Walmart Forcing You to Use Your Savings Catcher Balance

Updated August 10, 2020 by Kyle
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I’m a big fan of Walmart’s Savings Catcher app which allows you to scan your Wally World receipts and get money back if they find a lower price from local competitors. I was actually working on building my balance to $100 so I could buy a new Bluetooth speaker.

So I was a bit surprised yesterday when I got an email from Walmart telling me that my Savings Catcher balance was going to be forced into a Walmart eGift card soon. Here are the details…

Walmart Savings Catcher

When Will It Happen?

According to the notice, “We’ll be transferring your Savings Catcher rewards balance to an eGift Card between October 11 and October 31 – just in time for the holiday season. Your eGift Card can be used toward any Walmart purchase.”

They also call it “Great News!” which is hilarious. “Great News”, we’re forcing you to spend your Savings Catcher money in order to pad our Holiday season bottom-line.

You also have the option to redeem your Savings Catcher rewards via the American Express Blue Bird card by October 11th. After the 11th they’ll force an eGift Card on you.

So if you have a Savings Catcher balance, keep an eye out for an email with your eGift Card attached. It’ll have directions within on how to redeem the sucker.

Update 1/25/18:

I just got another email from Walmart and as of 2/01/18 your rewards will automatically be transferred to your Savings Catcher eGift card each time they’re earned.

Also, I thought this tidbit from the email was worth passing along: “You don’t have to immediately spend your rewards when they’re transferred to your eGift card. You can choose to accumulate them as desired – simply manage your eGift card settings in your account payments method.”

Savings Catcher balance

What Happens Moving Forward?

According to the email, everything returns to normal after they force the eGift Card on you. This is a one-time deal in theory.

But be warned, Walmart can pull out this trick whenever they want moving forward.

The bottom-line for me is that with all of the reward cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards already in my wallet I don’t need another thing forced upon me that I have to remember to use.

At least the eGift Card doesn’t expire or have any fees attached to it.

Ask the Reader: Do you use the Savings Catcher app regularly? If so, how much money have you accrued so far?


By Kyle James

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Bev

Well luckily I saw this because my 88.00 was transferred into my junk so I never saw the notice ! All I New was my savings money was gone ! I went thru my 1000 junk mail and found it. It’s a bunch of bs you should have to approve it before they move YOUR money !!!

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Lori

I requested another e-card because I couldn’t find mine. My problem now is, I have no way to know what my balance is on it. If it’s the balance I currently have or if it’s the one I should’ve had of over $100. How do you tell?

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kelly blankenship

what is really annoying is that walmart say they sent me an egift card email and i never got it. I cant get any resolution but my $105 is gone.

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Lorrie

Thank you Kyle for this article! Been using the app for over 3 years – $167.05.

For those looking for the email, mine was dated 10/12/17 with the subject line “Your Savings Catcher Gift Card is Reloaded”. If you can’t find the email or it was deleted, you can log into your Savings Catcher account , https://savingscatcher.walmart.com/, and resend your eGift Card to your email. From Savings Catcher Dashboard, hover your mouse over “My Reward Card” (on the white banner) and select “Resend my eGift Card”.

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Judy

You can’t print the card anymore 🙁

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Trish

I got the initial email back in January; activated the e-gift card and it shows up in my account. I have ONE huge problem though – now I go back to print the egift card as my phone won’t use their app – the barcode no longer shows up for a cashier to scan. I have emailed them repeatedly and get no response. The $6.22 may not be much to them but at this stage – it is a huge amount for me and I have no way to access it.

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Trish

follow up to this: I did take all my papers to the service desk today and they said as long as you have the email page that shows the card number and pin number you can go to any checkout and they simply key the number in; after that they have to have a Customer Service Manager come over to do something. All the barcode did (or supposed to do) was make things quicker but apparently didn’t always work anyways. At my local store the CSM’s are very rude and don’t want to help and literally walk away so this morning I cashed out my whopping $6.21 and will no longer shop there.

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Rebekaj

I just recently found out about this I never got that email and the dates they were sent out have long past. I did find the link to resend but I got a message saying you don’t have an egift card email to resend its weird lol so I’m assuming ill have to do the Wal-Mart pay thing funny thing is I tried several times in the app lol

I hit the button to transfer and it said it might take a few days so I turned it off again I did this more than once I was unsure and didnt think I’d get penalized! Now when I try since I think its the only way I’m getting that email it says unable to comply and for me to call some phone number…. Not looking forward to that as I know some mumbling fast talking foreigner will be at the helm.

I don’t care about my savings going to an egift really but the way they re forcing you with this one time email bs is so dumb oh well the resend email is great but it doesn’t work for me so I guess I never got that email? I tried searching through my ju mmm mail but it only went back to October 18th or something. Contacted support numerous times and big surprise I’ve heard nada. Guess ill just call that foreigner and hope I can understand their butchered English.

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Jen

I got the message in October and they transferred mine it wouldn’t have been a big deal but I only had $10 built up. They did it again this month also only $12 I like to build up at least $50 before I spend any i like that we don’t loose it after a certain time but there should be an opt out option cause really what difference does $12 make you cant even buy a movie with that!

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Daniel

I opened a free blue bird american express account and transfer the savings catcher funds to it also free to transfer funds to it. I can add funds to the card for free too if I want. It shows two available funds if I add my own money to the card too. An available balance (can be used anywhere) and a Walmart Bucks (funds from the savings catcher app and can only be used at Walmart). It seems to be the easiest way to handle the savings catcher funds.

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Kyle

Good to know, thanks Daniel.

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Mag

Yes Wal-Mart did that to me to but I haven’t received my gift card and my rewards dollars are now down to zero I feel so angry for like I was doing it for nothing all these months!!!!!!!

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Karen

Walmart took my savings catcher rewards and I never received an e-card
They told me to go to saving catcher page and resend.
I resend the card to myself and it was invalid
Customer service from that point just sent me generic replies.

I had to contact the BBB
Billion dollar company and they force customers to spend money.
Shame on Walmart.

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Steve

I really don’t know what the bigg deals about.If they transfer say yoy $25 to an e gift card and leave you with a savings catcher off $0 and you start over again and accumulate $3 you can either keep building reward dollars again or transfer to your egift card and maake your ballance $28.your e gift card won’t expire.The problem i’m having is email of the gift card.It tells you if it’ not in your inbox to check your spam folder.For some reason it’s going into my trash folder and even when i move it to my inbox it sends it right back to the trash folder.

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Ryan

This is super annoying to everyone that has the Bluebird card. They lets you link up to 3 savings catcher accounts in to one card. Scanning the digital eGift barcode can be a pain in the ass at the self checkout scanners as they often don’t work. I’ve seen cashiers hold the line up because they don’t even know how to scan them. How will anyone pay when their phone dies or can’t access the internet? So stupid!

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Angie

Savings catcher # is1-866-224-1663 Faye, and anyone else who needs it.

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Niki carlson

I have never used my savings catcher money, but it says that I have used $48 and have no access to it. What can I do about this?

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Lisa

Yes, I was worried about where my savings had gone to. I figured I had accidentally transferred it somehow. I was relieved to find the email from Wal-Mart. I find it funny that so many people are complaining about this and demanding to know where “their” money is. I think everyone has forgotten that this a FREE service offered by Wal-Mart and a pretty nice one too. I’m just happy to be getting some money back so it doesn’t matter to me HOW they send it. Just be grateful that you ARE getting some money back. Wal-Mart doesn’t HAVE to offer this service!

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rory

I’m just glad I ran across this and read it and could go back into my trash folder and find the e-gift card! Or I would have missed out on $32! I thought I would use it toward a Keurig my husband for Christmas and was surprised when I saw my redeemable balance was $6 and my lifetime was $38. Finding the eCard in my trash and adding it to my payments worked perfect. I guess I’ve got to stop ignoring all my emails I get from walmart.com! LOL

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