First off, for those of you who don’t know, Rakuten is a website that offers cash back at various businesses, from stores to hotels to restaurants. They get a commission from these businesses for getting you to shop there, and they then pass some of that commission on to you to encourage you to shop at that business.
The deal:
Rakuten is currently offering a 90% cashback rate on LifeLock purchases made through the Rakuten portal. If you just buy LifeLock, you get 90% of your order (minus tax) back into your Rakuten account, which is then paid out as a check or deposited into your PayPal account. However, Rakuten also offers the choice to get your cashback in the form of Amex points at a rate of 1 point = 1¢. If you use your Amex points for travel, it is pretty easy to get a lot more than 1¢ of value out of each point. The value you get varies greatly depending on how you use them, but the general consensus for valuing Amex points is a minimum of 1.5¢ per point.
So what did I do?
Using the Rakuten portal, I bought the year-long LifeLock Unlimited Plus Family plan for $467.88 ($497.59 with taxes. I then got 42,109 Amex points back (90% of 467.88), which are worth about $631.64 at a 1.5¢/point valuation. I had to pay off the $497.59 on my credit card, but I was able to transfer 40,500 points to Delta and to book a flight from JFK to Honolulu for 40,500 points + $12. That would have cost me $753 if I had paid cash, so I saved $243.41 ($753 flight – $497.44 LifeLock -12 airline fee) and still have 1,609 points left. The fine print on Rakuten specifies that you don’t get cashback if you cancel within 60 days or if it is an automatic renewal, so I’m going to cancel LifeLock from auto-renewing somewhere between 60 days and a year from now to avoid the charges.
One of the benefits of this deal on top of saving money on my flight is that I got LifeLock too. I don’t know that I would pay full price for LifeLock, but it doesn’t hurt to have because it offers benefits like monitoring your credit score and reimbursement for stolen funds (as well as other benefits, depending on which plan you get).
As a bonus, if you sign up for Rakuten here and spend $30, you will get an extra $30 back, which only adds to your savings.
If you have no plans to travel anytime soon and are cash-strapped, this might not be a great idea for you. However, if you are planning your trip, it’s worth exploring how much the Amex points will be worth for your trip. This deal comes and goes frequently, so don’t worry if Rakuten is offering less than 90% and don’t feel like you have to make use of this deal right now or it will disappear forever.
*Don’t have an Amex account? Check out our review of the Amex Gold card and the Amex Platinum card!*
Seaotter Fitness 