I started using Rakuten (formerly Ebates) in February 2017, when I really started putting lots of money into renovating my house. [Rakuten is a website and browser extension (I have it installed as a Chrome extension). When you go to a website, it’ll pop up if you can buy things and get cash back. You simply click “Activate X% Cash Back”, and you earn money in your Rakuten account. The amount of cash back per store varies. After you earn $25, they direct deposit your money to your Paypal, or send you a “Big Fat Check”.

Over the last 1.5 years or so of using this browser extension, I’ve earned $226.70. Yeah. The main cash back has come from home improvement websites like Lowe’s and Home Depot, where I order online and pick up in store, or get items delivered if they’re big, like a vanity. Note that Home Depot no longer participates in [Rakuten, but they usually still have lower prices than Lowes in my area. I have also earned a few bucks back from Udemy, where I buy training in order to get better at my job. I highly recommend the Acloudguru courses on Udemy if you work in any type of Cloud Architecture role. I even earned some cash back on buying my Chinese Roomba and on purchasing a refund from TaxAct!

I’d highly recommend signing up for Rakuten if you do much online shopping, it’ll save you a bit more money, plus you can keep your Rakuten cash along with your credit card cash back!

Update July 2019

I also wrote about other ways to earn major cash back. And now I’ve earned about $350 back from using Rakuten!