My Ebates review covers a shopping site which provides online rewards and which offers double cash back over the holidays, through some of their participating merchants.
Much like many of the financial bloggers out there, you may have noticed that I’ve begun investigating cash back opportunities on a more consistent basis. With budgets tighter these days, our predicament is no different from many other families striving to stay more frugal than ever.
Because of this, I’ve become even more determined to find better deals and to become an even better bargain hunter. And what I discovered was that if you’re resourceful (or read enough personal finance sites 😉 ), you’ll find that there are tons of places where you can get great deals and discounts. The truth is, you shouldn’t pay full price when you’re shopping online. There are way too many sites out there that offer you awesome rewards and cash back beyond the juicy discounts. One such discovery? Ebates.
Ebates is a cash back rewards site that rewards you for shopping through their portal. They’ve partnered with around 1,000 merchant stores from which you can earn up to 25% cash back of your purchase price (though most return between 3% to 10%). Note that the rewards offered vary by store, but I put together some ways to maximize what you get by shopping here.
Tips To Maximize Your Ebates Rewards
1. You can receive Ebates cash back rewards in several ways: by signing up, using a referral link to receive a bonus, and via purchases at qualified merchants through Ebates.
2. Make sure you go through the Ebates portal before visiting a merchant store. You’ll only register the cash back by going through Ebates first. Their merchant list includes a lot of favorites — some of mine: Target, Williams Sonoma, Macy’s, Nordstrom, even Kmart and Walmart.
3. You can layer deals! You can combine the use of coupons along with exclusive offers with the cash back rewards provided by a merchant. For best results, use coupons and offers provided through Ebates.
4. Get paid by check or Paypal. Or you can route your rewards to someone else. If you already do transactions through the web, then getting paid electronically via Paypal should be straightforward. The payments are sent to you every 3 months once you’ve reached a minimum of $5.01 in purchase rewards in your Ebates account.
5. You need to achieve a minimum of $5.01 in rewards via purchases in order to receive a check or Paypal payment from Ebates. Any rewards accumulated via sign-up or referrals won’t count towards this minimum (although you’ll get them once you do make some purchases)! In other words, you’ll need to buy something from Ebates before your rewards can be transferred to you via check or Paypal from your Ebates account.
6. Throughout certain holidays, they usually have holiday promotions that allows you to earn double the cash back you’d normally earn when you shop at select stores. Some of these stores include Macy’s, Sears, Overstock and Home Depot. On regular days, the double cash back feature only applies to one store a day.
7. In the past, they’ve had special events such as “CyberMonday, Double Cash Back”. These are typically one day events that take place on holidays, during which Ebates offers double cash back rewards via even MORE stores. Over 100 stores can participate in giving you twice the cash back rewards they normally provide. Well, given that I usually get my shopping done on holidays, I know where I will be spending my dollars.
8. Purchases through gift certificates or cards aren’t eligible for cash back.
I find Ebates to be a great online shopping site, though it’s one among many other sites that offer you similar incentives if you shop through them. Some such opportunities include Upromise, where you can receive spending rewards to help fund your child’s 529 account, and Discover and some other credit card sites that offer you higher cash back rewards if you use their card while shopping through their retail portal. Not to mention that there are also many other retail rewards sites out there that compete for your bucks, but that’s a post for another day! Now if you like what you read, you can visit Ebates here!
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m an ebates convert, I signed up for my christmas shopping and between bonuses and rebates I’m already getting $40. Mr M will be doing his shopping through ebates as well. They have really good customer service by the way, I had some issue with my sign up bonus. They fixed my error and gave me additional money for tracking down my referrer (a glitch caused him to not get referral credit).
Shopping online is the only way to go! For all of the latest coupons and sales, you must also check out iStorez. Basically, it pulls together all of the store specials across all of the major brands and retailers in real-time so you can get them in one place instead of at each individual site.
Great! I love cashback sites. I will take a look into these offers. Cheers!
I came to visit from EldercareABC Blog Carnival and enjoyed your interesting article. Thanks for sharing the information. I haven’t tried Ebates before so this will be a good resource to pass on to others. 🙂
Another way to save when shopping online is to check currentcodes.com for any discount codes that may be available. 🙂
I’ve been using a new site that I’ve found called Fatpeas.com recently. Could be worth a look.
Microsoft/Bing cashback offers higher amounts back – I’ve gotten back over $350 since last Christmas – they have as high as 35% back offer. Maybe that is because they don’t reward you for getting other people to sign up under you. Whenever I make a purchase, I first check cashback and upromise, and go through them. I also use Bond Rewards, MyPoints, Inbox Dollars, and TikTik Cash as points programs, but I think cashback and upromise are the best, although the savings with upromise is quite significantly lower than cashback, most of the time. I used to use MyPoints and I still click on their e-mails – I have earned 101,999 points there in ten years – about $280. I have earned more than that at cashback in one year. I keep all these points programs in a bookmark under “POINTS.” I have another bookmark for SHOPPING: coupons at retailmenot, shopaneer, coupon cabin, etc., and Shopzilla and Google shopping search are also under this bookmark. (I haven’t been thrilled with any of these search engines this Christmas.) It takes a lot of time to buy something, I grant you, but I have been able to buy more and better gifts this way. I work full time and have four kids, so my time is valuable to me. It’s not like I’ll spend hours to save a buck. But if you’re going to buy something anyway, this is as good a way I have found.
Oh yeah I have used this site for a year and have saved nearly $200! Great to save if you buy HSN or QVC- and I have found stores I did not know existed! I bought vintage items in brand new condition; just the best fit & style that I have never seen for less than $80 — I bought them shipping and all for $54! If I have never bought something from a new store I call and ask for free shipping — yeah you guessed it — I get it!
Make the companies stand behind their products — Vtech has done great — Hanes, Nintendo sent Fed Ex to my door and replaced the system no questions! And drugs call the maker — my husband and I received Nexium for 2 years for free — just be sure you write a note of appreciation: those notes go to someone and are used as data — I too work for a large company!
have a wonderful day
nana rocky
I love cashback sites and not only Ebates. As a consumer, the best is to use several cashback sites – in that way, you have all kind of bonuses…
Double Cash Back When You Shop! – alluring indeed. Sounds like some great deals here.