There are literally dozens if not hundreds of online shopping sites (like Ebates) that offer rewards , so I’ll be honest and say that I’m a little skeptical when I hear about a new deal site. Before I tell others about a resource, I want to make sure I’ve done my research and try it out for myself. That’s exactly why I wanted to try out the site Big Crumbs before sharing it with you.
What is Big Crumbs?
Big Crumbs is one of the largest community sites for online shopping perks and gives its users a real incentive: cash. That’s right, you actually get cash back for purchases you would normally make from an online retailer, not points or other confusing rewards. Whenever you make a purchase through one of the 1200+ online vendors, you can see a percentage of that sale go right into your Big Crumbs account. Every month that you have at least $1, Big Crumbs will automatically send the funds into your PayPal account or prepaid Mastercard. It’s really that simple.
Why does it work?
Referral sites, like Big Crumbs, get a kickback from stores when a customer is referred through a link and buys a product. Big Crumbs is designed to share this referral kickback with you; which means that you get cash back for items that you would have purchased anyways! Since you are directed to the store through a referral link, you can still use discount codes and coupons just as you would if you had accessed the site on your own. Your payment is still processed through the store you’re buying through, so you don’t need to share any of this information with Big Crumbs or anyone other than the store you’re buying from.
Setting Up A Big Crumbs Account
The actual set up of my account only took about 3 minutes. You’ll need to provide your basic information and email address to set up your account. If you use the same email as your PayPal account, it’ll automatically use that email for your payments. You can change this in the settings if needed.
Once my account was set up, I didn’t need to wait any longer before I started making money on my online purchases. The perks could start immediately!
Getting Cash Back For Shopping
The problem with some reward sites is that they don’t include the stores that I shop at. I was completely surprised with the options at Big Crumbs. They provide rewards for sites and stores that I use all the time, especially the travel sites.
Here are some of the big name retailers/sites and discounts that really stood out:
- Expedia – Up to 6.4% Cash Back
- Orbitz – Up to 2% Cash Back
- Office Depot – Up to 4.8% Cash Back
- Groupon – 6.4% Cash Back
- Target – Up To 5.6% Cash Back
- Lowes – Up to 3.2% Cash Back
- Skype – Up to 20% Cash Back
- Barnes & Noble – 4.8% Cash Back
- eBay – Up to 36% of Seller’s Fees
Referring Friends | Extra Cash!
You have the option to refer your friends and make some extra cash at the same time. When someone signs up through your referral link, you receive a small kickback for every purchase they make through Big Crumbs – forever. In fact, you can still make a commission even if your friends don’t sign up. If you share a discount or coupon from Big Crumbs and a friend takes advantage of the deal, you will actually receive 5X the referral commission.
The cool thing about Big Crumbs is that you can see referral dollars come in for every future purchase made by your referred friend. The referral rewards can range from 0.5% to 2.5% depending on the store. Although it might be small, it could turn out to be a few extra dollars every few months just for shopping and telling your friends.
Final Thoughts
I really couldn’t think of any drawbacks to Big Crumbs. If you shop online, you might as well save a few dollars when you can, and Big Crumbs is a great way to help you save. I’m not expecting to make hundreds of dollars in rewards, but a few dollars each month in my PayPal account can buy a book or two throughout the year!
Have you ever tried Big Crumbs? Do you think you might give it a try?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Very cool site! I’ll have to check it out, thanks for the review. one thought though. I wonder if this is as good as my credit card online store. I get some pretty serious cash back through Chase’s cash-back program. I’ll have to do some more research on this. Gotta maximize the free money right!?
Thanks! I just looked at a shopping site I’ve used through Ebates and the cash back is higher at Big Crumbs; 6.4% vs 4.0% at Ebates. Will have to try it out.
@ Jon – Good questions…I’ve looked at some of those online CC stores, and you can get good deals too. It just varies on the item, so it wouldn’t hurt to cruise on over to Big Crumbs to see if you can save more!
@ Julie – I was surprised with the cash back options at Big Crumbs – glad you found some good deals!
Very nice write up on BigCrumbs! I have been using BigCrumbs for over 2 years and the 4% here and 6.5% there have added up. The best part of it all is that they offer a paypal payment option that automatically deposits your savings to your account. BigCrumbs does offer some of the highest rates across the multitude of cash back sites. I have found this new resourse, cashreporter.com, that allows you to compare most big name cash back sites and BigCrumbs is usually at the top.