Rakuten Sign Up Bonus
There are tons of stores giving you 15% back the next few days on Rakuten. And if you don't have an account you can earn another $40 for signing up via our referral link. This is perfect timing with some Amex Platinum cards resetting their credits on January 1st; use it before you lose it!
Once you have your account set up you can refer your significant other, parent, kid etc. and you both get $40. It is time to make it rain and pamper yourself with some free stuff!
What Is Rakuten?
Rakuten is a shopping portal and was formally Ebates. Shopping portals give you a kick back when you buy certain stuff online. This only works if you click through their site first. They get referral money for sending you to the store's site and they in turn give you a portion of it when you make a purchase. The rates are constantly changing and vary from store to store.
If you are buying something online it is always worth checking if there is a shopping portal payout. You can check quickly at a site like Cashbackmonitor. This site also shows which portal is offering the best rate for a particular store.
You can read our full Rakuten guide here.
What Stores Are Included?
There are tons of options so I am not going to list them all but here are some of the better ones that are 20% back today (Nov. 27):
15% – 20% Off Today
- Target
- Macy's
- Dell – why that is big
- Bloomingdale's
- Neiman Marcus (up to 20%)
- Saks Fifth Avenue (up to 16%)
- Office Depot/OfficeMax
- Lenovo
- PetSmart
- Bed Bath and Beyond
- DSW
- Belk
- Groupon
- LEGO
- Dyson
- The Children's Place
- Michael Kors
- Carter's
- Under Armour
- & More
- Be sure to check in store offers too
Stacking The Rakuten Deals
If you are new to Rakuten you can earn $40, or 4,000 Membership Rewards points, after spending $40 on one of these sites. That is if you sign up via a referral (here is ours and thank you if you use it). Let's crunch the numbers here.
Let's say you buy $40 worth of stuff at 15% back store, you would get the following:
- 4,000 Membership Rewards for hitting the new member bonus
- 600 Membership Rewards for the 10% back
Then let's say you refer a Player 2:
- Get 4,000 Membership Rewards for referring them
- They get 4,000 Membership Rewards for signing up and spending $40
- 600 Membership Rewards for the 15% back
At the end of the day you would have $80 in goods and earned 13,200 Membership Rewards points worth $198 at a 1.5 cents per point valuation. If you went with just the cash back instead you would still have $132. That is getting paid $52 to buy $80 in stuff you needed (or didn't need – it's free who cares) anyway. If you are using your Dell credits, this looks even better!
***If doing the double dip (referring significant other) be sure to use different devices to sign up. People using the same device have been shutdown in the past.
Rakuten Sign Up Bonus: ToP Thoughts
Even if you already have a Rakuten account this is a good day to do some shopping. You could burn your Dell Amex Business Platinum credits (up to 15% today), use some discounted gift cards you have sitting around at stores like The Children's Place etc. This could be a good way to make buyers groups purchases profitable too. Check Amex Offers and Chase Offers for stacking too!
If you don't have a Rakuten account already then what are you waiting for? This is as easy as it gets for a win, and who doesn't like free stuff?
