I’m going to share with you the magic of earning cash back with Rakuten Canada by shopping online or in-store and it’s all FREE.
For most Canadians shopping this year will look different, even for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday celebrations.
With the Covid-19 Pandemic, many Canadian shoppers are opting to make purchases online rather than going into the store.
As well, this holiday season 90 percent of Canadians according to a recent survey from the Retail Council of Canada consider shopping Canadian is important.
At Canadian Budget Binder, I pride myself on finding ways to earn money back for our family and pass it on to you, my readers.
Nothing puts a smile on someone’s face when they realize they’ve got a cheque in the mail or money deposited into their bank account.
Rakuten Cash Back Into Your Bank Account With A Simple Click
Never leave money on the table especially when you are online shopping or physically going into a store to make a purchase.
Below I will detail how to use Rakuten on your laptop, desktop computer, cell phone and how to earn with in-store purchases.
One of the best apps Rakuten is a Cash Back App worth signing up for.
Christmas Shopping Online
If you plan on Christmas shopping online don’t wait until the last minute to do so as courier services are gearing up for a busy 2 months.
Fed Ex is urging Canadians to start buying your gifts now so you get them on time for the holidays.
“We asked 1,500 Canadians about what they plan to do when it comes to shopping online this holiday season,” said FedEx Express Canada Communications Advisor James Anderson. “Of the 1,500, 90% of them have said they shopped online this past month, 80% of them still plan to do so in preparation for the holidays.” – Source
A ship-a-thon according to Fed-Ex is about to begin for the next two months so if you can shop, do it now.
“This year, it’s a whole new phenomenon. We have been at peak levels since the onset of the pandemic, what we’re bracing up, for now, is what we call, tongue and cheek, the ship-a-thon,” said Anderson.
Budget And Get Cash Back
Budgeting is a big deal for many Canadian families and sourcing the best deals, rewards programs and cash back offers is a must.
Anytime we buy products online whether it be Christmas gifts, Birthday gifts, or everyday household items we go through Rakuten.
With over 750 stores under Rakuten Canada, you will almost always find a discount for something you are buying.
Rakuten Canada and Japan
Rakuten Canada is based in North York, Ontario on Yonge street and we’ve been using it for years back when it was called EBATES.
What I love about Rakuten is that their customer service is excellent and they work with you in a timely fashion.
Based in Tokyo Rakuten formerly Ebates was founded in 1997 by Japanese businessman Hiroshi Mikitani.
Its B2M E-Commerce platform Rakuten Ichiba is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and employs over 18,000 people.
How Rakuten Canada Works
Download the App to your smartphone or extension button to your desktop or laptop.
Click on the store that you will be purchasing from to read the available offers.
Rakuten brings you to that website and applies the cash back offer.
Once you purchase in about 7 days you will receive an email that states your cash back
You can also shop in-store to get cash back by adding your credit card to your Wallet. (see info below)
There are also gift cards that you can purchase and earn cash back (see info below)
Four times a year the money you earned back will be presented to you in one of three ways. (see info below)
Easy Ways To Earn Cash Back With Rakuten
What we like about the Rakuten app is that there is more than one way to earn cash back on your purchases.
Let’s have a look at how you can be earning cash back in your bank account without much effort at all.
Get The Rakuten Mobile App for ios and Android
Since I own a cell phone now I’ve added the Rakuten for Android as does Mrs. CBB so we can easily shop with our phones.
Above you will see a screenshot of my phone which shows 8 different cash back or savings apps that I use frequently.
Simply go to the App Store and search for Rakuten and download the app.
Rakuten Button Browser Extension
We have the browser extension on both of our laptops and my office computer in the basement.
You’ll see the letter ‘R’ in the upper corner of your device to get cash back for shopping.
What we love about the browser extension is that it automatically will pop up when you are a business that Rakuten is affiliated with.
That means you won’t miss any cashback deals because Rakuten alerts you that there is cashback to be earned from the website you’re on.
Refer and Earn $25
One of the coolest things about Rakuten is their refer and earn program.
What program are you participating in that will give you $25 just for having a friend, co-worker, or family member sign up?
That’s big bucks for lots of people so once you sign up for Rakuten Canada start referring your friend and watch your cashback grow.
You can refer friends on Facebook, Twitter, Email, Text, or by using your unique referral link.
Here’s my referral link if you want to sign up under Canadian Budget Binder and you get $5 cash back just for using it.
Earn Extra Cash when you shop online, it’s that easy OR if you want to go see a product you can still earn.
All you have to do is link your credit card to Rakuten and when you shop in a store you will be awarded the cash back.
Sign up with Rakuten Canada and receive money back when you shop and it’s all FREE.
Plus, if you sign up today you get $5 put into your account for FREE!
Rakuten Refferal Email
You can also email your friends and invite them to Rakuten.
This is what my Rakuten referral email says :
Mo Budget Binder thought you would be interested in checking out Rakuten.ca!
It’s an awesome site that pays you Cash Back when you shop online. With over 750 stores, including Hudson’s Bay, Indigo.ca, Old Navy, and Sephora, get paid to shop for things you’re already buying.
Plus, get a $5 Cash Bonus when you join today!
https://www.rakuten.ca/r/canadianbudgetbinder
Happy shopping!
Rakuten Canada
This program costs you NOTHING.
How does Rakuten earn money?
This is a simple process of the retailer paying Rakuten a certain percentage of each sale through their website.
Once Rakuten gets paid they pass a percentage over to you, the Rakuten customer to say thanks for using their website.
Everyone is a winner with Rakuten.
Rakuten Gift Card Shop
Can you earn cash back by buying gift cards on Rakuten?
Yes, you will earn Cash Back on the full value of the gift card purchased. Cash Back rates will vary from gift card to gift card.
You can also purchase gift cards on Rakuten which get delivered via a secure service right to your door.
Gift cards are always welcome for Christmas, birthdays, and other celebrations that you want to pass along some cheer.
If you have someone on your Christmas list and no idea what to buy them, gift cards are always a welcome surprise.
You can pick up both physical gift cards or electronic gift cards from so many Canadian businesses plus score Cash Back via Rakuten.
At the Rakuten Gift Card Shop, we’ve curated over 70 retailers including Esso, Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaw, Indigo, Canadian Tire and more to offer you the best selection of Gift Cards and Cash Back on every purchase.
Below are some of our favourite gift card offers from Rakuten that we’ve purchased in the past.
Also, you’ll find over 100 gift cards available from restaurants, grocery stores to clothing shops.
Home Depot
Sport Chek
Zehrs
Walmart
Toys R Us
Sobey’s
Shoppers Drug Mart
RCSS
No Frills
McDonald’s
Marks Work Warehouse (that’s mine haha)
Longo’s
Joe Fresh
Freshco
Dominos
Chapters
Cineplex
Air Canada
There are just so many to list I’d be here forever but once you sign up for Rakuten you’ll be amazed at how many stores there are.
The only catch here is that you have to sign up for a Rakuten Gift Card Account but it’s so easy to do.
Yes, in order to process your payments, manage shipping and orders, we do require our users to create a separate account for Rakuten’s Gift Card Shop.
New Rakuten In-Store Cash Back Offers
Rakuten In-Store Cash Back is a newer way to earn money back on the items you purchase in Canada only and it costs you nothing.
There will be times when you must go into a store to physically see a product to make sure it’s what you need.
No problem at all as Rakuten has in-store cash back once you shop at participating retailers and add a credit card to your account.
Click on the ‘My Wallet’ tab under your Rakuten account and this is where you will put your credit card info.
Before you go shopping simply link available in-store cash back offers to your valid credit card.
Go to your profile and click on In-store cash back offers, find the offer you want, click the link offer, and add to the credit card.
You’ll be able to see all of your in-store linked offers once you’ve linked them on your Rakuten account or app.
Link A Credit Card For Cash Back
Once you pay for your order in-store with the credit card you linked it will automatically add cash back on qualifying purchases.
There are no coupons, no vouchers to print extra to present to the cashier apart from using the linked credit card.
You can also link the deal to as many credit cards that you have set up in your dashboard.
It will take up to 7 days to see the cash back added to your account. Yay, free money.
Since the in-store is a new program currently they are only accepting Visa credit cards but this could change in the future.
Your credit card information is stored in a secure, encrypted environment because Rakuten takes security seriously.
Unfortunately, debit cards and debit transactions are not eligible for the program at this time.
Redeeming Rakuten Offers
How do you know if your offer was redeemed?
Once you successfully redeem an offer you will receive an email about the offer and how much cash back was earned.
You can view your cash back balance by clicking the ‘Cash Back Balance‘ tab for your account.
Don’t forget to add Rakuten Canada to your safe email list so you get the emails in your inbox.
If for some reason you don’t get an email within 7 days about an offer you redeemed contact Customer Care.
You’ll find Rakuten has an email service for customer care or a live agent both of which are excellent.
Today’s Featured Deals
Like Amazon Canada, using Rakuten online or on mobile offers the user featured deals of the day.
They also feature ‘Weekly Hot Deals”, Coupon Codes, Coupons, and Flash sales all of which save the user money.
This is only a small screenshot of the deals listed today but you can see they each have a coupon code and expiry date and Cash Back offer.
Rakuten Shopping Guides
Forget the long line-ups in the cold waiting to get into the store for deals on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Boxing Day.
Once you’re signed up for Rakuten you can shop at so many stores and still save without leaving the house. (I love this part)
Black Friday
Cyber Monday
Boxing Day
For each of the shopping guides, Rakuten offers deals from featured stores as the daily promotions commence.
Rakuten will show you what % back you typically would be offered and the extra-special % during shopping guide deals
For example, if you wanted to buy a Dyson Vacuum instead of getting 2.5% back you’d get 5% which is amazing.
Literally almost every store that is popular in Canada is on the list of Rakuten stores for cash back.
Favourite Stores
This is a feature that we use as it saves us time looking for the stores that we shop at online the most.
Add your favourites stores for easy shopping and personalized deals. When you see a , click it and the store will be added to your favourites here. Get started by searching above for the stores you already love.
Under the ‘Favourite Stores’ tab in your account dashboard, you can add your favourites to make online shopping that much easier.
How To Get Your Money From Rakuten
We LOVE it and have received 5 cheques in the mail since signing up in 2018 and haven’t looked back.
There are three ways you can get your cash back from Rakuten which they send out 4 times a year.
February
May
August
November
There are 3 options for receiving your cashback from Rakuten.
Paypal Canada direct deposit
Amazon e-Gift Card *if you shop on Amazon you can put the cash back towards your next purchase
Physical Cheque
Here’s a screenshot of the last cheque stub we received in the mail in 2020 which was awesome to get.
The thing is you can buy online using your credit card to get the rewards points and still get cash back through Rakuten.
I’m all for double-dipping when it comes to getting back money for products that we purchase.
Once you have received a Big Fat Cheque, you can view all the details under the Big Fat Cheque Tab in your account.
Some of our favourite stores that we use Rakuten with when shopping online are brick and mortar stores.
Home Depot
Walmart
Shoppers Drug Mart
Amazon Canada
Sportchek
Other Rakuten Services
There are other services offered by Rakuten such as Rakuten Kobo for the readers out there and Rakuten Viber.
Chats are 100% synced between devices, including 1-tap transfer of calls
The Viber app allows you to make secure calls and messages to anyone, anywhere, and worth checking out.
The Kobo is for those of you who enjoy e-books, audiobooks, and e-readers along with a Super Points rewards program.
Kobo PLUS is $9.99 a month and you have unlimited access to read as much as your heart desires. Pretty good deal.
Final Words Of Advice
My last tip for using Rakuten is to always read the offer so you are aware of expiration dates and specific offer details.
When an offer expires Rakuten automatically unlinks it from your credit card.
Also, if you don’t link to your credit card before you shop there is nothing Rakuten will do to fix it. That’s your oops, not theirs.
Personally, Rakuten has been a nice source of cash back for products we are already going to purchase.
If you like free money (who doesn’t) sign up for Rakuten today and start getting that cash back you deserve.
Sign up for Rakuten today and watch the cash back in your account grow as you shop.
P.S Read my Ultimate Guide To Cash Back Apps and Rewards in Canada as there are SO many you can use.
Subscriber Bonus: Print my free Rewards and Membership Tracker to keep informed of your deals and rewards.
Don’t leave money on the table. I stand by this, and always will. Your money is important to you.
Mr.CBB
Discussion: Have you used Rakuten before and what were your experiences like? Leave me your comments below.
Disclosure: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS MEANING CBB GETS A COMMISSION IF YOU DECIDE TO MAKE A PURCHASE THROUGH MY LINKS AT NO COST TO YOU. PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.
The post Review: Rakuten Canada Is A Must-Have Cash Back App appeared first on Canadian Budget Binder.
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