Terms & Conditions
Rakuten Cash Back Shopping Program
Rakuten.com ("Rakuten") offers a service that allows members to earn cash back on purchases made at over 2,000 stores. Joining and using Rakuten is free and simple, requiring only your email address and a password to get started. Rakuten does not sell or rent your personal information to third parties, and Rakuten does not 'spam' its members. Rakuten does not install or require you to install software on your computer. In other words, there is no 'catch'. Rakuten receives a fee for referring buyers to affiliated stores and uses that fee to pay members cash back on their purchases. Rakuten Inc.'s websites have paid members over $325 million in cash back since the inception of the company.
Please read this complete member agreement ("Agreement") for full details on the Rakuten Cash Back Shopping Program ("Program"). We think you will agree that Rakuten offers the smartest way to shop online or in-store.
Becoming a Member
By enrolling as a member in the Program ("Member"), or by utilizing any of Rakuten' shopping applications ("Applications"), you agree to be bound by this Agreement. Enrollment as a Member is simple: you must provide an email address so Rakuten can inform you when money or other rewards are credited to your account. Members must be at least eighteen years old and agree not to use the Program for any illegal or fraudulent activity. Please be aware that participation in the Program and the opportunity to earn cash back are offered at the sole discretion of Rakuten, and Rakuten has the right to change this Agreement in whole or in part, at any time, with or without notice.
Earning Cash Back
Earning back a portion of your purchases as cash back ("Cash Back") is straightforward. Choose a store, product, coupon or other offer displayed on Rakuten.com or an Rakuten application, click the accompanying shopping link to be directed to an affiliated store's website ("Affiliate Store"), and complete a purchase to earn Cash Back on your net purchase amount. You may also earn Cash Back on purchases made 'in-store' at a limited number of stores by presenting an Rakuten coupon at time of check out. Such stores and coupons are clearly identified on Rakuten.com. Specific Cash Back amounts vary by store and product category and are provided in detail at Rakuten.com. Please note that the net purchase amount excludes taxes, fees, shipping, gift-wrapping, discounts or credits, returns or cancellations, and extended warranties.
Certain Affiliate Stores exclude a limited number of products and purchases from the Program. Rakuten does its best to minimize and maintain an up-to-date list of exclusions on Rakuten.com. Additionally, to earn Cash Back, you must complete your purchase during the same shopping session you start after clicking on the Rakuten link. If you visit other sites before completing your purchase or use coupons not provided by Rakuten, your purchase might be associated with a service other than Rakuten and you might not earn cash back on your purchase. If you disable 'cookies' on your computer you will not be able to earn Cash Back as cookies are used to authenticate the user and be certain Cash Back is assigned to the Member account.
Earning Bonuses & Other Rewards
Rakuten periodically offers monetary bonuses or other rewards for sign-up in the Program, for referring other new Members, or for other specific actions. The terms and conditions accompanying such offers will govern how they are earned and paid if the terms and conditions differ from this Agreement. To qualify for a sign-up bonus payment, a new Member must establish an Active Account (defined below) and make minimum qualifying purchases totaling at least twenty-five dollars ($25.00) within ninety (90) days of becoming a Member. To qualify for a referral bonus, a Member must refer a new Member who establishes his or her own Active Account and makes his or her own minimum qualifying purchases totaling at least twenty-five dollars ($25.00) within the first ninety (90) days of becoming a Member. Please note that sign-up and referral bonuses are given for the purpose of attracting brand new Members to Rakuten. An individual person is only eligible for one sign-up bonus and may earn only one referral bonus per individual person referred.
Receiving Payment
To receive payment of accrued Cash Back and any other rewards, you must establish and maintain an active account with Rakuten ("Active Account") with the information necessary to process your payment: a valid email address at which you are able to receive email, a valid postal address at which you are able to receive mail, your first and last name, and a password to protect your account. To maintain your Active Account, you must update your information if it changes and have shopped via Rakuten.com or an Rakuten Application or have accrued Cash Back at any time within the last twelve (12) months.
Rakuten pays its members accrued Cash Back and other rewards every 3 months, at a minimum. Rakuten pays members in U.S. dollars via check, Paypal, and sometimes other payment options. Members may select or change their payment options in the My Rakuten section of Rakuten.com. Each payment represents Cash Back and other rewards earned and accrued during the prior quarter based on the schedule below. The minimum payment amount is $5.01. Balances below $5.01 remain in your account for potential payment during the next payment period.
| Purchase Period | Payment Date |
| Jan 1-Mar 31 | May 15 |
| Apr 1-June 30 | Aug 15 |
| July 1-Sept 30 | Nov 15 |
| Oct 1-Dec 31 | Feb 15 |
Please note that orders from a few Affiliate Stores may be delayed by one pay cycle due to delayed processing and reporting by the stores. We do our best to expedite payments and to maintain a list of stores whose practices might delay our ability to pay Cash Back on your purchase. Rakuten reserves the right to delay payment for any purchase based on changes to Affiliate Store policies and procedures at any time.
Updating & Maintaining Your Account
You must be logged into Rakuten and enter your password to change your account information and payment preferences. You may check your account status and recent earning history at any time via the My Rakuten tab on the Rakuten Website. For security purposes, it is recommended that you memorize your password and not write it down. You are responsible for keeping your password and other account information confidential. Rakuten is entitled to act on instructions received under your password and is not responsible for any credits or debits made to your account by someone else who uses your password.
Receiving Communications from Rakuten
By signing up for membership at Rakuten, you agree to receive communications that are account and membership related (e.g., that we've added money to your account, that we are mailing you a check on a certain date, etc.) as well as periodic shopping-related emails that highlight coupons & special deals that are available to Rakuten Members. You can opt-out of receiving emails that are not account-related by either (i) visiting your account page and clicking on the Subscriptions link, or (ii) following the unsubscribe link on any of the emails. Since we need to communicate account information with you in order to operate our service, you cannot unsubscribe from account information emails. But rest assured that we don't send account emails unnecessarily. If you do not wish ever to hear from Rakuten, even if just to hear that we awarded you Cash Back, you can close your account by contacting Rakuten' Member Services department.
Protecting Your Information
Rakuten does not sell or rent your information to third parties. Rakuten requires your name and address in order to send you payment of Cash Back and other rewards earned through Rakuten. Any other information gathered by Rakuten will be used only to improve your Rakuten experience, for example by minimizing the irrelevant content or offers you see and increasing the offers you see from your favorite stores. Such information might include your favorite stores, preferred types of coupons or shopping categories. As detailed in Rakuten' Privacy Policy, Rakuten does not disclose your information to third parties except as necessary (i) for Rakuten' agents and service providers to make Rakuten' payments to you; (ii) to comply with government agency or court orders or requests; (iii) in providing aggregated or non-personalized marketing services for advertising or store partners; or (iv) for Rakuten' agents and service providers to send Rakuten' communications to you.
Using Rakuten Applications
Rakuten does not install or require you to install any software to access the Cash Back Shopping Program. Members can earn Cash Back on their purchases by using only the Web site Rakuten.com. Rakuten plans to make available a limited number of Applications to assist users in earning Cash Back without visiting Rakuten.com (for example, from mobile devices or in-store). If you use Rakuten' Applications you agree to use them only for your personal use and for accessing the Program. Rakuten reserves the right to update or discontinue its Applications at any time. You agree not to reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, copy or otherwise derive the source code of Rakuten Applications for any reason. You may not rent, sell, or sublicense Rakuten' Applications without Rakuten prior written consent.
Rakuten Applications and their underlying information and technology may not be exported or re-exported into any country to which the U.S. has embargoed goods or to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Commerce Department's Table of Deny Orders. By using Rakuten' Applications you represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list, and that you will otherwise comply with all applicable export control laws. All rights to Rakuten' Applications are reserved by Rakuten under the copyright laws of the United States.
Inactive Member Accounts & Termination of Membership
Membership in the Rakuten program is free: there is no charge to be a Member or to earn and receive Cash Back. If your account is inactive for more than twelve (12) consecutive months, Rakuten reserves the right to debit your Rakuten account balance two dollars ($2.00) per month to recover the cost of account maintenance until (i) you reactivate your account by starting a shopping session via Rakuten.com or Rakuten' Applications, completing a qualifying purchase, or updating your account information (providing a valid name, email and mailing address), or (ii) your account balance is zero. If the balance in your inactive account is or becomes zero, Rakuten will close the account permanently and cease to maintain your account records and Program access. The inactive account maintenance charge will not cause your account balance to become negative and will not cause you to owe money to Rakuten.
Program Limitations, Qualifications & Disclaimers
Membership in the Program is subject to this Program Agreement. All Affiliate Store membership and/or operating agreements as they relate to their affiliate or partner programs with Rakuten and which reside on the Affiliate Store's respective Web sites are hereby incorporated into this Agreement by reference.
Membership in the Program is limited to individuals who are 18 years of age or older. Members may not use scripts or disguised redirects to derive financial benefit from Rakuten. Members must have Internet access and maintain a valid email address to be eligible to receive the privileges and benefits of membership.
Any failure to comply with this Program Agreement, any fraud or abuse relating to the accrual or receipt of cash back rewards, or any misrepresentation of any information furnished to Rakuten or its affiliates by you or anyone acting on your behalf may result in the termination of your membership in the Program and forfeiture of your accrued Cash Back rewards.
The determination of whether or not a purchase made through an Rakuten Affiliate Store qualifies for Cash Back is at the sole discretion of Rakuten. If an Affiliate Store fails to report a transaction to Rakuten or withholds payment to Rakuten for any reason, Rakuten reserves the right to cancel the Cash Back associated with that transaction. If Rakuten has any reason to suspect fraudulent activity is associated with your account, Rakuten reserves the right to delay or withhold payment of Cash Back. You give Rakuten permission to review your account with Affiliate Stores in cases where Rakuten suspects fraudulent activity. Rakuten is not responsible for lost or stolen payments, including gift cards. Rakuten is not responsible for payments delivered to the wrong address through no fault of Rakuten or for payment errors made by payment partners like PayPal.
It is your responsibility to check your account regularly to ensure that Cash Back has been properly credited and paid and that your account balance is accurate. If you do not believe that Cash Back has been correctly credited to your account you must contact Rakuten Member Services within 90 days of the transaction. Should you disagree with any adjustments made to your account or payments made to you, your sole remedy is to withdraw from the Program.
You may be taxed on your receipt of cash and other consideration (merchandise, travel, etc.) for member referrals, depending on the tax laws of federal, state, and local jurisdictions. Rakuten may choose to provide you with those notices to you on occasion. In all instances, you will be solely responsible for any and all tax liability arising out of the consideration received for member referrals.
Rakuten is not responsible for changes to, or discontinuance of, any Affiliate Store, or for any Affiliate Store withdrawal from the Program, or for any effect on accrual of Cash Back caused by such changes, discontinuance, or withdrawal. Rakuten is not responsible for changes to, or discontinuance of, any special offer or coupon code at an Affiliate Store site.
The Rakuten Program and Applications are being provided to member "as is" with no warranty. Rakuten reserves the right to terminate the Program at any time with or without notice. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Rakuten disclaims all representations and warranties, express or implied, with respect to the Program and Applications.
Rakuten does not warrant, guarantee, or make any representations regarding the quality or accuracy of advertisements for any products or services offered or provided by Affiliate Stores in conjunction with the Program. In addition, Rakuten does not warrant that access to this site or use of its Applications will be uninterrupted or error-free, and Rakuten assumes no responsibility for any damage caused by your access or inability to access Rakuten.com or Rakuten' Applications.
Member agrees to indemnify and hold Rakuten, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorney's fees, made by any party due to or arising out of Member's use of the Program.
Rakuten may modify this Agreement from time to time, with or without notice, and your continued participation in the Program after such modification shall be deemed to be your acceptance of any such modification. It is your responsibility to check the Terms & Conditions page of the Rakuten Web site regularly to determine whether this Agreement has been modified. If you do not agree to any modification of this Agreement, you must immediately cease participation in the Program.
This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without reference to conflicts of law rules. As a condition of the use of the Rakuten website and service, you (the Member) agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of San Francisco, California and therefore agree to file any grievance or suit of any kind exclusively in the courts located within the county of San Francisco.
If any provision of this Agreement is found invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent possible, and the other provisions contained herein will remain in full force and effect. Rakuten' failure to insist upon or enforce strict performance of any provision of the Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and Rakuten with respect to the Program.
Privacy Policy
Effective Date: February 28, 2017
Rakuten Group, Inc. ("Rakuten") was founded by two former Deputy District Attorneys who took privacy and security very seriously. We know that these issues are essential to making Rakuten a success for us and our members. Rest assured that privacy, security and integrity are first and foremost considerations at Rakuten.
This privacy policy applies to https://www.rakuten.com owned and operated by Rakuten Inc. This privacy policy describes how we collect, use, share, and secure your personal information and other shopping information. It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of this information and how you can access and update this information. If you have a question about this privacy policy, you can contact our Chief Privacy Officer by email at privacy@rakuten.com.
Information We Collect and How We Use It
Our vision is to maximize your rewards and to provide you with as many member benefits as possible. The key way in which we provide value is to share with you the commissions we receive from our merchant partners in the form of Cash Back. We strive to confirm and pay your Cash Back quickly and reliably, and to improve your experience on our site and in our applications – these are the main reasons we collect information.
Rakuten.com
When you become a member of Rakuten.com, we collect your name, email address, and physical address ("Personal Information"). We use your Personal Information to track and send you Cash Back payments and generally to improve and personalize our services. We also collect non-personal information pertaining to our merchant partners you visit, the purchases you make, and the offers you view ("Transaction Information"). We use Transaction Information to process your Cash Back faster and more reliably, as well as to provide more relevant offers for you when you visit us or use our applications and services.
Buy Now Shopping Cart Service and In-Store Offers
When you use our Buy Now shopping cart service, we collect and store your credit card information to assist you in completing purchases quickly and efficiently (for example, so you will not have to type your credit card number to complete a purchase using a mobile device). Similarly, we collect your credit card information in connection with In-Store Offers, pursuant to which you can earn Cash Back on your offline purchases at our merchant partners. In connection with In-Store Offers, we transmit your credit card information to one of our service providers, who uses it to match offers you click with purchases you complete, enabling us to award you Cash Back. We store your credit card information in a secure manner.
Browser Button and Mobile Application
When you use the Rakuten browser button or the Rakuten mobile application, we will collect your browsing history and your Transaction Information. We share this Transaction Information as needed with our affiliate network partners and merchant partners in order to confirm your Cash Back faster and more reliably, and we use it to provide you more relevant and interesting offers. We may also share Transaction Information on an anonymous basis with our corporate affiliates (companies commonly owned by Rakuten Group, Inc.) in order to understand industry trends. This anonymous Transaction Information may be aggregated with other information and shared as general shopping analysis and trends.
Social Media
Our website includes social media features, such as the Facebook Like button and a "share this" button. These features may collect your IP address and the page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. These social media features may be hosted by us or a third party. Your interactions with social media features hosted by third parties (such as the Facebook Like button) are governed by the privacy policies of the companies providing them.
Third Party Log-In Services
We allow you to sign in to Rakuten.com and our mobile app using Facebook Connect and Google Connect. These services authenticate your identity and provide you the option to share certain personal information with us such as your name and email address in order to pre-populate our sign up form. These services allow you to share information about your activities on Rakuten.com with others in your network. We may integrate with, and make available to you, other third-party log-in services in the future.
Email Account Connection
We allow you to connect your personal email account to your Rakuten account in order to view your purchase confirmations on Rakuten.com. We share this Transaction Information as needed with our affiliate network partners and merchant partners in order to confirm your Cash Back faster and more reliably, and we use it to provide you more relevant and interesting offers. You may choose to connect your email account to your Rakuten account, or to disconnect it, by making a selection in the Account Settings section of the My Rakuten portion of our site. A connection between your email account and your Rakuten account is not required for you to be a member of Rakuten and earn Cash Back.
Who Sees Your Personal Information
We share your Personal Information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this privacy policy. We do not sell your Personal Information to third parties.
Only a very limited number of our employees ever have access to your Personal Information, which they use only to track and send the Cash Back payments you earn.
We may use contractors or vendors to help us provide some of the services on Rakuten.com, some of whom may be our corporate affiliates (for instance, payment fulfillment or marketing services). If we need to disclose Personal Information for them to provide such services, it is with the requirement that such Personal Information will be kept confidential and will be used only for those services.
We reserve the right to disclose information we collect (including Personal Information) as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, bankruptcy proceedings, or other lawful requests by public authorities, and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on us or our corporate affiliates, or to protect us, our corporate affiliates, or our members from losses.
How We Keep Your Information Secure
The security of your Personal Information is important to Rakuten. We use a secure, encrypted connection (called an SSL connection) on all pages where you access or transmit Personal Information. In addition, we encrypt your credit card information that you have given us to store, and maintain industry standard security to safeguard this information. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Your Privacy With Rakuten
Rakuten will never ask for your email address, username, password or any other Personal Information in an unsolicited phone call, email or letter. Further, any contact with Rakuten member services in which Personal Information is exchanged with a member services representative will be used only for the purpose of satisfying yourrequest. Any Personal Information you provide will not be recorded or used for any reason beyond that of the stated request.
Referrals
f you choose to use our referral programs to refer a friend to Rakuten, we will ask you for your friend's name and email address. We will automatically send your friend email inviting them to visit Rakuten. We store this information for the sole purpose of sending this email and tracking the success of our referral program. Your friend may contact us at customercarereply@rakuten.com or privacy@rakuten.com to request that we remove this information from our database.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
If we materially modify this privacy policy, we will post a change notice in a prominent place on our site or by notifying you by email (sent to the email address specified in your account. We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it regularly.
Links to Third Party Websites
Rakuten contains links to many other websites. Each of these websites should have its own privacy policy that may differ materially from this privacy policy. If you wish to receive special offers directly from a merchant partner, neither this privacy policy nor our opt-out policy applies to those communications. Instead, please refer to the relevant merchant partner’s privacy and opt-out policy.
Our Policies on Email
Rakuten sends two types of emails to members: member services emails required to maintain the Rakuten program (such as cash back credits and payment notifications) and promotional emails containing offers. You may choose not to receive promotional emails at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any promotional email or by modifying your subscription preferences in the "My Rakuten" section of Rakuten.com.
We prohibit spamming by our members via our refer-a-friend capability. If you would like to report an incident of spamming using this functionality, please contact us at privacy@rakuten.com. We will investigate and take suitable action.
Cookies and Other Technologies
We, Rakuten Inc., and our partners use cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level, but if you choose to disable cookies, it may limit your use of certain features or functions on our website or service. To manage Flash cookies, please click here.
We use cookies for authentication, website personalization, and order tracking. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you will no longer be able to earn Cash Back.
Other Information We Collect
As is true of most web sites, we gather and store certain information automatically. This information may include, but is not necessarily limited to, internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider, referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data to analyze trends. We link this automatically collected data to other information we collect about users in order to improve our services and to guard against malicious activity.
Behavioral Targeting
We use one or more vendors to manage our advertising on other sites. Our vendors may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this site and other sites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt-out by clicking here. Please note this does not opt you out of being served ads. You will continue to receive generic ads.
Your Choices and Responsibilities
It is your responsibility to update and maintain accurate contact information in your Rakuten account. You can make changes by visiting your account page and entering corrections. Upon request, we will provide you with the information about whether we hold any of your personal information. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe. The email and street address that you enter into your personal profile page is the information that will be used for all contact with you, including for sending your Cash Back. Rakuten is not responsible for payments sent to an incorrect addresses provided by you.
We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as long as you have a balance greater than zero in your account. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Please feel free to contact us at privacy@rakuten.com if you have any questions about our Privacy policy or our privacy and personal information practices.
Dispute Resolution
If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request.
Kevin Johnson
Chief Executive Officer
Rakuten Group, Inc.
160 Spear St,
Floor 19
San Francisco CA, 94105
(415-908-2200)