Through the magic of ebates (now “Rakuten”) and desperate but decent merchants, you, too, can enjoy ridiculously inexpensive but still-tasty wine.
If you have an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards points, this’ll be an especially amazing opportunity (as in, you’ll come out ahead… not only inexpensive wine, but gobs of points!) Otherwise, it’s just very, very good (about $20 total for 15 bottles of wine, tax included).
DISCLAIMER: I get 3000 Amex Membership Rewards points each time someone signs up for Rakuten with my referral link 🙂
If you have an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards points, jump to this section below. Otherwise, do these steps…
For those who don’t have an AMEX card that earns Membership Rewards points…
- Sign up: Get a free Rakuten account and receive a $30 signup bonus after your first purchase (e.g., this wine club!). If you already have a Rakuten account, you can skip this step 🙂
- Join the wine club: In your Rakuten account, search for “Wine Insiders.” Hopefully it’s still showing a $44.95 cashback incentive! Click through to the Wine Insiders site and sign up for their club.
- Cancel later if you want: Don’t forget to cancel your wine club membership later if you don’t want to receive and be charged (higher amounts!) for subsequent shipments!
I received my wine just 2 days after ordering :o.
For those who do have an AMEX card that earns Membership Rewards points…
Boy, are you in for a treat! You’ll earn a minimum of 7450 points from this… or about $150-worth if you value points at about 2 cents each (as I do)! And possibly get a $20 statement credit on top of that. All for the cost of a $95 wine club payment 🙂
So basically, you’ll net 15 bottles of wine, and up to $75 in profit ($150+$20-$95). Plus whatever points you earn from the purchase on your credit card. Here’s how…
- Check for an AMEX offer: I had an offer for “Spend $20, get $20” with Wine Insiders. Log into your AMEX account, click View All at the offer list towards the bottom and look for / accept the Wine Insiders offer if you have it. If not, no worries, you’ll still come out way ahead here!
- Sign up: Get a free Rakuten account and receive a 3000 MR point signup bonus (even though it’ll say “$30”) after your first purchase… e.g., this wine club! If you already have an Rakuten account, you can skip this step 🙂 (but obviously you’ll then not get the 3000 point signup bonus)
- Set your account to earn MR points: Go to your Rakuten Settings page and indicate that you want to earn American Express Membership Rewards points!
- Join the wine club: In your Rakuten account, search for “Wine Insiders.” Hopefully it’s still showing a $44.50 cashback incentive (which is equal to 4495 Amex MR points)! Click through to the Wine Insiders site and sign up for their club.
- Cancel later if you want: Don’t forget to cancel your wine club membership later if you don’t want to receive and be charged (higher amounts!) for subsequent shipments!