Best-Ever $50 Rakuten New Member Bonus: A No-Brainer Deal

Link: Sign-up for a Rakuten account with a best-ever $50 bonus

Online shopping portals can be a great way to pick up bonus points for purchases you’d make anyway. Just for following a specific link, you can earn bonus points or cash back in addition to the rewards you’d earn for credit card spending.

Rakuten is my favorite online shopping portal, given that you can earn Amex Membership Rewards points with it at a favorable rate. For a limited time, Rakuten is offering its best-ever bonus for new members, available exclusively through referral by select members.

This is an incredible deal, so if you’re not yet a Rakuten member, signing up is truly a no-brainer, even if you’re not someone who usually uses online shopping portals. It’s basically a way to get $50 worth of stuff for free.

Sign-up for Rakuten with $50 bonus

Through Tuesday, September 30, 2025, Rakuten is offering a generous elevated refer-a-friend bonus. Specifically, if you refer a friend to Rakuten and they spend $50, then both the person referring and the person being referred receive $50.

It’s my understanding that this referral offer is only available for select existing Rakuten members, so be sure you carefully check your link before using it. This is truly a best-ever bonus, as we’ve previously only seen a bonus of up to $40.

This is a very good deal:

• Rakuten is giving out $100 total for a $50 purchase
• For the person being referred, they’re essentially getting a $50 credit on a $50 purchase — that’s like $50 of “free” spending!
• There are easy ways to unlock the $50 bonus, including simply purchasing a $50 gift card (this is so easy — you can pick up a $50 gift card with a variety of retailers, and then you’ll receive $50 in cash)
• You can then refer friends and family members, and earn an unlimited number of referral bonuses (OMAAT readers are welcome to leave their referral links in the comments section below, but please make sure it’s for the $50 offer)
• Long term you can potentially get even more value with Rakuten, as rewards can be converted into Amex points

Convert Rakuten cash back into Amex points

The reason that Rakuten is my favorite shopping portal is because Rakuten rewards can be converted into Amex Membership Rewards points.

This can be done at the rate of one cent per point. Personally I value Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents each. To me that increases the value of the rewards by 70%. For those wondering why I value Amex points so much more, it’s because of all the ways there are to redeem the points for first & business class international travel, while getting outsized value.

The ability to earn Amex points with Rakuten is a game changer for me when it comes to online shopping portals. See this post for everything you need to know about earning Amex points with Rakuten, as you just need to adjust one easy setting in your account.

Bottom line

Rakuten is my favorite online shopping portal, and the company is currently offering its best-ever new member bonus. Through September 30, 2025, select members have access to a $50 referral bonus for both the person referring and the person being referred. This is a great bonus, and it’s exclusively available if you’re referred by another member with an eligible link.

Since only a $50 purchase is required, that’s like getting $50 worth of stuff more or less for free. Then long term you can even earn Amex Membership Rewards points in place of cash back, which I value significantly more.

If you don’t yet have a Rakuten account, this is the time to sign up.