4/5
Trustpilot rating
Rakuten (USA)
Report
Should I Use Rakuten?
Since 1999, we've paid our members over $3.6 Billion in Cash Back. Join now for an extra 10% Cash Back boost. Shop 3,500+ stores using coupons or cash back!
Depends
DependsJoin if you shop online often and can shrug off occasional missed tracking — it's free and often pays.
Free cash-back portal that mostly works, but payouts are slow and sometimes disputed — treat it as gravy, not guaranteed savings.
Confidence: Medium
$3.6B
Cash back paid
to members since 1999
3,500+
Partner stores
coupons + cash back
1999
Operating since
formerly Ebates
Value for money
4
Free; $3.6B paid out, though payouts can lag.
Ease of use
4
Join once, shop via app or extension.
Feature depth
3
Coupons plus cash back; nothing deeper.
Support quality
2
Multiple complaints about disputes and slow resolution.
Security posture
2
2021 breach notice; sibling-product CVEs.
Pros
Cons
Gotchas
- highCash back can take months to pay and sometimes never tracks; the top complaint across review sites.⁴
- highRakuten USA filed a data breach notice in January 2021; public details are limited.⁹
- mediumBoosted rates and promos are described as misleading by some users; read exclusions before buying.⁴
- mediumA Google support thread flags that Rakuten requests access to your email upon joining.
Best for
- Frequent online shoppers at big chains
- Coupon stackers
- Patient savers okay with slow payouts
Not for
- Anyone who needs cash back to reliably track — it often doesn't
- Privacy-sensitive users wary of granting email access
- Buyers expecting instant rebates at checkout
- People unwilling to chase missing cash back with support
Pricing
Free membership
$0
- Cash back at 3,500+ stores
- Coupon codes
- Promotional 10% boost offers
Security
2021 US breach notice on file; recent CVEs hit sibling products (Viber, Kobo, Send Anywhere), not the cash-back portal itself.
- Rakuten USA data breach (2021)California AG 'Notice of Data Event' filed on or about January 21, 2021.⁹
- CVE-2025-13476 — Rakuten ViberCryptographic information-disclosure flaw in Viber, a sibling product — not the shopping portal.
What users say
Longtime users report reliable payouts, but a loud minority complains about slow, missed, or disputed cash back.
“I love Rakuten! No complaints on my end.”
“Is it just me or is Rakuten pretty much a scam lately?”
“Rakuten is becoming increasingly unreliable”
Alternatives
Compare Rakuten with each alternative.
Swagbucks
Cash-back portal with more ways to earn.
Rakuten vs SwagbucksShopBack
Cash-back app users frequently compare against Rakuten.
Rakuten vs ShopBackGuess: Credit-card shopping portals (e.g., Amex Offers)
Store bonuses straight from your card; no third party.
Rakuten vs Guess: Credit-card shopping portals (e.g., Amex Offers)Full analysis
Based on ~20 public sources: Reddit, Trustpilot, ConsumerAffairs, Quora, a California AG breach notice, and Rakuten's own pages.
Sources
- Rakuten: Coupons, Promo Codes & Cash Backrakuten.comofficial
- Get 10% Cash Back, every day, with Rakuten+rakuten.comofficial
- Rakuten (USA) Reviews — Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
- Rakuten.com Reviews & Complaints — ConsumerAffairsconsumeraffairs.comreview
review
- Rakuten alternatives? — Redditreddit.comreview
security
security
- 7 of the Best Cash-Back Apps — NerdWalletnerdwallet.comreview
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