Rakuten is out with some tremendous offers this week, with 15% cash back (or Amex Membership Rewards points) available at many popular online stores. The timing also lines up well for new customers who can earn $40 or 4000 Amex points after spending at least $40. While you have 90 days to take advantage of the bonus offer, you must sign up by May 12th.
For those unfamiliar, Rakuten is a popular shopping portal that lets you earn money or points when buying things you were going to purchase anyway. They often offer increased payouts at specific stores, but this week is one of their big annual promotions where those offers are available broadly. It is also possible to link a credit card for certain in-store offers, which is a nice feature.
To earn the extra money or points, simply create an account, choose how you want to be paid (a check, Paypal, or link your Amex account, if you have one, to be paid in points), then search the store you were planning to shop at. Click through to that store and complete the purchase in that same browser session. In my experience, the cash or points usually show up as pending within a day, and I have never had any issues with offers tracking. This extra 2 minutes of work can lead to some nice payouts. Currently, with the $40/4000 point offer for new customers and 15% increased payout rates, you could make $46 back on a $40 purchase or 4600 Amex points which I would value close to $80.
We took advantage of several offers earlier this week and as you can see below, all of the points are already showing as pending in my account.
Perhaps the most interesting offer which has been covered at several sites the past few days are offers for $300 or 30k Amex points when successfully applying for a Chase Sapphire Preferred card or a Chase Ink Unlimited business card. That, combined with the current 100k point sign-up bonus on the Sapphire Preferred make this an absolutely phenomenal deal! For new customers this would also stack with the additional $40/4k new customer bonus. It is not clear when this specific offer will end so if you are interested, I would jump on it immediately! Keep in mind both of these cards are typically subject to the Chase 5/24 rule where you won’t be approved if you have 5 or more new accounts in the last 24 months. Since I already have a Sapphire Reserve card and my wife has a Sapphire Preferred card, I went for the Chase Ink Unlimited offer. 30k Amex points and 75k Chase points for a no annual fee card is awesome!
For new customers, if you would like to support the site feel free to use my referral link for the $40/4k bonus: Click this link then “Join Now” in the upper right of the page www.rakuten.com/r/ASELVY7?eeid=28187
TL;DR: The Rakuten shopping portal Big Give Week promotion has some excellent offers for 15% cash back or Amex points at popular retailers which stack with the current $40/4k sign-up offer for new customers who spend $40 in their first 90 days.
