Christmas is right around the corner! If you’re shopping for last minute gifts online, don’t forget how useful cash back sites can be in stretching your holiday budget just a little bit further!
Cash back sites work with online retailers to offer you a percentage–usually somewhere between 3-10% of your total purchase–back as a rebate. While 3-6% might not seem like much, it can really add up over time.
And if you’re already going to be making the online purchase, you might as well get a little kickback, too, right? After all, it’s essentially “free” money!
Here are the top 4 cash back sites I recommend…
#1: Rakuten (formerly Ebates)
One of the oldest cash back sites, Rakuten has an easy-to-navigate website and, in my personal view, is the best cashback program. You only have to earn $5.01 in rebates in order to get a check or Paypal payment.
They currently offer cash back at over 1800 stores including Walmart, Target, JCPenney, Staples, Lands’ End, Sephora, and many, many more. They also offer daily deals and coupon codes to help you save even more on your purchases.
You get a $10 welcome bonus when you sign up and make at least $25 worth of purchases within the first 90 days, so you’ll reach your first payout very quickly!
#2: TopCashBack
TopCashBack is another site I’ve used for quite a while. I really like them, because they offer cash back at over 4,000 stores, have guaranteed highest cash back rates, and are really customer-friendly.
If you find a higher cash back rate anywhere else, they will match it for you. They also allow you to receive a payout at any time (no minimum required!) and offer five different payout options.
Go here to get sign up and get started.
#3: BeFrugal
Earlier this year, I discovered BeFrugal.com — a new cash back site that offers cash back at over 5,000 online stores, including Walmart, Target, Amazon, Best Buy, and more!
One of the greatest features of BeFrugal.com is that they offer guarantees on their cash back rates and will match a rate by 125% if you find it higher anywhere else online.
You can request a payout once you’ve accumulated $25 in cash back, and you’ll then receive it within 10 days. They also offer a $10 welcome bonus when you sign up through this link and earn $10 in cash back within the first year.
#4: Swagbucks
If you’ve read my blog at all, you know I’m a HUGE fan of Swagbucks. And you probably signed up a long time ago and have been earning gift cards ever since.
But did you know that you can earn swag bucks on many of your online purchases in the form of cash back? Make sure you’re logged in to your Swagbucks account each day when you shop online, and then activate the Swagbucks cash back button when it pops up!
This one is a little bit different than your typical cash back site, since your earnings are in the form of swag bucks. But it adds up quickly over time, and you can trade those earned swag bucks into gift cards!
{For the handful of you who have yet to sign up for Swagbucks or for the many others who have signed up but feel like you’re not earning much from it, you can go here to learn more.}
Looking for other ways to stretch your holiday budget? Check these out:
- 15 Ways to Earn Money Online for the Holidays
- How to Fund Your Christmas Budget — In Just 15 Minutes per Day!
- 7 Tips to Avoid the Holiday Debt Trap
- 15 Holiday Expenses You’ll Forget to Budget For
- How to Give at Christmas When You Don’t Have Enough Money
- How We Bought Christmas Gifts on a $0 Budget
- 5 Ideas to Simplify Christmas & Save Your Budget
- 12 Ways to Save for Next Christmas
Am I missing any of your favorite cash back sites? I’d love to hear!
Ebates cash, InboxDollars, MySurvey, Swagbucks paid for gc to bless my foster kids plus gifts for my co-workers, daycare, mailman, paperboy and waste disposal guys.
Crystal regularly shares survey opportunities – Jump on in !
That’s SO great! Thank you for sharing!! -Meg, MSM Team
I really like Pinecone Research. This past month they have sent me 3 products to test and I am earning Amazon gift cards with them also.
Thanks for sharing about your positive experience! -Meg, MSM Team
There’s a site called Cashbackholic that compares rebates between multiple rebate sites.
I’ve also had good luck with MrRebates.
Thanks for that great tip! -Meg, MSM Team
Can you sign up for multiple cash back sites? I currently do ebates and had a great experience! Can I do topcashback and befrugal too?
Yes, they are each run differently. So you can sign up for all of them. But you have to choose one for each purchase. You can’t combine them. Hope that helps! -Meg, MSM Team
I use both ebates and upromise.com. While set up to be a college saving site (you can choose to have your earnings deposited directly into a college savings account), you can also choose just to get the cash. I find– by checking evreward.com, which lists the current cashback/points percentages of a lot, though not all, of these sites– that upromise often has a higher percentage offer than ebates.
Thanks for sharing that tip! -Meg, MSM Team