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5% on eBay
We broke the news about the availability of getting 5% back on eBay purchases using the Inbox Dollars shopping portal. We also wrote about another option: many reported being able to go through Topcashback and getting the 5% rate matched using the Topcashback highest cashback guarantee (details here).
Update 9/22: Topcashback is no longer matching these claims, read more details in this post.
Will They Pull Through?
We’ve been getting lots of comments about the fact that no one has gotten the cashback showing in their Inbox Dollars account and many are nervous that they won’t pull through.
The good news is that it’s been confirmed by some people on Twitter (here and here) that using the chat feature with Inbox Dollars they’ve been able to confirm that their purchases have tracked and are just waiting 30-45 business days until posting. And this was even for gift card purchases. (Most gift card purchases are typically eligible for cashback on most portal programs, but not eBay gift cards).
It seems that this portal will work differently than we are used to in that we’ll wait a month or so until we receive notification of the purchase. Once that happens, the money will probably become available right away in the Inbox Dollars account.
How to file a claim with Topcashback
While many have had success getting the 5% match from Topcashback, not everyone has. Orensmoneysaver points out that you have to make sure to use the URL of the shopping section on the Inbox Dollars site when filing a claim with Topcashback so that they can see the 5% offer. Here is the URL that you should use:
http://www.inboxdollars.com/shopping
Hopefully, if you use that, Topcashback will approve you with no problem, as many have experienced.
Which to use?
‘Should I use Inbox Dollars or use Topcashback and get a match?’
That’s a good question. For someone who is comfortable with Topcashback and has a running balance with them, Topcashback probably makes more sense, despite the small risk of something going wrong with the claim. It could be worth keeping screenshots of the 5% offer from Inbox Dollars in case the offer gets pulled before you file the match claim with Topcashback.
For those who don’t like Topcashback or who don’t have a running balance with them, it could make sense to use Inbox Dollars directly since it would appear that there is no risk there. (I admit that I’ll remain slightly uneasy about them until we start seeing the cashback posting, but for now it’s looking good.)
It’s also worth remembering that Inbox Dollars has a $30 payout threshold so small-time portal users would do better with Topcashback who doesn’t have a minimum. On the flip side, Inbox Dollars does have a $5 signup bonus (and this counts toward the $30 threshold) so that’s an upside of trying them out.
One other thing to bear in mind is that Topcashback and other have a limit of $50 per transaction for eBay purchases. If you make a transaction of more than $1,000, you’ll probably only be able to get the max of $50 and no more. Inbox Dollars does not have any such stated limit so hopefully you can get 5% on the whole purchase. (HT: runtheroad)
Other eBay Portal News
Two other interesting pieces of news regarding shopping portals for eBay:
- Topcashback lowered their rate from 1.2% to 1% recently. Befrugal is better at 1.1%, but since we intend to get the 5% match, it’s better to use Topcashback since Befrugal will only do a match one time per merchant.
- Many have been noticing that eBay started showing up on mileage shopping portals. For example, today you can get 1 mile per dollar of spend using the AAdvantage or Southwest portals. You can also get .5 miles per dollar using the Alaska or United shopping portals. This probably isn’t worthwhile in place of the 5% option, but when that is no longer available it’s worth keeping in mind.
How long it will take for eBay purchases to show up on InboxDollars account? I contacted InboxDollars and they were not able to confirm any of the purchase and recommended I should wait for at least 30 days. I am hesitated to further use it since I do not even know if my purchases have been tracked properly.
You can chat with them to see if it tracked.
Hi Chuck, thank you for your comment. I asked them but they repeatedly told me to wait for 30 days. I do not know how you asked them but that is the result I got 🙁 Thank you for your time and help, Chuck.
I just chatted with Inbox Dollars support, and they were not able to confirm anything for me.
Looks like I’m about to get reamed for $250+ of CB, because I didn’t use TCB match.
One more thing to be aware of: Inbox Dollars wants your SSN if they owe you more than $300 in a year, and will issue a 1099 if they pay out more than $600 in a year.
I believe that’s standard for all survey sites. Did they tell you that we can’t submit a claim if it doesn’t show up?
Any idea when the 5% offer came upon the scene? AKA, how far back is a reasonable claim to TCB?
TCB will only match up to 7 days
I was able to get TCB to match however they did still keep the $50 per transaction limit, which is something Inbox Dollars doesn’t appear to have.
Good point, I”ll add that.
if you have United credit card MP shopping portal gives you 1 mile per $1.
I purchased 3 Exxon Moble GCs for $270 2 days ago and it actually posted as 1.2% despite TopCashBack saying 1% on their page. However I was able to get them to match the 5% anyway today.
Ditto, although it’s pending as $3.27 rather than $3.24 as you’d expect. I then requested a match to equal the 5% on Inbox Dollars this morning, using the URL referenced above, and now if I click on Existing Claims under the Highest Cashback Guarantee Claims section, and then click through again to Closed Claims, it says Approved and references the $3.27 “commission”. We’ll see what happens next.
Topcashback only matched one of my purchases. I bought 3 hyatt 100 dollar gift cards on three separate occasions and filed for matching for all three on the same day and topcashback might have thought it was all for just one. I have no idea
Did you file separate claims for each?