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The week sees the launch of “Big Give Week” on Rakuten, which sees the cashback site offering up to 15% back (or 15 Membership Rewards Points per dollar) at 400+ participating stores and retailers. Better still, this promotion sees the return of some great cash back travel offers with the likes of IHG and Best Western.
Note: As an added bonus, for the next four days (through 13 May) Rakuten is running its excellent referral offer of $30 or 3,000 Membership Rewards Points for you and those you refer (link).
From the travel world, the more popular cash back options being offered are as follows:
- Best Western Hotels & Resorts – 15%
- HotelTravelClub.com – 10%
- IHG:
- Candlewood Suites – 15%
- Crowne Plaza – 15%
- EVEN Hotels – 15%
- Holiday Inn – 15%
- Holiday Inn Express – 15%
- Hotel Indigo – 15%
- InterContinental Hotels & Resorts – 15%
- StayBridge Suites – 15%
- JanSport – 15%
- OYO Hotels – 15%
- ParkSleepFly – 10%
- Samsonite – 15%
- Sixt Rent A Car – 10%
- Viator – 15%
Be aware that if you simply search the Rakuten site for “IHG” you may only see an offer for 3% cash back so make sure you search for the individual brands to get the full 15% cash back.
Outside of travel, there are a wide variety of other retailers that are offering 15% cash back (or better) – here are a few examples:
- Adidas
- Aesop
- Asics
- AT&T Internet (up to $155)
- Backcountry.com
- Bass Pro Shops
- Bloomingdales
- Calvin Klein
- Clarins
- Clinique
- Coravin
- Crocs
- Dell Consumer
- Dell Outlet
- Dell Technologies For Work
- Dyson
- Fanatics
- Finish Line
- GAP
- Groupon
- Hugo Boss
- JC Penney
- Keurig
- Lenovo
- Levis
- Nautica
- New Balance
- Nike
- Oakley
- Office Depot
- Office Max
- Philips
- Ray-Ban
- Reebok
- Saks 5th Avenue
- Saks Off 5th
- Samsung
- Sunglass Hut
- Under Armour
- 7 For All Mankind
Note: The retailers that are offering 15% cash back will rotate so the list will not remain the same throughout the promotion.
Related Reading: How to elect to earn Membership Rewards Points through Rakuten
There’s no trick to getting the cash back or Membership Rewards points (you just click through to the retailers using the links on Rakuten), but there are two things you should keep in mind:
Firstly, before making any purchases, make sure you check what Amex offers are available in your American Express account – a number of retailers participating in the Rakuten promotion also frequently appear among the Amex offers I’ve been seeing this year (e.g. Macy’s, Nike, etc…). Load your Amex card with any relevant offers and then use that card to pay when you’ve clicked through to the retailer(s) and finished your shopping.
Secondly, if you don’t have any relevant Amex offers to use, make sure you use a credit card that will reward you well. Most miles and points credit cards will only offer 1 point or mile per dollar at a lot of the participating retailers so this would be a good opportunity to use a good cash back card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® Credit Card (1.5% cashback on all eligible spending) or the Blue Cash EveryDay® Card from American Express (3% cash back on up to $6,000 of online spending at US retailers & 1% back thereafter – terms apply) or to use a card on which you’re currently working towards a strong welcome offer – e.g. the current offer on the card_name (review).
Most importantly, don’t forget that the 15% cash back deal is only available through 17 May so don’t leave it too long before you check to see if your preferred retailers are participating in the promotion.
Thanks so much for the Alert, Ziggy! Just got some needed clothing from Land’s End which had special discounts up to 50-60% off, along w/ 12% Cashback thru Rakuten, and I followed your advice for strategic use of credit card. Actually my 1st order used my a 1.5% Cashback CC for just 1 item. Then placed a 2nd order and realized I could pay via PayPal which has Chase Freedom card for Q4 Cashback bonus, so got an even better rebate! On top of that, Free Shipping for orders over $100. I don’t know what the math is with the various stacked discounts but very happy you alerted your readers about this đŸ™‚
I really appreciate you work hard to publish prolifically lots of content that might be useful to your audience. Not everyone will benefit from every update you post, but even if we get to save some $ some of the times, it’s a great benefit to us as I wouldn’t have gone to the work to source these potential savings.
So THANK YOU! And hope you got some great savings too đŸ™‚
[…] is on fire at the moment. We’ve seen a string of good deals in the past week with 15% cash back/15 MR points at 100+ stores in honor of National Cash Back Day, then a highest-ever referral bonus, and now, for today only, […]
[…] 5 November we saw Rakuten offer 15% cash back/15 MR points at over 100 stores for one day only, the very next day it launched its highest-ever referral bonus, and on 11 November the portal […]