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Best-Ever Bonus for Joining the Rakuten Online Shopping Portal [$50 or 5,000 Amex Points]

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Ryan Smith
Edited by: Juan Ruiz
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We may be compensated when you click on product links, such as credit cards, from one or more of our advertising partners. Terms apply to the offers below. See our Advertising Policy for more about our partners, how we make money, and our rating methodology. Opinions and recommendations are ours alone.

We definitely think you should be earning extra rewards when shopping online. Just clicking an extra button on your browser before making a purchase can add thousands of extra points to your balance each year.

Even better, you can opt to take your bonus as 5,000 Amex Membership Rewards points — and trust us, you’ll want to. We’ll show you why this choice can unlock far more value than expected.

Here’s why you should be using Rakuten — and why right now is a great time to sign up.

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What Is Rakuten?

Rakuten is an online shopping portal through which you can find offers for bonus cash-back or points when shopping online. There’s also a convenient browser extension that you can install, and it will flash when you’re visiting a page with a current offer.

Screenshot
Image Credit: Rakuten

By clicking that button (or navigating through Rakuten’s website to the merchant you want to shop with) before finalizing your purchases, Rakuten will use trackers on your browser to verify the purchase. Then, you’ll receive a payout of the promised rewards. This can be a flat amount (for example, earning $20 after spending at least $200) or a certain rate (3% extra cash-back).

The best value comes from the fact that Rakuten allows you to earn Amex Membership Rewards points, rather than cash-back, if you update the settings in your profile. We value Membership Rewards points at 2.2 cents each — more than double the value of earning cash-back rewards worth 1 cent apiece.

Hot Tip:

Choosing to earn Membership Rewards from online shopping is valuable because of the numerous high-value uses of Amex points with transfer partners — options you’ll get access to with these points that earning cash-back won’t enable.

Get a Best-Ever $50 Bonus When You Join Rakuten

Right now, Rakuten is offering $50 for new members plus $50 to the person who refers them. When will this offer disappear? There’s no known end date, so joining soon definitely makes sense.

For context, the typical bonus for new members is $30 or $40.

Rakuten 50 bonus new member September 2025
Image Credit: Rakuten

To earn the bonus, you’ll need to make $50 worth of purchases within 90 days of joining Rakuten. If you do that, both you and the person who referred you will receive $50 — or 5,000 Amex Membership Rewards points.

Because this deal requires a referral link, we’ve included some from our team to make it easy for you to access the offer:

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Final Thoughts

For a limited time, you can earn a best-ever $50 bonus when you join Rakuten and spend at least $50 within 90 days. Even better, you can choose to take the bonus as 5,000 Amex Membership Rewards points — a far more valuable option.

When will this offer end? We don’t know, but we don’t expect it to stick around for long. If you’re interested, now’s the time to jump in.

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About Ryan Smith

Ryan completed his goal of visiting every country in the world in December of 2023 and is letting his wife choose their destinations, including revisiting some favorites. Over the years, he’s written about award travel and credit cards for publications like AwardWallet, The Points Guy, USA Today Blueprint, CNBC Select, Tripadvisor, Point.me, and Forbes Advisor.

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