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You’ve heard of Rakuten, right? Or at least seen their commercials, whether on tv or YouTube, right? Or a Facebook ad for sure. Or maybe you remember hearing of something called Ebates. Ebates is now Rakuten, so it’s the same service, just a new name.
I’d heard of Rakuten (and Ebates before that) and I thought I knew what it was, but I always thought there must be some kind of catch. But about four months ago, I decided to sign up for the service and give it a try. And I’ve been kicking myself (for not signing up sooner) ever since.
So what is Rakuten? It’s an online service that gives you cash back on purchases. I simply signed up for an account – it’s FREE – and installed the Rakuten button on my browser. Every time I visit a website that’s participating in cash back with Rakuten, a pop up appears in the corner of my screen, asking if I want to activate the cash back option. I click activate, shop as I normally would, and voila! Earn cash back.
Sounds too easy, but that’s pretty much as simple as it is, for me. The cash back rates do fluctuate, and you can also visit the Rakuten website to see what current cash back rates are.
[Shut the front door! Where do I sign up?!]
My first purchase, using Rakuten, was the Spanish language subscription we purchased from Rosetta Stone, as part of Sydney’s homeschool curriculum. I shopped around, found the best rate, and using Rakuten, I also scored 3.5% back. Not a massive amount of money, but hey, $5 is $5 to me.
My second purchase was even better. I gladly spend money on good running shoes because as a family, we walk 4.5 – 5 miles several days a week. I’m a fan of Brooks running shoes and I found a pair I liked on sale for $130 at DICK’S Sporting Goods. Rakuten was also offering 10% cash back at the time, so I got the best price going on those shoes, plus an additional $13 back.
One of the first questions I had about Rakuten was, “is this for online purchases only” and the answer is “mostly, but not entirely”.
For the most part, Rakuten cash back is earned through purchases made online, but you can also see which stores are offering in-store cash back as well. A couple notes about this:
- My experience has been that IF a store is offering an in-store cash back reward, it’s a significantly lower rate than their online cash back (see Macy’s example below: 10% online vs. 2% in-store)
- To earn the in-store cash back, you need to activate the offer on your computer or through the mobile app and then use a linked credit card when you make your in-store purchase. Not really a big deal, but it is an extra step and not something I’m typically thinking about while walking around a store. Maybe it’ll become a new habit.
BUT, I do have a little work around that I’ve been using to get the online cash back and still get my items quickly – I order online and pick up in-store. Like those Brooks running shoes. My feet were killing me and my local Dick’s store had the ones I wanted in-stock, in my size, but I didn’t want to wait a few days to get them. So I ordered online and selected the pick-up in store option. And not only did I get my 10% cash back (the online cash back was 10%, while in-store was 3%), but I also picked my shoes up that day.
I did something similar recently at Ulta. I have this one product that I really really love, but it’s $76 per bottle, which I consider expensive. But it’s made a world of difference in my skin this year and my original bottle lasted me months. I was out of the product and needed it desperately (because I don’t plan ahead.) I had my trusty 20% off coupon from Ulta, but it was still going to cost me $60. I also had Ulta rewards points to the tune of $14, so I was now able to get the price down to $46. Not shabby. At the time Ulta was offering online cash back of 8%, and no in-store cash back. But I needed it NOW and my local store had it in stock. So I ordered online (using my Ulta coupon + my Ulta rewards points + Rakuten cash back activated) with the option to pick up in store and ultimately spent around $43 for the $76 product. And I picked it up at my local store that same day!
[Tell me no more, just take me to this magical cash back place!]
So yes, you can use Rakuten on top of all the sales and rewards points and coupons you’re already using. Let me show you one last example using these shoes that people have been asking me about non-stop, since I bought my first pair, last spring.
I bought them (in-store) from Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse at the full $49.99 price, back in April. I picked them up just before a trip to LA, figuring they might be comfy casual for running around in. I was right. A couple months ago, as my original pair started wearing down from incessant wear, I checked online and found them not only on sale for $29.99, but also buy one get one 50% off. As they are right now! Plus an additional 2% back from Rakuten. So yeah, I bought two more pairs to last me a couple seasons. And while I get that 2% isn’t a truckload of cash back, it only takes the effort of clicking that little activate button in the corner to add some cash to your account.
And finally, this is a terrific way to earn a little cash on items or brands that rarely/never go on sale. I’d been eyeing this cute Harry Potter Fair Isle Sweater for Sydney, but the entire HP collection has been excluded from all of the Boden sales and promotions. I happened to notice one day though, that the cash back offer with Boden was up to 6% (higher than I’d seen it before) so I went ahead and ordered the sweater. No sale price, but 6% back is still better than nothing.
So now you must be wondering “where does this cash back come from?” According to the Rakuten website, they work with stores and brands to negotiate commissions and when you make a purchase using Rakuten, they split the commission with you. Easy peasy. You can opt to have your cash back sent via check, but I personally love that they’ll drop it right into a PayPal account.
I’m telling you, I wish I would have signed up for this years ago. If you haven’t already, you can sign up for Rakuten here and get a $10 bonus.