Stacking cashback sites, the quest for massive cashback...

Yeah, Microsoft created their own tracking system for Bing CashBack. All other CashBack sites appear to use the same tracking system, thus eliminating any possibility of stacking. If you're interested in the technical details, both systems worked by sending you through tracking servers that would set cookies/initialize sessions as appropriate. However, the Bing servers were different from those used by other sites, so you ended up with two separate sets of tracking data instead of just one.

It's worth noting that getting Bing to stack wasn't a sure bet either. Some retailers (Barnes and Noble comes to mind) were set up to support only one tracking system at a time, so there wasn't any opportunity for stacking to begin with.

First AOR died, then Bing, now, when I go to Staples they decline my coupons because it says "..to which no other cpn or INSTANT SAVINGS.." (without IS items are too expensive most of the time), or they make me wait while they check the validity of the cpn.., eBay/PPL fees have gone through the roof making even AC/AR deals not worth the effort.
Happy Days are over.

Crazytree said: I can barely get FW to honor its clickthroughs... the idea of multiple clickthroughs sounds like crazytalk!
Yeah, they screwed me out of CB from Priceline on 3 flights I booked because they said I had clicked through Kayak to book the flight. I had clicked through Kayak....12 hours prior. Their suggestion was to clear all cookies before clicking through their links. Yeah, OK.

MikeR397 said: A lot of us knew that when Bing was alive, you could click through it first, then clickthrough a second CashBack site to a retailer and make a purchase and CashBack would post at Bing and the other CashBack network.

Well, I do now. Great timing

i do something similar with my hotel stays. go through FW to get hotel GC with FW CB. reserve room through FW for FW CB. pay with GC, bought with CC with CB. 3 CB opportunities for the same hotel stay. i do a lot of traveling, using OPM, so this is a nice benefit. i recently negotiated a new rate, about 40% off, directly with the hotel so i can't use FW CB, but still can get GC with FW CB and CC CB.

(until the end of the year) you can book a trip on Expedia and get Thank You points + Cash Back or points on the credit card + mileage from whatever airline you fly. Not the best deal but at least you get triple points.

djspray said: Crazytree said: I can barely get FW to honor its clickthroughs... the idea of multiple clickthroughs sounds like crazytalk!
Yeah, they screwed me out of CB from Priceline on 3 flights I booked because they said I had clicked through Kayak to book the flight. I had clicked through Kayak....12 hours prior. Their suggestion was to clear all cookies before clicking through their links. Yeah, OK.

Well simple fact is FW is at the mercy of the vendors. If they say you got there some other way then there really is no way for them to fight it. They pay based on what they get from the companies. I'm sure FW does push the companies as much as possible to honor the referrals and not pull junk like having a link you clicked take away their referral because if you didn't get paid then neither did they.

That said I usually find what I want in firefox then i open IE directly to fatwallet and click through there and only do what is needed to buy the product. Seems to work pretty well.

You also could use firefox private browsing mode to do something similar.

Here's another extensive one.

The angle here is to get more than 1 CashBack site to get paid for the same transaction, so they in turn will both pay the customer

BMWLVR82 said: djspray said: Crazytree said: I can barely get FW to honor its clickthroughs... the idea of multiple clickthroughs sounds like crazytalk!
Yeah, they screwed me out of CB from Priceline on 3 flights I booked because they said I had clicked through Kayak to book the flight. I had clicked through Kayak....12 hours prior. Their suggestion was to clear all cookies before clicking through their links. Yeah, OK.

If that's what they said, that's what happened.

It's a very simple bottom line when it comes to paying out for CashBack. If we get paid, you get paid.

mr moderator,

not necessarily.
if what you say is true then mathematically there is a chance FW could get paid but we would not.

flypaper said: BMWLVR82 said: djspray said: Crazytree said: I can barely get FW to honor its clickthroughs... the idea of multiple clickthroughs sounds like crazytalk!
Yeah, they screwed me out of CB from Priceline on 3 flights I booked because they said I had clicked through Kayak to book the flight. I had clicked through Kayak....12 hours prior. Their suggestion was to clear all cookies before clicking through their links. Yeah, OK.

If that's what they said, that's what happened.

It's a very simple bottom line when it comes to paying out for CashBack. If we get paid, you get paid.

They being Kayak or FatWallet? The system isn't perfect on either end.They being the merchant. Someone's referal info is included with the order, that's who gets paid the referal commission.

I'm fairly certain that stacking would only be successful if you could trick the second CashBack site into thinking they got paid by the merchant when in fact they didnt. And that'd require some technical hacking and manipulation, which would be questionable both ethically and legally.

Glitch99 said: flypaper said: BMWLVR82 said: djspray said: Crazytree said: I can barely get FW to honor its clickthroughs... the idea of multiple clickthroughs sounds like crazytalk!
Yeah, they screwed me out of CB from Priceline on 3 flights I booked because they said I had clicked through Kayak to book the flight. I had clicked through Kayak....12 hours prior. Their suggestion was to clear all cookies before clicking through their links. Yeah, OK.

If that's what they said, that's what happened.

It's a very simple bottom line when it comes to paying out for CashBack. If we get paid, you get paid.

They being Kayak or FatWallet? The system isn't perfect on either end.They being the merchant. Someone's referal info is included with the order, that's who gets paid the referal commission.

I'm fairly certain that stacking would only be successful if you could trick the second CashBack site into thinking they got paid by the merchant when in fact they didnt. And that'd require some technical hacking and manipulation, which would be questionable both ethically and legally.My problem was that Dell refused to pay... and nobody was going to bat for me over $30. I called Dell and they told me to talk to the referrer. The referrer told me to talk to Dell. Ultimate Catch-22.

Has anyone used mydealsandcoupons.com? How do they offer such high amounts back (though the amounts have been falling recently)? According to casbackholic, it has a bad reputation. Can anyone verify?

Ok, gurus... I am about to do a buy it now on fleabay. What is my best plan of attack?

aaron27 said: I used to be able to supplement my income by picking up good deals online and reselling them on eBay, cashing in FF miles for Gift Cards and selling on eBay for cash, or picking up free things online (through programs like ClubBing/Club Live) and selling. It was always a little tedious, but kind of fun because you're picking up extra cash.

eBay and PayPal operate as a total racket, now. They crowded out competing services and then jacked up fees the first chance they got. It might not legally fall under antitrust violations, but it sure seems similar. To sell one item, you have to pay one company (the eBay/PayPal racket) three sets of fees. Listing fee, final value fee, and PayPal transaction fee. Then, to protect yourself you have to pay the USPS extra for a tracking number. Otherwise the buyer will take receipt and claim you never shipped and without that tracking number, PayPal will take back the funds. Despite all the hurdles, it was still marginally worth it before. Now with huge fees, it doesn't make any sense at all.

The only positive is that this awful system should create demand for a lower-cost alternative. Google, Microsoft, and even Facebook should highly consider getting into online auctions.

I stopped selling stuff on eb@y a couple years ago. Margins weren't worth the hassle of all the fees.

But I'm still amazed at what you can buy on eb@y that doesn't seem to make the buyers any money. I.e. I just bought a bb screen shield for $1.37 and USB car charging adapter for $2.25. Both were buy it now and free shipping and shipped from overseas. WTF is the profit margin and how much are these buyers moving to make it worth it?

kjgco said: Ideally, you'd be paying with an AMEX gift card, purchased earlier thru Big Crumbs for a 1.6% rebate on your best CC (being aware of the PayPal limit on registering such gift cards)

Excuse my ignorance, but could you clarify this part?

dpid said: aaron27 said: I used to be able to supplement my income by picking up good deals online and reselling them on eBay, cashing in FF miles for Gift Cards and selling on eBay for cash, or picking up free things online (through programs like ClubBing/Club Live) and selling. It was always a little tedious, but kind of fun because you're picking up extra cash.

eBay and PayPal operate as a total racket, now. They crowded out competing services and then jacked up fees the first chance they got. It might not legally fall under antitrust violations, but it sure seems similar. To sell one item, you have to pay one company (the eBay/PayPal racket) three sets of fees. Listing fee, final value fee, and PayPal transaction fee. Then, to protect yourself you have to pay the USPS extra for a tracking number. Otherwise the buyer will take receipt and claim you never shipped and without that tracking number, PayPal will take back the funds. Despite all the hurdles, it was still marginally worth it before. Now with huge fees, it doesn't make any sense at all.

The only positive is that this awful system should create demand for a lower-cost alternative. Google, Microsoft, and even Facebook should highly consider getting into online auctions.


I stopped selling stuff on eb@y a couple years ago. Margins weren't worth the hassle of all the fees.

But I'm still amazed at what you can buy on eb@y that doesn't seem to make the buyers any money. I.e. I just bought a bb screen shield for $1.37 and USB car charging adapter for $2.25. Both were buy it now and free shipping and shipped from overseas. WTF is the profit margin and how much are these buyers moving to make it worth it?

Don't think of these buyers as a guy's operation out of his home. Wholesale operations in Hong Kong and whatnot will have a side business from their existing space and ship out thousands of items daily. Even with small profit margins they are still hitting enough volume to make it worthwhile.

lovely said: If you have any cc that gives CashBack at grocery stores, buy eBay GC at grocery store.

Citi Driver's Edge 3% x 2 with mileage redemption = 6%
buy through MrRebates 4%
eBay bucks 2%
Total 12% back.

Off to nearest safeway

Ohh slick idea about the grocery store!

scripta said: has anyone ever filed a dispute for an item paid for in full or in part by eBay giftcards?I have, on a least a couple of occasions when the seller failed to deliver. The value of the card(s) gets credited back to the PayPal acct you used to make payment once the dispute is resolved in your favor.