Want to get cashback when you shop? Then you might have been considering RebatesMe, one of many sites that give you cashback each time you shop online.
You’ve probably heard about sites like Rakuten and TopCashback (review) that give you cashback for online shopping.
They’re great for saving money. Is RebatesMe legit like those cashback sites though?
Or should you give it a miss?
Read our RebatesMe review below if you want to know if the site is legit and if it’s worth using next time you’re shopping online.
Table of Contents
What is RebatesMe?
Put simply, it is a site that gives you cashback when you shop online.
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Just visit the website and you’ll be able to find awesome deals.
You can join with your Facebook account or Google account. Or you can just sign up with an email address and password by going to https://www.rebatesme.com.
You can get a $5 bonus just for signing up.
The best part about the site is that not only does it offer deals to people in the US, but it also has sections for UK deals and Australian deals.
There’s no RebatesMe app for Android and iOS.
However, there is a Chrome extension available called the RebatesMe Cashback Button.
How It Works
How the site works is really simple:
Step One: Shop through RebatesMe
To get started, just log in to your account and browse deals, select the store you want and start shopping.
If you don’t want to shop through the site, you can use the browser extension that we linked to above.
When you use the extension, you can go directly to the store you want to shop at.
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When you open the merchant directly, an activation popup will appear reminding you that you need to click the pink “Activate” button to get started. The button will turn green and the display will be activated, which means you can shop now.
Whether you shop through the website or the browser extension you’ll earn cashback.
Step Two: Earn cashback
There are more than 4,000 stores featured on the site and you can get up to 40% cashback.
What stores are available, you ask?
Here are a few examples of the stores you can shop at with RM, along with the amount of cashback you can get for each one:
- Sephora: 5% cashback
- Calvin Klein: 8% cashback
- Adidas 2% cashback
- MAC: 8% cashback
- Macy’s: 8% cashback
- Net-a-Porter: 9% cashback
- SkinCareRx: 20% cashback
- Nike: 4% cashback
- Elizabeth Arden: 15% cashback
- Urban Outfitters: 6% cashback
- Kate Spade: 9% cashback
- Bloomingdale’s: 10% cashback
- Smashbox: 12% cashback
Other deals on the site
It’s not just cashback deals that the company provides. On the website, you can find deals combined with cashback offers, giving you even more savings.
For example, you could get 30% off sitewide from SkinCareRx in addition to 20% cashback.
These types of offers can be found in the “Deals” section of the website. Scroll down the homepage until a navigation bar appears and you’ll see the “Deal” link next to “All Stores” on the navigation bar.
That’s not all though.
Even though I couldn’t find cashback on Amazon purchased and purchases from many other popular retailers, there were coupons available. I did a search on the site for these stores:
- Walmart
- Amazon
- Target
And I found some coupons.
There might not be cashback offers available for some stores, like the ones above, but you can still get coupons from the RM.
RebatesMe referral bonus
You can also earn money when you refer a friend. You will earn a $10 bonus for each friend that you refer.
In order to get the bonus though, your friend will have to earn $10 in cashback.
Step Three: Redeem your cashback
Okay, so once you’ve earned cashback from a store, it’s time to redeem it.
To cash out your earnings, your cashback amount must reach a minimum of $10. Then, you’ll be able to cash out your earnings.
What are the payment options though?
Are you stuck with a check?
Heck, no!
The website offers a few different payment options:
- PayPal
- Credit card (VISA/Mastercard)
- Gift card
- Check
The total amount of cashback cannot exceed $1,500.
How Does RebatesMe Make Money?
So if the company is paying you to shop, how does it make money?
It’s simple really. While RM doesn’t say on its site exactly how it makes money, it’s safe to assume that it works in the same way as other cashback sites do.
You see, a cashback site sends customers to stores and is paid a commission for doing so.
Here’s an example:
- RM sends you to Nike where you buy something.
- In return for sending a paying customer to its store, Nike gives RM a commission on the sale.
- RM then shares a portion of this commission with you.
It’s that simple.
Is RebatesMe Legit?
Now, for the important question: Is the website actually legit?
The website doesn’t have as many reviews as you’ll find for more well-known websites like Rakuten.
But, the reviews (especially RebatesMe reviews on Reddit) that it does have are quite mixed, .
Let’s take a look at the site’s ratings on the Better Business Bureau and on Trustpilot.
Better Business Bureau rating
On the BBB, the site is pretty well-reviewed. But there are some poor reviews on there too.
Here are the key details:
- The company is accredited by the BBB.
- It has an A+ rating from the BBB
- Users on their rate it just under 3-stars
The BBB seems to rate it higher than customers on the site who gave RM just under 4-stars.
On user says:
- “I use several cashback-services: Ebates, mr. Rebates and RebatesMe. RebatesMe – one of the best cashback-services. Best deals. No problem with withdrawing money.”
There were quite a lot of positive reviews like that. However, there were also negative reviews with customers complaining that:
- They were charged a $4.99 maintenance fee on their account each month.
- Getting a payout was difficult. Many customers said they’d withdrawn their earnings but had not received their money.
- Cashback doesn’t get credited.
It’s not unusual for a cashback site to charge an account maintenance fee – Rakuten charges $2 if your account becomes inactive. But it doesn’t charge a fee if your account is at $0.
RebatesMe Reviews on Trustpilot
On Trustpilot, it’s a similar story.
The website has 3.4 stars, which is a rating of “Average.”
So again, the reviews of RM are mixed.
There were of course some positive reviews of the website. However, many of the negative reviews complained about:
- Not receiving cashback
- Poor customer service
- The site not properly tracking cashback or not giving the cashback rate stated.
There were similar complaints from customers on Trustpilot to those I saw on the company’s BBB profile.
Chrome store rating
The site’s browser extension has 11 reviews on the Chrome store. It has a 5-star rating. So from the small number of reviews on there, it seems the site’s browser extension is well-reviewed.
Is RebatesMe Worthwhile?
Compared to other sites, RebatesMe doesn’t actually have that many reviews from customers online. In fact, it had less than 20 reviews on each of the sites I mentioned above (Trustpilot, BBB, and Chrome).
That can make it tough to get an accurate picture of customer experience on the site. That being said, the reviews the website does have are pretty mixed. And there were a lot of the same issues appearing in the negative reviews that I did see for the site.
With reviews that are so mixed and the same complaints across multiple platforms, I would give RebatesMe a miss.
There are better-reviewed cashback websites out there. The fact that there were quite a lot of customers who hadn’t received their earnings is a red flag to me.
I would recommend these cashback websites and apps instead:
As you can see from this RebatesMe review, the site can be hit and miss – some customers say it worked for them and others say they didn’t receive their money. That’s why it may be worth using the sites I linked to above instead. It’s really up to you though! Hopefully this review of RebatesMe has helped you to decide whether to use the website.
John
Heads up! RebatesMe increased the bonus to $30 for us both when you sign up!
Saeed Darabi
John, I still see the $5 sign up bonus!