In last weekend’s annual rewards program chat, Ashley from Swagbucks tipped us off to the Black Friday promo they’re doing today: double Swagbucks for EVERY Shop & Earn merchant! Plus, with their Holiday Hundreds giveaway, one shopper per day wins $100! (Any purchase through Swagbucks gives you an entry good every day throughout the contest period, which runs through 12/14… the more you shop, the more entries you get!)
Ebates’ Black Friday promo is pretty near unbeatable overall…but keep in mind, they pay quarterly when you earn $5 or more in cashback — granted, not hard this time of year — whereas Swagbucks lets you earn in ways besides just shopping, so even the points earned from a small order can be cashed out fairly easily when you earn SB from codes, searching, surveys, etc. And they pay roughly the same week that you request your gift card, so the turnaround is a good bit faster.
Here are just a few stores where double Swagbucks is BETTER than what Ebates is offering, making them a real contender today (note: these percentages are the point value of Swagbucks):
Apple Store @ 2% (1% at Ebates)
Buy.com @ 6% (1.5% at Ebates)
The Children’s Place @ 6% (5% at Ebates)
J&R @ 6% (2.5% at Ebates)
Nordstrom @ 10% (6% at Ebates)
Sears @ 8% (7% at Ebates)
Shoebuy.com @ 22% (8.5% at Ebates)
Target @ 6% (2% at Ebates)
ValueMags @ 40% (26% at Ebates)
Walgreens @ 10% (7% at Ebates)
6pm.com @ 10% (3.5% at Ebates)
There are other stores (Kohls, etc.) where Swagbucks’ rate is the same as Ebates…and many others where they’re within a percent or two.
Shop & Earn was recently relaunched at Swagbucks, and with this Double Swagbucks promo, it’s clear they’re really working to raise awareness and steal some shoppers away from competing Goliath cashback sites. It’s a work in progress: you won’t find some of the more exclusive cashback merchants on Swagbucks that you’ll find on Ebates (for example, Swagbucks has no shopping reward for Bath & Body Works, Toys R Us, Victoria’s Secret, Ebay, and Amazon). They will be better able to negotiate adding those stores once they reach a critical mass of shoppers; just be aware that Swagbucks Shop & Earn is not yet the one-stop-shop for shopping rewards that Ebates and MrRebates currently are, by virtue of having been at this for a decade or longer. Ebates and MrRebates also both have generous bonuses for first-time shoppers ($5 and $7.50, respectively).
In summary, Swagbucks Shop & Earn has a very attractive Black Friday promo and in general, if they can continue to offer highly competitive promotions like this, they’re positioning themselves to be a serious player as a shopping rewards program. If you’re not already a member of Swagbucks and are interested in getting in on the Black Friday shopping rewards (and upcoming TRIPLE Swagbucks for shopping on Cyber Monday!), please join with my link here – thanks!
