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On 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 offered 11% cash back/11 Membership Rewards points at over 250 stores, so November has already been a pretty good month for users of the Rakuten shopping portal. The good news is that it’s about to get a little better.
Today, the Rakuten portal is offering users 10% cash back or 10 Membership Rewards Points per dollar at over 200 retailers but unless you desperately need to do some shopping right away or have seen a deal that may not be around for long, you should hold off making any purchases for the next few days as better deals are on the way.
On Black Friday, across the Black Friday weekend (26 – 29 November) and on Cyber Monday (30 November), Rakuten will offer 15% cash back/15 Membership Rewards Points per dollar at over 500 retailers so if a retailer that you’re planning to shop with appears on the Rakuten portal, there’s a very good chance it will also offer a great rate of cash back from next Thursday. Among the participating retailers are expected to be the following*:
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- Bloomingdale’s
- Casper
- Dell
- Dick’s Sporting Goods
- Disney
- Dyson
- Finish Line
- Foot Locker
- GameStop
- Glossier
- Keurig
- Macy’s
- New Balance
- Office Depot
- Overstock.com
- PetSmart
- Rite Aid
- Saks Fifth Avenue
- Samsung
- Sephora
- The North Face
- Uniqlo
- Walgreens
- Walmart
*The list of participating retailers is subject to change
Related Reading: How to elect to earn Membership Rewards Points through Rakuten
There won’t be any trick to getting the cash back or Membership Rewards points that will be on offer (you’ll simply have to click through to the retailers using the links on Rakuten), but once these deals come around 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. 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 refreshed Chase Freedom Unlimited Card (1.5% cash back on all spending) or the Blue Cash EveryDay Card (2% cash back at select department stores)…
…or to use a card on which you’re currently working towards a strong welcome offer (e.g. if you recently signed up for the offer on the Amex Platinum Card).
Most importantly, don’t forget that if you’re new to Rakuten, you can sign up using this referral link and earn a bonus of $40 cash back or 4,000 Membership Rewards Points (on top of any other cash back/points you may earn).
