Website to Check Out: Ebates.com

Okay, let me say it. It is stupid not to join a free rewards site which pays you money for shopping online. It's free money. Say you were going to do your Christmas shopping at Walmart and Best Buy this year. Your plan is to pend $200 total, $100 at each store. You can go to the store to find your stuff, wait in line, pay your $200 and leave with your stuff and be done. Or you can do what I do and order online and select to pick up at the store. Best Buy has half an hour pickup where you pick up your item the same day after a 30 minute processing period. Walmart offers free ship to store (i.e. no shipping charging) and takes a week or two. Sounds good right? Well, let's make it even sweeter. Instead of going directly to the retailers website, you first went to ebates.com and then clicked on their link to the retailer (after first looking at the coupon codes ebates offers to see if there are any you want to use to get a better deal).

Walmart is offering 2% cash back which means you would get back $2. Best Buy is currently offering 1% cash back. That means you will get a dollar back for your $100 that you spent if my math is right. Not the best deal in the world, but still 3 dollars more than you would have had. You may also want to check another site to see if you can get a better deal for either store. However, for sake of argument lets assume you did decide to go through eBates. They cut a check (or send paypal) once a quarter so long as you have at least $5 accumulated. If you aren't an e-bates member, you can join by clicking here. They are currently offering a $5 signup bonus which means you are gauranteed a check this quarter. Also check out other stores before you shop online. Some stores will give you a larger percentage of your cash back (i.e. 6-10%). I joined eBates in 2007 and have gotten back over $80 from doing the same shopping I would have done anyway. Again, free money. I personally feel $80, or even $3, is worth a couple extra clicks.