Legit Online Savings With FreeShipping.com
Shopping portals are nothing new to most of our readers. We use Rakuten, RebatesMe, Top Cashback, bank options like Chase and even airline or hotel loyalty program shopping portals. Sometimes we chase special deals or bonus offers to get the best return on our purchases. What about a portal that can give big returns all the time? How does 10% Cash Back every single day, seven days a week sound? In steps FreeShipping.com. Unlike other shopping portals, they go beyond Cash Back with benefits that cover shopping, shipping and returns. So, what is FreeShipping.com then? I’m glad you asked – let’s get into it!
***This is a sponsored post by FreeShipping.com. They also gave me a free 90 day membership to test out the program.***
What Is FreeShipping.com?
FreeShipping.com has been in business since 2002 as a shopping portal and shipping rebate company. It may surprise you that they have been around this long and flown under the radar a bit.
What Does A FreeShipping.com Membership Cost?
FreeShipping.com differs from a normal shopping portal because it is a subscription plan versus a free service. The cost to become a member is $19 per month. The charge will bill monthly to your credit card until you cancel your membership.
You must consent to billing terms and conditions when you’re signing up. However, if you decide the program is not for you, FreeShipping.com makes it easy to cancel. You just need to do a few clicks online, or their customer service team can help you by email or over the phone with no hoops to jump through or cancellation fees.
The membership fee might seem like a hit to your savings, especially if you only consider the Cash Back you would be earning from the shopping portal. However, when you include the rebates on purchases you’re already making, for savings on shipping, delivery, and price changes, the benefits really add up. That is before you consider their special bonus Cash Back days. Hold up, I am getting ahead of myself a bit here.
How Does FreeShipping.com Work?
What is FreeShipping.com all about? How do we use it? You may have guessed by now that there is a bit more to it versus just a standard shopping portal. However, if you shop through the program consistently, and submit all of your rebates, the potential value can add up to significant savings.
Subscription Model Versus Free Shopping Portal
FreeShipping.com is a subscription model, which differentiates them from your normal shopping portal. With the other shopping portals I mentioned above you join for free. Then you click through the portal’s website and you essentially split whatever the return is for your purchase with the shopping portal. Rates for each store can change daily on these sites, mainly in the single digits, and you have to put in the extra work finding which one offers the best deal that day. It is a free service, and the shopping portal makes its money getting a percentage of your purchase back from the store. The setup is a rebate system essentially, but you don’t need to mail in any rebate. We are not in the 90’s anymore after all, as much as many of us wish we were! It is all digital and the shopping portal is the middle man that handles that part of it for you.
FreeShipping.com works a bit differently, as their members only set up opens the door to extended benefits at over 1,000 stores. The monthly subscription fee helps FreeShipping.com lock in their 10% Cash Back rate for every eligible store, every day. No need to check what portal or store is offering the highest rewards. It appears to me that you are essentially getting a bigger cut of the rebate as a member. They also offer one-day boosts to 15% Cash Back for individual stores, and seasonal 20% Cash Back weekends including- several top stores at a time, that coincide with the biggest shopping times of the year. Keep an eye out for a Back to School bonus! It should be noted that the cashback is capped at $1,000 per membership year (or up to $10,000 in spend).
But, that is only one of their benefits. The biggest difference from free shopping portals is that FreeShipping.com has benefits that cover you past Cash Back. They offer a variety of rebates to help you reclaim money from shipping, delivery, and return costs and protect you from price drops – even if you didn’t buy the item through their program. That combination is rare, and would be hard to find with another program.
Shipping Rebates
FreeShipping.com actually offers free shipping, say what?! It just makes so much sense, doesn’t it? Here is what they offer in terms of shipping rebates:
- Free Shipping:
- Claim Shipping Rebates when you shop through their site and say goodbye to “adding to cart” just to hit a free shipping minimum.
- Up to $10 per claim on any shipping charges you pay on any online purchase made through the program.
- If you already have free shipping then you can upgrade to expedited shipping and still claim your rebate.
- Earnings are capped at $500 per membership year
- Free Return Shipping:
- Need to return a purchase? Claim rebates on the return shipping fees you pay when you send an item back to its retailer.
- Up to $10 per claim on any return shipping charges you pay on any online purchase
- Earnings are capped at $500 per membership year
- Food Delivery Rebates:
- Order from your favorite food delivery apps without feeling guilty by claiming food & delivery service fee Rebates on orders made through their network.
- Rebates up to $5 per claim on delivery and service charges when you order through participating delivery services
- Earnings are capped at $250 per membership year
Price Protection
Another perk to your FreeShipping.com membership is price protection coverage. If you notice a price drop on a purchased item within 90 days then you can submit a rebate claim for the difference. We’ve all held out on buying something waiting for a sale to start. Unlike other price protection programs, the new price doesn’t need to be on the same site you bought it from, and you can claim the rebate even if it wasn’t made through FreeShipping.com as long as you were an active member at the time of purchase. The rebate is capped at $100 per price protection claim. There is also a cap of up to $1,000 in price protection claims per membership year with FreeShipping.com
The Yearly Caps Are Not Cumulative
Each section’s cap is unique, and not a cumulative type of set up. The caps are generous and everyday shoppers can still far exceed their membership costs in savings. Having a yearly cap, as opposed to monthly, allows you to maximize your savings on large purchases. For example, you could make your membership cost back on a single large appliance purchase.
I think the food delivery rebate is interesting to stack with some of the monthly credits we get from our credit card perks. If you are not loyal to one app, and don’t have their free delivery membership, then this rebate could offset your FreeShipping.com yearly cost alone ($19 per month). Even if you do have a food delivery or store membership, that would only allow you to use those benefits at that one store. With FreeShipping.com you would get those store specific perks at every brand they work with.
What Kind Of Value Does FreeShipping.com Offer?
The site says you can earn up to $3,250 per year in value. You might not hit that, because it would require maximizing every single category to pull it off. That would be a bit easier if it was all one big $3,250 pot, but that is not the case here. You should still be able to collect savings greater than the membership cost. Just think of how much you could make back on holiday shopping alone.
My focus would be to try to get enough value from the shipping, food delivery and price protection rebates to offset your $228 yearly membership cost ($19 per month). Then I would try to maximize the 10% Cash Back by shopping through the site when it is the best offer available.
Which Stores Are Included?
The biggest question our online shoppers probably have is, which stores are included at 10% Cash Back (20% back on select days)? FreeShipping.com boasts over 1,000 stores at your disposal for earning Cash Back and rebates. Some are only available for rebates, which includes shipping, price protection, and food delivery, but they do a pretty good job of pointing that out (as you can see with Amazon pictured above).
Here are some of the more notable stores listed for 10% Cash Back on your purchase:
- Walmart
- Chewy
- Best Buy
- The Home Depot
- Walgreens
- Ulta Beauty
- Staples
- Sephora
- Temu
- Sam’s Club
- Lowe’s
- Kohl’s
- JC Penny
- Macy’s
- AliExpress
Most of the stores do list exclusions, which could make or break this deal for you depending on what you are looking for from each store. Be aware that using the mobile app for these stores may stop the cashback from tracking. Here are a couple of examples of exclusions.
Best Buy
Cash Back is not available on Warranties, Apple Tablets, Laptops, Desktops, iPhone Hardware, Watches, All Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Gaming Hardware and POSA Cards.
Walmart
Cash Back is not paid on grocery orders. Cash Back is not paid for gift cards, tires, precious metals, video game hardware, personal care, pharmacy, household paper & chemicals, photo services, pet supplies, or beauty.
How Do You Get Paid?
Here is what FreeShipping.com has to say about the payment process:
As soon as we receive notification of your purchase from the retailer, we’ll apply your 10% cash-back earnings to Your Savings account. You’ll receive a payout each month for your cash-back earnings in the previous month. Savings are always paid out in real money, never gift cards, and there’s never a minimum to hit to get your payout.
Cash Back and rebates you earn this month will be paid to you on the 15th of the following month. You can choose to get paid via Check or PayPal.
What Is FreeShipping.com: Final Thoughts
Thank you again to FreeShipping.com for sponsoring this post. I enjoyed kicking the tires on their set up. I think there are some interesting aspects to this set up. Aspects like expedited shipping Rebates, food delivery app Rebates and 10% – 20% cash back from some really popular stores. It will require some work on your part to pull off though. I think big spenders, those shopping for a large family, and consistent online shoppers may want to take a closer look at FreeShipping.com.
