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Shopping portal Rakuten is offering increased payout rates at a number of stores for the President’s Day weekend. Individual rates could be available one day only or may last a couple of days — you’ll want to jump on any that appeal to you sooner rather than later.
The Deal
- Shopping portal Rakuten is offering increased payouts at numerous popular stores today, including Dell (15x / 15% back), IHG (9x / 9% back), NordVPN (100x / 100% back)
- Direct link to this deal
If you’re new to Rakuten
If you’re new to Rakuten, there is a current referral promotion to get $30 back when you sign up and spend $30 or more within 90 days. Feel free to use one of our referral links with our thanks.Tim’s Referral Link
Greg’s Referral Link
Stephen’s Referral Link
Nick’s Referral Link
For more detail about setting your earning preference with Rakuten, see Rakuten (formerly Ebates): now change from cash back to Membership Rewards points.
Key Terms
- Be sure to check individual retailer terms for exclusions
- Some payouts may only be available today (2/17/24)
Quick Thoughts
Keep in mind that you can choose to either earn cash back at Rakuten or alternatively Amex Membership Rewards points (so 10% back = 10x Membership Rewards points). If you value points at more than 1c per point, then Membership Rewards points earning makes more sense.
Some of the most notable payouts available today include:
- 15% back / 15x at Dell
- 9% back / 9x at IHG Hotels
- NordVPN 100% back / 100x
Dell will obviously be popular with folks who have Dell credits to use.
IHG can certainly be useful for those with hotel bookings to make. Keep in mind that you do not need to make an advance purchase rate booking in order to earn portal rewards — you can earn points on a rate you pay later, but you’ll need to click through and book now (expect the points to post sometime well after you complete your stay). There is no way to get the rate for previous bookings without cancelling and rebooking (but check current rates before you do that).
The NordVPN payout could be especially interesting to those looking for a way to effectively buy Membership Rewards points for 1cpp — and it might get even better.
Rakuten is listing a promotion to get up to a $30 Uber Eats voucher with NordVPN subscription. It looks like you’ll need to buy the “Ultimate” package for two years to get the $30 UberEats voucher. That’s the most expensive package, but for those looking to buy cheap Membership Rewards points, I would expect this to come with at least 15,336 Membership Rewards points (I assume you won’t earn portal rewards on tax) and a $30 Uber Eats gift card for $166. Update: Commenters indicate that the Ultimate package does not track properly.
If you value the points at more than 1c per point and the $30 voucher at more than $14, that seems like a win even if you don’t value the VPN service at all.
As always, compare portal rates using a tool like cashbackmonitor.com to be sure you’re getting a good deal.
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Is it safe to buy multiple copies of Nord VPN using the same Rakuten account? Essentially buying MR at 1 cpp.
Just as a data point for those who did not buy yet, I purchased the standard NordVPN plan. With taxes it was $89.70. About 2-3 hours after purchase, 8136 points popped up in Rakuten.
Update. I purchased the NordVPN Ultimate plan at $153 and received 8136 points. Cancelling now. The 8316 points aligns with the $81.36 for the Basic plan, so seems the deal would have worked with that plan. Unfortunately, Rakuten and NordVPN both deceptively presented the deal. Just lost a lot of respect for Rakuten – I used to consider them very trustworthy and my go to portal. All lost with this scam like deal!
Already cancelled as well. Not sure this is Raktun’s fault or is it just NordVPN. Rakuten has been good to us over the years, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Beware. There are multiple data points on Reddit that NordVPN will not get 15336. The Ultimate plan essentially includes NordPass (“Cross Platform Password Manager”), and NordPass is excluded per Rakuten. People were reporting that it was tracking far lower than that (8136?). The standard package reportedly tracks at 100%.
Yep, I’m experiencing the same thing!
Same
Thanks for the warning! I bite on the Ultimate plan ($153). Now reading the Rakuten fine print and comparing it to the Ultimate plan details it does indeed sound like part of it might not count (though it’s not all itemized by Nord, so basically a scam on their part). I’ll cancel if all the points don’t come through. Sounds like the Basic plan would have worked, unfortunately now I’m an existing customer …
Update: I reached out to Rakuten to complain about the deceptive deal and ask them to award points for the full transaction. After 8 emails and 26 days from my initial email Rakuten agreed to “as a courtesy” award me points on the full transaction. Unfortunately, before their last response telling me the good news, I had already made moves to cancel the NordVPN subscription (as the 30 day free cancel period was approaching). Unsurprisingly, canceling NordVPN was a headache. While the deal was clearly deceptive, I give Rakuten credit for at least having a system to respond to my complaint and ultimately offering to do the right thing even if only on a special basis (when I had a similar issue with Wyndham portal I couldn’t even get a response). I was feeling bitter about this whole thing. I think moving forward, I’m going to pass on shopping portal deals exclusively as a way to purchase points. Great to get extra return on spend I’m already going to make, but too much risk when I’m only doing it only for the points. I do appreciate FM posting about such deals and the quick updates on this deceptive deal, but in the future I’d encourage the inclusion of a cautionary note on a history of deceptive T&Cs from Rakuten and others.
I’d be careful with the more expensive plan after what happened with the Wyndham version. Only DPs will tell though
https://frequentmiler.com/wyndham-portal-120x-on-nordvpn/
FYI – need to be subscribed for 31 days to get the UberEats Voucher
Well you would be buying a two-year subscription in order to get the Uber Eats voucher, so that would be relatively easy 🙂
Yeah I thought it was a bit strange to hold it for 31 days, but that’s their story and they’re sticking to it
It’s because you can get a refund before then. They only send it once the refund period is over.
Any idea how? At 8136 miles I’m not sure it’s worth it anymore
I think I would give them the 166.00 for the 15,336 but do I have to actually have to download Nord ?
No.