Option 1 – Cashback Offers

Since it is a cashback site, then naturally, you can expect there will be cashback offers.

The good thing about Rakuten is that it has plenty of cashback offers available.

As soon as you finish the registration process (which I will talk about later), you can log in to their member dashboard and start taking advantage of their cashback offers.

I will tell you, though, it certainly has a lot of cashback offers available, which is good, in my opinion.

If you are new to cashback offers, then the premise is simple. When you click a cashback offer, it will take you to the website hosting the offer.

For example, if you click on an Amazon cashback offer, it will redirect you to Amazon, so you can start shopping.

Once you’ve bought an item, you will receive a percentage of the amount you’ve spent to purchase the product. It will be credited to your Rakuten account.

As I’ve mentioned, it has plenty of cashback options. It even has cashback options from hotels and booking sites. This is a good thing, especially if you frequently shop online.

One more thing that will help you avail of cashback offers conveniently is that you can actually download a Rakuten Google Chrome extension that will automatically apply the best coupons when you shop from some of their partner sites.

It’s a nice bonus to have because you won’t have to keep browsing the site to see if there are any available deals for the site. Simply visit the online store, and if there are any deals available, the extension will notify you.

That definitely makes it more convenient and is something other cashback sites could learn from, in my opinion.

Option 2 – Rakuten referral Program

Rakuten will also reward you for inviting people to join the site. In fact, they reward you well.

Their referral program has a pretty significant reward.

For every person you invite that becomes a member of the site, you will earn $25, which will be credited to your Rakuten account. The referral must complete one cashback offer though before you can get the $25 referral fee.

Considering the condition you need to meet to get the reward, it’s not bad really. $25 is a pretty significant amount for a referral program reward.

You can invite a person to join by sharing your referral link or by sending them an invitation email.

The good thing about their referral program, in my opinion, is you can track down if the person you’ve invited becomes a qualified referral.

You will see a list of your referrals and if they qualify or not when you go to the referral section of the dashboard. So if you have a lot of friends that shop online frequently, it can be a nice way to make some extra cash.

How do you get paid?

Now, let’s get into the other important part of the site.

When you complete an offer, you will receive a percentage of the amount you’ve spent to purchase the product. This will be accumulated in your Rakuten account balance.

You can request payment via Paypal or check when you ‘ve accumulated more than $5 in your account.

Payments are sent every three months on their payment schedule. That should definitely give you enough time to reach their payout threshold.

The payment will be made via check or via PayPal. If you choose to have the payment sent via check, don’t expect to receive it right away because it will be sent via postal mail, which can take some time to arrive.

If you choose to receive payment via PayPal, you’ll be asked for verification when you select this method. It will be issued to the account associated with the PayPal email address in your Account Settings. So make sure to set that properly.

What I like about Rakuten is that it has a relatively low payout threshold of $5, which, in my opinion, is very achievable. The only downside is that you will have to wait 3 months to receive the payment and even more if you choose to receive it via check.

How much money can you make?

If you expect to earn a lot from Rakuten, you might be disappointed, depending on your definition of earning.

Although they do have plenty of cashback options, you won’t really be able to earn a lot from cashback websites, in my experience.

The good thing though is that since they have a lot of cashback offers, there is a good chance you will be able to avail of some of these offers, especially if you shop online frequently.

The main selling point of Rakuten, in my opinion, is not the amount of money you can earn from it but the many cashback opportunities they offer. Since they offer a lot of cashback options, you are bound to take advantage of at least one.

This can be very useful if you like to shop online because it will at least allow you to save a few bucks.

But all in all, the earning potential of Rakuten is relatively low, but it has plenty of deals you can take advantage of.

And it is one of the best cashback sites I have seen, and if you shop online anyway, why not get savings when doing it because of the many shops Rakuten works with, you will likely find the online shops you use already.

You also receive a significant sign-up bonus ($10 cash bonus), which is a pretty nice head start, in my opinion. To get this bonus, you just have to make purchases through Rakuten for at least $25 within 90 days of joining.