Is Earny a Scam?
21st century consumers treat the hunt for online bargains like a time-constrained religious experience. Potential transactions are taken for granted and automatically viewed as gospel. This is how money gets wasted. The problem is little patience for comparison shopping. Most people browse a website for 7 seconds before going to another. Only 14% of consumers bother to comparison shop before purchase. This issue has given rise to price protection apps like Earny. But is Earny a scam?
To answer that question, we must first delve in the issues of unmindful consumer purchases and price protection services.
Consumers like you, and even me, waste a lot of money every year on purchases.
That is because of failure to comparison shop and the need to buy impulsively.
The typical consumer wastes over $7,400 annually on impulse buys and the failure to comparison shop.
Have you ever bought an expensive purchase and found out later that it was on sale much cheaper elsewhere?
This problem gave rise for the need of price protection services and apps.
Price protection is a refund feature that is built into most credit cards. If you purchase something with your credit card, and learn of a price drop elsewhere, you file a claim with proof. You then receive a refund within 90 days.
The problem with credit card price protections is that they are not uniform.
Every credit card company has exacting standards, qualifications, and limits for price protection refund redemption.
This issue has given rise to popular price protection apps like Earny. Some consumers can get up to $300 in refunds annually using the app.
However, Earny’s convenience comes at a price of privacy.
Is Earny a Scam?
Is Earny a scam? That may be the wrong question to ask.
When you use Earny, online privacy issues and conflicts arise which can give the impression of the app being a data mining scam.
Using Earny requires you to grant the app total control and access of your email, send emails from your account on your behalf, and scan your online activity via your email.(Not creepy right?)
Also, only the basic price protection service offered by Earny is free. The annual subscription is almost $50.
You shouldn’t ask, “is Earny a scam?”
Ask if it’s a worthwhile app to own if you’re savvy enough to save money on your own with self-initiated comparison-shopping practices.
You know what? We’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Let’s talk about Earny in more detail.
What is Earny?
Earny is a price drop locating and price protection app.
Earny is an app that is optimal for use for those who charge for online purchases. This app is useless for cash purchases.
After you make an online purchase, you are usually sent an automatic receipt to your email inbox.
Earny scans your email account for digital receipts. Then the app scours the internet looking for price drops or cheaper discounts of your purchase.
The Earny app analyzes all of your emails and can even compose emails on your behalf. Earny write emails on your behalf to negotiate with retailers.
“Let you control your own email account? I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
This app will digitally scour every return and refund policy relative to your online purchases via your email.
When Earny finds a price drop on a purchase you made online, you will be sent a refund within 7 to 10 days.
You give Earny complete control over your email for the sake of acting as a digital comparison-shopping monitor.
Is Earny a Scam? (No – But is it Practical?)
Now, is Earny a scam?
I don’t think so.
The issue with this app for you will be privacy, price and, practicality.
Earny and Privacy Issues
People may ask, “Is Earny a scam?” because of privacy issues.
This isn’t just about registering with Earny.
Earny will send email to retailers, relative to securing refunds, under your own name. In reality, Earny commandeers your email and can send emails under your name unbeknownst to you.
Some consumers have even complained that downloading the Earny app gives it the ability to delete your emails at will.
Price
Earny’s Lite plan is a free and basic app. You don’t have to pay a fee for service.
However, the Earny Lite plan will only track online purchase.
To get refunds and online price drop scanning services, you must register for paid subscription services.
You can pay $7.99 for a monthly Earny subscription or $47.99 for an annual subscription. With an Earny paid subscription, you get automatic refunds via the app’s price drop scanning service. This service is available for over 5,000 brands and even hotel booking services.
Is Earny a scam? Well, it would have to be a self-initiated scam.
You are basically co-opting your own responsibility as a consumer to comparison shop to an app with near A.I. interactivity.
Which brings us to the issue of practicality.
Earny’s Practicality
As I mentioned before, I don’t think that you should be asking, “is Earny a scam?”
You should consider its practicality for your needs before getting it.
For one thing, the Earny app will take complete control of your email. It’s a data mining and price protection app in reality.
An annual paid subscription costs $47.99.You may get over $300 annually in refunds.
Think about that. You would have to be pretty bad at shopping, and good at overpaying, for a near sentient app to get $300 in refunds annually for you.
If you don’t have to time to comparison shop online, Earny might suit your needs.
Otherwise, you can just save more money, and privacy, by comparison shopping yourself.
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Allen Francis is a full-time writer, prolific comic book investor and author of The Casual’s Guide: Why You Should Get Into Comic Book Investing. Allen holds a BA degree from Marymount Manhattan College. Before becoming a writer Allen was an academic advisor, librarian, and college adjunct for many years. Allen is an advocate of best personal financial practices including saving and investing in your own small business.
