Ebates Reviews – Legit or Scam?
Ebates.com is a rewards website where members can earn up to 25% cash back on their online purchases at over 1,200 online stores without having to redeem points, mail in forms, or pay membership fees.
Rewards websites like Ebates earn a commission when you purchase an item from one of their partner stores. In turn, they pay part of that commission to you to ensure you continue shopping through Ebates at their partner stores.
When you initially register at Ebates.com, you will be asked to choose a bonus $10 gift card. This gift card will be awarded to you after you have earned your first $25 in cash back.
Earning Cash Back
Whenever you are hoping to earn cash back with Ebates, you must use either their website or their downloadable toolbar to access their partner stores.
Even if you have purchased at that store through Ebates previously, you must access that store through Ebates every time to get credit. If Ebates does not receive credit for your purchase then you cannot earn cash back.
If you refer friends and family members to use Ebates, you can also earn cash back on their first purchase through Ebates.
Unfortunately, returns and exchanges of purchased items will cancel out your cash back earnings. When you exchange an item, the store will consider that a brand new purchase not done through Ebates, so you won’t be able to earn cash back.
Getting Your Cash Back
As long as you have earned more than $5.01, you will receive a cash back payment every 3 months in February, May, August, and November. If you have earned less than $5.01, your earnings will be carried over to the next check.
You can have the check mailed to you or directly deposited into your PayPal account. You can also have the check mailed to a charity or a family member, if you choose. Simply make sure to set up your account to reflect how you want your earnings paid out.
If you're at Reviewopedia.com because you're looking for a way to make money online then check out our article "7 Ways to Make Money Online" - methods that anyone can use to earn an income from home.
Would you like to add your review for
April 30th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
Total bait and switch scam. You’ll get your first payment in a flash and then you’ll have to hunt them down like a bill collector for anything else. They even tried to pull the old “we tried to pay you but you need to update your address” runaround. Funny since A) my address hadn’t changed and B) I was set up to get payments through paypal using my email address (which they obviously have). If you’ve gotten your first giftcard, do yourself a favor and quit while you’re ahead. Getting money from ebates will never be worth the stress.
April 27th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
I was skeptical at first. But I got my check and the $10 store card.
The gift card took longer to reach me.. About a month. I think you have to “earn” a certain amount before they mail that out.
When I received the card (Target) I used it and the transaction went through.
As from my experience as well as some friends of mine.. This is all legit.
April 26th, 2012 at 9:33 pm
I wouldn’t bother using them. It was a hassle. I referred my wife and several of my relatives and ebate wouldn’t credit them as referrals saying it’s all one person. $10 gift card on your first purchase is a scam, never received it even asking for it several times. Stay away!!!
April 14th, 2012 at 8:50 am
It is a real hassle to get your money back. It doesn’t happen automatically, you have to track it, contact them after a couple of weeks, and then hope for the best. Sometimes you get it back, sometimes they ignore you, and sometimes they tell you that there is no guarantee that ebates will ever actually give you their money. I think a lot of affiliate marketers are posting good reviews for ebates falsely and get paid for it.
Ray says:
April 24th, 2012 at 1:19 am
No, it really does work really well for me. The system uses tracking cookies, so like others have said on here, you just have to be sure you follow the path to your purchase. If I find something I like online, I copy (higlight, Ctrl+C) the item title, close that browser session, open a new one, log in to Ebates, click on the store website (within Ebates), paste (Ctrl+V) the item on the store website Search box, and buy it. It’s that easy. I’ve had to follow-up with Ebates Customer Service on multiple purchases from a single session, but they gave me the credit no problem. It’s true that you get cents on the dollar, but it adds up, especially if you do online purchasing for a business. That’s how those people have the big checks for large amounts.
April 6th, 2012 at 9:53 pm
Ebates is excellent, and I have received check several times, it is paid every three month.
March 21st, 2012 at 9:41 am
I’ve been looking @ all of you people who claim ebates great and how you get cash back,but there’s something wrong here,for example…have any of you people seen the TV commercial where 2 women say,,I just got a check from ebates for $1104.65 and the 2nd women saying my check was $704.00.I have yet to see anyone come close to their cash back quotes,has anyone seen some thing even close to that,I,d really like to know especially from those who say I LOVE EBATES.
Marie says:
March 22nd, 2012 at 1:07 am
I’m not sure how anyone would get THAT much in one single check (and I haven’t seen that commercial; I don’t really watch tv). For me, it’s more of getting checks in smaller amounts over time as you buy things. I’ve been a member since sometime in 2010 and I’ve made $109 so far, receiving like 5 or 6 checks so far. My last check was for $28.28. I have no problem receiving or cashing my checks, so I’m not sure what others are complaining about.
March 19th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
I have the same opinion as other users. First check came ok. After that I have to contact customer service for every purchase in order to get credit. I find it to be a hassle and not worth the time it takes to contact them and keep track of all my purchases, email confirmations, and find the ebates confirmation number.
Jo says:
March 28th, 2012 at 9:52 am
I agree 100%. First check came early, with an added bonus gift card. Since then, I have to contact them every time to inquire about my cash back (so far 3 separate purchases, I was denied 2 of the 3).
It is a hassle, not worth the time, and when I was denied I was not given a reason as to why. I had the tracking ticket number and I was careful to buy immediately after opening ebates.
Scam.
March 19th, 2012 at 3:21 am
I signed up for Ebates last year. First cashbacks I’ve received, ok. All them were under $10. Later I tried to receive cashbacks for larger purchase – it is useless to try. Every time ebates customer care send me the same formal answer about “15 days to llok into the matter…” They say they don’t receive order confirmation from seller. But I contact with sellers too – they answer they give all purchase information equally, for small and expensive orders the same. At the present time I wait for cashbask for 8 purchases ($1.040), and for every I write to ebates customer service every 15 days.
March 13th, 2012 at 1:30 pm
Prefer other sites. Their customer service is a joke. Their terms and conditions are not clearly stated within the store page. When I inquired about missing cash back I was given a blanket “condition” which did not apply to my purchase. Clearly a waste of my time and energy to use a website that does not honor customers accordingly. Fatwallet and shopathome are much better and clearly state ALL conditions on their site.
March 13th, 2012 at 1:52 am
I have received 2 payments into my PayPal account. The latest was $59.10. I used to go through My Points for points but switched to Ebates for cash. Love it and would recommend it to everyone. People not knowing what they are doing are the ones claiming it is a scam.
Diane says:
April 14th, 2012 at 8:51 am
People getting paid for giving good reviews are continuing the scam.
February 24th, 2012 at 10:26 am
Wish more online retailers would participate in ebates. All in all, it is a good program as long as you remember to go their website for each website before buying online.
February 19th, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Easy …. Getting paid to shop…awesome! I have made over $500 so far and get my checks pretty much on time.
February 14th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
I signed up with Ebates last year and I am very impressed so far. My husband also signed up, we both got our gift cards and each have gotten checks over $50.
We have had no issues with large purchases. I bought a $900 camera and received my ebate with no issue. They respond very quickly to questions and have been extremely helpful. I have recommended a few other people tot he site and they have not had any complaints. I check a couple of coupon sites but always make sure to use the ebates link and save my tracking email until it hits my account properly.
Also, I work a 40 hour a week job. It IS at a financial institution so maybe I pay better attention to my money than some of those who have gotten burned.
Also to buy things just to get a portion back in rebate form seems a bit counter-productive. I only use ebates for things I would have already bought.
February 8th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
I love eBates. If you do everything RIGHT you will get your cash back with no problems. I did couple of mistakes on the beginning just going to ebates.com and making purchases WITHOUT signing in. Of course they cannot issue cash back to anonymous buyer :) After I’ve realized my mistake I never had any problem. Even more, Macy’s had some issue with tracking online purchases made through ebates. After receiving email from ebates recommending me to check if some records are missing I went to Macy’s website and found one order back from November 2011 which wasn’t listed under my ebates account. I sent my email to customer support and received respond in 2 minutes with good news that my missing cash back is added immediately.
I get my checks on regular base with very accurate amount issued. Cannot complain, you get small gifts back for purchases you make anyway. Just be sure that you do everything right and follow ebates instructions.
February 7th, 2012 at 4:02 pm
I agree that the past 6 months or year ebates has taken longer to credit my purchases, I have usually had to copy my purchase order and send them a tracking ticket number. They have always paid! If someone opens up a tracking ticket, then you have a way to track your purchases. The people who say that ebates is a scam are the ones doing it incorrectly! Don’t delete an email confirmation from the place you ordered and you can always track your tickets until ebates credits your account. They are legit, they do pay you! You just have to be really patient sometimes. Also always keep your proof, u email the confirmation from your order, and find your correct tracking ticket, and you will always be credited! I would have rated a 5 if it wasn’t for the delayed credit and having to sometimes prove my purchases. But at least it is money back I’m my wallet. I LOVE EBATES.COM!!
February 4th, 2012 at 5:56 pm
I’ve been a member since 2003 and have earned over $230 in rebate dollars. It’s become a habit for me to go through ebates to find my retailers first before doing any online shopping. I’ve never really had any problems not getting my rebate and I’ve always referred my family and friends to use ebates. A lot of them are now repeated users as well. It’s a simple process that allowed me earn money I otherwise wouldn’t have. There are many rebate sites out there like ebates but ebates has the most extensive list of retailers I’ve seen.
February 4th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Been a member over 10 yrs now never had a problem with them & received nearly $2,000 cash back. None of the ebates are paid until the return period has passed,otherwise the retailer and/or ebates puts themselves at risk. Please remember if you leave their link you can loose your rebate. By the way one rebate sale netted me $106.31 cash back.
(To:Diane December 6th, 2011 at 11:47 am) I am neither a housewife nor a househusband & I agree with “HOUSEWIFE”Housewife” says:
December 13th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Your response shows your impatience, arrogance, condescending and ignorant attitude towards housewives, and apparently inability to read.
January 23rd, 2012 at 10:45 pm
This is a joke right…I made 1 purchase to try out the site on 11/28/2011…and each time I checked on my account there was a $10.00 balance that was going to be distributed to me on January 15, 2012…well that date has come and gone and to this date no $10.00 credit…when I contacted Ebates customer service they said they had no record of my purchase through their site…what a scam…I have been dealing with BIG CRUMBS since 2010 and have had absolutely no issues…I would advise people reading your review to try BIG CRUMBS and not to waste their time and money with Ebates
January 17th, 2012 at 5:09 pm
It’s a scam, plain and simple. After making several purchases that netted small amounts through ebates, I took advantage of a subscription offer to ValueMags.com that promised a 51% return on my subscription purchases. As my order totaled over 80.00, the promised return was the sole reason I subscribed to several of the titles listed. Lo and behold, no return was forthcoming and my repeated inquiries were met with requests for additional information including my initial validation ticket number from ebates and the confirmation email from Valuemags.com (both of which I immediately forwarded to ebates). Nearly seven weeks later my followup inquiries have been met with an apparently impersonal, auto generated form email from a “Thomas” in “Customer Care” that informs they are looking into the matter and haven’t “forgotten’ about me. Insulting – and rest assured I’ll be following up on this nonsense.
Mike says:
March 3rd, 2012 at 5:08 pm
check it out further bcuz I got check for $19.10.when you purchase make sure u go through the site first.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:40 am
My first purchase was made on black friday 2011. To prove that ebates wasn’t a scam ebates sent me my big fat check before the February pay date. Received check & target gift card!!
January 12th, 2012 at 7:29 am
I have used ebates for years and probably gotten close to $100 cash back. With a recent 10% promotion, we made a bigger purchase that should have netted $200+ cash back and suddenly I have been getting the run-around. If you use them, use them for little things. For bigger things, stay very far away. I’m changing to a different affiliate site now that I’ve been burned.
You’ve been warned.
January 11th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
I have been a member since 2000 and have gotten cash back from them for years. You go to ebates.com, find a store there like the Gap or Apple (the have like a 1000), then buy something. That store pays Ebates and Ebates pays me. Generally like 3 or 5 percent of the purchase price. Walmart is 1%. But who cares it’s money I get that I would not otherwise have. I love ebates and recommend it to all my friends. The also have coupons on Ebates.com so I can get extra mounts off in addition to the Ebates Big Fat Check they send – which is the Cash back I get every 3 months.
January 10th, 2012 at 4:28 am
I have received about 100 dollars total. I haven’t had any problems with supposedly deletion of tracking tickets. You do have to follow the rules and click on the link before purchase, so if you forget to they’ll ask for proof. However this past year it has taken longer to get the cash added to my account. I had a problem with cash back getting applied I had to wait about a month after purchase for them to consider the issue. Well see when the next check is due.
January 9th, 2012 at 7:23 pm
I’ve been an Ebates member since 2000! I’ve only had one issue and they corrected it (I had two accounts with 2 email addresses) other than that have been getting quarterly checks from them for 11 years with every rebate right on every time.
So if you think it’s a scam, you are wrong – it can be something that you do wrong.
They are A+ rated by the BBB – soo they must be doing something right!
January 9th, 2012 at 12:40 pm
I’ve gotten back hundreds through the years from Ebates. I’ve even used coupon codes. However, it’s important to read a store’s restrictions when shopping.
Never had any issues, and always get my quarterly rebate quickly.
January 6th, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Ebates will give you credit, as long as it’s under $10 for each purchase. For a large purchase where you will be getting over $100 cash back, forget it. They will claim the vendor credited another “affiliate site”, which is a blatant lie because I do not use any other cash-back or credit sites.
December 31st, 2011 at 7:41 pm
I have used this site quite a bit, and I’m very organized in keeping track of my purchases. They REPEATEDLY do NOT give me credit for my purchases, and I have to email them with proof. This happens on average every 3 times I use them. I think they do this on purpose. In fact, I had to email them about 7 times to get a big credit ($27) for a travel ticket I bought through one of their affiliates. In the new year, I’m going to join a different site. this one totally rips you off.
December 29th, 2011 at 9:47 am
I signed up for Ebates during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping weekend and I was excited to get 10% cashback on my purchase. I got emailed a tracking code from Ebates after my purchase and I was truly excited to get my cashback.
Then a month later I haven’t heard anything so I log onto the site and there is no record of my previous purchase. So I fill out a request asking where is my cashback and I get a response almost immediately saying that “we do not have a record that you clicked through the Ebates link to this store on the date you selected on our form”. Well I filled out that form correctly so I replied back and included the text with the tracking code that was emailed me from the day I made the purchase.
Now I’m hoping they honor their cashback because it looks like Ebates just conveniently deleted my tracking code from their website. Therefore I would say this site is a scam. Stay away and instead use a credit card cashback site as those companies have your business to lose if you they refuse to honor your cashback.
Any company that just deletes their tracking codes is not to be trusted!!!! I am just glad that it was my first purchase because that’s the only purchase where they email you the code, otherwise I would have nothing to show for my purchase.
On a side note, stay away from giftcardmall.com too as they rip you off as well.
December 27th, 2011 at 11:52 am
I love it! A few times I’ve had cash back that hasn’t posted, but I have emailed them and they post it same day. I’ve gotten over $100 so far. All those little percentages really add up!!
December 15th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
I try to use it around the Holidays and love it. I’ve rec’d almost $300 so far. If you’re making a large purchase that is available online you get a rebate. Very few stores are not listed.
December 10th, 2011 at 8:17 am
They are fraudsters
Payed me 35 cents on a small purchase, but when I used
ebatates on a larger order from lowes.com I received nothing
Sent them several inquiries, haven’t got the cashback
Lost almost $40 in cashback, stay out of them, fatwallet at least pays
December 9th, 2011 at 6:04 pm
I have used Ebates since 2008. Make sure you pay close attention to your orders and the amounts you spent. I just ordered a $2300+ TV and other items from one of their stores (BuyDig.com). This purchase was NOT honored. At 3.5% this really burned my a$$. Done with Ebates after a lame email, tap-dancing around why they did not pay. I sent receipt after receipt to them with no results. I’m not saying it’s a terrible site but, beware… like myself, you will NOT get all that’s coming to you. Look for another, similar site, like I am. No more ebates for me. I will be contacting all the sites I shop in regards to this.
December 7th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
I have used their services for years and LOVE it. I get my money back every 3 months. You can still stack coupon codes on the actual web sites in addition to your cash back which is awesome. I have only had one rebate not show up (out of hundreds) but after a simple email and 14 days later my rebate was listed on my account as well. I can only say to the reviewer above, if you didn’t stay on the link they generated but went to another window and shopped there, then they couldn’t track your purchase. This is what happened with my one order. I had opened another window to find a coupon code and I think I used that window instead of the original one ebates created. Nonetheless since I had created the link, ebates just contacted the vendor, confirmed I had made the purchase at the same time and credited me another $21.00 back. So far my Feb check already has $70 on it and I still have a ways to go!
December 6th, 2011 at 11:47 am
Scam.
They bait you in with rewards (mine was $10 Target card)…and then send you scripted emails when you have questions, don’t post your pending rebates, basically ignore you. At least that’s been my experience. I don’t think I’m doing anything differently than anyone else using it.
Made 3 purchases on Black Friday and one on the Sunday of same weekend. Pending rebates still say $0, I don’t receive anything except a canned response when I email with questions. My “account” still looks like it hasn’t been used, even though I have all the tracking tickets needed to prove my purchases.
If you ask me, this thing is only good for housewives who have nothing better to do than to write emails and track their rebate amounts all day to make sure they all show up. Me? I am a very busy person who THOUGHT I could save a few bucks on some purchases. Not worth my time or effort anymore. I guess I won’t even see my $10 Target bait card either….
Thanks for nothing, Ebates. TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK!!
Amoolaza says:
January 9th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Following their rules and reading all requirements, this housewife has gotten hundreds back from ebates over the past several years. Gosh, this poor, dumb housewife has even used my cash back to buy homeschool supplies to teach my daughter how to read….
jrzeegrrl says:
December 15th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
None of the ebates are paid until the return period has passed. This makes sense to me, otherwise the retailer and/or ebates puts themselves at risk (for obvious reasons). I’ve been using ebates for YEARS and love it.
"Housewife" says:
December 13th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Your response shows your impatience, arrogance, condescending and ignorant attitude towards housewives, and apparently inability to read.
Anna says:
December 12th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
If you read further on their site it says that some ebates do not show up until the return period for an item has passed. It’s up to each individual vendor on when they’ll confirm your order.