Best-Ever $50 Rakuten Bonus: How It Works, And How To Maximize It

Rakuten is my favorite online shopping portal, and if you’re not using it, you’re leaving rewards on the table. Through December 31, 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 even an opportunity to earn Amex Membership Rewards points or Bilt Rewards points at a very favorable ratio.

Taking advantage of this Rakuten sign-up bonus 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 the Rakuten referral bonus works, and the easiest way to maximize it. This update is because the $50 refer-a-friend bonus was supposed to expire on September 30, but it has just been extended through the end of the year.

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

How the Rakuten online shopping portal works

Rakuten is a free online shopping and rewards platform that pays users either cash back or points for the shopping they do online. Rakuten partners with over 3,500 online retailers, many of which are well known, ranging from Lowe’s, to Nike, to Target. The Rakuten shopping portal concept is simple — if you click through from Rakuten to the partner website, Rakuten tracks the purchase and gets paid a commission, and then you get a reward as well.

Note that as a consumer, Rakuten is free to use. The commission is paid by the business, so you’ll pay the same price you’d pay if you just went directly to the retailer’s website. To maximize your savings, you can even download the Rakuten browser extension, which will automatically notify you when you can earn extra rewards.

I should mention that there are several online shopping portals out there to choose from, so Rakuten isn’t alone. Personally I find that Rakuten is my favorite because it has among the largest selection of partners, it gives you the flexibility to earn cash back or points, and I also find the earnings rates to be very competitive.

It can always pay to use a site like Cashback Monitor to compare the earnings rates for retailers across portals, so that you’re maximizing your rewards. In some situations you may be better off using other portals, so it’s always worth understanding what your options are.

$50 Rakuten referral bonus details & terms

Through December 31, 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 $50 Rakuten sign-up 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

The easiest way to trigger the Rakuten sign up 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.

Earn the Rakuten bonus as cash or rewards 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.

Based on my latest points valuations, Amex Membership Rewards points are worth 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. Much like Amex Membership Rewards points, I also value Bilt Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, as there are also many good uses of this points currency.

What’s cool here is 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.

Maximize credit card rewards with Rakuten purchases

Beyond the rewards you earn directly with Rakuten, your spending with retailers can of course also earn credit card rewards.

Rakuten’s co-branded Amex card is among the best cards for Rakuten spending, as it earns 4% cash back on those purchases, on up to $10,000 per calendar year. Beyond that, purchases with online retailers typically don’t qualify for any exciting bonus categories, so most consumers will want to use one of the best cards for everyday spending.

For personal cards, this would include options like the Bilt Palladium Card (learn more), Chase Freedom Unlimited® (learn more), Citi Double Cash® Card (learn more), Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (learn more), and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (learn more). For business cards, The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (learn more) and Capital One Venture X Business (learn more) are among the best.

Of course there are exceptions, since Rakuten also partners with some brands that may be in categories eligible for bonus rewards on some cards. There are a couple more Rakuten tips I should mention:

• Some credit cards offer monthly, quarterly, or annual credits, so don’t forget to stack those; for example, if you’re buying something through Dell or lululemon, you can always go through the Rakuten portal first to earn bonus rewards, even if you still get a statement credit for those purchases
• Always keep an eye on programs like Amex Offers or Chase Offers, which provide discounts with select retailers, as sometimes those opportunities can be stacked with shopping portals

Refer friends to Rakuten after earning 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 referral 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 December 31, 2026, the Rakuten sign-up bonus is for $50 — 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 for the Rakuten referral bonus, 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.