Is Mr. Rebates Legit?

Most of us like to shop. Yes, the type of shopping differs from person to person. Some like to shop for clothes, accessories, and some like to shop for books or gadgets. Whether it is online or offline, peoples love to buy things that are appealing to them. Some people save money for a couple of months to purchase their desired stuff while some are an impulsive shopper. Everyone wants to shop, which will give them value for their money. Earlier people have to go to the shop personally to buy. Still, with the advancement of technology, we can shop in the comfort of our home.

Most of the avid buyers wait for the sale seasons to make good use of the discount that they get in the products they want to buy. We all want good stuff at a reasonable price, some of the online shops offer flat 50% – 80% discount on some of the branded products. These discounts are steal compared to what the original cost of the product is. Shoppers, especially the avid shopper, might feel that what if they get good discounts all year long? Well, this wish of theirs does come true with the cashback sites.

What is Mr. Rebates?

Headquartered in Saint Charles, Illinois, Mr. Rebates was founded in the year 2002 by Mr. Craig Cassata, who is the President and CEO of the company. Mr. Cassata founded the company to amplify online coupon usage. He thought that it would be great to get a discount on every single purchase made instead of waiting for the availability of coupons. Therefore, Mr. Rebates was born to fill this gap by making available both coupons and cashback on purchases made by their members.

The members have the option of choosing from over 2000 stores affiliated with Mr. Rebates and avail the cashback offers from these stores. The wide range of stores that are tied up with Mr. Rebates ranges from the Apparel and Accessories to Health and Wellness to Travel and Luggage. The cashback offers available in Mr. Rebates range from as low as 1% to as high as 40%; some of the stores provide a fixed amount of money in the form of cashback rather than a percentage of the purchase. Along with the cashback offers, Mr. Rebates offer its members the coupon facilities as well.

They also keep their members updated through their weekly newsletter which as the website mentions is a ‘digest’ which has the best coupons, deal, and sales which are posted in Mr. Rebates along with the information about any new announcements and new cashback offers they are giving to their members
Mr. Rebates is available as a Mobile App, or you can install Mr. Rebates Quick Cash Buttons as a browser extension. The browser extension would remind its members to activate cash back at thousands of different stores tied up with Mr. Rebates.

How should one get started with Mr. Rebates?

One can become a member of Mr. Rebates either through their Gmail account or registering themselves by giving simple login information. The login information like the email address, password, and the details about where you want to receive your cashback has to be given for registration. By providing these pieces of information, you will create your account, and you can start using Mr. Rebates to enjoy the best cashback deals.

For the first time users as soon as your registration is finished, you will be automatically logged in to the site. For the users who are coming back later, you should ensure that you are logging in to the site using the registered email address and password. Your registered email address will be displayed in the top right corner of Mr. Rebates website.

After you have logged in, members can browse through and shop from more than 2000 stores that have the tie-up with Mr. Rebates. Members can either go to the ‘All Stores’ option on the website, which will show you all the stores listed alphabetically, that are giving cashback offers to the members of Mr. Rebates. The other option is to browse the various categories presented in the drop-down navigation under Stores like pets, shoes, cell phones. You can click on the types in which you need to shop and can see the various stores which are giving good cashback deals on that particular category. In case you are aware of the store to buy from or the product you want to shop, then there is a search box available in the top right corner of the website. You can type the store you wish to browse or the product you want to purchase.

To avail the cashback rebate offer, members have to ensure that they complete the entire purchase in that first click itself. This will ensure that the cashback is correctly credited to the member’s account.

Once the member clicks the store through from Mr. Rebates’ site, it activates a code in the store’s shopping cart. This will make sure that the rebate is credited into the account of the member properly.
If the member after clicking a store for cash back, click or surf other discounts, coupons, or if they are comparing other websites for offers. Then there are high chances that the cashback rebates are not credited into the member’s account as their cashback rebate tracking gets lost. Hence, members should ensure that they finish their purchase within the first click to get the cashback credited to their account. To avail of the rebates, each order from the stores available in Mr. Rebates requires an exclusive click-through the Mr. Rebates’ website. In case the members want to make multiple orders, then they should finish placing their first order through Mr. Rebates’ store link. After placing your first order, come back to Mr. Rebates’ website, click through the store again and place the second order. Do the same if you want to put more orders.

How would the members get paid their cashback rebates?

The rebates which the members have been awarded are not shown in the store’s shopping cart. Mr. Rebates credit the rebates to their respective accounts of the members, usually within 1-35 business days of the shipping date of your order. Although the number of days might differ as it depends upon store to store, the members will get a notification on their registered email id when the rebate gets credited into their account.

Members should be proactive in reporting the claim within 90 days of their purchase. There is no limit in the amount of money the members can earn through cashback offers at Mr. Rebates.

Members can request for the reimbursement of the rebate when the available rebates in their account are more than $10. The following are the ways through which members can get paid their cash back rebates

If the members reside in the United States or Canada, then they can ask for a rebate check to be sent to the postal address mentioned during registration, or they can request the rebate payment through PayPal.

If the members reside in countries other than the United States or Canada, then they will receive their rebate payment only through PayPal.

The distinction among ‘Pending Rebates’ and ‘Available Rebates’

Many a time after the purchase of the products or services, the members of Mr. Rebates have seen Pending rebates and Available Rebates. When the member makes a purchase from the affiliated site or sites through Mr. Rebates, upon getting the order from the site, pending rebates are posted to the member’s account. These pending rebates remain in the ‘Pending’ for good 90 days. The reason for keeping the status as pending for 90 days is to take into consideration if there is an order cancellation or the product is returned to the stores and also to give enough time for obtaining the pre-decided commission from the stores.

After the 90 days waiting period, if there is no cancellation or the member hasn’t returned the products. Then the ‘Pending Rebates’ gets converted into ‘Available rebates’ status. These available rebates are later cashed out by the members by requesting the payment either through check or through PayPal.

Mr. Rebates Refer-a-Friend Program

The Refer-a-Friend program of Mr. Rebates offers various tools to its members to help them invite other people. Members can send an email or give text links, banners, or build a link, or they can refer people through Facebook and Twitter.

The new member becomes the referral of the existing member when they sign up using any of the sources, as mentioned above, given by the current member. This new member thus becomes the direct referral which the existing member can see in their ‘My Referrals’ page of their account. The existing member will enjoy 20% each of their referrals’ cashback.

The way Mr. Rebates earn money

Mr. Rebates have a tie-up with more than 2000 stores. The members to make a purchase they have to click on the ‘shop now’ icon beside the store name on Mr. Rebates portal. By clicking on the store link, Mr. Rebates is generating traffic on the store website. It is like Mr. Rebates have given the reference of the store site to its members. Hence, by doing this, the store provides a specific commission to Mr. Rebates, the commission amount is pre-decided as per the agreement between the store and Mr. Rebates. The commission that Mr. Rebates earn is usually a percentage of the total purchase made. Mr. Rebates splits the commission they receive from the store with their members. This sharing of commission with the members acts as a motivation to use the Mr. Rebates website over and over again for their purchases.

Let us understand the way Mr. Rebates make money through an example. For calculation, let’s assume that a member has to make a purchase of around $200 from Walgreens. The member would log in to the Mr. Rebate portal and look for the cashback rate against Walgreens instead of directly visiting the Walgreens website. At present, Walgreens is offering a 03% cashback offer on Mr. Rebates. After clicking on the link provided by Mr. Rebates’ website or app, the member makes their $200 purchase with the Walgreens.

Mr. Rebates is entitled to get a commission from Walgreens for the $200 purchase made by the member of Mr. Rebates. Assume 8% as the rate of the commission decided between the Walgreens and Mr. Rebates. As soon as the return period is expired, Walgreens will credit Mr. Rebates account with $16 as the commission toward the purchase of $200 worth goods by the member. Mr. Rebates, instead of keeping the whole commission to themselves, will share the commission with its members in the form of cashback. In this case, they might give $8 to their member, and the remaining $8 constitute the earning of Mr. Rebates.

Who should avail of the services of Mr. Rebates the most?

Ideally, everyone should avail of the cashback offers and coupons provided by Mr. Rebates. But certain people should compulsorily be the members of Mr. Rebates, and they are as follows.

Persons who shop online frequently.

The cashback offers are availed through online shopping only. People who frequently shop online do not necessarily gain anything through their purchases. Mr. Rebates has more than 2000 stores in its purview through which you can avail cashback offers or can get coupons against the purchases made through Mr. Rebates’ website.

Persons who have friends and acquaintances who do online shopping often.

Mr. Rebates have a Refer-a-Friend program; through referring a friend or acquaintance, the member can avail more cashback due to the purchases made by your referral using Mr. Rebates sites. Member’s friends and acquaintance can help the member through this program by signing up for Mr. Rebates’ portal.

A person who like to earn extra cash that too through the shopping

Extra cash is always welcome by one and all, shopping through Mr. Rebates will give the members a chance to get some extra money. Even though the money earned is not quite substantial, but at the end of the day, you have earned something.

Pros of Mr. Rebates

The members can use both coupons and cashback rebates for their purchase.

Members, ahead of making any purchase, should view the coupon section of Mr. Rebates portal. If they find any coupon related to the purchase, they have to make then click of the ‘shop now’ link adjacent to the concerned card. It is only after clicking the coupon link that the rebate and the coupon deal will get activated. Hence, the members will enjoy both the benefits of coupon and cashback rebate from Mr. Rebates portal.

There is no joining fee for Mr. Rebates.

Many cashback portals charge a joining fee for the membership. Mr. Rebates doesn’t ask the potential members for any kind of payment. All they need is the necessary information to start their account, beyond that they don’t require anything from their members.

The members are spoilt with choices.

With over 2000 store options, the members are spoilt with choices. The members can earn some money through their daily purchases. Stores like Walmart, Walgreen, or Amazon are used quite frequently by the members for their purchases, Mr. Rebates give their members a chance to earn some money while they shop for their daily needs’ products.

It is easy to know the deals that Mr. Rebates is offering.

The ‘Store of the Week’ and ‘Weekly deals’ are displayed on the home page as soon as the member login their account. This information helps the member to make an informed decision about the purchase they have to make to avail of the maximum cashback rebates.
The members are aware of the products which are excluded from rebates from the selected store.
When a member clicks on the store on Mr. Rebates portal, it shows the products and services which not included in the cashback rebates are noted directly under the store name and the percentage of the rebates. All the members have to do is keep an open eye and go through Mr. Rebates portals to get information about the items or purchases excluded from a particular store.
Cons of Mr. Rebates

The fine print and eligibility to earn cashback.

There are individual purchases or rules which deny the cashback to the members. If the members make a purchase with a gift card or if they purchase a gift card, then they are not eligible to get the cashback rebates. While shopping, to compare the prices of the product, if the member clicks on a different website, there are chances that the members won’t get any cashback rebates. If members pre-orders or if they buy things in bulk, these may void cash back.

The cashback offer is available only on online purchases.

The orders placed through telephone or in-store purchases are not eligible for cashback rebates. The cashback rebates can be availed by the members-only on those purchases which are done online and that too through the ‘shop now’ link provided on the Mr. Rebates portal against the store name.

Member’s Cashback rebates stay in pending status for 90 days.

Even if the members have more than $10 as a cashback in their account, they have to wait for almost three months in order to get the cashback rebates. This waiting period of 90 days is to take into account any returns or cancellation of the products purchased by the member.

The Verdict

Mr. Rebates is a totally legitimate site. Many loyal members are using Mr. Rebates for more than five years. The portal offers a vast range of offers through which members can earn some extra cash. The customer care services provided by Mr. Rebates is worth a mention.

The cashback rebates that are offered in Mr. Rebates can be stacked with the member’s credit card. In simple terms, if through Mr. Rebates, a store is offering a 10% rebate and the credit card of the member has an offer of 5% cashback offer on online purchases, the member would get a total of 15% as cashback for the purchase they made through Mr. Rebates.