cash back

For a while now I've extolled the virtues of cash-back sites like Ebates, which make it easy to get money back on nearly everything you buy online.

Nearly everything. Most of these services kick in only when you buy physical goods. But FatWallet is now offering cash back on Amazon Instant Video and MP3 Downloads.

That's a first. I don't recall ever seeing this kind of offer on digital purchases. Ebates comes closest by offering cash back when you sign up for a Netflix subscription, but that's not really the same thing.

With FatWallet, you get … Read more

I'm increasingly fond of cash-back Web sites like BeFrugal, Ebates, and FatWallet, which refund you a percentage of your purchase just for shopping via their portals. It's easy money (back).

Granted, those percentages tend to be fairly small: 2 percent here, 4 percent there, maybe the occasional 7 or 8 percent.

Here's your chance to get a much bigger refund. To celebrate its 13th birthday, Ebates is offering 13 percent cash back from 132 stores.

For example, you can get 13 percent back on anything you buy from Accessory Geeks or Cell Phone Shop, which offer inexpensive … Read more

As a general rule, I am not a fan of toolbars. When I sit down at a friend's PC and see half a dozen toolbars littering their browser, I read them the riot act. (That may explain why I don't get invited over much.)

That said, there are two I'll allow on my system: Web of Trust and the new Ebates Cash Back Toolbar.

The latter makes it quicker and easier to identify and score cash-back deals from online stores. As someone who uses Ebates pretty religiously, it's a no-brainer addition to my browser.

For those … Read more

If you shop online a lot, you need to know about Ebates. And FatWallet Cash Back. And RewardsRunner.com. These and other sites give you back cold, hard cash on your purchases--kind of like a Discover card on steroids.

Take Ebates (that's my referral link, FYI). In honor of Cyber Monday, the service is offering double cash back from 500 stores.

Update: This deal is long since over, of course, but I still think Ebates and other cash-back sites are great for saving money on almost everything you buy online.

And in some cases, more than double. When you … Read more

You remember the Bing Cashback program, right? It handed out cash rebates for stuff you purchased via the Bing portal. So, for example, if you were going to buy something like the 50-inch LG 50PK540 plasma HDTV from TigerDirect for $799.99 (a mighty nice deal today, by the way), you might get back 10 percent of the purchase price--just by clicking through Bing before placing your order.

Alas, Microsoft pulled the plug on Bing Cashback last June--but the concept lives on. In fact, before you buy another thing, head to CashReporter.com. The site aggregates rebate info from various … Read more

Microsoft said Friday it is getting rid of Bing Cashback, a program that allowed advertisers to bid for search advertisements by offering a percentage of sales back to users.

When introduced in May 2008, Microsoft had held out the program as a significant way it could change the economics of search.

"In lots of ways, this was a great feature - we had over a thousand merchant partners delivering great offers to customers and seeing great ROI on their campaigns, and we were taking some of the advertising revenue and giving it back to customers," Microsoft said in … Read more

Combine Web browsing with finding shopping deals and collecting coupons for bargains. This toolbar brings it all together.

The AAfter Toolbar installs quickly and easily. Its not the best design we've seen for a toolbar, and it takes up more viewing real estate than seems necessary, but its not as cluttered with buttons as many other toolbars. We like that it doesn't try to be all things to all surfers. Instead, it focuses on its search engine and shopping deals.

The toolbar performed well in all our tests, quickly returning search results and responding quickly when we clicked … Read more

Updated 11 p.m., with details from Microsoft's Live Search site.

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft is looking to buy its way into search, and I'm not talking about Yahoo.

The software maker plans on Wednesday to launch a cash back program to those who buy things after using its search.

Microsoft has details of the program up on its Web site, including a list of frequently asked questions.

"We want to earn your loyalty and reward it with cashback savings for your everyday online shopping," Microsoft said. "We are 'The Search That Pays You Back!' " … Read more