No, it's not too good to be true. You really can earn cash back when you spend!
You will spend money. Period. It's completely inevitable: you've got to spend money to put food on the table, clothes on your back, furniture in your home, shoes on your feet, wine on the rack, the list is endless!
So I say...if you're going to spend the money anyway, why not get a little something back for it?
Here is where these three companies come in. They will literally reward you for purchasing the things you were already going to buy! How great is that?! They're also completely FREE to sign up & create accounts with!
RAKUTEN
My boyfriend's mom told me about Rakuten about a year ago, and I am SO happy she did! It is so incredibly easy to use: install their "Activate Cash Back" extension onto your Google Chrome browser, and...that's it! Once you've installed the extension, any time you visit a store's website, it will automatically notify you with a pop-up in the upper right hand corner if there is a cash back reward currently for that store, and will also apply any (applicable) existing coupons to your cart at check out! There is virtually no extra work for you to do: no searching for stores that are participating, no clipping of coupons, you just simply shop how you would normally shop online, and it does all the work for you.
After you make qualifying purchases, you'll receive an email letting you know how much cash back rewards you've earned, a monthly cash back rewards statement, and then a check in the mail!
"Is there also cash back rewards available for in-store shopping, or just online?"
Yes!! Download the Rakuten app onto your phone and check out what stores are offering cash back in-store! Just note that in some cases, stores that offer cash back online won't also offer cash back in-store, and vice versa. Just be sure to check before you make a purchase. Helpful hack: before you head to Target for a run, why not hop on Rakuten and see if they're offering cash back? In my experience, they're usually offering it online, so before before I head out, I'll order online and choose in-store pick up!
Some brands that are currently offering cash back: Macy's, Sephora, Ulta, Nordstrom Rack, Walmart, Target, Bloomingdale's, IT Cosmetics, Winc...just to name a few!
No, I am not affiliated with Rakuten, I just think it is so much fun & pretty damn awesome to earn money back for money I was already going to spend, and just want to share this with you! There is a referral code though, and if I was able to help you join in on the Rakuten fun, help a sister out and click HERE to use my referral 😉
Once you sign up, be sure to send your referral code to your friends as well!!
MyPoints
MyPoints is great because there are so many other ways to earn points besides just shopping! You can also participate in online surveys, watch videos, print coupons, play games, and refer friends among other activities to earn points. Once you hit a certain number of points, you can redeem them for cash (Paypal deposit or Visa prepaid gift card), retail and restaurant gift cards, or travel miles (with a United MileagePlus account). I've redeemed my saved points for $50 retail gift cards and had no problems with them!
MyPoints definitely came in handy during last year's lockdowns; with all that time at home, I was able to hop on and take surveys to earn points. I have found that making purchases as opposed to the other activities reaps the most points, but either way, if you have a few minutes to fill out a survey or answer the daily poll, those small points do eventually add up. There's also a feature on their site to link your credit card for in-store purchases, so if you happen to shop at a store that's doing a promotion with MyPoints at the time, you'll automatically receive your rewards points into your account!
Helpful tip: if you're going to install Rakuten onto your browser, I wouldn't recommend also installing the MyPoints' extension, because the two will conflict with each other (I've found in the past that points I've earned through a Rakuten purchase won't show up in my MyPoints account, even if the store was offering rewards through both sites). When I'm going to make a purchase online, I'll usually head to that store's site, and if my Rakuten extension doesn't show any cash back for that store, I'll go to MyPoints.com and browse their participating stores. If my store is listed there, then I'll click that store while on the MyPoints site. If you click through the MyPoints site, whatever points you earn for that purchase will be added to your account, but you have to have gone through MyPoints. If not, you'll have to contact their customer service and provide the requested info to see if you can still earn points.
Refer a friend: MyPoints' rewards for referring a friend are actually really awesome. You'll earn points when your friend accepts your invitation to join, after they spend their first $20 on a qualifying MyPoints purchase, AND you'll also get a bonus of ALL the eligible points your friend earns!
A couple helpful links:
Fetch
Why not earn some rewards before you throw all of your receipts away? Download the Fetch app, snap a photo of your receipt, and toss! THAT'S IT. It's literally one quick step in between shopping and throwing your receipt away. Any receipt. Now there are definitely ways to take advantage of this app & earn more points by shopping for certain brand-name products, but you don't need to do any more work than simply snapping a photo of your receipt in order to earn points.
Through the app, you can scroll through which brand products are offering a point promotion (for example, right now if you purchase a six count or greater of Cottonelle Toilet Paper, you'll earn 1,000 points for that purchase), but otherwise, from my experience, grocery receipts are usually 25 points each and restaurant receipts are usually five.
If you don't purchase brands that are offering a point promotion, it can take a while for your points to rack up (10,000 points allows you to redeem a $10 gift card). However, after a while, they will rack up, so why not just snap a quick photo in the app before you throw that receipt away?
For more info, click here!
If you'd like, here's my referral code: EFH3X
**There is an option to link your email account with Fetch, so that it can count your receipt points from purchases you've made online, and to be honest, if I participated in this option I'd probably have way more points! However, I personally didn't like the idea of having the app scan through my emails.
Happy shopping, friends!
If you've earned cash back or redeemed points for gift cards through any of these three companies, let me know in the comments! I always love to hear how much everyone earns back!
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