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Rakuten is currently running some big promos for the week of May 10th to 17th. Throughout the week you’ll see 15 to 20x on many stores, and they’ve increased their referrals through 5/13 – now at $30. If you’re unfamiliar with Rakuten, or shopping portals in general, read this article which goes into more detail.
You can earn cashback or Amex points via Rakuten
If you are unaware, Rakuten ( formerly Ebates ) partnered with American Express and gave its members the option to earn Amex Membership Rewards in lieu of Cashback. The rate: 1% = 1 Membership Reward. Read this article if you want to learn more.
Personally, I find this to be a far more attractive option since I value Membership Rewards anywhere between 1.5 and 2 cents. This current promo means you could earn an effective 21/ 28% back in the form of points.
Don’t have a Rakuten account? Get $30 after you spend $30 with our referral
You can earn $30 cashback when you spend $30+ by using our link
20x or 20% off
Note if you have an Amex Platinum you get $50 at Saks 5th Avenue every 6 months, so this would be an easy pick up of a 1k Amex points and not even cost you any money out of pocket.
Loads of stores at 15x
A lot of great retailers, but if you’re a contact wearer like myself…15x is pretty great at Contacts Direct. Obviously, cross-reference this on price and other portals ( Cashbackmonitor is my go-t0) but a year’s worth of contacts for me regularly run $500-600. That’s a quick 8-9k points.
How quickly do the points populate your account?
Once a quarter Rakuten will send the points over to your Amex account. Feb 15th, May 15th, and so and so forth. You can see it populated the same day.
This was a really big quarter for me, but just those points alone were close to a Lufthansa First Class redemption via Avianca LifeMiles ( 87k ).
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Weirdly as big as Rakuten is, their platform is not really hassle free. I’ve made purchases and depending on the store, Rakuten relies on the store reporting the purchase and not tracked from their own site. Also, after making the purchase, there’s no way of tracking which purchase ties to which shopping trip ID.. almost half of the purchases I made via Rakuten I had to follow-up.. so after some back and forth, you lose track of the purchases and the multiple earn factors (10x, 15x, etc). Some they just give back 1x even though it was bought when they had multiple Xs. I guess it’s a crap shoot, but I won’t argue.. extra free points is extra free points.. 🙂
Sorry for this indirect question, am I able to book a flight from the US to Tokyo for my son and his girlfriend?
From the ANA website, do I have to register my family using 1,000 ANA miles to submit the registration form or does this only apply if you live in Japan? I am in San Diego, CA.
Thank you!
I’m done with Rakuten. Way too many ways they try to wiggle out of cash back. Dell is a great example – the consider Dell to have multiple sub-departments (consumer v. business v. outlet) and yet there is no indication whatsoever to a purchaser which you’re purchasing from. You click on the Rakuten link to Dell.com and make a purchase and they tell you you purchased business and not consumer or vice versa despite no way for any consumer to tell. And I find you rarely get more cash back than you could just find a coupon for the same if not better discount. Yea – I get 15% cash back at Disney but cannot use my 20% coupon to get it . . . what a deal.