become a fixture as I was a little disappointed in the original rates. Hopefully the continued evolution of Bumped will help bring it back to the top of my favorite money apps list.