5 Ways You’re Losing Money With Ebates

5 Ways You’re Losing Money With Ebates – How does Ebates work and what is Ebates!? Find out how you’re losing money if you aren’t using one tool!

 

When I first started searching for ways to save money and bring in extra money, the idea of cashback always sounded too good to be true. And usually, it was. I had no idea how to use Ebates or even what is Ebates!

Which is why I was so wary of Ebates… in the beginning.

Are they willing to give me cash back for free? I don’t have to pay them for a membership or anything? It just didn’t compute. So I held off on getting Ebates. And it was such a mistake to wait that long!

Years later, I got Ebates when I started my blog as a kind of case study to see what it was about and if it was really worth it.

How does Ebates work? What is Ebates? Can I really save money using Ebates?

I learned very quickly that I’d been losing money not using Ebates each time I shopped online. Here are my highly scientific and well-researched findings:

The short answer – can you save money with Ebates: yes.

The long answer: absolutely, positively, undoubtedly, without question, no holds barred, no need to ask me twice, are you still wondering what the answer is because it’s YES!

So, what is Ebates?

Ebates is a site that pays you for shopping online. They give you cash back with almost every single purchase that you make online. Ebates has more than 2,000 stores online that will give you cash back.

Your favorite stores to shop online will give you cash back with Ebates. Yes, you can use Ebates to get cashback from your favorites stores.

Stores like Amazon, Target, Walmart, Kohls, Macy’s, Groupon, Sephora, Gap, Nordstrom, and more can give you up to 40% cash back on purchases you were already going to make.

How does Ebates work?

The idea of no-strings-attached cash back sounds too good to be true, right? But here’s the explanation straight from Ebates explaining exactly how does Ebates work, which not only cleared things up for me but also helped me to feel more comfortable with them as a business.

“This sounds too good to be true, how are you able to do it?” It really is quite simple. Just like almost every other online shopping center, we get a commission from the stores when you make a purchase. Instead of keeping that money – like almost all other sites do – we share it with you!”

CliffNotes version – how does Ebates work?: Amazon wants more customers, so it offers to pay Ebates.com a commission for every sale that they make through an Ebates referral. Ebates then gives you a portion of their referral commission in the form of cash back.

You win, Ebates wins, Amazon wins, everybody wins!

Knowing this made me feel so much more secure! It’s not spammy or leaving you wondering where the money is coming from. Once I knew that it wasn’t like they made money selling my information to scammers, I felt confident signing up.

But surely any site that would pay you to get cash back is asking for a membership fee, right?

So what’s it gonna cost me to use Ebates?

How’s $0 sound? Yup, Ebates is actually completely free. I’m on pace to exceed $1,200 this year from my earnings with Ebates and it’s completely free.

But you still might not be getting all of the savings that you should be getting! if you’re not using Ebates to its full potential, it’s like leaving money on the table.

5 Ways You’re Losing Money With Ebates

1. You haven’t started using it!

If you do ANY shopping online, you need to get Ebates. Ebates is a cash back site that, with no strings attached, will give you cashback for almost every site that you might shop online.

Ebates does cash back in 2 ways: 

1. A flat rate cash back, like this one with Bluehost:

2. A percentage cash back of the ending purchase price, like with GoDaddy:

 

If you were already going to buy something online, you might as well get your 3% cashback for the purchase! It really adds up over time, and especially if you do most of your shopping online.

2. You haven’t claimed your FREE $10 gift card to Target, Walmart, Macy’s or Kohls (just some of the stores that give you cashback with Ebates).

You’re just leaving money on the table here! When you sign up, you get to choose where you want your free $10 gift card: Target, Walmart, Macy’s or Kohl’s (they may change this seasonally).

Think you missed out on getting your free $10 gift card? Ebates has an amazing support staff who will be happy to help you find out what happened!

3. You haven’t installed the Ebates Chrome Extension.

This is UH-MAZING! Back in the day, you had to get your membership to Ebates and then check back all the time to see if the site you were on was eligible for cashback from Ebates.

Ebates has a Chrome extension to help make sure that you never miss an opportunity for cashback. The Ebates Chrome extension is SUPER easy to install and it shows up in a pop-up menu when you’re on a site that has cashback available.

The little pop-up will tell you if there’s a cashback percentage or a flat rate for the site that you’ll be buying from. No need to check your emails or go back to Ebates to see if something is eligible. You’ll know automatically with the Ebates Chrome extension.

You’ll never miss out on an opportunity to save money with Ebates!

4. You haven’t used the coupon code finder!

This goes along with the Ebates Chrome extension, but it’s worth mentioning on its own. I didn’t even know that this existed until it popped up for me!

This is a nifty little thing that pops up automatically from the same Ebates Chrome extension. Once you go to checkout for the item(s) that you want to buy, it will pop-up asking if you want to check out the coupon codes available.

It will show you the number of coupon codes available and it will automatically enter all of them to see if there are any that are eligible for your purchase. So instead of manually needing to go and find all of the potentially available coupon codes, this will enter them and try them for you.

Although, just because it says that there are 6 coupon codes to try doesn’t mean that they will be able to be applied to your cart. I’ve had many opportunities where I didn’t have a single coupon code work. I’ve also had some that have saved me 25% or $15. It all just depends on what you’re buying and when you’re buying it.

I’d venture a guess and say that during the holidays, there are more coupon codes available and more of them apply to the whole purchase.

5. You haven’t told your friends about it!

I love Ebates! I’ve shouted it from the rooftops, on my blog, to my neighbors, and basically to everyone and anyone. If you are going to buy something online, you should at least try to save some money while you’re doing it!

Since I got the answer to how does Ebates worked, what it is, all of the Ebates stores that I can get cashback from, and how to use the Ebates Chrome extension, I’ve been a HUGE fan of Ebates! And It shows in how I talk about it!

That said, they have an amazing referral program! It changes quarterly, but their bonuses are always amazing. Last Christmas, their referral bonus was $25 per referral!

So if you sent out your link to Ebates to your whole family letting them know that they should get Ebates, get their free $10 gift card, get cash back, and save money, you could stand to make a really pretty penny while helping your friends and family save!

Even if you only got your mom and sister to sign up, you just made $50, and they each got $10 and saved some money, too. It’s a huge win-win situation for everyone!

Ebates is – hands down – the best cash back site that I’ve found. It’s completely legit and it will wind up earning you money from items you were already going to purchase. For the price of $FREE, I’ve made $1,000 in the past year from Ebates. If you sign up through my link, you’ll get your $10 cash or gift card bonus right now!

Have you tried Ebates? What’s your favorite place to shop online?