How to be Websmart

What to do

1. There are three free cash back sites we recommend online consumers use:

BigCrumbs Ebates FatWallet

For each site, you will need to register using an email address. (We highly recommend using a registration e-mail.)

1. From now on, before you make a purchase at an online store, see if the store is listed at one of the cash back sites. (For popular stores, you can find out which cash back site gives you the most value by visiting our How to Shop at… section. We’ve done the research already.)

A little more

If we had to choose just one online money-saving tool, we would say that cash back sites are your most important tool to save money when shopping online.

Think of cash back sites as small coupons which are always available.

Why are cash back sites so powerful? Because more often than not, you can use cash back sites with coupon codes, manufacturers rebates, rewards points, free shipping coupons, etc. That means you can combine cost-saving tools to greatly reduce the prices of items you want to buy online.

Cash back sites pay you a certain amount of your purchase back when you click through them to listed retailers. So, for example, let’s say you want to make a purchase at GiftBaskets.com. One cash back site, Ebates, will pay you 12% cash back on your purchase when you click through Ebates to GiftBaskets.com.

So instead of you going directly to GiftBaskets.com (You –> GiftBaskets.com), you visit Ebates first, and then click through to GiftBaskets.com (You –> Ebates –> GiftBaskets.com).

Because of the simple fact that you clicked-through Ebates, you get 12% of your purchase base price placed into your Ebates account. Or in other words, a couple extra clicks for you, and you get 12% cash back.

The cash back is paid into your free account with that cash back site. Each site has different rules about sending you the money, but in most cases all your cash back from a site is pooled into an account with that site. Each cash back site monitors your account until you reach a certain threshold. Normally, every designated time period, the cash back site checks to see if you have reached the threshold. If you have, the cash back site mails a check to you or sends the money to your PayPal account. If you don’t reach a threshold, that money is rolled over until the next period, so you don’t lose any money.

It’s that simple.

Cash back sites are not created out of altruism: they are businesses. They make money off your purchasing power. But because they return some of their revenue to consumers, every body wins.

To understand how cash back sites work, you first need to understand what is called a ‘referral’ or ‘affiliate’ program. In these programs, online companies offer websites a referral fee every time that website sends a customer to their store. By referring (or directing) a consumer to an online store, that webmaster can earn a small fee every time the consumer makes a purchase at that establishment.

Cash back sites work by paying some or all of that fee back to consumers. Using cash back sites, you can save just about every time you shop.

Here’s the key: often, a cash back site will make money when you click through them to a retailor - but they get paid by the store, and you get cash back savings for free.

Why do we recommend three cash back sites? Simple - both the (1) stores and (2) types of savings vary between sites. For example, BigCrumbs only gives you .9% back at Dell (Home Systems), Ebates will give you only 2% back, but FatWallet will give you 3%. Using FatWallet when shopping at Dell is one way to maximize your savings. In other cases, BigCrumbs or Ebates may give you the better value. Again, for lots of major stores, we’ve laid out the cash back site that gives the best value in our How to Shop at… section.

Here’s what you need to know about cash back sites:

• Using cash back sites is a long-term habit. You can use cash back sites to save almost anywhere on the web. So get into the habit of checking and using cash back sites every time you shop. The savings will really add up.
• Cash back is applied to base price. This means you won’t get cash back on sales tax or any shipping and handling costs.
• Read any restrictions. Cash back sites will list any restrictions associated with particular cash back. For example, you may see a restriction at a site like ‘Cash back given for all items sold except DVDs’. Most stores don’t have any restrictions, but you should always check before you make a purchase.
• You have to ‘click through’ a cash back site to get the cash back savings. Using the example above, you can’t go directly to GiftBaskets.com and expect to get money back from Ebates. You have to visit Ebates first.
• Cash back crediting takes time. Overall, we have found cash back crediting to be pretty quick, but you should know that it could take a while for your cash back to be credited to your account.
• Not all stores offer cash back deals. For example, one major store missing from cash back sites is Amazon.com. Don’t worry, if you shop at Amazon, we’ve developed a simple strategy to on how to shop at the store.
• Cash back sites often but not always work with coupon codes. Sometimes you have to choose between using a cash back site or a coupon code. The strategy here is simple: just go with the one that gives you the most savings.
• Some of these sites send you member emails.That’s why we recommend signing up with a registration e-mail. Don’t worry though. We are also going to show you how to get off their mailing lists if you don’t want to receive mails.

Are there more cash back sites on the web than the three we recommend above? Yes. Do we suggest you sign up for more than the three cash back sites? No. Here are three reasons why we think you should stick only to three sites.

1. People often make the mistake with cash back sites that they do with frequent flyer programs: they sign up for every program possible, thinking that will get them more free flights. But what consumers often find is that they have a couple thousand frequent flyer miles in lots of programs - which ultimately are of no use. If you can’t convert all those miles into free flights, what value do the miles have? We apply the same rationale to cash back sites. If you are always chasing the cash back site with the best savings, you probably are going to end up with small savings across lots of accounts. Remember, if the money doesn’t reach your pocket, you haven’t saved it. If you disperse your savings across too many sites, you may not get any savings in hand.
2. Some other ‘free’ cash back sites online have huge hidden fees. For example, BountyZoo is a site that gives big cash back bonuses to consumers. The catch? An administrative fee of $35 taken out of your cash back savings. Another cash back site, called Cash Back Outlet, gives you cash back in the form of ‘Vdollars.’ However, if you try to take the money out as cash, you can only claim 70 cents on every Vdollar. The sites we’ve provided, however, are truly free to use. One site, BigCrumbs, charges you $1.00 processing fee for every payment check it sends you - but that money comes out of your cash back, and not your pocket. Since the maximium number of checks BigCrumbs sends every year is four, the most you will lose in free cashback savings from the service is $4.00 in any given year. If you don’t reach the threshold of $5.00 in any payment period, then you don’t receive a payment, the money is rolled over to the next payment period, and you don’t owe the processing fee.
3. Apart from cash back, these three sites have other powerful features to help you save on the web. For example, the forums at FatWallet are some of the best places online to find deals. Take the time to browse around these sites to get a better understanding of all the features they offer.

How to Configure Your Accounts

Here’s a quick a dirty way to configure your accounts for each major cash back site. You need to do the below once only. Following these directions will help you (1) set up how you want to receive payments and (2) quickly unsubscribe from member mails (if you want):

BigCrumbs

1. Visit BigCrumbs. Register. (We recommend using a registration e-mail.) When you register, you have a choice of choosing between a ‘CrumbSaver’ or a ‘CrumbEarner’ account. If you are a normal consumer (as in not a business), choosing the ‘CrumbSaver’ account maximizes your savings.
2. Log in. Click on My Account and then My Profile.
3. Check to see if your mailing address is correct. This address is where your checks will be mailed.
4. At the bottom of the screen, you can unsubscribe from all three boxes to keep your profile hidden and to get off BigCrumbs mailing lists.

Payments: BigCrumbs only sends out checks (no PayPal offered).

Payment Time Period: Checks are sent out approximately every three months (specifically, January, April, July and October).

Threshold: If you have over $5.00 in you BigCrumbs account, BigCrumbs will send a check to you. If you have under $5.00, the amount is rolled over to the next payment period.

Notes: The one aspect of BigCrumbs which often confuses people is the type of account you can select - ‘CrumbSaver’ or ‘CrumbEarner’. Here’s the major difference: you get more cash back at stores when you use a CrumbSaver account, and you can refer other people (let’s call it Tier 1) and receive what’s called a referral commission every time they shop. That is the full extent of your referral benefits.

‘CrumbEarners’ get less cash back when they shop through BigCrumbs than CrumbSavers. However, CrumbEarners earn when the people they refer as either Crumbsavers or CrumbEarners shop (known as Tier 1) and earn money when all the people referred by Tier 1 (known as Tier 2) shop down to five tiers of consumers (but only if Tier 2-5 are referred by people with CrumbEarners accounts). It’s basically works as a pyramid: as a CrumbEarner, you can earn money for up to five degrees of seperation away who shop using BigCrumbs, provided all applicable BigCrumbs guidelines are followed.

So we recommend that individual consumers get a ‘CrumbSaver’ account. You maximize your personal cash back savings, and can still earn money when people you refer shop. (You just won’t get paid for any people they refer). If you are a business, consider getting a ‘CrumbEarner’ account.

Ebates

1. Visit Ebates. Register. (We recommend using a registration e-mail.)
2. Log in. Click on the My Account tab.
3. Click on the Edit My Profile link in the middle of screen.
4. Check to make sure you have the right mailing address. Scroll down. You can choose to have your cash back check sent to your mailing address or have the money deposited in your PayPal account. If you choose PayPal, make sure your email in the My PayPal Email Address field.
5. Scroll down. Unsubscribe/subscribe from all the options you don’t want. The only box we recommend you check is the one next to Enable Ebates Tracking Tickets. Ebates tracking tickets give you visual confirmation that Ebates is tracking your purchase to give you cash back. Are they necessary? No. But they give users peace of mind that they are really getting savings.

Payments: Ebates can send you checks to your home or money via PayPal.

Payment Time Period: Checks are sent out every three months (specifically, May 15, Aug. 15, Nov. 15, and Feb. 15).

Threshold: If you have $5.01 or more in your Ebates account, Ebates will send a check to you (or money via PayPal). If you have $5.00 or less, the amount is rolled over to the next payment period.

Notes: Ebates is currently giving users $5.00 free for signing up. Note, though, that this free bonus does not contribute towards your initial threshold. That basically means that you have to save $10.01 ($5 bonus + $5.01 in actual savings) before you get your first check.

Ebates also gives you $5.00 for every person you refer to Ebates, who signs up, and actually makes a purchase (and a bonus $5 for every five people you refer). Again, these ‘referral earnings’ do not contribute to your threshold: they just sit in your account until you save $5.01 on your own.

FatWallet

1. Visit FatWallet. Register. (We recommend using a registration e-mail.)
2. Log-in. Click the My Account link at the top of the page.
3. Under My Cash Back Account click on the My Payment Address to add an address where you want your check sent.
4. FatWallet is good about not automatically subscribing you to emails you don’t want, so no ‘unsubscription’ action necessary.
5. In the future, when you want a payment click on My Account and then the Request a Payment link. You can request that a payment be sent to your payment address or to a PayPal e-mail address that you input.

Payments: FatWallet can send you a check or transfer money via PayPal.

Payment Time Period: Whenever you can cash out.

Threshold: You need to have $10.00 in your account to request a check.

Notes: You get a $5.00 bonus (per household) when signing-up for FatWallet, but you need to earn $5.00 cash back before your bonus is activated and shows up in your account. You also can only request your bonus via check. FatWallet does that to make sure that multiple people in a household don’t try to get the bonus.

Don’t worry about the bonus. If you use FatWallet enough, you’ll eventually get it.

That’ it! We hope this tutorial on cash back sites will save you lots of money in the future.

---

Full Disclosure: The only affiliate links in this article are for BigCrumbs.com and Ebates.com. You should know that we receive referral commission from BigCrumbs.com every time someone signs up for a new free account with BigCrumbs.com through us and uses the site to save money. The referral commission varies according to how you use BigCrumbs.com to save. BigCrumbs.com is a free service to you, and we get paid only if you sign up for a new account through the BigCrumbs.com links provided (in other words, if you already had a BigCrumbs.com account before you ever visited Howtobewebsmart.com, and use this article, we make no money from BigCrumbs.com links).

You should know that we receive a single referral bonus of $5 for every household we refer to Ebates.com and who uses the service. Ebates.com is a free service to you, and we get paid only if you sign up for a new account through the Ebates.com links provided (in other words, if you already had a Ebates.com account before you ever visited Howtobewebsmart.com, and use this article, we make no money from Ebates.com links). The bonus is a one-time commission - we make no additional money if you use Ebates.com over time.

Please know that we develop the best strategies we can first. Only later do we try to find any relevant affiliate links. This strategy helps us save our users as much money, time, and effort as we can. Our full disclosure policy hopefully shows that our process is honest, and we believe you should consider it when you determine the usefulness of this article.

We use the money generated from this article to keep Howtobewebsmart.com free for you; to limit the number of ads we put on the site; and to support ourselves in finding ways to use the web to save you time, money, and effort. We appreciate your support!

You can learn more about why we maintain a full disclosure policy by reading How We Make Money.