Rodent's Guide to Cash Back Programs

[Rodent]

***Please note that the guide below was written with US members in mind. YMMV in other countries, though I would appreciate input from non-US members about whether these sites work for them.***

I shop online a lot and for years I was doing that without getting any return on my purchases. Never again. 

Cash back can be a bit confusing at first, because there are a lot of sites offering it and the % you can get will vary. Sometimes it's better to go through one cash back site, sometimes another. That was the bad news. The good news is that there are sites that can help you with this very problem.

Here are my favourite 3:
http://www.cashbackwatch.com/index.php
http://www.cashbackmonitor.com/?n=A
http://evreward.com/store

The advantage of the first 2 is that they list all stores alphabetically (at evreward, you have to type in the store you want to shop at). The advantage of evreward is that apart from the popular cash back sites, it also lists other reward opportunities, such as points at MyPoints, credit card rewards, mileage plan miles, UPromise rewards (for students) etc. I usually use a combination of one of the first two + evreward.

Now on to the cash back sites themselves. I will only review the ones I am a member of and the ones that I know to be trusted and paying. Some of these offer referral commissions, and I hope it's OK to mention that it would be nice to ask a friendly member of this forum for a referral link I will be a good rodent and post only non-referral links here, though.

BING

http://www.bing.com/

By far the best cash back site IMO. It's run by Microsoft, as an extra to their Bing search engine. Unfortunately, they will be ending the cash back program on July 30th, but you still have a month and a half to use it before then.

From the main site, click on the "shopping" tab and create an account. Then find your store either by searching for a particular item (you will see prices after the cash back listed already) or go to "cashback stores" and find it on the list.

Most purchases will show "pending" cashback within a couple of days. It will be available (to be transfered to PayPal) 60 days after the purchase. The minimum to transfer is $5 at the moment, but that will be changed to no minimum on July 30th, so you needn't be concerned with that.

If you make a purchase through Bing e.g. on July 29th, you will still get your cash back 60 days later. The program is closing only for new purchases on July 30th (this has created enough confusion in various fora for me to add the disclaimer)

Bing for eBay. You must use PayPal (not required for other merchants) and use Buy It Now. Very often, especially lately, they credit eBay purchases to your PayPal right away, without the 60-day wait.

Support, in my experience, is very good. I have had one cash back not showing and after I emailed them the issue was resolved to my satisfaction within 12 hours.

Bing does not offer referral commission.

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Big Crumbs

http://www.bigcrumbs.com

My second favourite. Easy to use, fair cash back amount.

The cash back should show as pending in your account up to a couple of days after the purchase. You get paid on the 15th of second month after your purchase (so for purchases made in June, you will be paid on August 15th). There is no minimum payout and you don't need to request it. a 2% mass pay fee is deducted.

Important - They will pay you by PayPal to the address you sign up with. My PP address is different than the sign-up address at sites and I found out you can't change the sign up addy afterwards. No biggie, you can always add it to your PayPal account as a secondary address (that's what I did), but you may prefer to sign up with your PP address right away.

I've been paid several times and it's regular like a clockwork.

Big Crumbs and eBay - For some reason, for eBay only, your earnings are listed as % of sellers fee. In my experience, it works out to be about 2.5-3% of the item price.

Big Crumbs offers referral commission.

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Mr. Rebates

http://www.mrrebates.com

I am yet to reach payout there, but from what I have read it's very reliable.

You get a $5 sign up bonus. You can cash out once you have reached $10. Purchases take 90 days to move from "pending" to "available".

Mr Rebates offers referral commission.

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Fat Wallet

http://www.fatwallet.com

I'm fairly new to this one, but I see they often cover merchants that other programs don't. They also have some good coupons on the site.

Fat Wallet does not offer referral commission.

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eBay Bucks

Selected eBay shoppers are invited. If you ever see "You're invited to join eBay bucks" on the top of the screen, go ahead and join. Some people never get that invite.

You get 2% cash back for any eBay purchases and it can be stacked with whatever other cash back you are using.

The money gets available to you every 3 months and you have one month to spend it on eBay. For example, cash back for purchases made on eBay in April, May and June will be credited to your eBay account in July and you need to spend it by the end of July or it will expire.

Obviously, eBay itself can be your only referrer here, so no referral commission.

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I will add a bit of troubleshooting/FAQ info later, based on questions I often see asked at other fora (cash back and coupons, stacking cash back, etc). If you have any specific questions you'd like addressed, please go ahead.

[Rodent]

Part 2 - FAQ (based on what I've seen people ask elsewhere)


How do I know my cash back will go through?

The only instance when you'll see a cash back icon is when shopping at eBay through Bing. You should see a little Bing logo on the top of the screen, telling you you're earning 8% of your purchase. You should also see the amount of cash back displayed by your total just before you click the "buy it now" button (as a reminder, Bing works only for the BIN purchases on eBay).

For all the other purchases, you will not see the cashback on your transaction page. However, at most cashback sites you can track your clickthrough - Big Crumbs, Mr. Rebates and Fat Wallet all have sections in your member account where you can check whether your clickthrough registered. If you see it there, you will most likely be good to go. If you don't, there is something wrong with your cookie settings.


I see my clickthrough, but the purchase hasn't credited

If it's been more than 2-3 days since your purchase and it's still not showing in your account, contact support at the cashback site. Usually, all you'll need to do is forward them your confirmation email, which will have the date, order number, amount paid, etc. I have so far done that with Bing (twice), Big Crumbs and MyPoints (not mentioned here due to lower amount of cash back offered) and each time my purchase was pending in my account within 24 hours. It may happen that your case will be more complicated, though, so just in case - take screenshots. Each program has a screen right after you click your link to your shopping site that tells you where you are being transferred - take a screenshot of that. Most likely you will not need it, but hey, better safe than sorry.


Does cash back work with coupons?

If the coupon is an instant rebate that's on the site and you don't have to activate it in any way, it will not interfere with cash back. Now coupons that are codes you enter at checkout may be a problem. Bing is least likely to work with these, though sometimes it may. As for the other cash back sites, they will sometimes have this coupon on their site (find the merchant there and check what coupons they offer for that merchant). If you click through that, of course the coupon will not invalidate your cash back. Now if your coupon code comes from elsewhere, the cash back may or may not work. Just evaluate your savings with both and go from there. A 5% coupon may not be worth using if you risk losing 15% cash back by applying it. But if it's the other way round, it's still worth going through the cash back site on a chance it will work.


Can I stack cash back?

You can always stack eBay Bucks with another eBay cashback program. Theoretically, you cannot stack Bing with others, but sometimes it does work. PM me if you want to know how to do that.


What can mess up with my cash back?

- Taking too long on the site before you actually buy (I've heard that e.g. a Bing session is 1 hour, but I'd recommend making the purchase as quickly after the clickthrough as possible). So - research your purchase first, then clear your cookies and visit the merchant through the cash back program to buy.

- Opening the merchant's site in another window/tab meanwhile.

- The cookie settings on your computer.

- Internet Gremlins (as stated before, contacting support banished these )

Any other questions? Let the friendly Rodent help you