I’m a huge proponent of shopping online through portals – you literally get free extra airline miles, hotel points, or cashback for clicking a link. It couldn’t be simpler.

I always check Cashback Monitor before buying anything online. And lots of stuff earns points or cashback that you wouldn’t expect:

And I plan to file taxes myself this year through H&R Block. I was surprised to see I could get 19 Avios per $1. My taxes this year will be about $60, so that will net me a free 1,140 British Airways Avios points for something I was planning to do anyway.

None of the amounts are staggering individually, but it’s easy to see how it could add up over the course of a year – or even a few months if you shop a lot online.

And Ebates has a promotion through March 31st, 2017 where you can earn $75 for referring 3 new sign-ups who make a $25 purchase.

About Ebates and cashback portals

• Link: Ebates

There are many cashback shopping portals out there. The one I use most is Giving Assistant because the payouts post within a few days after you shop. Others, like TopCashback make you wait 3 or 4 months.

As you can see in the image above, payouts vary wildly. For a single merchant, the cashback can range from 2% to 20% back with no apparent rhyme or reason.

That’s why I recommend checking Cashback Monitor and the payout terms before you commit to a particular portal.

With Ebates, the cashback you earn is tracked within a few business days, which is good. But the payouts are sent 4 times per year – and you must accumulate at least $5.01 each quarter to get a payment (otherwise it carries over to the next payout).

The referral bonus here does not count toward the minimum, so you have to commit to shopping through Ebates to hit that magic threshold – but you get everything once that’s accomplished.

I get why they do this – to encourage people to use the site and form a habit loop of shopping through there. Which is good for everyone involved (you, the merchants, and Ebates as a business).

And, if you’re currently earning nothing from shopping online, anything is certainly better than that!

Refer and earn

When you refer 3 new sign-ups to Ebates, you get $25 for each when they spend $25 after clicking through the site within a year.

Then, you’ll get $75 added to your own Ebates account (a $5 base and a $20 “tier bonus.”)

But remember, you need to earn at least $5.01 to get a payment. This isn’t hard.

Assuming you spend a little over $100 through the end of March 2017 at 5% cashback, you’ll hit that and get the $75 from referring others. Finally, you would earn an ~$80 payment on May 15, 2017.

So there are really only 2 hoops to jump through:

• Refer 3 new sign-ups
• Earn at least $5.01 in cashback to get paid

Not a bad deal for free money.

Share your links!

If you want to sign-up for a new account, here’s my link.

To find your referral code, click “Refer & Earn $25” at the top, then copy your unique code.

Feel free to share it in the comments! And of course, you can share it on your social media and send it to your friends, too.

This is an easy way to make an extra $75 if you shop online a lot.

As an added bonus, you get $10 right away for creating a new account and making a $25+ purchase within 90 days.

I recommend setting your payout preference to PayPal so your payment processes on the quarterly payment dates – and you don’t have to wait for a check in the mail. But some peeps like paper checks, so select whichever one you like best.

Bottom line

If you shop online with any frequency, you can earn an easy $75 bucks when you refer 3 new sign-ups to Ebates through March 31st, 2017.

Your 3 referrals need to spend at least $25 on purchases after clicking through Ebates to shop. And you need to collect $5.01 in cashback earnings to get a payment.

Pretty generous deal and no reason why you shouldn’t hop on this.

I always recommend checking Cashback Monitor before you begin shopping online. But I’ll shop through Ebates a time or two to hit the $5.01 threshold and get my payout – then switch back to whichever portal pays out the most.

If you have an Ebates referral link, feel free to share it in the comments! 

And if you’ve had a good or bad experience with a particular shopping portal, I’d love to hear which ones to stick to and ones to avoid. 

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