Supplementing Passive Income - Cashback Portals (Ebates)

I mentioned before when i spoke about the money saved/earned by leveraging credit card rewards, i like to supplement passive income received by buying high quality dividend paying stocks by looking for other avenues as well.

The one i will talk about today is using my favorite shopping portal - Ebates.


A lot of bloggers have already spoken about this, about how you can earn extra cashback for shopping (that you would be doing online anyway) by simply going to the merchant website via the Ebates portal. They earn a cut of what you spend with the merchant and in turn pass on a percentage back to you. It is a win-win.

Moreover, every now and then - very often, they have increased cashback events where you earn an even bigger percentage, like around Christmas or during black-friday or the cyber monday week.

I have earned cashback on everything from massages via groupon, to travel via expedia, to buying appliances at home depot, buying electronics at best buy or amazon, walmart, target to buying clothes and shoes at a variety or merchants online.

The list is endless.

Another great thing about Ebates in particular is, things happen and sometimes the merchant either does not report your purchase back to them at all, or does that very late. I have had numerous such occasions, but all it takes is a simple online request with your order details and they credit you the cash back - no questions asked.

This is not something other cashback sites can boast of.

The way the cashback works is, based on your spending every quarter they send you a check via mail. Cashback accumulates during the quarter and is sent out once.

But as they say - the proof lies in the pudding. I joined ebates about 5 years ago. I try to use them as often as i can (though sometimes i end up using others when the cashback percentage is much higher). During this time i have earned a not-so-bad $770 in cashback. Not bad at all for simply logging into their website and redirecting to the actual merchant that i want to shop at.

Just this quarter (it being the holiday quarter), i am already at ~$48. Expecting the check to be mailed in Feb.

I highly recommend checking them out and using them regularly if you don't already do it.

Here is a link to get you started, if you join using the link you will get a $10 GC and so will i -
Ebates Link

This is just another way i like to earn additional side income for doing things i would do otherwise anyway.