Contributor, Benzinga
May 10, 2021
Bumped
Overall Rating:
securely through Bumped's website

A unique new way to earn rewards, Bumped allows you to receive fractional shares of stock when you shop — with both in-store and online options using your debit or credit cards. Simply select the “Loyalty Brands” that you’re planning to shop with and earn stock when you spend with those companies, or use the shopping portal to get stock back for your online shopping. Bumped is completely free to use, which can make it a great way to start investing if you aren’t confident enough to choose individual shares of stock to buy through a brokerage platform. 

Best For
  • New investors who aren’t sure how to select stocks
  • Anyone who wants to automate their investing
  • Credit card holders who want more than simple cash back rewards
Pros
  • Easy to get started with
  • No fees of any kind
  • Allows you to choose the stocks that you earn fractional shares back with
Cons
  • Customer service not available by phone

Bumped Ratings at a Glance

Products and Services
Pricing
Customer Service
Mobile App
User Experience
Rewards
Overall Rating

If you’re like most people, you probably do a fair bit of shopping online using your credit card. While your credit card probably provides you a bit of cash back when you make qualifying purchases, you might not know that there are additional ways to get the most out of your online shopping. Enter Bumped, the new app that helps you earn fractional shares of stock in the brands that you love the most — just for shopping.

Today, we’ll take a look at how Bumped works, the types of stocks that you can earn a return on and how you can get started earning shares of stock today.  

Bumped Products and Services

Bumped offers a few unique methods that you can use to earn stock rewards when you shop. Let’s take a look at how you can get started earning shares of stock for shopping online with the brands that you already know and trust.

Loyalty Rewards

If you’re like most shoppers, you probably have brands, products and services that you’re loyal to. For example, you might prefer to drink Starbucks coffee over Dunkin’ Donuts or fly on Delta flights as opposed to United Airlines. Bumped’s unique Loyalty Rewards feature allows you to select brands that you love and earn shares of stock when you spend with the companies you select.

Choose from multiple categories of companies, ranging from airlines to restaurants, and automatically receive fractional shares of stock just for spending as you normally would. For example, if you spend money at Starbucks, Bumped will “bump” your account with shares of Starbucks stock. You won’t pay any type of fees on the stocks that you earn through Bumped, which means that you won’t need to worry about commissions. 

Shop Now

You can also earn stock rewards from shopping at thousands of major brands using Bumped’s Shop Now feature. First, sign up for your Bumped account and log into your mobile or desktop app. Then, browse through thousands of retailers that you can earn stock back from your purchases. Depending on where you shop, you can earn between 1% and 18% of your purchase price back in stock.

You can select up to 4 “favorite” stocks that you can earn when you shop at a retailer through Shop Now. When you spend at a Shop Now-supported company, your rewards are split between the stocks you select. From Thrive Market to Walmart, there are tons of ways to earn new stock and start investing through Shop Now.  

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Select your favorite stocks and earn fractional shares when you use Bumped’s Shop Now feature. There are dozens of stocks to choose from. 

Referral Program 

In addition to shopping, you can also earn fractional shares of stock when you invite friends and family members to enjoy the benefits of Bumped. For each friend that signs up using your unique referral code, you’ll earn $1 worth of free stock. There is no limit to the amount of stock that you can earn from referrals — so don’t be afraid to invite as many users as you’d like to join you on the app.   

Bumped Pricing

One of the biggest benefits of Bumped is that the platform is completely fee and commission-free. You don’t need to worry about paying commissions on any stock that you earn, and you don’t need to pay anything to get started with the app. Few other platforms provide as comprehensive of a free platform as Bumped, meaning that the app can be an excellent way to get started on your investing journey if you can’t afford to deal with endless fees. 

Bumped Customer Service

Bumped offers 2 unique methods that you can use to get in-touch with the company’s customer service team:

  • By in-app messaging. You can contact Bumped through your app by clicking on the tab labeled “Get Help.” This feature will connect you to the platform’s FAQ, which you can use to browse through relevant articles.
  • Via email. To contact Bumped’s customer service team by email, send a message to support@bumped.com.

You can also connect with Bumped using the company’s social media channels. You can reach out to their team via Twitter or Instagram.  

Bumped Mobile App

Bumped’s free mobile app makes it easy to track and manage your holdings on-the-go. The app complements the desktop version of the platform, offering all of the same functions and features you’d be able to use from your browser. You can also view your pending stock deposits and portfolio percentages with a single tap. The Bumped app is available as a free download for Apple and Android devices. 

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Visualize your investing rewards and progress with Bumped’s free app. 

Bumped User Experience

Getting started with Bumped is simple and straightforward — in our test, we were able to open our account and verify our email address in as little as 5 minutes. Bumped’s desktop platform is as easy to operate as it is to begin with, and balances and account linking options are clearly laid out. You’ll see your account balance as soon as you log into your Bumped account on desktop, and you can easily track your stock rewards as well. We’ve given Bumped top marks for user experience because we were able to quickly find and utilize all the tools we needed to get started earning rewards. 

Bumped Rewards

When you sign up for Bumped, you’ll choose brands and companies that you’re most loyal to and that you want to earn stock back on. You can select favorite stocks in the following categories:

  • Personal care
  • Apparel
  • Sportswear
  • Club warehouses
  • Quick eats (fast-casual restaurants like McDonald’s and Chipotle)
  • Pet supplies
  • Transportation
  • Entertainment
  • Coffee
  • Meal kits

When you use the Loyalty Rewards feature of Bumped, you’ll automatically be rewarded in your favorite brands’ stocks when you shop there. For example, if you select Starbucks as your favorite coffee brand and you visit a Starbucks for your morning brew, Bumped will reward you with 1% of your purchase price back in Starbucks stock.

When using the Shop Now feature, you’ll first select 4 of your favorite stocks from a range of categories. Some examples of stocks that you can choose include Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL), Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and Kellogg Company (NYSE: K). When you shop at one of the thousands of brands in the Shop Now section, you’ll receive a small percentage of your purchase back split between your selected stocks. This offers you 2 easy methods you can use to begin investing. 

Bumped Overall Rating

If you’ve ever been curious about investing in the stock market but you weren’t sure where to get started, opening an account with Bumped might be the right place to start. Allowing you to automatically earn fractional shares of stock when you spend at supported retailers, Bumped gives you a way to invest without selecting individual stocks. Best of all, you won’t pay of the traditional account fees and commissions associated with investing through a brokerage account.  

Bumped vs Competitors

Bumped offers a number of benefits when compared to competing credit card reward providers, including:

  • The ability to earn rewards in shares of stock. Instead of offering simple cash back rewards, Bumped allows you to earn rewards in fractional shares of stock. These shares of stock may increase in value over time, which allows you to earn more of a return.
  • The ability to select your favorite brands to earn rewards with. When you sign up for Bumped, you get to choose which stocks you want to earn shares of. This helps you to further customize your investments.
  • Completely fee-free investing. Bumped is 100% free to use, and you’ll incur no exchange or account fees as you earn rewards. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q

What sort of brands are available?

A

Some examples of brands supported through Bumped’s Loyalty Rewards include Starbucks, Sam’s Club, Burger King and Uber. Supported brands may change frequently, so the best way to get up-to-date knowledge of supported brands is to create a Bumped account and begin exploring your options.

Q

What will this cost me?

A

Bumped is completely free to use. There are currently no fees associated with using Bumped to earn shares of stock.

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About Sarah Horvath

Sarah is an expert in the insurance, investing for retirement and cryptocurrency space.