Ebates was our go-to cash portal for online shopping. Sure, there were other websites that might offer 1-2% more cash back but for most of our purchases, it’s not worth it for the extra dollar or two to worry about opening up and keeping track of another cashback website.
But if you go to www.ebates.com nowadays, you’ll no longer end up on the Ebates site.
Instead, you’ll end up here.
What’s a Rakuten?
They’re the Japanese company that purchased Ebates in 2014. They made some changes but for the most part, things ran as they did before. Then in 2018, they finally went through the change of the Ebates website to Ratuken.
There was even a pretty good Super Bowl ad telling people how to say their name.
Know what? If you need to buy a Super Bowl ad to tell people how to say your name, that’s sign number one there may be a problem with your marketing.
Know what else? I’m still going to call it Ebates. They’ll forward the website forever. I don’t have to remember Rakuten, but after writing this article I probably will remember it.
Why will I remember Ebates website? Because it sounds like rebate. Which is exactly what you get when you use their website.
I’m a horrible consumer, I know it. No matter how much money you spend on getting me to call something a new name, I’m still gonna use the old one.
For example:
- It will always be Disney-MGM Studios, not Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- I’ll always call FL-528 “The Bee-Line Expressway,” not the Beach Line
- I still call it Newark Airport, not Newark-Liberty Airport. No matter how hard you try to change my mind.
The only time I readily accepted a name change to was when Hilton changed their loyalty program from Hilton HHonors to Honors because HHonors was a silly name to begin with.
So you can still use Ebates, or Rakuten, to earn cash back on your online purchases. Check with a website like Cashback Monitor to see if they’re offering the best deal or if you can use a different portal to maximize earnings.
If you’ve never used Ratuken before (oh, now they have me using it), you can sign up with our referral link and receive $10 back when you make a purchase through the portal worth over $25. We’ll receive a referral bonus, which we’re always thankful for.
Happy shopping!
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
7 comments
only problem is most of purchases do not get credit. You are making money for the company, but i found less than 25% get credited. Stopped using them.
You probably still call DCA DCA and Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport ATL or Hartsfield. I do too. This renaming stuff without reason has gotten out of hand. Just ask Bonvoyed, I mean Bonvoy.
LOL, so true. Marketing needs to be restrained, too much unnecessary rebranding going on. Really JCP, I call it JCPenney.
I would not recommend ebates and now Rakuten. I had some significant cashback, and was denied my payment because they closed an account, saying that its due to the security concerns. Did not have same problem with TopCashBack.com even thought they are own by the same company.
I didn’t know they were owned by the same company.
Just an FYI (and please don’t hate on me because I noticed this!) but there are several times in the article that it’s spelled Ratuken instead of Rakuten, though I believe Rakuten is the correct spelling?
I just recently started using them and almost instantly received my first “big fat check”. The way I look at it is if I was going to buy the stuff anyway, even if it’s not a perfect system, something is always better than nothing.