[Expired] FAQ On The $300 Rakuten Credit Card Bonus (Chase Sapphire Preferred, INK, Freedom)

(Update 5/8/25: Rakuten bonus has decreased to $100 on the Sapphire Preferred and INK cards, decreased to $75 on the Freedom Unlimited card.)

Rakuten is offering a nice $300/30,000 bonus if you clickthrough and get approved for a Chase Sapphire Preferred card or Chase INK Unlimited card. There’s also a $150 bonus for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card.

The 100k CSP offer is already excellent, and the $300/30,000 is a cherry on top. Personally I’m not eligible for the CSP bonus, but the added $300 addition pushed me over the edge in favor of applying now for the CIU card. I was fortunate to get an instant approval.

Our original post link | Rakuten CSP link | Rakuten CIU link | Rakuten CFU link

How long will the Rakuten $300/$150 bonuses last?

No one knows. Portal deals/rates change often and I would not be surprised if this gets pulled soon. (Note from Will: I suspect this is part of Rakuten deal week. This ends on 5/12, but as Chuck points out it may well end before then).

If my wife clicks through my Rakuten account and signs up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, will I get the $300 bonus?

Yes, I’m fairly certain that will work, and there are no terms excluding that. We have one report confirming this as well.

There’s always a chance that if you need manual intervention, an agent can decide the names have to match. But the automated system should probably work fine. And even the manual process will likely not be an issue, in the event that you need to file a manual claim for missing cashback.

Others have pointed out that you’d do better by referring your wife to open her own Rakuten account. That way, you’ll get $40 for referring her, she’ll get $40 for signing up, and she can then do the card application on her own Rakuten account. (Note: some prefer not having two Rakuten accounts within the same household as it can occasionally raise flags, see this Reddit thread.)

Can I get more than one Rakuten $300/$150 bonus?

I’d think that you can get at least one $300 Sapphire Preferred bonus from Rakuten, one $300 INK Unlimited bonus from Rakuten, and one $150 Freedom bonus from Rakuten since these are separate offers on the Rakuten portal.

The terms do state, “Only one cash back bonus per Rakuten member account.” I’d interpret that to mean you can’t get two of each, e.g. if you got approved for two separate INK card with two separate click-throughs, you might still only get one $300 bonus.

Of course you’ll only get the Rakuten bonus if approved for the Chase card. That’s the more difficult part.

Do I need to go through the extension or can I click through the website?

You don’t need to use the extension. That mention of the extension is there on every Rakuten cashback page and is not a requirement. You do, of course, need to click through the Rakuten link on the “Shop Without Adding” button.

How can I make sure the click-through will track properly?

I rarely sweat whether a portal will track or not, but for this large $300 bonus I did open a fresh browser window (I used Safari), logged into Rakuten, and then clicked through to the INK card application. From the card bonus landing page, I took the option to log into into my Chase account, verified, and then completed the application.

How long will the $300 bonus take to track?

Myself and others had the cashback show up in our Rakuten accounts as Pending in less than 24 hours after approval. I’d recommend giving it at least 48 hours before getting nervous.

Those whose Chase applications are not instantly approved will likely take longer to track, though we did hear from one reader who got a quick tracking even with manual approval.

It’s anyone’s guess how many weeks it will be until the cashback is confirmed; the official word is “3-14 weeks”.

What happens if the $300 doesn’t track automatically?

I’d recommend taking lots of screenshots along the way, especially of landing pages and the card approval. If something doesn’t track automatically, you’ll have any documentation Rakuten requests of you.

What are the terms on the Rakuten offer? Do I need to meet the spend?

“Exclusions: Cash Back provided by Rakuten, not Chase. Cash Back only available for new, approved Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card who keep the account open for a minimum of 3 months after approval. Only one cash back bonus per Rakuten member account. Applying for a new credit card may impact your credit score.”

There is no spend requirement for the Rakuten bonus, just the card approval and keeping the card open for 3 months.

Will I get a 1099 from Rakuten or from Chase for the bonuses?

Chase does not send out a 1099 for signup bonus earnings since that’s considered a rebate on the spend. The Rakuten $300 bonus is trickier since there is no spend requirement.

If someone gets $600 or higher in bonuses Rakuten might send out a form 1099-MISC, e.g. if someone does two $300 Chase bonuses with Rakuten or if they do the $300 Chase bonus and the $375 SoFi bonus.

Most Rakuten bonuses are cashback on the purchase and are probably considered rebates and not taxable.

If someone has less than $600 in Rakuten bonuses during calendar year 2025 (we’re not counting here portal cashback on purchases), they would not have to send you a 1099-MISC. That said, Rakuten can decide to send one if they choose. They would need your tax ID, so I’m not entirely sure how that would work.

Another consideration is that if you opt for Paypal payment, you might get a 1099-K from Paypal. That’s longer conversation – read more about that in our post here. (Back in 2022 we had a data point indicating that Paypal did not count Rakuten payments toward the 1099-K reporting threshold. YMMV.)

Those who receive their Rakuten cashback via check will not have this Paypal angle to think about.

Overall I’m optimistic that those who earn less than $600 will not get any 1099s. There’s even a chance that this bonus will get lumped with most other Rakuten activity which are rebates and not 1099-able, and these bonuses might not end up getting a 1099-MISC from Rakuten or a 1099-K from Paypal.

As always: getting a 1099-MISC or a 1099-K does not affect whether you do or don’t have to pay taxes on the bonus.

What happens if my card application goes pending?

For pending applications, the way it would work is that after the account gets approved (via the standard approval process or via reconsideration) it should then show up as Pending in your Rakuten account.

Can I get the Rakuten bonus AND the referral bonus?

Nope.

The Rakuten bonus is $300 while the referral bonus is 10,000 points, and so most people will prefer the Rakuten bonus. With certain offers people have been able to find ways working the links and getting both a portal and a referral link to stack. In the case of this bonus Reddit reports indicate this is not possible.