Since today is Labor Day, you can expect a lot of things to be happening – busy travel day, lots of traffic, final shopping days before school and, of course, a lot of sales. To help you in those sales, online shopping portal Rakuten has some nice cash back deals to make those deals even better. If you want an even sweeter arrangement, you can actually earn Amex points instead for greater value!
Get Up to 15% Cash Back or 15X Amex Points At Many Retailers
I see it says “exclusive” but not entirely sure if the 15% amount is exclusive to certain accounts or exclusive to Rakuten. Either way, I have seen it in all accounts available to me so I imagine it is for everyone, or at least a good chunk of the shoppers.
While 15% is not abnormal, it is somewhat rare for many of these retailers. It has been better like around Memorial Day (20%) and sometimes around Black Friday (up to 25%) but if you are doing shopping now, especially if you are stacking it with ongoing deals, this is a great way to go.
Here are the retailers in my account showing 15% cash back (or 15X Amex points if you have selected to earn those instead of cash back – more on that below):
- Finish Line
- Oakley
- Adidas
- Nike
- Under Armour
- Bloomingdale’s
- Belk
- The Children’s Place
- Skechers
- Viator – A TripAdvisor Company
- Joann
- Cole Haan
- Academy Sports % Outdoors
- Ray-Ban
- LifeLock – 95%
- McAfee – 95%
- Norton Security and Antivirus – 95%
- Dell – up to 15%
- and many more
My favorites on this list would be Oakley and Under Armour, since those are pretty much my exclusive brands for running (and I only ever buy with big deals). They both currently have deals ongoing as well as Amex Offers.
Another interesting one is Norton which has an Amex Offer for 25% back. The reason this is good is because you will pay an amount today – say, $100, and Amex will give you $25 back. But, Rakuten will also give you $95 back (or 9,500 Amex points) meaning you are making money on that deal!
If You Are New to Rakuten…
To start, Rakuten (formerly Ebates) is a large online shopping portal. Just start your regular online shopping through them to earn valuable points or cash back. You will pay the same prices as going directly but you will earn points along the way!
To earn the 3,000 point / $30 bonus, all you need to do is to sign-up (I will earn points as well) for this free program and spend $30 at some online retailer – yes, any retailer that you can find through Rakuten and they have most of them! Done!
Points or Cash?
The great thing with Rakuten is that you can choose to use super valuable American Express Membership Reward points at the same 1:1 as you would earn with cash. All you need is an Amex card that earns Membership Reward points to do this.
After that, you can convert those points to airlines that give you some great bang for your spending buck!
But, if you don’t have an Amex card that earns MR points or you prefer cash, you can always earn the $30 instead. So, when you spend a minimum of $30 with this offer (can be at any retailer through Rakuten), you will end up getting $30 back later – perfect!