Rakuten $50 Bonus: Best-Ever New Member Referral Offer Is A No-Brainer

Through September 30, 2026, if you join Rakuten through a qualifying referral link and spend $50 within the first 90 days, you’ll receive a $50 bonus. The person referring you can also receive $50. This is a best-ever offer for my favorite online shopping portal, given that you can earn Amex Membership Rewards points or Bilt Rewards points with it at a favorable rate.

Taking advantage of this is truly a no-brainer, as I’d view this as a way to get $50 worth of stuff for (basically) free. For that matter, you’re missing out more broadly if you’re not earning additional rewards for your online shopping, beyond what you earn with your credit card.

In this post I’d like to go over all the details of Rakuten, including how this new member offer works.

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

Rakuten $50 referral bonus: how it works

Through September 30, 2026, Rakuten is offering a generous elevated refer-a-friend bonus. Specifically, if you refer a friend to Rakuten and they spend $50 within the first 90 days, then both the person referring and the person being referred each receive $50.

This is truly a best-ever bonus, as we’ve previously only seen a bonus of up to $40 — though admittedly this offer has stuck around for quite some time.

This is a very good deal. Essentially Rakuten is giving out $100 total for a $50 purchase, between the person referring and the person being referred. Long term you can potentially get even more value with Rakuten, as rewards can be converted into Amex or Bilt points.

How to get the Rakuten $50 bonus: step-by-step

Actually earning the Rakuten $50 refer-a-friend bonus is really straightforward:

1. Join Rakuten using a qualifying referral link, and you can even then decide if you want to earn Amex or Bilt points in lieu of cash back going forward (more on that below)
2. Make a qualifying purchase of at least $50 within the first 90 days
3. Keep an eye on your account for the rewards to post; first they’ll show as pending, and then you’ll actually receive the rewards per Rakuten’s standard payout rules

What’s the timeline with which you’ll actually receive the rewards? With Rakuten you’re paid (either in cash or points) once quarterly, and there’s a cutoff for payments:

• For activity between January 1 and March 31, get paid on May 15
• For activity between April 1 and June 30, get paid on August 15
• For activity between July 1 and September 30, get paid on November 15
• For activity between October 1 and December 31, get paid on February 15

What’s the easiest way to trigger the Rakuten bonus?

Rakuten partners with literally thousands of retailers, and an eligible purchase worth at least $50 with any eligible retail partner would qualify. When you click over to the partner site, just make sure you keep an eye on any exclusions, since some types of purchases may not qualify for rewards.

Don’t have anything you need to buy right now? There are easy ways to unlock the $50 bonus, including simply purchasing a $50 gift card through giftcards.com. 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.

There are also often amazing opportunities to earn close to 100% back or 100x points with select retailers, which is a rate at which I’d gladly buy points all day long, without even factoring in the service being sold.

Can you get the Rakuten bonus as cash or points?

The reason that Rakuten is my favorite shopping portal is because Rakuten rewards can be converted into Amex Membership Rewards points or Bilt Rewards points. The exact way this works depends on the currency you choose to earn.

With the Rakuten and Amex Membership Rewards partnership, you can consistently earn one point in lieu of one cent, assuming you have an Amex card that earns Membership Rewards points. So if a retailer offers 10% cash back, you can instead earn 10x Amex points.

Personally I value Amex Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, because of all the ways there are to redeem the points for first and business class international travel, while getting outsized value. To me that increases the value of the rewards by 70%.

This just requires changing one setting in your account, so it’s super easy. The only thing to be aware of is that this points earning opportunity doesn’t apply to the welcome bonus, but does apply to all spending beyond that.

That’s not the only opportunity, though. The Rakuten and Bilt Rewards partnership lets members earn Bilt Rewards points in lieu of cash back. Bilt elite members can earn one point in lieu of every one cent, while non-elite members can earn one point in lieu of every two cents.

What’s cool here is that that your cash back can retroactively be converted into Bilt points for the entire Rakuten “payout” period (roughly quarterly), and that means even the refer-a-friend bonus can be converted into points.

If you have the choice between one Amex point or one Bilt point, I think many people might prefer the latter, given the value of the rewards, plus how hard they are to earn. However, if the ratio isn’t one point per cent, then I’d go with the Amex partnership instead.

Can you refer friends to Rakuten after getting the bonus?

Once you join Rakuten, you too can then refer friends and family members, and earn an unlimited number of referral bonuses. Finding your link is easy. Just log into your Rakuten account, and then click on the “Refer & Earn” button at the top left. Then you can either email them an invitation, or you can just send them the URL, and they can apply through that.

OMAAT readers are welcome to leave their referral links in the comments section below.

Rakuten new member bonus frequently asked questions

Bottom line

Rakuten is my favorite online shopping portal, and the company is currently offering its best-ever new member bonus. Through September 30, 2026, 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 or Bilt 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.