So one of the best ways to get a “deal” is to earn some extra points/miles or cash back rebates by making all your online purchases through various companies online shopping portal. There are two types of sites:
- Cashback – You will get #% back on your total purchase
- Points/Miles – You will get #x bonus on the total purchase price
Both types of sites are great, and usually I determine the site I’ll use based on which one has the best current bonus at the time for the online store I am make the purchase through. While you need to decide which site works best for you, I wanted to highlight a newer one out there called TopCashBack.com. Blogger Frequent Miler actually introduced me to this particular site as they give ALL of the store’s commission rate back to the consumer (YOU!) and only make their money via ads. Unlike some of the other cash back rebate sites, you can cash out your earned money at any point, you do not need to hit a certain minimum threshold (i.e., some of them require you to have at least $25 to cash out).
I spent a good amount of time over the past few days comparing this site against the other cash back sites and mile/point bonus earning sites, and more times than not TopCashBack had the best cash rebate for the consumer. It is up to you though if you’d prefer cash back or bonus miles/points. If it is the same % back as bonus points, I’ll personally go for the bonus miles/points as I get much more value out of my points than 1 cent per dollar, however, I do understand that some folks prefer the cash upfront.
So I looked into many many merchants, and found some great cash back opportunities:
- Radisson (Club Carlson) – 10% cash back
- Airport Parking Reservations – 40% cash back!
- Avis – 5.5% cash back
- Cheapcarribean.com – 5% cash back
- Restaurant.com – 36% cash back
- Proflowers.com – 21% cash back
- Shoebuy.com – 17% cash back
- Bloomingdales – 7.5% cash back
- Old Navy – 5.5% bach
- Soap.com – 5% cash back
Essentially you can think of this as a discount on your purchase. So if you are buying something at Bloomingdales.com that costs $100, you are getting 7.5% discount (thus $7.50 back via this rebates site).
How does this work?
- First, register for topcashback.com. Up until July 4, 2012 you can receive a $10 referral for everyone that you get to sign up through your referral link (many thanks to anyone who signs up through my link). Once your referee earns $10 back in rebates themselves, your $10 referral commission will get paid out to you.
- Search for the online shopping store you are looking for. Remember, not every store is on this site (or every site for that matter). Also, make sure to take a look at a few of the online shopping portals to see which one gives you the best offer.
- I searched for Radisson since that is that is a pretty common one right now to get an extra deal out of the Club Carlson promotion. The cash back percentage will be listed (in this case 10%) and any other terms or restrictions will be given. This particular example states that you will still earn the cash back on the “cash” part if you use Cash & Points to book a reservation. Some merchants give a different cash back amount based on the product. For example, at Best Buy you might get 6% on some select purchases, but only 1.7% back on a laptop. Also, many times they state that the purchase of gift cards are excluded (although there are times when those purchases slip through the cracks).
- Once you click the “Get Cashback Now” button, you will be taken directly to the merchants website. Tracking codes in the URL are able to figure out where you came from and thus give commission to the site who sent you there (while I am not a tech person so do not fully understand the ins and outs of this, I promise it works!).
Essentially, this takes probably an extra 1 minute of your time to ultimately book your travel or purchase an item from the exact same website you would have originally! No coupons needed and you get a discount on your purchase, not too shabby, right?! Enjoy your extra savings!
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Does anyone actually have experience using this site? Does cash back credit actually flow through fairly seamlessly, or have people run into trouble with incorrect/missing cash back?
Yeah I’ve been liking my topcashback experience so far. Already getting back $4 from a deal i got on the 16th..if anyone needs a referral http://www.topcashback.com/ref/bitachu
Also available is:
Sixt – 8%
British Airways – 5%
If anyone wants to use my referral: http://www.topcashback.com/ref/adamgreene
Cheers
Hi what’s an equivalent website to TopCashBack for points/miles?
@Rob – Almost all of the hotel and airlines have shopping portals (i.e., American Airlines, Delta, Marriott, Southwest, etc.) as well as American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Signed up for the site with your referral link. Figured it was worth a shot with all of the Club Carlson stays coming up!
@Michael – Thanks!
[…] back 10% cash rebate for all reservations made through their portal. I’ve written about TopCashBack.com in a previous blog post if you want to learn more about this site. If you refer friends to this portal, for a limited time […]
how do you actually get the money out though?
does it go to your credit card?do overseas cards work?
can you use the credit for online purchases>
@adamu – Once all the purchases are confirmed for the merchant, you can cash out and top cash back will send you a check for the amount you are owed.
I’ve used topcashback for over a year now, it’s a great site. It can take a bit of time to get the money into your bank (usually about 3 months) but it’s worth the wait!
thanks deals!
put can the check only be cashed in the us?
@adamu – You can have the money transfered directly to your paypal account.
Its a nice deal. we should try it.
thanks deals-and sorry for all the questions..!!
one more if i go thru the portal can I login and book for diff people and still get credit for me as long as i use my credit card??
@adamu – you should be able to although I am not 100% sure it really shouldn’t matter what credit card is used or whose name is on the reservation, but I will try to get a confirmation on this. I actually did it that way for my parents upcoming radisson stay.
Feel free to ask away, no worries!
[…] Club Carlson (Radisson, Park Inn, Country Inn & Suites) stays. This is a great opportunity to get 10% cash back on all your stays for the current Big Night Giveaway Promotion! However, with any online portal there is always some […]
Is this the same company as the UK site with the same name? The UK site has very good reviews but the US company only got 2 stars out of 5 at Cashbackholic. They said that it takes forever to get your cashback, always pending and they don’t reply to emails.
If you are going to have your money transferred thru Paypal, don’t you get charged by Paypal? Also, not sure if it was Mr. Rebates or Big Crumbs but I was charged $1 by them to have my cashback sent thru Paypal so i’d rather get a check.
It sounds too good to be true:
When I google’ed for the site “reviews,” many users complain of not getting any cash back or if they did, it took them for over 3-4 months, even longer for cash reward.
I am not sure if I would have time to keep track on my purchase records and keep claiming to the company.
It is certainly your call.
[…] you are not yet aware of how TopCashBack.com works, you can check out this previous blog post. I personally have had great luck with this site and have been paid out on everything earned. This […]
I’ve been using ebates, mrrebates, bigcrumbs, and fatwallet for a few years now with no issues. Decided to sign up for Topcashback due to 2-4 times the cash back for some retailers. The first two purchases I made didn’t get tracked and I had to file claims, which I did a few weeks ago and no responses since then. They say on their website to make sure you delete all your cookies first; I’ve never had to do that to get the other cashback websites to work, but I did that before making an $815 plasticjungle purchase expecting 2.5% back. A few weeks have gone by and I see that it tracked but with only $0 in cashback coming to me, so for some reason it got rejected, so I just filed a claim for that now to. I don’t plan to use it again until when/if they resolve my claims. A lower % you actually get at the other websites is better than a higher % that doesn’t actually work!
[…] The online shopping portal topcashback.com (which I’ve written about before – you can learn more about this site by reading this previous blog post) is will credit your account 6% when you go to BestBuy.com through their shopping […]
I would not vouch for topcashback. I have never received any cash back from them despite constant follow ups and always got denied message. I had enough and moved on to other much reliable cash back portals.
Giving it a try. 🙂 Thanks for the info! I used the link in the article so Deals We Like can get the referral for the effort in posting the article…. it does have a referral link posted through it.