Money

Saving big on eBay without eBay Coupons: How to consistently get 4%+ cash back while shopping

ebay sign

I have used eBay for years to save a great deal of money on products.  I continue to do so because for many products, especially computer/cell phone parts and accessories, eBay often saves me a great deal of money.  Even if you don’t have eBay coupons, you can save a good amount every time you shop on eBay.

I recently discovered a way to save even more money when shopping on eBay.  No eBay coupons are required, and you can get anywhere from 4%+ cash back on products you purchase on eBay.

How does this work?  What you do is “stack” rebates to get substantial cash back from every eBay purchase you make.

Here’s where the rebates come from:

  1. Mr. Rebates – 1% cash back on almost every eBay purchase, plus a $7.50 bonus when you sign up.  A+ company, the rebates are real and the cash back is outstanding.
  2. eBay Bucks – 2% cash back, automatically on eBay.  The rebates are real, and can be applied to future eBay purchases.
  3. Credit Card rewards – 1%+ rewards for charging your eBay purchase through PayPal on a cash back credit card (there are many of them out there)

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Make sure you are signed up for an account on Mr. Rebates.com
  2. Go to Mr. Rebates and login.  Do a search for eBay.  You will see the eBay cash back link in the results.  Click on that and it will take you back to eBay.
  3. In the window that Mr. Rebates opened (very important) find your item by searching or going to “my eBay” and bringing up the item.
  4. Click the “Buy it Now” button and checkout with PayPal (use your rewards card in PayPal if you have one).
  5. You will see your cash back in Mr. Rebates about 2 days after your purchase.

This is the formula I have followed and have earned a great deal of cash back for purchases on eBay.  Please note that Mr. Rebates works on many additional sites and you should check them for cash back before making a purchase from any online merchant!

This can be a bit complicated, so leave a comment if you aren’t following this or if it does not work out for you.

(photo: liewcf)

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6 Comments

  • I have a question: From step 3 to 4, when u say go to Mr.rebates and login, do you mean on the same page where Bing opened Ebay or a completely new tab or page?

    • Tamka, Great Question. You may go to Mr. Rebates in the same page/tab or a new page/tab. The reason that this works is because the bing.com information is already stored on eBay (in a cookie) so you won’t lose anything by going to Mr. Rebates and then going back to eBay.

  • Can I ask, when will the eBay cashback go from pending rebates to available rebates in your Mr Rebates account.

    • Great question Ruby. It generally takes a few weeks for funds to move from “pending” to “available” in your Mr. Rebates account. As soon as Mr. Rebates has record of a purchase, they mark the rebates as pending. Once the funds have been transferred from eBay to Mr. Rebates they will then be “available” for you to withdraw. Generally this process seems to take a few weeks with eBay.

      Congratulations on using Mr. Rebates and starting to save money online, and thanks for stopping by!

  • I think this article used to link to a page that tracks bing rebates – but I cannot find that page anymore. Does anyone know that url?

    • I removed that from the post because Bing does not offer cash back anymore – that program is discontinued. The process you see above is “as good as it gets” now. A 6% savings still adds up to a significant amount, especially on larger purchases, or over many purchases. Being truly frugal means always saving on every purchase, even if it’s just a few pennies!