Cash Back Sites: Why You Are Leaving Money On The Table If You Are Not Using One

A lot of people shop online.

It is easy.

It is convenient.

If you shop online and are not using cash back sites, you are leaving money on the table?

Use A Cash Back Site

Online shopping portals are websites that give you cash for your online shopping.

They give you cash for things you would buy anyway, just by taking the one extra step to go through a portal.

Examples of online shopping sites include:

• Rakuten (formally Ebates)
• Swagbucks
• TopCashBack
• Be Frugal
• Mr. Rebates
• Rebates Me
• Lemoney
• Giving Assistant
• Ibotta

The best way to use these portals is to pick two to three to be your main portals.

This way you don’t have $1 in several accounts.

Different portals have different rates for different merchant’s too.

If you want to earn an easy $100, you can sign up for all of the top ones we recommend on our top apps and sites page.

Each one usually has a sign up bonus of $10, so you can usually make an easy $100 if you sign up for all of them.

Know that portals take at least a month (or much longer) to pay, and they usually require spending $25 to get the sign up bonus.

Read the requirements for the sign up bonuses on each website.

How do cash back sites work?

Online shopping portals work as middleman.

The sites take you to your merchant’s website (i.e. Macy’s, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, etc).

Again, by doing this extra step, you get cash.

It is usually between 1-25% depending on the merchant.

Here is a list of stores that you can find on each portal:

• Walmart
• Amazon
• Target
• CVS
• Walgreens
• Macy’s
• Wayfair
• Overstock
• Home Depot
• Lowe’s
• Old Navy
• Gap
• Nike
• Under Armour
• Reebok

Basically, any store that you shop at online will be on most portals.

Why do cash back sites give you free money?

Portals participate in something called affiliate marketing.

They get a commission for referring you to each merchant.

They give you a part of this commission, so it is a win for everyone.

They also make money by advertising.

How do I get started?

Step 1: Sign up for a cash back site

Choose a site and sign up.

How do you know which cash back portals to sign up for?

Read the end of this post to figure out which site to choose.

To sign up for a portal, you only need to use your email or Facebook page and then create a password.

That is it.

Step 3: Shop at your merchant as usual

When you are ready to shop, the portal will take you to your merchant’s website where you just shop as normal.

Step 4: Complete your purchase in this transaction

You must complete your transaction and purchase in this step for your purchase to track.

That is why you do not go to a portal until you are ready to buy.

Step 5: Get your cash

Your cash will be verified in 7 days, and then pending for a period of 30 days or more.

After this, if you have the required minimum to cash out, you can.

Important Note

For you to receive this cash, your purchase must track.

This means you may want to clear cookies or turn off VPNs.

Why does it take so long to get paid with cash back sites?

Portals can take as little as a month or even a couple of months before you get paid.

I personally prefer the ones that pay quicker.

You will need your cash to build up, so the others are ok too though.

But why do you have to wait at least a month to get paid?

Your purchase has to go through a process of 3 steps to be payable:

Step 1: Track

First, your purchase must track.

You should see this happen within 7 days after your purchase.

Usually, the portal will send you an e-mail, but make sure it tracks within 7 days.

Most sites have a page under your account where you can see items that tracked.

This just shows that you made a purchase.

Step 2: Pending

After the purchased has tracked, it will be pending for at least 30 days.

This is done by merchants and not portals, so that people do not buy things and return them and keep the cash.

A store return policy is usually thirty days.

Again, this is done by merchants and not portals.

Some portals take longer than 30 days too though.

Step 3: Payable

After the 30 days or more, your cash is moved to payable where you just need to make the minimum requirement to cash out.

Some sites require little to cash out, whereas other require at least $20.

Personally, I prefer the ones that require small amounts to cash out.

Some of those include:

• TopCashBack $0
• Be Frugal $.01
• Swagbucks $5
• Rakuten $5

As you see, Rakuten requires only $5, but they only pay every three months.

This is not bad because it will take your cash time to build up anyway again.

Which cash back site should I start with?

There are so many portals, some legit and not.

For beginners, I think you should start with one of three choices:

1. Rakuten (formally Ebates)

This is the most popular and famous portal.

For good reason.

Most people start with this one.

The only negative is that they only pay every three months, so if you don’t want to wait that long (and you may not), I suggest these other two.

2. Swagbucks

Most people are using Swagbucks for other things like surveys or Discover offers.

It is great as a cash back portal too though.

Swagbuck’s is one of my top portals.

They have some high rates.

Again, you can make money in so many other ways with Swagbucks (i.e. surveys, Discover, videos, Swago, etc) .

Look for our guide soon.

Also, I usually get my money in a month.

That is quicker than most other portals.

3. TopCashback

TopCashback pays me as quickly as Swagbucks, and they tend to have the highest rates at the stores I shop at.

When the rate is higher, I use them instead of Swagbuck’s.

They take a month to pay and have no minimum for cashing out.

How do I pick the portal with the highest rate for my store?

Different portals have different rates at different times.

It changes almost daily.

To find the highest rate, you will need to use a comparison site that compares all portals.

The most famous and the one I use is Cash Back Monitor.

I don’t start a shopping trip without starting here.

It even list airline and credit card portals in case you are into travel rewards.

A note about Airline, Hotel, and Credit card Portals

If you like travel, you can usually get more for your money by using an airline or credit card portal.

Most airline miles and credit card points are worth more than cash back rewards, so you have to do the math.

If your merchant offers a high rate for an airline portal, and you travel; you should go with that.

Make money by referring your friends

Most portals have a generous referral program.

The average pays $10 per referral, although some like Rakuten offer as high as $25 per referral.

This is a good way to make some extra money if you know a lot of people.

They will probably have to spend at least $25 to qualify.

They may also need a certain amount of payable cash, which can take time.

Read the referral instructions for each site.

Sign up for cash back sites & get $100

Like I said, if you sign up for all the top portals, you will make $100.

I suggest picking 2-3 as your primary sites though again.

Here is a list in case you want to sign up.

I will do a post coming up about the top portals.

Summary

If you shop online, why not get some cash?

Each time you shop online, go through a portal.

For the shopping you would do anyway, you get cash back.

If you shop online, and don’t do this, you are leaving money on the table.

The average person makes between $10-$50 per month with shopping portals or $120-$600 a year

If you shop online a lot, you can make over $1000 per year though.

The more you shop, the more you make.

Like most things we write about you won’t get rich or be able to quit your day job, but you can make extra money.

This can add up quickly.

Could you use $600-$1000 extra at the end of the year?

This is free money for an activity you would do anyway.

What do you have to lose?

With everything, make sure not to overspend.

If you are not using a portal yet, sign up today.

You can use our page here to sign up for the best cash back sites.

Again, I recommend Rakuten, Swagbucks, or TopCashBack to start

Do you use an online portal yet?