It’s back: Rakuten refer a friend now earns you & them $40/4,000 Amex Points

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Update 12:00 ET: After a delayed start, the $40 referral offer is now live.

Rakuten is one of our favorite cash back sites for three key reasons. It allows users to choose between earning pure cash back or Amex Membership Rewards (in place of cash back). It often offers very good deals. And its referral offers can be lucrative for both parties.

Starting today (Monday, 18 November) and through to 8 December, Rakuten’s best ever referral offer returns, and this means that for the next few weeks, anyone who join the site through a referral link (like this one) can earn $40 cash back (or 4,000 Amex points), and those who do the referring can earn $40 (or 4,000 Amex points) per successful referral.

Rakuten friend referral program

The program and the current promotion couldn’t be simpler:

• Refer friends to Rakuten (link)
•  Only new members are eligible for the Referral Sign Up Bonus.
• Qualify for a $40 Referral Sign Up Bonus when you:
  • sign up to become a new member using your referrer’s referral link or other method supplied by Rakuten.
  • make Qualifying Purchase(s) totaling at least $40 within 90 days of signing up.
• One Referral Sign up Bonus per eligible new member.
• You and your referrer must reside and be located in the 50 United States, District of Columbia, or Canada and comply with the Refer-A-Friend Program Terms.
• Referral Sign Up Bonus will be added to your next Cash Back payment, provided that you are a Qualified Referral according to the Refer-A-Friend Program Terms.

Full terms and conditions are on the Rakuten site

Collecting American Express Membership Rewards

Follow this link to see how to choose to earn Amex Membership Rewards in place of cash back.

Rakuten offers 1 Membership Reward point in place of every 1 cent of cash back earned through the portal, and that fact brings with it three pieces of good news:

1. As we value Membership Rewards points at 1.5 cents each, every cent of cash back earned could be said to be worth 1.5 cents if you choose to earn Membership Rewards points instead of cash back.
2. If you choose to earn Membership Rewards points, this promotion will see you earn 4,000 points for every friend you successfully refer (as long as they go on to spend $40 during the promotion period).
3. Every person who is referred to Rakuten and who chooses to earn Membership Rewards points can earn 4,000 bonus Membership Rewards points from the referral, and those points will come on top of whatever other points are offered for the purchases being made.

Be careful how you pay

There’s more on offer here than just the great cash bonus or the Membership Rewards Points – this is an opportunity to make the most of all the other deals that will stack with this promotion. For example:

Check the Amex offers that your American Express cards have been targeted for as a wide variety of retailers that appear on the Rakuten portal often also have Amex deals going as well (e.g Dell, Levis, Sunglass Hut, etc…).

Cards like the no annual fee Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express (3% cash back on up to $6,000 of online spending at US retailers then 1% – terms apply) and the the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (2 points/dollar on up to $50,000 of eligible spending, then 1 point/dollar – terms apply) can be very useful cards to use with any Amex offers that stacks with the cash back on offer on the Rakuten site.

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® or to use a card on which you’re currently working towards a strong welcome offer.

Bottom line

This is a very nice promotion for all sides from Rakuten as the referrer and the person being referred can both do very well out of this, just don’t forget that the person being referred must spend at least $40 through the Rakuten portal for everyone to walk away from this as a winner.

Click here to be referred to Rakuten by TFM and to qualify to earn $40 cash back or 4,000 Membership Rewards points