Cash back for your online purchases

eBay has announced that they are dropping all of their cash back affiliates starting June 15th, 2011 and running through September 30th, 2011. While they haven't come out and stated it directly, they are testing the waters to see if their sales are the same without offering cash back than they are with cash back.

As of right now, this is only temporary and eBay could find that their sales are down because they are no longer offering cash back. If this happens, I would place money on them bringing the cash back programs back. However, if sales stay the same, then there is a good chance that eBay will permanently drop all cash back affiliates.

The good news is, Big Crumbs still offers some of the best rebate shopping around and there are still 100's of other sites where you can earn rebates from your online shopping.

If the whole referral aspect of Big Crumbs put you off from signing up to earn rebates through them, they have simplified their referral program and made it universal across the board. Here are the changes that they made:

There are no longer two types of members at Big Crumbs, the Crumb Earners and Crumb Savers have all gone away. Everyone makes the same rebates. I wasn't thrilled about this at first, but over the long haul I have come out ahead.

Everyone is only paid on two levels of referrals. This means if you sign up through one of my links, I will earn a little from all of your purchases made through Big Crumbs. If a friend of yours signs up through a link that you send them to, then both you and I will be paid on any purchases your friend makes. That is where the referral earnings end.

It used to be that Big Crumbs only had links to the big retailers on their site, but that changed in November of 2007. EBay sellers can now add their store to the database and Big Crumbs will import your listings into their product database for customers to search. This is one of the best changes that they have made, it just rocks.

Big Crumbs is a rebates site just like Ebates.com. They have signed up as an affiliate with all of the stores listed on their website, when you shop through the site they receive a commission. Instead of keeping the commission all to themselves, they share it with you. If you're wondering where the money comes from, that's it, their affiliate commissions. There are no tricks or scamming involved.

If you purchase a lot of domains for yourself, Big Crumbs is a great way to earn cash back on your domain purchases. My results may or not be typical, but my last domain purchase I earned $.75 back on a $7.49 purchase. It's not much, but if you purchase a lot of domains it's a great way to receive a discount on your purchase.

You may have come here looking to verify if Big Crumbs is a scam. I'm not going to try to change your mind, I'll just give you the facts from my experience.

1. I have never paid a dime to Big Crumbs, I have not lost any money from being a member.

2. My eBay ID has NEVER been compromised.

3. I have never received SPAM from being a member of Big Crumbs so I know they have not sold my email address. In fact, I think they could use just a couple more reminder emails to members.

4. I have been paid on the 15th of every month or sooner since I've been eligible for rebates.

5. I am not required to get referrals to get rebates for my personal shopping.

6. I am not required to make a purchase every month in order to get paid. I like this point the most.

These are the facts from my experience. You can decide for yourself now.

Big Crumbs has a referral program also. Try it out for yourself first. If you like how they work, tell some friends through their referral program. Keep in mind that this isn't necessary, it's just an added bonus.

They send your payout to your Big Crumbs debit card 2 months in arrears of when the cash back was earned. So if you purchased something in July, you will receive your rebate in September. There is a small fee for signing up for their card, but it's not any more than what I used to be charged for my Paypal payments.

I am a member of both Ebates and Big Crumbs, but as you can tell, I use Big Crumbs a lot more. Over the years, I have always liked one site better than the other and here are my reasons why. I'm sure you'll be able to sense my bias as to which site I like better.

1. Ebates requires a purchase in order to get paid, Big Crumbs does not. Over the years, I have only made 4 referrals to Ebates earning myself $20. I have never been able to cash out because I don't use their site to earn cash back on my purchases. One of these days I'll have to usse it so I can get the money out that I've earned. Big Crumbs does not require you to make a purchase in order to receive a payout.

2. Ebates pays a one time $5 referral fee to you for people that sign up through your link. Big Crumbs pays you a percentage on the purchases of those you have referred as long as you are a member. I would rather have a penny a day for the rest of my life than $5 today.

3. Even though Big Crumbs shares a portion of their revenue with you for referral purchases, their cash back percentages still tend to be better. Take A Pea In The Pod for example, at Ebates you get 5% cash back and at Big Crumbs you get 6.4% cash back and they still share some of what they make with the person who referred you.

4. Big Crumbs offers a prepaid debit card that you can get paid on and have access to instantly. No waiting for a check to come in the mail or a transfer from your Paypal account.