In this post I wanted to recap my favorite way of earning Amex Membership Rewards points that doesn’t involve credit cards. Rather I’m talking about the ability to earn Amex points through Rakuten, which is also why Rakuten is my favorite online shopping portal.
Continue reading: How To Earn Amex Points With Rakuten Shopping Portal
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
This has been a great addition for building Amex MR points. Robust marketplace and frequent promotions offering 10% cash back at a number of stores. Helps that you can use other cards outside of Amex to make the purchase and earn points through both. Really benefited from it this quarter using Chase freedom for a few department store purchases.
Word of caution with Rakuten - as a general rule don't use their shopping links to purchase gift cards. They will claw back or potentially lock your account.
I've been getting an outsized value on extra points for amex with rakuten. Need to be careful though, sometimes it seems you will get a certain amount of "cash back", but in reality is 0 or less. Need to read the fine print as to what or what category will get the "cash back".
This has been a great source of value for me. I travel weekly for work, and when a 10x promotion for Marriott stays came out, I booked out several months of hotels. Brought in an extra 50k MRs for me
Rakuten rejects my attempts to link to my MR account...could it be because I only have an old AMEX Blue card and no longer carry any premium MR cards?
The Rakuten plug-in for Chrome is key. Then whenever you are on a rewards-eligible site, you will get a drop down to start the session. So you don't have to go to the portal to do your shopping. Just browse as usual.
Hmmm when I try to do this it says it has to be a NEW Rakuten account. 🙁 I have an existing account so there is no option to opt in for Amex points.
I figured it out. I first had to opt in to get paid to PayPal, and then after that was done, the link appeared to "switch" to Amex points. A bit convoluted, but seems to work.
@Ari Try a different browser from Chrome. Would error out registration, Safari worked.
@RobertD option should be there. My account is 10 y/o and it offered it.
Rakuten won't let me add my AmEx Delta Gold card saying this card is not eligible.
Not all the cards are accepted, I guess?
@ McSteamy -- It needs to be a card earning Amex Membership Rewards points. The Delta Amex Gold earns SkyMiles, not Amex points. 🙂
It only has the option of Paypal and Big Fat Check for me.
How can I add the MR option to the list?
Thanks.
Getting the Rakuten Visa is a good compliment as it will earn 3x points in many cases. I find it very odd that a Visa card is actually earning Amex points. Recently there was some 100% promotion with Lifelock and that earned around 50K in points.
See Frequent Miler post on what you need to do to get the Rakuten Visa. You have to jump through some hoops, but well worth having with this account.
I use to buy gift cards with Rakuten and the Rakuten Visa and then they just started giving 1 point per. As gift cards are now harder to flush this is not as important as it once was.
Totally recommend doing whatever you can to link Rakuten to MR. You can also stack Rakuten and Amex offers.
For example, Rakuten was running a 15x per $ promotion on Dell over the holidays that could be stacked with the Amex 10% off Dell promotion i.e., if you spent $500 on a Dell, you got $50 as an Amex credit using your Amex card, and 7,500 MR points (which at Lucky's valuation is another $127.50). So, basically, $177.50 off a $500 purchase, which is a huge value.
They run the 15x promotions regularly the past holidays where they were stackable opportunities with Amex offers. Other examples were Aveda, Glossier, IHG hotels etc.
Hmm, when I try to log in to my Amex account, it tells me "You may be using an incompatible browser. Please try again with another browser such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Internet Explorer," even though I am using Chrome. Does anyone have a workaround for this?
I figured out a workaround, I read a post from Frequentmiler that suggested using Firefox instead of Chrome or IE, and that worked! For some reason the message suggests using Chrome or IE, when they are the ones that don't appear to work well.
@Khatl It's also stackable with the Saks credit on the personal platinum card. I spent $49.99 at Saks.com in December and got 800 (16x) points from Rakuten and only paid the tax out of pocket.
Maybe this is only offered to certain users...my Rakuten app only offers Big Fat Check or PayPal. I’ll try some different things and maybe reinstall the app..there might be a new version. Thanks for the tip though...sounds like a good idea.
I also got the "incompatible browser" message, even though I was using Chrome. I emailed their customer service, and they told me to use Firefox. Worked like a charm!!
Rakuten is my go-to shopping portal for the "sleeper option" of the Rakuten Visa. By far that is the absolute must-have Amex card, especially since it's a Visa Signature, with no annual fee. The lack of a real SUB is offset by its long-term earning potential. It's the ultimate online shopping card, earning an unlimited 4.5x+ at Lowe's, BJ's, CVS, and more. I always boost my Hilton stays with 1x MR points and get earn 5x back on renting cars through AutoSlash/Priceline by booking using Rakuten. My only hope is that Amex finds the partnership lucrative enough that they'll continue even though many of us do not use an actual Amex card for purchases (since most only earn 1x)