Ebates - A Little Extra Money Back

I wanted to write about a website called ebates, which I ran across some time ago. I didn't want to write until I saw that it works. Well, today I received my first rebate check from them, so I wanted to share the information.

Ebates.com is a shopping portal for a large number of on-line stores, including almost all the big names and many specialty stores. There are over 800 different stores. They have names like Macy's, Target, Circuit City, Staples and a ton more. Each of the on-line stores has some offer if you use ebates, usually a percentage back for your on-line purchase. For many stores it's 1-2% but there are some with percentages of 5% back or higher -- some even at 25%! Some examples of stores and the current rebate level: Macy's 4%, Bloomingdales 2%, Broderbund 7%, Circuit City 2%, Home Depot 3%.

To use the system you would sign up here (you get a $5 bonus just for your initial sign-up!). Then when you find an on-line store you want to shop you click on the store's website link. That opens a tracking ticket on ebates which follows the transaction. If you complete a purchase during that visit ebates gets notification within a few days from the seller and then ebates credits your account with that amount.

It's important to note that only purchases which are done via an ebates portal entry can get credited. That means if you go directly to Staples.com and buy something there, you don't get ebates credit even though Staples is an ebates vendor. Only if you went to ebates first and then clicked on Staples.

What you can do if you are shopping on-line and are finding something to buy, you can empty your shopping cart from that visit (if you put the item in your cart) and close that window. Then open a new window and go to ebates, click on the seller's store name to open a tracking ticket and complete your purchase.

The list of stores is really very widespread -- sometimes I've missed out on ebates because I didn't check to see if a seller was on the list, like cheaptickets.com, which offers a $3 credit for a hotel, airfare or package transaction. So I'm going to try and double-check ebates before any on-line transaction.

To make it even more palatable, they offer a $5 credit for signing up (they won't send you the $5 till you add some purchases). So if you do shopping on-line, here's a way to get some of your hard-earned cash back in your pocket! Sign up now!