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New Members get $20 after $20 purchase + $20 Rakuten Refferals ( or choose 2k Amex points ) 

First off, $40 is the best deal we have EVER seen from Rakuten on both sides, the normal referral offer is just $10, and prior to this we had seen a $30 referrals as well. This new deal is very straight forward: Spend $20 and you will get $20 cashback, or if you’ve chosen to Amex points, 2k Membership Rewards. The latter is my preference btw.

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 nearly 150k Amex Points in the past year from Rakuten alone.  One of the best ways to earns loads of Rakuten points is to refer your friends and family. Well, Rakuten has stepped it up, and is currently offering its highest new member bonus AND Rakuten referral bonus. Through the rest of the year, if you use our Rakuten referral, as long as you spend $20, you can get either $20 cashback, or 2k American Express Membership Rewards. Let me explain.

One thing to note – in order to get the $20 rebate ( or 2k Amex points ), you need to spend $20 within 90 days of signing up.

Choosing between 2k Membership Rewards or $20 after spending $20 in 90 days with Rakuten.

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.

 

This promo runs until 12/31/20

You have 90 days to make your purchase, and you have until 12/31/2020 to get the deal.

What’s a quick way to take advantage of Rakuten?

Personally, I think it’s pretty hard to beat stacking a Rakuten referral, or new member bonus, with the Dell credits from Amex Platinum or Amex business Platinum. You can get up to $340 worth of free stuff.

Currently Amex Platinum card holders are getting a spend $100, get $100 statement credit

Amex Business Platinum cardholders are receiving promotional $200 statement credits until year end.

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.

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…