Save money when you buy from numerous online retailers by signing up for a cash-back or rebate program.
Many popular online stores offer money or reward points back for shopping at their site, usually in the form of a percentage rebate on the total purchase. Shoppers, however, must first enroll at a cash-back or rebate site and shop through that site to earn the rebate. After enrolling, online customers simply access a participating store through the site before shopping. The cash-back programs make a commission from all purchases through their sites, but pass some of the savings on to shoppers.
Here are some cash-back and rebate sites that offer money back for online shoppers. All of these sites offer free sign up and similar percentage-back deals. Each program, however, offers some unique benefits.
Ebates
Ebates often offers a bonus to sign up at is site free of charge. In late summer 2007, the Ebates sign-up promotion gave new enrollees $5 in cash of a $10 gift card to Target or a variety of other merchants. A new Ebates member can immediately shop by searching for a product or store through the Ebates site and making the purchase after clicking on the Ebates retailer link. Some late-summer cash-back deals: 2 percent at Lenovo computer store, 3 percent at Old Navy, 4 percent at Disneyshopping.com, and 3 percent at Brylane Home. Coupon codes and discounts accompany each retailer listing.
To remind shoppers to access online stores through its site, Ebates provides a free “Moe Money Maker” computer program that alerts shoppers when they shop on a participating retailer site without first stopping at Ebates.
Participants receive their rebates via Paypal every three months if they have more than $5.01 in their accounts.
Fatwallet
The Fatwallet cash-back program offers the standard free sign up, extensive retailer list, accompanied with coupon codes and discount listings. Fatwallet’s active and lively online forums, however, make this site stand out. Opinionated posters to the forums sniff out online and bricks-and-mortar deals and share them with readers. Other forum members add their two cents and rate the quality of the original poster’s deals, so readers can easily scan the forums for hot deals. A sampling of late-summer cash-back offers: 4.4 percent at Target, 4 percent at Overstock.com, and 3 percent at the Vermont Country Store.
Users redeem their accrued Fatwallet rebates in an account and can request a check or payment through Paypal as soon as they have earned $10.
Upromise
Customers who enroll and shop through the Upromise site can save their rebates to pay for college. Users can take advantage of periodic promotions, such as during back-to-school season, when Upromise boosts the rebates by an extra percent or two to encourage purchases through their site. When shoppers have accrued a minimum amount of rebates, they can invest in any of 14 tax-sheltered “529 plans” for college savings.
Upromise also offers ways to save money for college for users who register their credit card with the company and make certain real estate and travel purchases. Users can also sign up their grocery and drugstore membership cards for extra cash back on product purchases.
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