Interested in earning cash back shopping online along with your credit card cash back rewards? A great portal for cash back shopping is Ebates. They have partnered with thousands of retailers and receive commissions anytime it refers customers to those sites. Ebates takes the money it earns from advertising those sites and then passes it on to you. Ebates’ cash back offers have helped it become extremely popular. Customers spent more than $2.2 billion through Ebates in 2013, and that number has only gone up since as consumers look for more ways to stretch their dollar.
Like most cash back shopping portals, Ebates earns a commission directly from the merchant websites they partner with. Ebates earns this commission when you use their “affiliate link” to visit a shopping site like Amazon and make a purchase there. Then, they split this commission with you, in the form of cash back as a percentage of your purchase.
What is Ebates?
Ebates is a website that offers its members the opportunity to earn cash back from their online purchases. Ebates.com is the official website and it was started back in 1998 by two Deputy District Attorneys in Silicon Valley. In 2014, Rakuten, Japan’s largest e-commerce firm acquired Ebates for a staggering $1 billion.
The cash rebates earned through the program are distributed to customers via a check mailed to their home or through a Paypal payment. Ebates also offers coupons to customers on various items so that you can stack your savings.
How Does Ebates Work?
Customers simply sign up for an Ebates account, log in, find the name of the store(s) they wish to shop at by using the website’s alphabetical search system or store name search bar, click on the store and start shopping.
Because clients are directed from the Ebates site directly to the store website, shopping through Ebates is no different than if you’d gone directly to the store site – with the exception that you’ll receive cash back on qualifying purchases because you accessed the store through your Ebates account.
Ebates has partnerships with over 1,800 stores such as;
- Nordstrom’s
- Kohl’s
- Macy’s
- Walmart
- Amazon
- Turbotax
- Ace Hardware
- Aeropostale
- Barney’s
- Bath and Body Works
- Cabela’s
- Justice
The sheer number of stores that partner with the program assures that there are rebates available at stores for most every person who likes or needs to shop. When I first considered looking into the program, I have to admit that I didn’t think that the program would do much good. However, Ebates offers rebate discounts at the stores for everyday items as well as at specialty and gift stores.
How Do You Get Paid?
You are able to cash out at anytime once your cash back is approved and the amount is above $5.01, but Ebates only sends out payments once every three months for purchases made during the previous quarter. So if you’re looking for a way to earn fast cash, this opportunity doesn’t fit the bill. But if you shop online quite often and you actually remember to use Ebates, it should be easy for you to get a payment from them every time they pay out.
- If you live in Canada or the United States you have the option of getting paid via check or Paypal. For any other country Paypal is the only option.
- Payments take an average of 1-3 business days to be posted to your account however they do say that it can take up to 30 days on rare occasions.
- This is all dependent on the company you make your purchase from as every company is different when it comes to paying affiliates.
- As soon as your account has a minimum of $5.01 balance, you can get paid and payments are made every 3 months or quarterly.
Ebates also has several options for actually getting your money. You can choose from Paypal payments, a check mailed to you, or you can opt to have it sent to a charity, or even to someone you know.
Ebates Pros & Cons
- Quantity of Partnered Stores: They currently provide cash back from purchases at over 1,800 stores that are available to shop at through Ebates. Some of the more popular stores that we shop at that are currently on the site’s rebate list include Amazon, Walmart, Target and Best Buy.
- Accessibility: Using Ebates is so simple; customers simply sign in on the Ebates website, click on the store they wish to shop at, and are redirected to the store’s website, free to shop as they wish.
- Great Cashback: Even as little as 1% cash back can add up when you’re shopping, however, many stores offer 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% cash rebates.
- Referral Program: When you refer a member who signs up using your membership referral code, you get a $25 cash bonus. The caveat with this program is that in order for you to qualify for the bonus, your referral has to actually shop using Ebates and purchase totaling $25 or more during the first year.
- Cash Back Payment: The company only pays out cash back accrual checks on a quarterly basis. In other words, you shouldn’t expect a monthly payout on your shopping excursions.
Impulse to buy things because they are “on sale.” For those not in control of their spending, it can be easy to buy things that you weren’t planning on buying because you “got it on sale”. - Cash Back Exclusions: Each store has some excluded products that do not qualify for cash rebates. For instance, at Walmart, there is no rebate given on cellular phone purchases, prepaid phone cards, pharmacy purchases, travel center purchases, financial center transactions, tires, optical purchases and gift cards.
Because each store does have some excluded items, it might be a good idea before you shop at your favorite stores on Ebates to look through the exclusions list for the store you’re shopping at before you make your purchases.
Ebates Referral Promotion
Ebates will pay you for every new member you refer to our site who then shops and makes a purchase at our partner merchants sites in accordance with the Referral Program Terms set forth below.
How do you join Ebates?
Joining Ebates is free, easy and anyone can join. Visit Ebates simply click on the “Join” button and fill out the registration form. The required information is as follows; your email address and preferred password, and your address, so they’ll know where to send your check.
- Sign up for Ebates and get a $10.00 Bonus
- Make a purchase through the website and earn up to 10% Cash Back!
Bottom Line
Ebates is without a doubt, a legitimate website. It gives you the opportunity to earn even more rewards either without credit card cash back rewards or used to stack cash back on your credit card’s cash back.
In addition to great cash back offers, you’ll be able to earn a $10.00 sign-up bonus through the various links provided in this post! Ebates advertises that there’s no limit to the amount shoppers can earn through referral bonuses. They’ve received an A+ rating with the BBB, so that may count for something for some of you.
If you are a regular online shopper, it just might make perfect sense for you to use Ebates. Now, it might be tempting to you to join, as it seems like a really cool opportunity, but if you are not a regular online shopper, don’t simply join and spend a bunch of money just to get some cash back.
Lastly, Ebates’ cash back rebates can “stack” with your credit card’s cash back benefits. This means that if Ebates offers you 5% cash back at a certain merchant, and your credit card offers 5% cash back for online purchases, you could get 10% total cash back. If you like these cash back offers, visit our full list of the Best Cash Back Portals for more information about the best portal to use with which retailer!