Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
In the last 4 years, I have earned over $2,000 worth of cashback/Amex points from doing almost all of my holiday shopping using the Rakuten shopping portal.
It sounds too good to be true. But you really can get cash or points (Amex or Bilt) in the form of cash back or points back every time you shop through Rakuten or use their browser add-on. Using Rakuten is an important way to accumulate points faster.
What’s the catch? Rakuten is an online shopping portal, which means you are giving up your shopping behavior data to Rakuten, which is then sold to advertisers. You’re already giving up your data for free if you use Facebook, Instagram, Google, or other web browsers, so you might as well get paid for giving that data up. Rakuten can also earn an affiliate commission from referring you to an online store and from merchants looking to boost their visibility.
So what is Rakuten? Rakuten is a shopping rewards site that lets you earn cashback (or Amex or Bilt points) whenever you begin your shopping trip through its website or app.
Get $50 (5k points) for joining: If you’re interested in signing up and are a new member, I currently have a $50 referral where you will earn $50 (or 5k Amex or Bilt points) after spending $50 if you use my link (I also earn $50, so thank you in advance if you do use my referral).
**If you want to earn points, make sure to follow instructions to change your payout method from cash to Amex or Bilt points before you shop.**
In this post
What is Rakuten and how does it work?
Rakuten is an online shopping portal that provides shopping rewards in the form of cash back (payable via check or Paypal every quarter) or points (also paid out quarterly). You earn cash back or Amex or Bilt points every time you start your online (and in some cases, in-store) shopping journey through the Rakuten website or use their browser extension. You still shop online like you normally would after clicking on a retailer on Rakuten’s website, so you pay the same prices as if you were to shop directly online with the retailer (Ulta for example).
Cash back earn rates change daily and are often elevated during key holiday shopping periods (Black Friday and Cyber Monday are big!) so a store like Ulta may offer 3% cash back on one day but 15% on another.
**Make sure any adblock is turned off and you don’t have other shopping extensions (such as Honey) installed when you shop, or else your purchase may not track properly**
There are thousands of retailers on the Rakuten portal, so I am sure there is something for everyone out there. Even if it’s just 1% cashback on Target, it is essentially free money but the cash back/Amex points can really start to add up over a year of online shopping.
An example of shopping online and how Rakuten works
If I am shopping online at Ulta (or another retailer), I would choose the Ulta storefront or search for it in the search bar.
Then Rakuten will redirect me directly to Ulta’s site. However, the URL will include unique tracking details for the online Ulta shopping trip to help track what you bought and how much cash back (or points) you will receive.
If you made a purchase, it should show your shopping trip as a pending trip on Rakuten within 1-2 days. Sometimes, shopping trips don’t properly track, in which case you will need to reach out to Rakuten support to have them hopefully (sometimes they may not credit you ) credit the missing cash back.
Choose your payout method
Rakuten provides a few different ways to get paid, with payouts happening every 3 months from all the cash back you earned. Importantly, if you want to earn American Express points, you will need to change your payout method before you start shopping, as anything earned prior to changing your payout method will generally default to cash back instead of points.
Once you have created your account, on the top right, 1) click on your name and then choose 2) account settings. Towards the middle of the screen, you should be able to choose 3) how you’re getting paid. The options are through a check mailed to your address, Paypal, or American Express (once you link your Amex account with Rakuten).
To receive payment as Bilt points, you will need to start from the Bilt app
If you already have a Rakuten account, you will need to log in or create a Bilt account and link the accounts from the Bilt app (instead of usually updating settings through Rakuten). You don’t need a Bilt credit card to make a Bilt account or to earn Bilt points. On the Bilt app, the front page should let you connect your account. Although the link says “Create account & link”, you can still link an existing account. Just make sure both emails match or you will run into issues…
Important: Rakuten will pay out 1:1 ($10 = 1,000 Bilt points) to Bilt for the next two payouts (Feb. 15 and May 15) for everyone. Afterwards, you will need to have at least Bilt Silver status to get 1:1 payouts. Otherwise, the payout will drop to 1:2 ($10 = 500 Bilt points).
However, you can now freely switch between different payout options. So if you just want to take advantage of the 1:1 ratio for the first quarterly payout period (Feb. 15) and second payout (May 15), you can then change it back to Amex afterwards. Recall that in the past, once you chose Amex as a payout and switched it to something else, you were not able to switch it back to Amex. That has now been resolved!
Other cash back portals
In addition to Rakuten, there are dozens of other cash back portals, including across major airlines across the world where you earn cash back in the form of airline miles, credit card cashback portals (Capital One has two lol), or other cash back portals. I always check out Cashback Monitor, a site that tracks portal earn rates across the major cashback portals and major retailers and partners, to compare which sites have the best earn rates at any given time.
Other popular portals include:
- Capital One Offers
- Capital One Shopping
- Rove Miles
- American AAdvantage
- Alaska Mileage Plan
- United Mileageplus
- TopCashback
- Swagbucks
Stack those discounts!
In addition to earning cash back from a shopping portal like Rakuten, you also get discounts directly from the retailer since you are shopping directly on their online site. Additionally, because you are paying the merchant (say Ulta or Macy’s) directly, you can also stack discounts with credit card offers. American Express and Chase have credit card offers where you can get a statement credit or additional points when shopping at various retailers, so make sure to check out and add those offers to get additional discounts!
You can also quickly find stacking opportunities using a free site called Savewise that helps track stackable offers. You do need to create a free account to view offers though. It lets you see if there are credit card offers from cards such as Amex or Chase that could pair with a cash back portal such as Rakuten, Rove, or AA.
In-store and restaurant opportunities
Although earning rates are generally higher if you shop online, there is also an opportunity to earn points when you use a linked credit card to shop in-store or at select restaurants. You can link as many credit cards as you want under your account settings. Be aware, if you link a card to Rakuten and use it for their in-store and restaurant network, it will unlink that card if it was previously connected to another in-store/restaurant network (details here from Award Wallet) that other companies such as Bilt, AA Dining, Marriott Dining etc offer.
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