OT- saving some money

[EvilKing00]

For about 2 weeks now my wife has been telling me about some site that saves you money, when you buy stuff online. Bla, bla, anyway i worked from home today and desided to take a look.

To my surprize it works with ebay! You can buy cards or whatever and get a % back, think its 5%, in either a check or pay pal. Wirks with other sites too like target staples and alot more. Its free to sign up, ebates.com (http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrid=KYSy0rxTVuQDj5o6CXWfbg%3D%3D)

I never heard of it before, anyone else here use it?
Sometimes i should listen to the wife, lol

[vthobby]

Like all online freebies, this site does have it's online detractors so buyer beware.

I found one interesting review: "My purchases rarely show up in my cash back even though I click through properly. When I inquire about it, I’m routed to an offshore “customer service center” that asks me to send in documentation, even when it has been logged on their site. Why should the customer be the one to manage missing cash back? What a rip off."

I realize this is just one person's experience but there were a lot more with similar issues. I read their fine print and they stress a bunch of conditions that you must meet each time you shop like ONLY linking thru ebates and if you leave the page for any reason before you purchase your items then you "might" not get your ebate.

Sounds like an easy out for them.

Thanks for the tip but remember.......nothing is ever FREE! :eek: Caveat Emptor

peace, mike

[EvilKing00]

Yea, i have only so far bought 1 thing today, xmas gift for the wife from bestbuy, an expensive camera, got a % back about 20 min after the purchase. Cant wait to use it to buy cards.

[icollectDCsports]

This reminds me of the MS (Microsoft) Live cashback program from about 6 years or so ago.

[EvilKing00]

So i have been using this link, which takes me to ebay, i can go into my watch list and so far have finally bought 3 cards using it and received 2% of the purchaces so far. Not too bad for doin nothing.

[Luke]

So, does this program only work for fixed price purchases? I haven't been able to get any cash back yet despite multiple auction wins.

[EvilKing00]

The 3 i have won so far were auctions. U can do auction or bin. Just need to make sure you go there first, click through their site to ebay to bid. Your winning bid has to be done that way. Took a day and a half to show up on my ebates money back but its there now.

Pretty simple once you get used to going to ebates 1st then over to ebay. I have only bid on my phone so far, seems once you go from ebayes to ebay, the top part of my browser still says ebates, like a frame. But i can see my ebay watch list.

But i didnt use the ebay app. Fyi

[T2069bk]

But I prefer to save through upromise.com. They give rebates in the form of a contribution to a 529 savings plan for my Son. In a weird way it helps knowing I am buying a card on ebay or snowblower from lowe's knowing I can in some way justify the purchase as saving for his education.

Just be aware that you might start getting "competitors" mail/e-mail, as this serves as a great way for them to monitor your spending habits and preferences- you are giving up free marketing data for the rebates.