TechnologyCrowd

With the holiday season approaching quickly, I thought now would be a good time to discuss some websites that I use for getting cash back on website purchases.  There are several sites out there that offer coupons and discount codes as well as cash back programs.

My favorite site that I have been using for a few years is FatWallet.com.

The forums are a great place to go to see hot deals posted by community members for online and offline items.  There is often responses from other members with information regarding whether the deals applied in different areas.

The best feature of the site is the Coupons and Cash Back section.  I check here whenever I am purchasing something online to see if it is available at a store where I can get a discount.  The page lists the amount of cash back available at each store and any specials or discount coupons also available.

Although, you will know what the price and cash back is available, you should also do some searching on the web to see if you can get a better price on another site.  I would say that about 50% of the time you might be able to get a better price at Amazon.com or another website, but there are several times when I am buying something from TigerDirect or Buy.com and going through FatWallet gives me an extra cash back that I would not receive if I didn’t go to FatWallet first.

The signup process is very easy and it only takes a little extra time to go to FatWallet.com before making a purchase.  I end up using FatWallet as a research tool by going there first and then checking various stores in the category that I am looking to buy in to make sure I get the best overall price.  The site has categories for just about anything you can buy on the web with 23 categories from Baby & Kids to Video Games, check out the screenshot above for the full list.

Although I have used FatWallet for years and will continue using it since it is easier to accumulate the cash back amounts by using one account, there are some relative newcomers also entering the space that I am considering using more in the future.

The biggest competitor was created by Microsoft with the launch of the Bing search engine.  Along with searching there is also a cash back store similar to FatWallet which you can go to directly or will come up in the results after doing a product search.

You can see from the picture that it is very similar to the setup of FatWallet with categories and stores listed with the cash back percentage listed for each store.  The Bing site does not provide the Hot Deals information and community feedback that FatWallet provides, but in most cases the percentage of cash back that you will receive is 1-2% higher.  If you know what you want and are not as interested in learning about sales and specials, Bing is the way to go to get the highest cash back amount.

Another interesting twist on the cash back amount combined with an internet portal is the Blastoff Network.  This site can serve as your homepage and be fully customized with content from major sites as well as videos, games, and Facebook information on your homepage.

Similar to the other sites, the mall provides a list of online stores that can be sorted by category with the percentage cash back available for each store.

The percentages through this network tend to be a little lower than the other sites, but the real benefit here comes from creating a network of friends and you earn a percentage of everything that they earn.  You basically earn for everything that anyone in your network purchases going out ten levels of referrals.  I also noticed some stores are part of the Blastoff Mall that are not in the other sites, and example is Best Buy.

Although I have been a long time FatWallet user, in researching this article I realized that Bing now provides a higher cash back rate and I like the idea of having my home page set to the Blastoff Network to start my search there and grow my network.  I like the customization options for the Blastoff Network start screen for more than just online purchasing.  If you would like to try it out please join my network, it doesn’t cost anything and you can get a nice homepage with news, videos, games, and Facebook information.

FatWallet is still a great resource for deals and coupons and the percentages and specials may change over time, but I highly recommend checking these sites before making any online purchases so you don’t leave free money on the table.