Using shopping portals like Rakuten is a simple way to earn extra rewards, very easily with just a few clicks. You need to take advantage of this for just about everything you buy in life. Especially during promotions, and there’s currently one that gives you up to 15% cash back (on top of the free $30)!
The savviest travelers always manage to use shopping portals during promotions, which are very frequent, to earn so many more points.
Here are the details of the Rakuten promotion for cash back that’s running right now.
Current Rakuten cashback promotion (March 2024)
Here’s an overview of what you need to know.
Basics of the promotion
Here’s the basics for the March 2024 promotion:
- At many stores
- Up to 15% cash back
- Ends March 25 at 11:59pm
- On the Rakuten portal
Here’s an important reminder about cashback:
- That’s in addition to earning with your credit card
- As always
- It’s on top of earning with store programs
- If they have a rewards program
This Rakuten promotion for with cash rebates is therefore very interesting!
Here are a few examples of the stores in the promotion.
Analysis of the promotion
If you need to buy something, it’s very interesting. Getting the best price is almost always more important than earning rewards, but it’s even better because the promotion lets you earn lots of extra points!
Needless to say, 15% is an excellent cashback on purchases!
Especially since it’s on top of your earn rate on the card you’re using – which can be 15% if you’re a savvy traveler who understands that you should always be unlocking a welcome bonus (if you want more rewards).
It’s great even for stores with a 10% or 12% promotion.
Of course, if you want rewards of the more valuable/lucrative type, compare the earn rate on the Aeroplan eBoutique. But when there’s a 15% promotion, it’s often more worthwhile to take the cash rebates, despite the fact that this more simple type of rewards will never give you more value.
In short, as always, it’s a no-brainer to go through the Rakuten portal if you’ve got something to buy. But during a promotion, it might even be worth it to pre-empt a purchase or to spoil yourself given the extra rewards.
It literally takes 2 minutes to go through the portal, so use it.
Basics of online shopping portals
Getting involved in the world of rewards is the simplest way to travel for less, because it’s so easy to get lots of free travel with rewards.
Online shopping portals give you extra rewards for the purchases you’re going to make anyway. It makes no sense not to use them.
They give you bonuses on every dollar you spend:
- 1 Aeroplan point (≈ 1.5%)
- Sometimes 10 points (≈ 15%) or more
- 1% cash back
- Sometimes 10% or more
- 0.05 AIR MILES Miles (≈ 0.5%)
- Sometimes 0.25 Miles (≈ 2.5%) or more
You’re going to spend these amounts anyway, so take the bonus points! Going through the portal takes 2 minutes maximum.
Among the 6 most important things about travel rewards is to never earn a pathetic 1% or 2% in rewards per dollar you spend. Shopping portals are one of the many ways you can multiply your rewards so easily.
If you go directly to a store’s website, you get a grand total of 0 (zero) bonus rewards. Same thing if you go into a physical store as if it were 2007 — in addition to wasting a lot of time and complicating your life.
If you go through one of the shopping portals, it sends you to the same store website, but gives you extra rewards completely free of charge.
The only effort required is to make a few more clicks.
Basics of the Rakuten Cashback Portal
Rakuten (formerly EBATES.ca) is Canada’s largest shopping portal. It gives you simple cash back.
Of all the online shopping portals in Canada, it’s the one that gives you the most choice of stores.
But like literally everything in the world of travel, to make it more lucrative for you, it’s not rocket science: you literally just need to take the time to compare.
That’s because the earn rates on each portal can obviously be different, since they’re different portals. But also, on the same portal, the accumulation rate will vary over the course of the year. Compare!
Basics of shopping portal promotions
Shopping portals very often offer promotions where the earn rates are higher, and it’s often really much higher. There’s one almost every month!
So be sure to wait for promotions to make all your purchases, whenever possible. Taking the time to plan ahead is the key to traveling for less, of course, but that’s not just about planning your trips.
It’s about planning all your big purchases and making them when there are shopping portal promotions to maximize your rewards. It can give you 10 times more rewards for the exact same purchase.
If you’re one of the many people who often buy things at the regular price, then always wait until the shopping portal has a good promotion.
On the other hand, if the store you want to buy from itself is offering a good sale, of course that’s the top priority. For example, Old Navy often offers 50% off clothing, so that’s the time to buy regardless of whether the shopping portal has a promotion.
Go through the shopping portal anyway of course (always, it’s not complicated), but don’t wait for the portal to give you 5% instead of 2% if it means you miss out on the 50% discount!
Among the 6 most important things in travel rewards is to always take the time to do the math for everything.
Basis of the Rakuten Cashback promotions
Rakuten promotions are very frequent.
There are several types:
- Increased rates on specific retailers
- Bonuses on all retailers
Flytrippers will start covering them more regularly thanks to our newly doubled team.
Best card to use for Rakuten Cashback promotions
Choosing the right credit cards is the basics of travel rewards. That means choosing the right cards to apply for (based on a variety of factors) and the right cards to use (based on the expense in question).
For all Rakuten portal purchases, the store where you make the purchase will determine the best card to use for payment:
- Card that gives you 15.0% back on your purchases with the bonus
- Card with a multiplier rate on the purchase category
- Card with the best base earn rate if it’s not a category with multiplier
As always, the key is to use your spending to unlock welcome bonuses. Unless it’s an expensive purchase for which you want the extended warranty (unless you plan to keep the card in question for year 2, in which case you can use the card on which you’re unlocking a welcome bonus).
If, unfortunately, you’re not unlocking a bonus, most of the everyday purchases you’ll be making online aren’t necessarily in merchant categories for which credit cards offer multiplier earn rates. So use a card with a good base earn rate, like the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card and its 2 pts/$ earn rate (THE only card no traveler shouldn’t have; limited-time increased offer available right now).
History of Rakuten Cashback promotions
We’ll eventually dig up the history of promotions from previous years, but at least we’re starting today:
- March 2024
- Up to 15% cashback
Learning how to travel for less
Join over 100,000 savvy Canadian travelers who already receive Flytrippers’ free newsletter so we can help you travel for less — including thanks to the wonderful world of travel rewards!
Summary
Rakuten‘s current rebate promotion is a great opportunity to earn even more rewards than usual! Especially since it’ll also give you $30 very easily with our Rakuten link, if you haven’t yet created an account with your e-mail address.
What would you like to know about Rakuten’s Cashback promotion? Tell us in the comments below.
See the flight deals we spot: Cheap flights
Discover free travel with rewards: Travel rewards
Explore awesome destinations: Travel inspiration
Learn pro tricks: Travel tips
Featured image: Home delivery (photo credit: Unsplash+)
