Global rebates through Rakuten

Posted by Marie

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Many of us shop online these days – it’s easy and delivery is fast. But how would you like to get paid to shop online as well? Read our ~~Ebates~~ Rakuten rebates evaluation to determine whether this might work for you.

Ebates is now Rakuten!!!

Rebates Company

Rakuten (previously Ebates)
USA: www.rakuten.com
Canada: www.rakuten.ca

Rakuten (previously Ebates) rebates company was established in 1999 and was acquired by Rakuten in 2014. Their headquarters is in San Francisco, California, but they operate throughout the USA and Canada. In addition, their affiliate sites provide services in the UK, Australia, Japan, and Korea:

Rakuten advertises up to 40% cash back at over 2,500 stores.

Better Business Bureau (BBB)

Rakuten has received an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. They have been on file with them since 2000 and received accreditation in 2016. They have 368 customer reviews, averaging a 4.25 rating out of 5, but also 301 complaints.

Cost to you

Registration: free
Mobile app download: free

Rebate range

Rakuten boasts rebates in over 2,500 member stores in just the USA region alone. Although they advertise up to 40% cash back, in our evaluation of Rakuten, most of the rebates are in the 8 to 10% range. But they do often have revolving promotions that further increase your savings.

Payment method

The way you get paid by Rakuten varies depending upon the origin site. In Canada and the USA you can choose to receive your rebates by cheque or PayPal. In Canada, you can also choose to receive Amazon.ca eGift cards instead.

Payment frequency

The rebates you earn while shopping are applied to your Rakuten account typically within five days of your purchase. However, Rakuten pays out (from your account to you) only four times annually. The payments are based on the quarterly activity and arrive 1.5 months after the quarter in which you earned them.

As an example, if you have earned payments during the first quarter of the year, 1 Jan to 31 Mar, then your payment will be sent on 15 May. And payments will only be sent if you have earned the minimum of $5.00, otherwise your account credits continue to accumulate into the following quarter.

Website and Mobile App usability

You can use Rakuten rebates from the website or with the app. We found the website easier to use but that’s simply because there is so much information that it’s easier to see it all with a larger screen format.

The stores are categorised by the products they sell and there are also navigation menus for specific deals and in-store cash backs.

Social media

Rakuten is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Offers availability

Rakuten is partnered with a lot of different shops. In the USA, it’s more than 2,500 shops while that number is @700 in Canada. But they offer more than online shop rebates – they also offer coupon codes for their affiliated stores and options for in-store (physical brick and mortar shops) cash backs.

User support

Rakuten has a substantial FAQ section which answers most of the standard questions you would expect. They also provide a contact form for other questions you may have. We did not find an actual phone number for contact.

What do you need?

Rakuten is pretty easy to use:

Internet – you’ll need to be connected to do your shopping
Device – you can use any device that can connect to the internet
Software – you need to download the Rakuten app if you want to use a mobile device or you can just use the website

How does it work?

Registration

Use our referral link to receive a sign-up bonus when you register (details explained here):
1. For the USA site, use this referral link to register easily: https://www.rakuten.com/r/WOODWO370?eeid=28187
2. For the Canada site, use this link: https://www.rakuten.ca/referrer?referrerid=q64ael9UMkU%3D
  DISCLOSURE: If you sign-up with our referral link then we also receive a bonus at no cost to you.
Or, if you don’t want a bonus, go to their website (or download the app), www.rakuten.com (for the USA) or www.rakuten.ca (in Canada), and choose one of the sign-up options: Facebook, Google, or Email.
Update your profile with your street address from “Account Settings”. With the Canada site you’ll need to enter the validation token number sent to your email address. From there, both the Canada site and the USA site are similar – if you choose PayPal as the payment option then you’ll need to verify the email by logging in following the instructions provided.

Shopping

Before you do any online shopping, go to the Rakuten site and browse the list of merchants. You can use the search feature or look under the “All Stores” categories.
If you find the shop you’re looking for then you can earn money by shopping through Rakuten. But ensure you have turned off any ad blockers first or your shopping won’t be recognised and then you won’t receive any rebates.
Click on the store then click “Shop Now” from that store’s page. You’ll be redirected to the store’s website on a new browser tab.
Now you shop as you normally would. IMPORTANT: You cannot visit other sites until you complete your transaction or the tracking is lost and you won’t receive your rebate.

Referral

If you want to try Rakuten you can earn a sign-up bonus by using our referral link when you register.

For the USA site, use this referral link: https://www.rakuten.com/r/WOODWO370?eeid=28187. You’ll receive $10.00 USD if you make purchases of $25.00 USD or more through Rakuten within one year of registering.
For the Canada site, use this link: https://www.rakuten.ca/referrer?referrerid=q64ael9UMkU%3D. You’ll receive $5.00 CAD if you make purchases of $25.00 CAD or more through Rakuten within three months of registering.

NOTE: Rakuten can change the above figures at any time but they are valid at the time of this post.

DISCLOSURE: If you register with our referral link then we also receive a bonus at no cost to you. Using our referral link helps us maintain this site to continue to bring you ideas for making money and saving money.

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Recommendation

Rakuten is pretty straight forward as long as you remember to disable ad blockers and don’t leave a store’s site until you complete your transaction:

Offers availability – there are many, many different online shops available through Rakuten so you should be able to locate options that work for you
User support – there is a decent help section on the site but there’s also a live chat option that works quite well in our experience
Rebate range – there are lots of offers and they’re earned very easily by simply accessing the stores through Rakuten
Payment – although there aren’t many payment options, they are convenient, except we don’t like how long it takes to receive your earnings
Website/app – the site has a lot of information but it’s generally fairly straight forward to navigate