Ebates: Where it pays to shop online!

If you’ve read my blog before, you know that 1) I love coupons and finding a good deal and 2) I love shopping.  So when I heard about Ebates, I was quick to sign up as it combines shopping & savings!

Ebates allows you to get a cash-back percentage when you shop online and tracks online coupons for stores, too.  It’s super easy to use, making it a no brainer for me– it pays me back for shopping I already do!

New to Ebates?  All you have to do is register for a FREE account, then log into your account before you shop online.  After you log in, simply search for the store you need and Ebates will show you what cash-back percentage you’ll receive when you shop.  That’s it!

I signed up for Ebates when they were offering $10 gift cards for new users, which was awesome!  (I don’t think this particular promo is running anymore…but is seems to pop up every few weeks so keep your eyes peeled!)  And once you are an Ebates member, you can get $5 for every friend you refer once that person registers and makes a $25+ purchase through Ebates.  How cool is that?!

And four times a year or more, they mail you what they call a “Big Fat Check,” or they can transfer the money to your PayPal account if you’d prefer or even send the money to your favorite charity all at no cost.  Pretty sweet, huh?!  I’ve already got close to $25 coming back to me this quarter!

How to use Ebates:
If you don’t have an Ebates account, create one online. It’s free!  Sign up here.

Once you’re signed up, any normal shopping you do online at any of Ebates’ 1500 participating online retailers will earn you cash back! Just remember – you MUST log into Ebates FIRST, then select your online store. If you don’t do this, Ebates can’t track your purchase and award your cash-back bonus.

Pretty much every major department store online participates in Ebates – Kohls, JC Penney, Macy’s, Target and more – even shopping site you might not think of too, like Ebay, Amazon, Groupon and LivingSocial! I’ve really gotten into the habit of logging into Ebates before I look to buy anything online, because so many stores participate in it.

So recently, I wanted to buy something from Target (surprise, surprise). First, I logged in to Ebates:

Then, I went to the “Shop All Stores” link at the top left side of the page. I searched by “T” to bring up the stores that begin with T:

It shows that I’ll get 2% cash back for shopping there (FYI- that’s probably the lowest cash back amount– some places have up to 20% cash back or more!) When I clicked Target, Ebates popped up a message that it was tracking the purchase, and then it sent me to Target’s website:

From there, I shopped as I normally would. But any purchases I made earned me 2%.  Hollllla!

The cash-back bonus is usually posted to your Ebates account anywhere from 2 to 30 days after you shop. If you forget to shop through Ebates, you cannot get the cash-back bonus, so remember to log in first before you shop online. If you switch stores, you will also need to go back to Ebates, then search for the next store so it can credit your cash back bonus again.

That’s it! Ebates cash-back bonuses are issued quarterly via a check mailed to your home, or you can choose to receive the cash via Paypal or donate it to a charity.  How cool is that?!

Sign up for Ebates here.

What do you think of Ebates?  Would you use it?

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*Note: Ebates did not compensate me for writing this post (although I wish they did!).  I just blog about sites I like and hopefully readers like you will like, too!

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