Mr. Rebates Review: Legit or Scam?

Perhaps you’re one of those people who like to shop. But even if you don’t like shopping, you probably enjoy saving money when you do shop. 

The problem is that waiting for sales, couponing, and hunting for deals can be time-consuming and difficult.

So, to help people save money, online shopping portals offer rebates, cashback, and discounts to shoppers.

In this Mr. Rebates review, I will show you what cash back it offers and if it is worth using.

What is Mr. Rebates?

Mr. Rebates is a cashback site that lets you save money every time you shop through the website.

It has been around since 2002 and has awarded millions of dollars in cash back since it was established.

The website offers cashback bonuses for shopping at more than 3,000 online retailers. 

How Does Mr. Rebates Work?

Mr. Rebates helps you save money when you use its website to shop at other retailers. Rather than giving you an upfront discount on your purchases, Mr. Rebates pays cashback on purchases that you make.

To get started, all you have to do is set up a Mr. Rebates account. You’ll need to provide your email address, create a password and give a mailing address that Mr. Rebates can use to send your cashback.

When you want to shop online, the first thing you need to do is visit the Mr. Rebates website. Search Mr. Rebates for the retailer you want to buy from. Click through to the retailer from Mr. Rebates and shop like you usually do. 

Once you complete the purchase, Mr. Rebates automatically receives your purchase information from the retailer. It uses that information to calculate how much cashback you’ll earn from your purchase.

With every purchase you make, you’ll earn rebates that pile up in your Mr. Rebates account. Then once you reach a minimum of $10 in rebates, you can cash out.

Mr. Rebates offers payment by mailed check or PayPal.

How Much Money Can I Save?

Using a cashback shopping portal like Mr. Rebates is all about saving money, so it’s important to know how much you can save through the website. The answer depends on what retailers you’re buying from.

Most shops offer a percentage rebate based on the size of your purchase. For example, ACE Hardware currently provides 5% back on purchases made through Mr. Rebates.

A few shops offer flat amounts of cashback on purchases that meet minimum requirements.

The amount that you’ll earn varies from store to store, and stores can change their rebates without notice.  You’ll typically receive 3% – 5% cashback, though some stores offer 15%, 20%, or more.

On top of the rebates you can earn, Mr. Rebates stores a variety of coupons for each of its retailer partners. You can use these coupons to save money upfront on your purchases.

Best of all, you’ll still earn rebates on the post-discount purchase total. It’s one of the easiest ways to save money when shopping.

How Does Mr. Rebates Make Money?

It’s easy for shopping portals to seem too good to be true. They offer free money, and all you have to do is visit the shopping portal before you shop online. How can these websites make money by providing rebates and cashback?

Mr. Rebates makes money by partnering with retailers. Retailers have marketing budgets that they can use to draw in customers and increase sales.

Many retailers use a portion of their budget to offer commissions to people and businesses that drive sales their way. Mr. Rebates makes money by taking advantage of these commissions.

Consider this example: Mr. Rebates currently offers 8% cashback on purchases made at Dollar Shave Club’s website. Dollar Shave Club may be willing to pay as much as 12% in commissions to the websites that refer new customers to their company. 

For example, if you spend $100 at Dollar Shave Club after visiting the retailer through Mr. Rebates’ website, Dollar Shave Club will send $12 to Mr. Rebates. Mr. Rebates gives you $8, pocketing the extra $4.

Mr. Rebates can refer more customers to retailers by offering those customers a cut of the commission they receive while continuing to earn enough money to turn a profit.

Pros and Cons

There are several pros and cons of using Mr. Rebates.

👍 Pros

Here are the pros of Mr. Rebates.

It’s Free

The most obvious pro of using Mr. Rebates is that it’s completely free to use. You don’t have to pay anything to make an account, and you don’t spend more money on retailers’ websites when you use Mr. Rebates to shop.

Using Mr. Rebates is like getting free cashback on every purchase you make.

Stacks With Rewards Credit Cards

Though Mr. Rebates does not offer rebates on purchases made with store credit or gift card balances, it does offer full rebates when you use any other kind of payment, including rewards credit cards.

This allows you to stack your rewards, earning cashback from both your credit card and Mr. Rebates.

You can easily earn between 1% and 5% cashback by using a card so that you could earn 20% or more back on certain purchases through Mr. Rebates.

Get Paid in Cash

Mr. Rebates doesn’t pay its rewards in points or other strange currencies. It gives you cold hard cash. You can ask Mr. Rebates to send you a check in the mail or pay you through PayPal.

There are no redeeming rewards for a restricted list of gift cards or overpriced merchandise.

👎Cons

Here are the cons of using Mr. Rebates.

You Have to Remember to Shop Through the Mr. Rebates Website

To earn credit for purchases, you must visit Mr. Rebates’ website before you shop. This isn’t too much of a burden, but it can be easy to forget to go through Mr. Rebates if you make a quick, small purchase. 

There’s no way to get credit for shopping after the fact. So if you don’t go through Mr. Rebates, you’ll lose out on rewards.

Mr. Rebates May Fail to Track Purchases

Mr. Rebates relies on browser cookies and merchant reporting to track your purchases and give you credit for the cashback you earn. Sometimes, the website can fail to track your purchases, meaning you won’t receive any rewards.

This frequently happens if you block cookies or disable ads. Ad-blocking software can also cause issues with purchase tracking.

You’ll want to turn off ad tracking on Mr. Rebates and retailer’s websites when you make your purchases to maximize your chances of tracking the purchase properly.

Waiting Period for Rebates to Become Available

You can’t redeem your rebates immediately after earning them. There is a waiting period before they become available for withdrawal.

Mr. Rebates says it will post your rebates within 30 days of your purchase. This delay gives the site time to receive purchase data from retailers and process it.

Once your rebates post, they’ll be listed as pending for 90 days. After 90 days have passed, they become available for withdrawal.

The 90-day waiting period is designed to allow for returns and other actions that could invalidate the rebates you’ve earned. But it means you’ll have to wait months before you can benefit from the cashback you’ve received.

$10 Minimum to Cash Out

Mr. Rebates won’t send your money to you automatically. Instead, you have to request a check in the mail or PayPal payment when you want to cash out.

You can cash out as frequently as you’d like, but there is a $10 minimum balance requirement. You won’t be allowed to cash out until you earn $10 in rebates. 

If you don’t do a lot of online shopping or don’t shop at stores that offer rebates frequently, you may have to wait a long time to cash out your rebates.

What Customers Are Saying About Mr. Rebates

When looking for feedback from customers, I found that Mr. Rebates has a 4 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot.

Here are some reviews from actual customers:

“I really like this cash back site. They pay good rates and you can get paid every month. They even email and remind you to cash out if you forget. That should tell you that they are legit. I had an account there for a long time and give it 5 stars.”

– Nicole

“Cash back process is very easy and efficient. They are very quick to respond to your inquiries and resolve them in a timely manner. They really value you as a customer. Best rebate company that I have dealt with.”

– Jennifer

Sites Like Mr. Rebates

Mr. Rebates is just one of the many shopping portals on the internet. Because all a shopping portal has to do is refer customers to retailers who make and sell products, there are few barriers to entering the market and fierce competition between shopping portals.

If you don’t like Mr. Rebates, you may prefer one of its competitors.

Rakuten

Rakuten, is one of the most popular shopping portals on the internet. It offers rebates of up to 40% at more than 2,500 stores.

Rakuten has a few things that set it apart from other shopping portals.

One is the ability to earn cashback on purchases in a physical store. Most shopping portals only give you cashback when you shop online.

To earn cashback on in-person purchases, you must link your credit or debit card to your Rakuten account through the Rakuten app.

Then, you can browse offers through the app and add them to your card. Once you’ve added the offer to your card, you can shop and earn cashback by completing the offer.

Learn more: Rakuten Review: Is Rakuten a Scam or Legit?

TopCashback

TopCashback bills itself as “The USA’s most generous cashback & coupon site.” It offers rebates and coupons for more than 4,400 online retailers.

Unlike most other shopping portals, TopCashback has no minimum balance required to be eligible for a payout. It also offers multiple options for redemption. You can get a cash deposit to your bank account or a PayPal payment.

Plus, you can earn bonuses on your redemption for choosing other options, such as retailer gift cards.

Learn more: TopCashback Review: Is It Legit?

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is more than a typical shopping portal. You can earn rewards, called Swagbucks, by shopping through the website, but you can also earn Swagbucks from a variety of other activities.

You can also earn Swagbucks when you answer short surveys. Each survey lists the Swagbucks you can earn and the approximate time to finish the survey.

Another way to earn rewards is to sign up for mailing lists or explore offers from Swagbucks’ partners. 

Lastly, Swagbucks Watch lets you earn a few Swagbucks for every video you watch. Usually, the videos come from Swagbucks partners or are advertisements for new products and services.

Learn more: Swagbucks Review: Is it Worth Your Time?

Summary

As you can see from this Mr. Rebates review, it is one of many shopping portals that provides cashback when you use it to shop online. It doesn’t have many perks that portals give, such as a browser extension or flexible redemption options, but it does offer solid rewards. 

So, if you’re looking for an online shopping portal, Mr. Rebates is worth a look. However, you should always compare the cashback offers from each portal to find the best one available.