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There are two echelons of Rakuten that I always keep my eye out for: 10x to 20x flash portal bonuses. Throughout the year, we will see Rakuten periodically pump up the portal rates to 10x and 20x on multiple occasions, and this is when you should strike. These promos are only for a few days, and I hold off on purchases until the portal is offering these rates. Black Friday/Cyber Monday is always one of these times.
If you’re unfamiliar with Rakuten, or shopping portals in general, read this article which goes into more detail.
You can earn cashback, Bilt, or Amex points via Rakuten ( I choose Bilt )
If you are unaware, a few years ago Rakuten 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.
In November of 2025, Rakuten partnered with Bilt Rewards to offer the same thing
- Keep in mind, next April only Bilt Rewards elite members will earn 1:1 ( basic blue will earn 1/2 that )
Personally, I find this to be a far more attractive option since I value both Amex and Bilt around 2 cents, but I give Bilt the edge since they harder to earn and you can transfer to Hyatt and Alaska.
Don’t have a Rakuten account? Get $50 after you spend $50 with our referral
You can earn $50 cashback when you spend $50+ by using our link.
You’ll find increased offers at many stores
Make sure you check out the In Store deals too
As long as you use your card that is entered as a payment option on your Rakuten account, you’ll earn bonus points even when you make a purchase in-store. How cool is that?
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, but it’s also been 3 or 4 days in the past for me as well.
Overall:
This is a very good time to utilize the Rakuten portal
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Points Boost
- each account anniversary you’ll earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.