Cash Back Rewards

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Updated September 01, 2024

Rewards, Rebates, Cash Back - whatever you want to call it - means you get money back after you make a purchase!

We'll just call them "cash back rewards." This really is easy money for just a couple of clicks. Follow the steps below, and you can get cash back rewards on many of your purchases. While it won’t be available with all of the websites you purchase from, nor for all of the products you purchase, it’s still worth your time to check what may be available!

How It Works

It’s quite simple: In order to make your purchases eligible for cash back rewards, you need to open an account with one of the companies listed below, or by clicking on the "Go Now" button, and then start your purchase on the cash back rewards company’s website. You will then be redirected to the merchant’s website to actually make your purchase. Doing this is necessary for the software to track your purchase in order to pay you the cash back reward.

Potentially, you can go to the cash back rewards website only after you have your purchase in the shopping cart and then get redirected back to the merchant’s website. However, this is not recommended. To make sure that both the merchant’s and the cash back reward company’s software appropriately tracks your purchase, always start your purchase from the cash back rewards company’s website. Don’t try to shortcut things and then later complain because your purchase wasn’t tracked appropriately and you didn’t get your cash back reward.

Regardless of what you are purchasing, it pays to do a quick check to see if a cash back reward is available from the merchant from which you’re buying. Software like tax software and antivirus software can have substantial cash back rewards. Many travel sites and other online service sites also have cash back rewards available. It pays to check! Always check—you may be pleasantly surprised!

How can the cash back rewards companies afford to pay you? They obviously aren’t sending you money out of the goodness of their hearts! They make their money either by becoming an affiliate (see the definition of “affiliates” in the glossary at the back of this book) or as a result of a specific agreement (i.e., legal contract) with the merchants from which you want to buy something. They are compensated in the form of what is essentially a “sales commission” paid to them for driving traffic/sales to the merchants’ websites. The cash back rewards companies normally keep a portion of this sales commission for themselves and then pass the balance on to you in the form of a “cash back reward.”

The Websites

Rebates Aggregator Websites

An aggregator is a website that includes information from a number of other websites (sources) all in one place on its own website. This makes it easier to compare what similar websites are offering for products and/or services. The websites below allow you to compare the cash back rewards offered by the websites above for purchases from specific merchants. These websites help you do a quick comparison to see which cash back reward company may be offering the biggest cash back rewards. Always double-check on the cash back reward websites themselves to confirm the cash back reward they’re offering, as things can change.

Start with CashBackMonitor.com.

After-the-Purchase Rebates Sites

Even if you’ve missed out on the front end of your purchase, you may still qualify for a cash back reward after your purchase has been made. Check out these websites for details:

While the above websites may provide cash back rewards on a large variety of products, they are typically geared toward grocery items.

Multiple Rebates Accounts

It’s not a bad idea to have accounts with multiple cash back rewards companies in order to maximize your savings by using the company with the highest rate for a specific merchant and purchase. However, it is best to keep the number of your cash back rewards accounts to a minimum in order to keep things manageable. If you have too many accounts, you may have some difficulty getting the total savings on some of them above the minimum amount needed to get your cash back rewards paid out.

How Much Can You Save?

It varies widely, especially by merchant, but it can also vary significantly from one cash back reward company to the next—from 0 percent for excluded items or categories of products on some websites to 10 to 15 percent on some national clothing stores. On some things like software purchases, the savings can be above 50 percent. Always check!

Other Things to Know

Keep track of the purchases you make that are eligible for cash back rewards, and then, after a week or so, check the cash back rewards company’s website and make sure your purchase has been logged by their website. If it hasn’t been recorded, follow up with the cash back reward company to make sure they do get your purchase recorded.
You must be patient using this technique! It can take a while for your savings to be confirmed by the merchant and actually paid to the cash back rewards company and then for the cash back rewards company to process your cash back reward and make it payable to you in your account. The cash back rewads company will want to get paid before they pay you. Before the merchant pays the cash back rewards company, they will want to make sure they won’t have to refund your money. This whole process can take months.
Using a cash back rewards company may impact the coupons and/or promo codes you can use on a specific merchant’s site. You really won’t know if this is an issue until you are checking out. You shouldn’t run into this very often, but it can happen.
Some merchants may not pay a cash bnack rewards if you pay with a gift card or a store-branded credit card. Again, you shouldn’t run into this very often, but it can occur.
You normally will not be paid a cash back reward for non-merchandise or non-service purchases such as gift cards.
It is best to complete your purchase as soon as possible after starting the process from the cash back rewards company’s website. Some merchants will not honor cash back rewards if the items have been left in your shopping cart for a certain amount of time before you check out (e.g., twenty-four hours). Check the merchant’s terms and conditions, which are normally disclosed on the cash back rewards company’s website for each merchant. Just to be safe, it is usually best to start the process over again if you’ve left the item in your shopping cart for more than an hour or two.
Each merchant may have products and services that are excluded from the payment of cash back rewards. Again, check the merchant’s terms and conditions. They are normally disclosed on the rebate company’s website for each merchant.
Just to be clear: What each specific merchant allows or excludes for cash back rewards varies widely. Always check the merchant’s terms and conditions, which are normally disclosed on the cash back rewards company’s website for each merchant.