What is Rakuten? Essentially what this site is, is a portal to online storefronts where you can earn additional cash back for doing normal shopping online. In the United States, this site was know before ebates.com. Now there are other kinds of storefronts on site now. You can also load your credit card or debit card number into their system for in store deals they have for buying in person. Rakuten does have competition from other sites in this space as well.
I have used this site for almost 3 years now and find that it is worth the couple of extra clicks it takes to get the cash back. What I like is that the cash back I earn is on top of what I earn on my credit cards. The cash back is funded by the retailer (or other business) to help drive more traffic to their website. What you earn the cash back is the total of the transaction minus taxes (like sales tax) and fees (such as shipping). How this works is that you first go to Rakuten and finds a participating merchant to see what offers they have. When you accept an offer, a new window opens and takes you directly to that business’s website. That is how they track what you buy and how much the transaction was and then credit your Rakuten account for what ever the deal was. When you accumulated $5 or more, they will send you out a check in the fallowing quarter. Most of the the companies that on this portal are your everyday retailers like Target, Walmart, JCPenny’s, etc to name a few. I have also found hotel companies on there as well.
The first time I saw that I could use Rakuten to earn cash back on travel purchases was when I went to Angels Camp for this first time in January and stayed at a Best Western. One night I was looking to see what businesses where listed, I saw that Best Wester was listed. I thought wow, this awesome. I would get much more cash back than when I do a $30 order or something from Target.On that protocolar trip, I earned $2.23 on that trip. When I was getting ready for an up coming trip to Redding, CA, I thought I would see what I could earn using Rakuten portal. Since I would be booking on the hotel’s website after going through the Rakuten portal, I could still use the status I have with them and still earn the points for booking directly with the hotel. This is not like using Hotels.com or Expedia or something like where they are reselling the rooms. Knowing that I am going to be in Redding for two nights and wanting to check out both the Holiday Inn Express and the Hampton Inn, I booked one night at each hotel. IHG, the parent company of Holiday Inn Express had a deal of earning 4% back for going through Rakuten. This got me $5.90 back on the hotel stay. Hilton’s offer was a little different, the higher the status you have with hotel chain, the lower the amount of cash back you would earn. To me this makes sense since you get a lot more in the higher levels with them. On this trip I will be getting 1% or about $1.38 back since I have Diamond Status with Hilton Hotels. Still, to me that is better than nothing at all. This also on top of the points I will earn from the bookings going on the credit cards I have with them and the actual stays.
Rakuten is not only site that has these kinds of deals. There other sites such as Topcashback.com, Lemony, Swagbucks, and many more that are similar to Rakuten. There are also online portals for airlines where you would earn airline miles based instead of cash back. This can be helpful if you don’t fly much and do not have an airline credit card. There are also some banks that will have cash back deals where you can earn cash back or credit back to your credit card if you added the cash back deal to one of their cards and then use it at the corresponding retailer. American Express, Bank of America, and Chase are banks that I have seen with these kind of ways to each cash back. All three allow you to see and add deals to your cards on their online banking sites as well as their mobile apps. All of these are meant to help drive traffic to their business.
While I am always looking for getting most of my spending, Rakuten will be one of may sites I will check out. From doing everyday shopping to booking hotels, Rakuten and similar sites will be great tools to get the most of my spending. I see using these sites as great part of the points, miles, and cash back game. To me, it is worth the effort and will make me happy when I get the cash back or have the points or miles for help booking a fun future vacation.
If you want to get a good sign up bonus and help get me a bonus as well, use these referral links below:
Rakuten (Ebates):
American Express Hilton Honors:
Credit Cards that were used in this article:
- American Express Hilton Aspire
- Chase IHG Premier Rewards Club
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