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Rakuten is one of the best ways to earn actual cash back on all your online purchases from wine shops to high street fashion and even travel. It’s incredibly easy, and super underrated, mostly because people are lazy, or simply don’t understand how it works.

And yes, cash back works everything else you buy, and everything in between too: shoes, pet supplies, you name it. Even better, Rakuten recently added the ability for US based Amex card members to earn Membership Rewards Points, instead of cash, if they wish. But hey, cash is really nice.

Right now, Rakuten is offering $40 per referral for everyone who gets friends to sign up, and when the friend spends $40, they get $40 too. Yep, you get $40 for the referral, and they get $40 back on any $40 or more purchase. There’s no limit to the number of referrals you can make, so it’s money everywhere…

Rakuten Cash Back: How It Works

Rakuten is the click you make before shopping at your favorite online stores.

Whether it’s booking travel, buying shoes, wine or anything else, you just go there first and login to Rakuten. When you do, it allows Rakuten to track the purchase, and you earn cash back based on the cash back percentage and what you spend. You pay the same price, can even typically use all the same promo codes, but Rakuten gets a slice for sending you to the store, and they share that slice with you.

What’s in it for them? Rakuten gets a percentage from the merchant for sending you there, so everyone is happy. This is exactly the same way airlines offer miles for online purchases at other stores.

Hot tip: be sure to look out for limited time flash sales, where Rakuten offers double, or even 10x the typical cash back on many stores. It can be the difference in earning 2 points or 2% cash back on a Macbook purchase, or 10 points, or 10% cash back on the same purchase.

Spend $40, Get $40, Referral $40 Too

With historic levels of people all bored to death and online at the same time, Rakuten is upping its game to get people to take advantage of cash back on all their purchases. If you aren’t yet a Rakuten member – it’s free by the way – you can get $40 back when you spend $40 from any of the merchants on the site. There are 1000’s.

If you are already a Rakuten member, you get $40 whenever a friend signs up using your promo code, for a limited time. They get $40 when they spend over $40 too, so it’s everyone winning. And yes, you totally should.

Rakuten has a best ever $40 cash back offer after you spend $40. You can even refer friends and they earn $40, and you do too!

Hint: you get a referral code once you sign up to Rakuten (it’s free), which you can then share via email, social or a web link. Surely no one will mind you saving them money. To use yours, simply click the “refer and earn $40” tab on Rakuten.com.

You can use your Rakuten.com referral code to refer friends an unlimited amount of times, potentially for thousands of cash back, which can be used for gift cards, or much more attractive, deposited into your bank account.

With the promo, you’re effectively hooking a friend up with either a free purchase of $40, or $40 off any purchase they make. They can thank you when we all see one another in person again one day, under more normal times.

If you haven’t signed up, you can use my link, for which I’m grateful. This amazing promo has been extended until the end of 2020, so you and your friend(s) need to complete any referral and first purchases by that date. If your household is anything like ours at the moment, wine or Adidas would be a good place to start.

Gilbert Ott

Gilbert Ott is an ever curious traveler and one of the world's leading travel experts. His adventures take him all over the globe, often spanning over 200,000 miles a year and his travel exploits are regularly...

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