Anyone with any amount of interest in credit cards is surely aware that the welcome bonuses offered when you open new cards are often the most lucrative part. That’s why hardcore credit card enthusiasts engage in what’s often called “churning,” where they claim a bonus, close a card, and wait the necessary amount of time until they can do it all again. But even if you’re not up to that level of reward maximization, there is a growing opportunity you should be aware of.
Over the past several months, we’ve seen more and more credit card offers coming to Rakuten. For example, as I’m writing this, I see cashback deals for the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Card ($125), the BofA Travel Rewards Credit Card ($160), the Citi Strata Premier ($50), and more. While those returns are pretty good on their own, what makes them even better is that these cashback bonuses come in addition to the welcome offers themselves! So, if you used the Rakuten link to sign up for the Bank of America Travel Rewards card, you’d be able to earn 25,000 bonus Bank of America points after you make at least $1,000 on the card in 90 days, plus the $160 cashback on Rakuten. That means $410 in rewards instead of the regular $250.
The only downside here is that these offers can come, go, and change quite quickly. Therefore, you may want to be ready to jump on a deal when a card you’re interested in pops up — and make peace with the fact that an even better offer may come along. It’s kind of a gamble, but just keep in mind that these rewards are all bonuses, so don’t fret too much if you didn’t score the absolute highest.
By the way, if you’re not familiar with Rakuten in general, it’s one of the best shopping portals for cashback. Moreover, you can elect to earn American Express Membership Rewards points instead of cashback or choose to convert your cashback to Bilt Points.
On that note, though, there are apparently mixed results on whether you can claim these Rakuten credit card offers when earning something like Amex Membership Rewards points. In fact, it looks as though Rakuten might be cracking down on this. Personally, when I looked for these deals on my MR-earning Rakuten account, it shows “no points” for the offers. However, looking on a “regular” Rakuten account shows the cashback deals I mentioned earlier. As for whether cashback earned from credit card offers could ultimately be turned into Bilt Points, that remains unclear from what I’ve seen.
The bottom line is that, if you’re in the market for a new rewards credit card, it may be worth keeping an eye on Rakuten to see if you can score a bonus with your bonus. Just be patient, as Rakuten notes that these bonuses will be added to your account “within a few months” — and the site only pays out quarterly on top of that. Those minor hiccups aside, these offers could end up being a great deal. It’s just one more reason to love Rakuten!