Rakuten Free
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Ease of Use
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Savings
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Payment Threshold
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Cash Back
Bottom Line
Rakuten is a trusted platform for individuals looking to save money and earn rewards while shopping online.
Pros
- Cash via PayPal or check
- High cash back percentages
- New in-store cash back option
- 2500 different cash back stores
- Easy to install and use
Cons
- Referral only after $25 purchase
A great way to save money, and also earn some extra cash, is with Rakuten.
Haven’t you heard of Rakuten before? Well, you’re in luck!
In our Rakuten review, we are going to show you the pros and cons of using this cash back app, as well as how to use it to get the best results.
You can get a Rakuten account for free and earn cash back, and get a $30 welcome bonus for signing up today!
Score Cash Back at thousands of stores and save on the brands you love. That's a whole lot of cha-ching!
How Does Rakuten Work?
Rakuten is a cash back site, that allows you to earn money back on any purchases that you make online, with no extra effort from you.
All that you have to do is make sure you click on the website link through Rakuten first, and then continue your purchase as you normally would.
There are more than 2,500 stores on Rakuten that you can claim rebates with!
When you sign up for a Rkauten account, you can get a $30 welcome bonus when you spend your first $30 shopping!
If you like free gift cards, read our guide on how to earn them.
How Does Rakuten Make Money?
Rakuten makes money from the companies where you earn cash back from.
When you click on a link for a store that you want to buy something from, this is an affiliate link and will earn Rakuten a commission from the retailer.
This is how it works with affiliate links on blogs and other websites too.
Rakuten will give you back a portion of the money that they earn from you clicking on their affiliate link, in the form of cash back rewards.
There is nothing dodgy or untoward about this model – this is a very common way for sites to make money, it’s just that they don’t typically give you a cut of their commission.
Sign up for Rakuten now and earn your first $30 rewards and get started on earning cash back!
Popular Stores on Rakuten
There are a lot of stores (over 2,500!) on Rakuten that you can earn cash back with.
This is great news if you do a lot of online shopping (and perfect around Christmas time).
Examples of my favorite stores include:
- Amazon
- Macy’s
- Target
- Forever 21
- Ugg
- JCPenney
- Origins
- Samsung
- Staples
- Kendra Scott
Rakuten on Amazon is a great one to save you a lot of money when you shop online, as well as earn rewards and free gift cards.
Events and Double Cash Back Rewards
Throughout the year, Rakuten has Extra Cash Back Event and give double cash back bonuses, where they get the merchants who are on the site to increase their commissions.
The reason that the merchants are happy to go along with this is because Rakuten will give them a lot of eyeballs on their site through their targeted marketing strategies.
When Rakuten get a bigger commission, they are kind enough to pass the extra commission on to their customers as well, meaning that you’ll earn double cash back during these events.
Every day, Rakuten picks at least one store on their network and doubles the amount of cash back available for 24 hours.
This is a brilliant way to earn some extra money, but only if you were going to be buying from it anyway, of course.
You can check the Daily Deals page to find out which store has been picked on that day or sign up for their emails to be alerted.
Additional Benefits
Cash Back Button
The Rakuten Cash Back Button is a browser extension that you can download by heading to your browser store and have it pop up when you’re shopping online.
Once you’ve downloaded it, it should show up in your browser bar to help you earn cash back when you shop.
When you go onto a website, it will let you know if there are any cash back or coupons available for you to use if you make everyday purchases.
This is very similar to the Honey Extension, which you may remember from our comprehensive review.
In-Store Cash Back
Amazingly, it’s not only online in shopping portals that you can earn cash back on your purchases, but you are able to get it from in-store shopping trips, too.
In-store purchases can be just as rewarding! You can check the Rakuten app for offers and see where you can get cash back.
This is smart for in-store purchases you’re going to make anyway- like on groceries!
How to Join Rakuten
You can join Rakuten for free by clicking through on this link.
You can sign up to Rakuten using your email address and password. Alternatively, you can sign up using either your Facebook or Google account.
Upon signing up, you will get a $30 welcome bonus if you are a new member and spend $30.
Score Cash Back at thousands of stores and save on the brands you love. That's a whole lot of cha-ching!
How Do You Use Rakuten?
Rakuten can be used to earn cash back on your purchases – so essentially, free money!
You can earn money doing something that you were going to buy anyway, just because you clicked on it through the Rakuten site.
If you’re going to spend money, may as well try to earn some money back, right?
You use the site by searching for the retailer that you want to purchase from, and then clicking through to their site, and continuing with your buying process as you would normally.
You can also get access to coupons with Rakuten to save more money besides earning cash back.
If you download their browser extension, it will be even easier for you to earn cash back.
With online shopping, it’ll let you know if there are any coupons available.
The Rakuten App
To download the Rakuten app, head on over to the app store on your phone and download it.
When you have downloaded the app, you can activate a Rakuten Shopping Trip by clicking on a Rakuten link.
Once you have begun a Shopping Trip, a window will open up in the app, which will let you know that the cash back has been activated for that trip.
It will also let you know if there will be no cash back available.
Comparison Shopping With Rakuten
Another great thing about shopping with Rakuten? You can easily do a comparison shop online.
When you are looking for something in particular, check out what kind of cash back rewards the sites are offering on Rakuten.
You can see which one is worth buying from (if they are both the same price on the site, of course – you’ll have to compare this).
Tips For Maximizing Your Earnings
Turn Off Ad Blockers
You might be missing cash back and extra rewards if you’ve got AdBlock or other ad programs installed on your browser.
In order to get the best Rakuten rewards available and earn cash back whenever you can, you’ll need to turn off your ad blockers for Rakuten specifically.
Don’t Disable Cookies On Your Browser
Make sure that you don’t have cookies disabled on your browser.
Rakuten can then track you going from their site to the site that you are purchasing from.
Sign Up For The Browser Extension
Signing up for the Rakuten browser extension means that you’ll never miss a cash-back opportunity.
Even if you have forgotten to go onto Rakuten before going on to the website that you want to buy from, it will give you a small pop-up to remind you to activate your cash back.
Download The App
Having a Rakuten account won’t do much good if you don’t use it at every chance you get!
The Rakuten app is free to download and use, and is handy if you are on the go.
You can use in-store coupons and scan products, as well as check the new deals that are available.
As long as you’ve got eligible purchases, with products they’re offering rewards on, the savings and cash back comes to you.
Use Your Military Discount
If you’re eligible for a military discount, you can access the special deals and discounts on Rakuten that are for military members.
Rakuten Cash Back Visa Credit Card
If you use credit cards sensibly, you can spend money on what you need and get rewards.
Rakuten added a Visa credit card to their offerings to give you more flexibility and earning potential.
With the Rakuten Cash Back Visa credit card, you can earn unlimited additional cash back rewards, and not incur any additional fees.
To activate the cash back on this credit card, you just need to use it online or in places where Visa is accepted.
If you order something online via Rakuten, you will be able to get an additional 3% cash back on the card, with all other purchases receiving 1% cash back.
Rakuten Referral Program
Rakuten has a great referral program, where you are able to earn a commission for telling your friends about Rakuten and getting them to sign up.
There’s no need to do anything overly salesy to get your friends to sign up to Rakuten.
If you are genuinely happy with how it works and the cash back you get, give them your unique link to use to sign up.
It’s handy having a link because you are able to send it to your friends via email, text, social media, etc. – whichever way is easiest for them to click on and sign up.
It isn’t as simple as just signing up to earn your reward – your friend will have to have signed up using your unique link and make an eligible purchase with cash back.
The referral bonus will be paid to you within 60 days (this is to allow time to return and refund the item purchased) if the person you referred makes their first qualifying buy.
You can check if your friends have signed up using your link by heading to the Refer-a-Friend page and heading to the section called “Your Referral Activity.”
FAQs
How Does Rakuten Pay You?
You need to make a qualifying purchase to get cash back from Rakuten – you’ll be told if you can get cash back when clicking on it.
Make sure that you go to a website through a link on Rakuten, as then your purchase will be tracked, and you can get your cash back.
You’ll get paid via gift cards, check, which they refer to as a Big Fat Check, or by PayPal account every 3 months.
I usually pick PayPal payment because that cash can get deposited right into my bank account, but having free gift cards isn’t bad either.
The minimum qualifying amount to receive a payment is $5 – you will need to have more than that in your Rakuten account, or it will roll over into the next payment period.
Is There a Catch?
There isn’t a catch, but there is some fine print that you should be aware of – such as there is a maximum of $50 that you can get in cash back from a single purchase.
Meaning, if your cash back is due to be more than $50 based on your calculations, you won’t get any more than the $50 cap.
Otherwise, you’ll have to pick what gift cards you want or connect your PayPal account to get cash back turned into real cash.
Is Rakuten a Scam?
Rakuten is absolutely not a scam. We personally use it to earn cash back and know lots of friends and family who use it too.
Rakuten has been around since pretty much the beginning of the Internet – they were founded back in 1998, which is definitely enough time for users to figure out if they were a scam or not.
They have over 10 million customers who have earned more than $800 million in cash back.
Rakuten BBB Review
Ever been a bit unsure about the legitimacy of a company? Head on over to the Better Business Bureau, where it will show you the rating of the company, and also the complaints.
Rakuten has a BBB rating of A+, which is the best that a company can get. They also have a 4.5-star rating out of 5 (taken from an average of 300+ reviews).
You are able to read through all of the reviews on the site as well, and you can also see that although there have been complaints, they have been resolved.
Rakuten Review: Is It Right For You?
If you like saving money, Rakuten is for you. It’s simple, easy to use, and you can get your money back on things that you were going to buy anyway.
It’s worth having other cash back services too, such as Ibotta or Swagbucks, to check which offers the best cash back on what you are purchasing.
Don’t forget to sign up today to get easy, free money, and $30 welcome bonus just for signing up!
Score Cash Back at thousands of stores and save on the brands you love. That's a whole lot of cha-ching!