BondRewards is feeling the impact of the new California affiliate tax law.
Today in the BondRewards blog, the company acknowledged that the law had caused, to date, the loss of 29 of their cashback stores, including 1800-Petmeds, 6pm, Calvin Klein, Gardener’s Supply, Overstock, Roaman’s, Shoebuy, SmartBargains, Vermont Teddy Bear, and Woman Within.
Trying to put a positive spin on this, they listed a number of new merchants added to the program, most of which have been long-time participants of other rewards programs, including Novica, Art.com, Philosophy, Discovery Store, Walgreens, and Famous Footwear. So the “new merchant” announcements did nothing to counter the blow of the stores lost.
In the grand scheme of things, will this have a huge impact on BondRewards? Most likely not. The people shopping through that program are not doing so because it has any real competitive edge versus other shopping sites. It doesn’t, not rate-wise or in terms of choice of merchants. No, their shoppers are there to get savings bonds, basically forced saving. Yes, I know they have an option to request cash instead, but surely people aren’t accepting lower rates for cash…it’s because they know they won’t blow their cashback if they just get a bond.
With the affiliate tax law affecting so many cashback sites, maybe it would be useful to find out just where you CAN still get cashback for these fair-weather-merchants. Hmmm, I smell a new post brewing…
