If you're shopping Cyber Monday sales today, be sure to stop by Ebates first to maximize your savings.
Ebates is doubling its typical cash-back offers at 500 stores today only in celebration of Cyber Monday.
If you spend $100 at Land's End today, for example, you'll get 6 percent back from Ebates instead of the ususal 3 percent.
Not familiar with Ebates? It's basically a shopping portal that pays you to shop.
Here's how it works:
Once you're registered on the Ebates site, (it's free, by the way), you're ready to start shopping. Instead of going directly to a particular merchant's website, begin at ebates.com. Select the store you're looking for from among the hundreds of merchants listed. You can search by category or alphabetically.
Ebates will take you to your requested site and you will shop just as you normally do but your purchases will be recorded by Ebates.
Once per quarter, Ebates sends out rebate checks to users either through the U.S. mail or to your Paypal account. Your choice. The last round of "Big Fat Checks," as Ebates calls them, went out Nov. 15. The next round of checks, which will include holiday purchases, will go out Feb. 15.
I've been an Ebates member for quite some time so I can vouch for it as a legitimate site. I've never gotten a huge rebate check -- my last one was for $7 plus change -- but if I'm going to make a purchase online anyway, I figure I might as well get paid to do it.
