Rakuten (previously Ebates) offers cash back every time you shop at popular online stores like Walmart, Amazon, Ulta, Lowes, Groupon, and Best Buy. Earn anywhere from 1-20%+ on purchases you make every day. Brands pay Rakuten to send them customers, and Rakuten splits what they earn with you!

After reading our Rakuten review, if you’re ready to give it a try, you can join Rakuten here and receive a $10 sign up bonus!

Pros and Cons of Using Rakuten (Ebates)

Should you sign up for Rakuten?

Let’s take a look at the benefits and drawbacks to this cashback shopping platform.

     Pros of Using Rakuten

• Rakuten gives you cashback on the shopping you already do at thousands of stores.
• Rakuten is 100% free to use.
• Rakuten makes it quick and easy to earn cash back on online purchases.
• Rakuten offers in-store cashback for some brands.
• Rakuten pays you quarterly, with no minimums.
• Rakuten as a Chrome extension that makes it easy to receive cashback on any of your online shopping.

     Cons of Using Rakuten

• Rakuten requires you to visit each store through their website in order to make cashback, requiring additional time (unless you use the Chrome extension).

• Rakuten doesn’t always have the best cashback rates – sometimes other cashback portals provide better payouts.

Although there are a few drawbacks to using Rakuten, provided you have the time, it’s almost always worth using.

Rakuten Signup Bonus

The Rakuten signup bonus offers new users $10 in cash after making a purchase of $25 or more within 90 days of signing up.

After sign up, use Rakuten to visit your favorite store (including Amazon) and spend $25 or more. You will then receive $10 deposited into your Rakuten account.

Rakuten Referral Bonus

The Rakuten refer a friend program gives you anywhere from $5-25 for every friend you refer to Rakuten who creates an account an makes a purchase of at least $25 within 90 days.

In addition to receiving your referral bonus, the friend that you refer will also receive a $10 sign up bonus for joining!

Is Rakuten a Scam or is Rakuten Legit?

There are thousands of Rakuten reviews and Rakuten testimonials that confirm the legitimacy of Rakuten.

Personally, I have earned over $1,200 from Rakuten – with my biggest commissions coming from purchasing laptops from Dell when they were offering 10% cashback – earning me $100 on my $1,000 laptop.

One important item to note is that you must start your shopping trip from Rakuten in order to earn cash back. If you open Rakuten on your phone, but make the purchase from your computer, you won’t earn cash back.

Additionally, if you use coupon codes that aren’t available on the Rakuten website, you may lose your cash back bonuses.

Use Rakuten Chrome Extension for Easy Cashback

To make it easier for you to receive cash back, Rakuten has built a Chrome web browser extension.

After setting up your Rakuten account, install the Chrome extension and Rakuten will notify you anytime you can save extra money before making a purchase. You’ll never miss out on cashback opportunities again!

Get Cash Back with Rakuten In-Store Purchases

You can also earn cash back for certain in-store purchases. Visit the “in-store purchases” page on Rakuten and register your credit card for specific stores. Then, when you shop at those stores in person, you’ll earn cash back!

Rakuten Alternatives and Competitors

There are several alternatives to Rakuten that are worth mentioning.

• TopCashback: This is another leading cashback platform – and one that also offers a $10 bonus after spending your first $25.
• iBotta: iBotta is an app that pays you for scanning receipts showing that you’ve purchased specific items in-store. iBotta also has a $10 sign up bonus.
• Swagbucks: Swagbucks offers cashback, in addition to paid surveys and other offers. Earn points instead of dollars, and cash out the points for gift cards (including for PayPal and Amazon) at a rate of $0.01 per point. Swagbucks will give you a $5 bonus after earning 25,000 points (spending $25 days).

For a full list of other cashback shopping sites (many with sign up bonuses that give you free cash) visit our cashback shopping sites comparison page.

What is the Best Cashback Shopping Website?

Rakuten is one of the best cashback shopping websites, but it doesn’t always have the best prices.

If you want a quick-and-easy cashback shopping site with no minimum cashout threshold, then Rakuten is all you need!

However, if you want to maximize your cashback on large purchases, I recommend comparing prices between Rakuten and the other top cashback websites.

Just remember, the more purchases you make through cashback websites, the more money you’ll save. Image how far your money would go if you could reduce the cost of all of your purchases by 5-10%!

Rakuten let’s you do just that.

Join Rakuten now and enjoy a $10 sign up bonus.

Have you used Rakuten or other cashback shopping sites? What tricks have you learned to help maximize how much money you make?