Update 8/13/20: They now offer 3% back on the Rakuten Visa when paying for restaurants through the Rakuten Dining network for a total of 8% back (5% + 3%). This is not interesting if you have another card that earns better (e.g. CSR). Hat tip to reader Paul
Update 10/3/19: This is now publicly available. Hat tip to reader Mony C
Original Post:
Ebates/Rakuten has launched a new card linked restaurant rewards program, currently the program is only available to ‘influencers’. The program is fairly simple:
- Add your card in app (add as many as you like)
- Enable cash back at restaurants (do this once per card)
- Use your linked card(s) to pay
Currently it’s offering 5% cash back on all eligible restaurants. It doesn’t look like this runs on any of the other card linked networks, meaning if you’re able to find a restaurant listed here and in another participating program you should be able to stack the discounts. Update: This runs on rewards network so won’t be able to stack it. Obviously if you have an account that earns Membership Rewards then this would be an extra 5x points per dollar spent at participating restaurants. If you don’t have an eBates/Rakuten account already please consider using my link here.
Hat tip to cowsareverywhere
Like other restaurant dining programs that claim thousands of participation restaurants there is not a single restaurant participating in my area
The restaurants participating in this network is a just a sliver of what it used to be in my area, compared to a year ago. Even if one was willing to go out of their way to patronize these places, there are very few around.
I did get a few tripple stacks with Uber, Dosh, and iDine though
I stopped using Rakuten because it became too complicated and just a hassle
Now available with andriod. I noticed that after an app update.
Question, does it affect other App programs like Dosh, Groupon or Pei? I believe these don’t run on the reward network, and some time you have the same restaurant on two to more of these Apps, I would like to see if someone knows if these would interfere with each other.
Dosh does run on Rewards Network, just FYI. You can stack Dosh with other rewards programs, but I haven’t been able to test with Rakuten/Dosh yet. But Dosh-IHG, Dosh-Marriott, etc. work.
If you value airline miles at significantly more than 1c per mile, then this a poor value compared to earning 5 miles per dollar from Reward Network’s airline dining programs (for AA, AS, DL, and UA) when you do 11 or more dines per year and opt in to their emails.
Or if you’re going to be able to spend more than $750 a year on dining at Reward Network participating restaurants, then Rewards Network’s own cashback program iDine is a better value, since it gives 10% back when you spend that much per year and opt in to their emails.
You can also get MR earning account and have 5 MR points (which is generally better than 5 miles) from the beginning
MR points transfer to airlines 1:1, but only to some airlines that Rewards Network supports. If you specifically want Alaska Airlines miles, or American Airlines miles, or United Airlines miles, then Membership Rewards doesn’t do you much good. (Don’t assume that all awards that are available on airlines are available on their partners. There are lots of times I look up awards using BA or QF and they don’t show up stuff on AA’s own metal that shows up at aa.com.)
So I’m not sure what you mean by “generally better”. It depends on your specifics I would think.
Btw, I’m presuming the cash back is credited to your account from Rakuten or Rewards Network or whatever, and not from the restaurant itself (because Rewards Networks earnings post days after the restaurant purchase), and thus wouldn’t trigger the Amex Gold 4x on restaurants. Only if it did that would it be obvious that it would be better to use Amex Gold for 20x MR. But like I said, I very much doubt the cashback will trigger an Amex restaurant credit. But of course we need datapoints to show how EXACTLY HOW it posts to an Amex credit card. (Keep in mind it may differently to an Amex network credit card than an MC or Visa or Discover network credit card.)
It appears to be apple/ios only for now. “coming soon” to android. when I click the restaurants banner in the app on android it just takes me to the in-store offers page.
Literally every time I add a credit card to rewards network I get fraudulent activity on the card within a couple months. Ever since I stopped using rewards network it hasn’t happened since. Hackers somehow have compromised the rewards network and have access to all card numbers in that system…..
That’s not connected to RN, there was never a breach and there are millions of customers.
All i see is a ton of papa johns in my area and I do not like their pizzas
android is not available yet 🙁