How to: Maximize Spend By Using Rakuten for Cashback (or MR Points) + Learn From My Costly Mistake

By now, you may notice that one thing that I am constantly stressing is ‘make your money work for you’. It’s one of the reasons why I am a huge proponent of responsible credit card use in that you are being rewarded (and in the US, handsomely) for your everyday spending. I previously wrote about how to leverage spending by signing up for special promos and airline/hotel dining reward programs and how I used vacation spending and the AA shopping portal to great success. This post is dedicated to how easy it is to earn cashback thru Rakuten and to share one of my recent misses (and how you can avoid making the same mistake)!

^{Reminder: credit cards are ONLY worth it if you can pay off the balance each month! Need to brush up on credit including basics, cards and myths?}

Maximize Spend with a Double/Triple Dip by Using Shopping Portals*

If you shop online at all, not using a shopping portal is likely causing you to lose out on easy money. This is a “double dip” because you will earn miles/points twice: once from using a rewards credit card for the purchase AND secondly by making your online purchases through the shopping portal AND could be a triple dip if the merchant has its own loyalty/rewards program!

^{Want to learn the basics of travel hacking: primer on travel hacking}

_{Beautiful Tip: Cashback Monitor: A comparison tool to check different miles, points and cashback rates. These can vary dramatically by shopping portal so it’s a good idea to check before making your purchase. You can approach using portals by seeking the highest rate or being strategic and concentrating on just a few miles/points/cashback portals. FYI: rates also tend to fluctuate so if you are not needing to order right away, there is a Best Rate History link that can help you see if it might be worthwhile to delay the spending for a larger bonus – this is an advanced move and can really net you a lot more points!}

Rakuten in Action: How I Was Able to Triple Stack Black Friday Savings for MAJOR Cashback

_{Beautiful Tips: Using the Rakuten App is the easiest way to ensure that your purchases are logged correctly with the merchant! Also note that you CANNOT use a merchant’s own app to complete the order (ineligible to receive cashback!)}

(Top Left): Black Friday Sam’s Club Deal on Southwest Gift Cards – $500 e-gift card for $399 which is spectacular 20% off deal already!

(Top Middle): When you search for a merchant on Rakuten, you are able to bring up the cashback rate and some companies like Sam’s breaks it down by category

(Top Right): It is important to look at the exclusions page as it has gone back and forth with Sam’s giving Rakuten cashback on gift card purchases – on this date, there was NO exclusion so I would be earning 12% (all other items!).

(Bottom Middle/Left): I ordered 3 X $399 gift cards for a total of $1,199.97 and the left picture is what it will look like when you are exiting a merchant’s website to return to Rakuten.

(Bottom Right): When a merchant reports a properly coded purchase to Rakuten, you will receive an email like this showing how much you earned in cashback – $144 for this purchase!

_{Beautiful Tips: You can have the cashback sent as a check or deposited in your PayPal. If you have a Membership Rewards earning American Express card, you are also able to have the cashback converted to MR points but note that you are only able to change from cashback to MR points once}

My Costly Mistake and How You Can Learn From It!

Viator is a company that partners with local agencies and operators to offer tours and excursions with Viator becoming the platform customers use to search for things to do and see. I have used Viator extensively around the world and every tour I have booked has been similar to pricing on the tour company’s own website – the only difference is that I am able to earn more points and rewards using Viator (but always a good idea to check you are not overpaying!) .

Triple Stack Opportunity: Viator has its own reward program that gives you 5% of the excursion back as Viator Rewards! This will be credited after the activity is completed (I have seen it be as quick as within 24 hours) and can be applied then towards new bookings.

Important to note that Viator Rewards expire within six months of issue – I had associated the expiry date with a Viator referral code that I had so I LOST out on over $208 in Viator rewards. The customer service agent I spoke with was adamant that they were lost and no way to recovery the funds which is disappointing to lose those funds but also from a service recovery standpoint. But it is what it is – I am sharing this as I don’t want to make it seem like I only have wins – there are many times that I drop the ball. Saving so much money on all the other parts of my travels make the sting a little less painful (not by much because I am still mad at myself!)

Here’s what I learned AFTER the fact that I am now sharing with you so you don’t have this heartache: you are able to book an activity using Viator rewards and if it is canceled or refund, those rewards will be reissued with a 180 day expiry (basically you are able to reset the time clock!)

Bonus: Additional Earning/Saving Opportunities!

If you have not signed up for Rakuten yet, here’s an opportunity for you to earn more money!

• Sign up for Rakuten using my referral link!
• Once you spend $30, you’ll get $30 for using my link (full disclosure that I will also earn a referral bonus!)

If you have not signed up for Viator before, using my referral link for 15% off your first activity booked!

*Note: that Rakuten terms are that you are not able to earn cashback on a Viator booking using a discount code. You could always book through Rakuten and use that discount code and it will be a pleasant surprise if you are given cashback!

See how rewarding it can be when you look to maximize on things you were already going to buy anyways?

Which shopping portal(s) do you use? Have you been able to double/triple/quadruple dip when using a shopping portal?