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New Members spend $40 get $40
*The biggest caveats here – you must be in the USA or Canada
I’ve written extensively about Rakuten and using how using the Rakuten shopping portal is an easy way to rack up serious amounts of Amex points. I’ve earned over 250k+ Amex Points from Rakuten alone. One of the best ways to earns loads of Rakuten points is to refer your friends and family.
Best ever is spend $40 get $40.
THIS IS USA or CANADA ONLY
Choosing to earn Membership Rewards vs Cashback.
I would highly recommend you read our guide to using Rakuten, but essentially, Rakuten works like any other shopping portal except it gives you the option to earn your savings in the form of cashback or Amex Points. In my opinion, this is a massive leg up on competition because I value Amex Points at roughly 2 cents, meaning I’m getting double the value by choosing Amex points vs cashback. Now, you should take into consideration I also travel a lot, and I’m quite adept at using Amex points, but at the very minimum Amex points are worth 1.5 cents.
Does Rakuten work like any other portal?
Yep. After you sign up via Rakuten, you’ll be taken to their portal. The portal is filled with various retailers and when you click on one, you will generate a link to your desired merchant, and the rest is all behind the scenes. In fact, I just used Rakuten last week to make some amazing purchases at J. Crew. It looks like my deal of 50% off already reduced prices is now 40%, but I was able to get many items at 70-80% off retail. J Crew’s debt has dropped to junk and who knows what the future holds with retailers being closed for such a long time, but the deals are insane. I got a few t-shirts for $8 a piece. Nuts.
A quick way to take advantage of Rakuten – must earn cashback though.
The Rakuten Gift Card shop is a great way to quickly get your points: buy a gift card for $40+ and get your bonus immediately. The big caveat is that the gift cards must earn cashback, and recently, many cards won’t earn them. If it says no cashback you won’t get your bonus.
Additionally, I think it’s pretty hard to beat stacking a Rakuten referral, or new member bonus with the Amex Platinum Saks 5th Avenue $100 credit statement credit which is split into 2, $50 statement credits, January through June, and July through December.
That means if you buy anything with those cards ( don’t forget you can split payment ) you’ll earn those statement credits alongside the Rakuten new member bonus AND you’ll also earn your normal Rakuten cashback. Keep an eye out for promotional weeks where bonuses will crack 15% or 15x.
Leaving Referrals in the comments section
Obviously, we’d love it if you’d use our referral since there is no limit to how many you can earn, but we also like to share the love. Earning points this way is how we are able keep in the air, but it’s also how you can take the trips of your dreams. So leave them below if you’d like.
How we use Referrals…
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 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 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 Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $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.