Nobody waits until Black Friday to start holiday promotions anymore — the retailers have an early jump on things this year and so do the online shopping rewards programs! Here’s a summary of the holiday promotions already underway:
Ebates has doubled its cashback rates on 19 popular retailers. Particularly impressive: 4% cash back for purchases at Dell; 6% cash back for purchases at HomeDepot, Nordstrom, and DisneyShopping; 8% at Borders, Macy’s, and Sephora (twice the highest rate elsewhere for these three retailers, according to my 2008 Shopping Rebate Comparison Chart). Nice! Not sure how long these rates will be good but as it’s being billed as their “Holiday Cash Back” I’d assume they’ll last for a while. If you’re not a member of Ebates and would like to join, please do so with my link — thanks! (They’ll give you a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase, too!)
FatWallet has a couple of holiday promotions going on right now: increased cashback at over 100 stores through Christmas Eve, plus 18 giveaways of over $12,000 in prizes. Most of the increases simply put them in line with what’s being offered elsewhere, but a few particularly good rates include 5% cash back for purchases at Aeropostale, 7% at BassPro, 10% at Cooking.com (6% elsewhere), 6% at Sports Authority and Vera Bradley, 3% at Walmart (2% elsewhere), and 5% at Wolf Camera. You can sign up for FatWallet’s cashback program here if you’re not already a member.
MrRebates has also increased its cashback rates for 200 of its merchants through the holiday season, and they’ll be starting a contest on Black Friday for a $10,000 cash prize. Some particularly good cashback rates: 25% at Restaurant.com; 14% at Yves Rocher; 12% at Colorful Images, Crucial, Current Catalog (5% elsewhere!), Ice.com, and Limoges; 9% at Mikasa; 8% at Chefs, Fashion Bug (4% elsewhere!), and North Face; 7% at HSN, JCWhitney, Limited Too, Roamans, and Timberland; 6% at Lakeside Collection, NASCAR, Sephora, and ULTA; 5% at Aeropostale, Brylane Home, Dell, Jessica London, Ritz Camera, and Wolf Camera; 3% at MacMall and Walmart. If you’re not a member of MrRebates and would like to join, please use my link — thanks! You’ll get a $5 registration bonus, too.
MyPoints is giving away 85 $100 gift cards daily plus four $25,000 prizes in its Home for the Holidays promotion, running through December 24. Members can earn up to 5 free entries into the daily gift card giveaway by doing specific activities like clicking a daily offer, creating a “MyList,” playing a free game, referring a friend, or downloading their toolbar and making a search (not recommended; toolbars can interfere with your ability to receive cashback from competing rewards programs). Members can earn up to 10 total entries into the $25,000 grand prize drawing by making a purchase from a featured retailer (or alternatively, by sending in a postcard — see rules for details). If you’d like to join MyPoints, please sign up with my link — thanks!
RewardZone (Best Buy’s free rewards program) is kicking off its holiday shopping season with a members-only event this Saturday, November 9th from 8:30pm to 10:30pm. Nearly all purchases will qualify for double points, or spend over $1000 for triple points. Best Buy credit card holders get triple points on everything and quadruple on $1000+. Each store will give away 5 $50 Best Buy gift cards during the event, and the first 50 customers will receive a free charger for small appliances. Sony items will be on special discount, and they promise to have Wiis in stock. Not a RewardZone member yet? Join here.
ThankYou Points (Citibank) is reducing the number of points to cash out for a different selection of prizes each week. The discounts aren’t huge — around 6% for the items I checked, but if you were close to cashing out, the discount will help you get there a little faster. ThankYou Points is only available to select Citibank customers; sign up here if you have a qualifying account.
Upromise has launched something called Guest Shopping, “our gift to you this season.” It’s a personalized link you can give to your friends and family so their purchases will contribute cashback to your Upromise account — without them having to go through the usual procedure of signing up for a Upromise account and naming your child as their beneficiary. They’re also doing The Season of Giving Sweepstakes where 50 winners will be rebated 100% of their Upromise purchases within a specified time period (up to $1,000). They’re doing an instant-win game you can play daily, with 1,000 instant winners total! Want to sign up at Upromise? Please click here to support CompareRewards — thanks!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought you might want to update this. Upromise launched their holiday promotions today. They are running a Season of Giving promotion and giving 50 members all their qualified holiday spending done at Upromise back up to $1,000. There is also an Instant Win game where 1,000 gift cards from $5 to $100 are being given away to members.
Another thing worth noting, Upromise saves people money the most ways and where they shop. We provide the best coverage of the top 50 online retailers (there are 600 merchants), savings on dining out, grocery shopping and offline stores and have exclusive weekly deals.