We’ve been writing a lot about a unique opportunity that’s currently available to get 5% back on all eBay purchases via the Inbox Dollars shopping portal, see 5% Back on all eBay Purchases with Inbox Dollar Portal.
A few things came to our attention regarding the portal which are important to bear in mind.
$3 Payout Fee
There is  a $3 payout fee which was brought to our attention by readers. This fee is added whether you take the check payout option or the prepaid Visa card option or the Tango e-gift card option.
The good news is that while the $3 is non-waivable, they do then add $3 toward your next payout. For example, if you have $30 (which is the minimum payout amount) and request payout of any form, you’ll only get $27. They’ll then add $3 into your Inbox Dollars account toward your next payout. This isn’t advertised clearly on the site, but it was mentioned by a reader and I confirmed this with Inbox Dollars chat.
Inactive Accounts
A reader pointed out that the site requires you to maintain some sort of activity in order to remain a full member. You need to either confirm an email (which won’t work for someone who is unsubscribed from emails) or visit the site while logged in. You must do this every 10 days.
After 10 days, the account is marked inactive, but the funds in the account are not lost. You then need to request a reactivation of the account and all the funds will remain.
It may be worth just keeping yourself subscribed to the spam they send and make sure to click on one every few days. Or set yourself a reminder to login every 10 days. Of course, if you use the site often for eBay purchases, these things won’t be necessary.
Read more about inactive accounts here and about paid emails here.
Slow Tracking
We’ve noted that this portal works different than most cashback portals in that they’ll only notify you of the purchase after 30-45 business days. At that point, the payout should hopefully be available soon after or immediately.
Is it worth it?
Once again, dealing with this portal is very worthwhile for someone who does a lot of volume of eBay purchases. Probably not worthwhile for small time users due to the $30 minimum payout and the $3 fee tacked on. The $5 initial signup bonus does help make it something to try out.
Let’s hope the 5% eBay rate lasts for a while!
My eBay purchases finally came through after submitting eBay/PayPal purchase e-mails and shipping notification e-mails. You can also convert the webpages on eBay/PayPal of your transactions to .pdf files for verification. In addition to adding $3 toward your next payout you can get an extra $2 for taking a survey on how InboxDollars can improve there portal. The survey is shown on the same page of your refunded $3. I might be using Inbox Dollars regularly after all.
They also pay for searches and for many other things that probably aren’t worth your time. I think yours is the first positive comment I have seen about them on DoC.
Inboxdollars is no longer showing ebay at all for me. It had consistently been in the top left box of the discounted merchants page since the beginning of this 5% offer. Not sure if the various discounted merchants are targeted or different from account to account, or if perhaps this is temporary. But the offer might be over.
Have done a dozen or so transactions, no payments yet. And I’ve been clicking on the PaidEmails too, good way to keep the account active I think, especially now that there may be no reason to ever use the site again except to withdraw $$.
Yeah, I think I got the purchase in right before they removed it. Just so you know Inbox Dollars pays for searches. It’s not a lot but it’s always good to be paid for doing something you already do.
Apparently no one has been paid a dime for the eBay purchases yet, my first one was more than a month ago already and there haven’t been any signs of it on the portal so far.
I agree with being skeptical of ever seeing the 5%, but I am also finding the “PaidEmails” to actually be kind of addicting in their own right. It seems every time you click one it adds .02 to your account? Being “frugal” and “lazy” all at once, I like that it’s literally less expenditure of energy then bending over to pick up a penny though obviously annoying as hell. Just wondering if the pages they dump you through to sometimes are possible virus/malware cesspools? Anyone not do this because of the danger?
This isn’t looking good. Today I finally decided to take a few minutes to chat about my transactions, looking for some reassurance that these were tracked correctly and the response I received was simply that they “are not able to confirm the completion”, and that I must wait 30 days before I can get any assistance.
It’s been 3 weeks already since my first purchase using their link so I guess I’ll have to wait and see, but the lack of tracking and this response makes me doubt we’ll have a happy ending on this story.
I’ve been using them for more than a week now, but like others here, I’ll continue to be apprehensive about this deal until we see data points on them paying out. As with many deals, you have to take calculated risks. Considering that the next best rate is 1% cb, it’s worthwhile for me to go with inbox and their 5% as I feel the risk to reward is there (if you feel they pay out more than 1x in 5 tries then it’s a good risk).
also note that they only allow one acct per household and strictly inforce it.
Has anyone actually gotten a payout yet or at least had successful tracking?
Oren from orensmoneysaver.com has mentioned that he has gotten paid without any issues. My purchases are yet to track!
The same. I contacted them via live chat and they were not able to confirm the eBay tracking and only advised me to wait for 30 to 45 days. Kinda hesitated if I should continue or not.
Inbox dollars is the worst site ever!
Is there at least a way to confirm tracking of the offer before 30-45 days?
Just used live chat. Apparently not. I really don’t like this site….but I really do like 5%. Im torn.