6 Cashback websites I use for shopping rebates

Cashback websites make your online shopping sweeter by giving you a kickback on your online purchases just for clicking through their site.

You know there are great deals to be had just about everywhere you look. Cashback sites are pretty darn easy. The more you buy from merchants on their site, the more they pay you.

How can cashback websites hand out free money?

Now, they're not just being nice guys by giving you free money, of course. They get paid for closing the sale, pay you part of it, and keep the difference.

But regardless of how they can get the money to you, it's yours for the taking if you want it!

Here are a few sites I enjoy that give you cash back as you shop for your rebating pleasure.

Rakuten Cashback

Rakuten was the first rebate site I heard about (back when it was EBates). I heard about it in 2002. A friend pointed me toward it when I was making some big purchases. I got my first Big Fat Check and wrote about it on the site even before it was a blog. That was a long time ago (like twenty years ago!)

But anyway, the site is still going strong, with hundreds and hundreds of stores and a great sign-up bonus.  You get $30 if you spend $30 during the first 90 days after signing up. They pay out Big Fat Checks quarterly, and as long as you've earned $5.01 or more in rebates by their cut-off, you score a check. To accumulate rebates, just log in and click through to the merchants from their site instead of going there directly. That's it!

TopCashback USA

TopCashback regularly has very competitive cashback rates, and has a good record of paying out quickly. I've talked about setting up a few things once, forgetting about them, and still getting rebates. It's a great weapon to have in your rebate arsenal. The cash-out limit is very low as well.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a long-time favorite of mine, and one of the most fun cashback sites around. Not only can you earn SB (Swagbucks currency, each the equivalent of $0.01) for clicking through to your favorite retailers and shopping like normal, you can earn SB many other ways as well. You can complete surveys, watch videos, complete offers and tasks, and much more.

MyPoints Cash Back

I use MyPoints quite a bit. This was another site that I signed up for a long time ago, probably 20 years ago!

You can read (and click within) e-mails to earn free gift cards without spending a dime, or you can shop and earn them faster. Calculating the equivalent percentage rebate is a little bit of a trick, but a merchant that pays 3 points per dollar is the equivalent of a 2% rebate, and 10 points per dollar is about a 7% rebate.

Join MyPoints and check it out!

InboxDollars Cash Back

This site has an e-mail component similar to MyPoints as well as opportunities to earn money for surveys and other offers. It does have a shopping component as well.

There's a $5 bonus to start at InboxDollars, and you earn 10% of what people you refer earn. They pay regularly and quickly, which is what you need above anything!

Mr. Rebates Cashback Website

I didn't catch this one until later, but I'm glad I did! They'd been around for a while.

Much like Rakuten, Mr. Rebates has rebates tied to hundreds of online merchants.  There's a $5 bonus to start, the payout is a low $10, and you can earn 20% of what anyone you refer earns. I've earned thousands of dollars over the years with Mr. Rebates! It's stood the test of time and I'm glad I gave it a shot!

(This post was originally published on 16 May 2009, and has been updated. Header image by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash.)