Raise.com is a second-hand gift card exchange, see our review here. They are also featured on many shopping portals, giving the opportunity for additional discounts. You can see the full list of options on Cashbackmonitor.
As many readers will know, Raise limits the amount of purchases which can earn cash back through portals; after a certain point, you’ll no longer earn the portal rewards. Reader George sent in a list of the limits shown on each portal:
$20,000 Limit
- Rakuten/Ebates
$15,000 Limit
- Simply Best Coupons
- Giving Assistant
$10,000 Limit
- American Airlines
- United Airlines
- Alaska Airlines
- Mr. Rebates
- Citi Bonus Cash Center
- Glamour Rewards
- Lemoney
- iConsumer
- USAA Membershop
$5,000 Limit
- TopCashback
- Swagbucks
- MyPoints
- UseJewel
$1,000 Limit
- RebatesMe
- British Airways
- Virgin Atlantic
- ANA
- Jetblue
- Spirit
- Amtrak
- Wyndham
- Dollar Dig
- BeFrugal
- GoCashBack
- 55Haitao
- wikibuy (may be a single-transaction limit?)
$500 Limit
- Sunshine Rewards
Can’t Find The Limit
- ExtraBux
- Coupon Cactus
- Goodshop
I thought this list that George compiled is handy and worth putting out there. Let us know if you see any errors or if anything changes. I’ll link to this post in future Raise deal post so people can access the information easily.
A couple of notes:
- It’s vital to understand that these limits are not enforced on the portal end; they are enforced based on your Raise.com account. If you shop $10,000 on Raise.com through the Alaska Portal, you can NOT then make another $5,000 in purchases through the Topcashback portal.
- Even more: if you shopped $20,000 worth of purchases without going through any portal at all, you still will NOT get any portal credit since your Raise.com account has already made $20,000 in purchases.
- These limits are based on the amount paid, not the face value of the gift card.
Does anyone know if Slide purchases contribute to this limit?
Has anyone met the limits and then made a brand new raise.com account to continue to earn points?
To clarify, does this mean that after $15,000 of purchases, the only portal that can be used for cashback is rakuten/ebates?
An easy way to total up how much you have spent on Raise is to look at My Cards in the app. It shows subtotals by brand, so you can get an idea of what you spent.
I wish there was an easier way to look up your total spent on the site.
Updated, thanks
USAA Membershop states their limit is enforced at the lifetime purchases of 10k. “Not eligible once you surpass the $10,000 lifetime transaction maximum. “
I’ll add that, thanks
Stupid question. What are you guys buying there that exceeds the total? I use it on occasion if I need to make a predetermined purchase at a retailer, but nothing big.
I would guess Home Depot/Lowes or an airline would be the fastest way to get there.
When the lifetime limit is $5k and they’re offering a ton back on top of the base discount on Raise, it’s easy to reach the limit organically. Better than most any “direct purchase from the merchant” method.
I paid ~$1950 for ~$2000 worth of Home Depot gift cards, got 3.3%=$64 back on my BoA Cash Rewards, and got another 20%=$390 back from TopCashback. $1496 for $2000 worth of products. This was mostly lumber and big boxes of hardware, so it’s not like I was overpaying for the products, either.
Assuming no big projects like that, I’m probably at about $2k/year through Raise. Pretty much any unbonused merchant where I also don’t need shopping or travel protections from my CCs (or where the protections apply for partial payment, and I’m comfortable with only being covered for that amount).
I know a lot of people buy and sell them, too. Takes quite a bit of volume, and plenty of patience. Buy when a crazy discount is coupled with an insane cashback rate, sell when neither is true and the supply plummets to 0. Mighty risky if you ask me, and can be very time consuming.
I usually get some type of airline or Hulu gift card every time they have a sitewide sale. Probably about $1500/year the last couple of years.
Rebatesme is $5k. it says on the raise page when you activate it
Sorry its $1k under terms and exclusions
“Cash Back given on the first $1,000 of purchases per customer lifetime purchases.”
I’ll add this, thanks
Updated, thanks
Dumb question- Are the limits for the amount you spend or the face value of the cards purchased?
Limits are on the amount spent
Good point, I’ll add a note.
My personal experience with the BA portal has been that Cashback will continue to accrue as long as the SAVINGS are not over $1,000. Once I hit $1,000 lifetime savings, I stopped earning.
yeah, I spent more than $2k through BA portal this year and keep earning
My experience with the BA portal in general has been that a lot of things that shouldn’t work, will. Like certain codes that would lead to a denial on TopCashback…