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 or Bilt 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.
While this offer has been around for quite some time, I’d like to post a reminder that the clock is ticking, and this is expected to be pulled in the coming weeks. This is a great opportunity, so if you’re not yet a Rakuten member, signing up truly is a no-brainer, even if you’re not someone who usually uses online shopping portals. It’s basically a way to get $50 (or more) worth of stuff for free.
Sign-up for Rakuten with $50 refer-a-friend bonus
Through March 31, 2026, 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); 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
- 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 or Bilt points
Convert Rakuten cash back into Amex or Bilt 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. For payouts through May 15, 2026, all Bilt members can earn one point in lieu of one cent. After that, all Bilt elite members can continue to earn at that ratio, while non-elite members will earn one point for 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.
Bottom line
Rakuten is my favorite online shopping portal, and the company is currently offering its best-ever new member bonus. Through March 31, 2026, 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 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.
