A few months ago I signed up for Swagbucks to see how it worked and whether I could get a few dollars in Amazon.ca gift cards for purchases I was about to make anyway. Although I have yet to redeem my Swagbucks for my first gift card, it all seems to work fine. Today I was about to make another online purchase when my fingers hesitated over the keyboard. Should I make the purchase through Swagbucks? Or should I try Great Canadian Rebates? So I joined Great Canadian Rebates to give it a try.
What Kind of Reward Do I Get for Shopping through Great Canadian Rebates
As with most of these programs, joining Great Canadian Rebates is free. They are basically affiliate marketers: when you buy stuff online after clicking through their website to get to the online store you want to shop at, GCR gets a kickback from the online store. They then pass part of that kickback to you in the form of cash or a gift card.
The rewards here are pretty straightforward. You can get
- Cash sent to you as a cheque if you accumulate at least $30 in your account.
- Cash sent to you via PayPal if you accumulate at least $5 in your account.
- An amazon.ca gift certificate (the email kind) if you accumulate at least $1 in your account. UPDATE: In July 2016 it’s now $3.
Right now (in 2015), they are offering you $2 if you join and buy something, but that $2 does not count towards the minimum you have to accumulate to get “paid.”
How to Enroll in Great Canadian Rebates
Go to their website at https://www.greatcanadianrebates.ca/Register/171462/
NOTE: An Honest Crooks admits, if you click this link to get to their site, GCR will be paying me a bonus if you decide to join and if you use your GCR account to shop. If you don’t want to give me anything, it’s fine to just type the url for GCR rather than click on the link.
Click on the Sign Me Up button or on the Join Up Here link in the upper right corner.
Complete the following fields by typing in the appropriate answers:
- Email address:
- Confirm Address:
- Password:
- Confirm Password:
- First Name:
- Last Name:
- Address:
- City:
- Postal/Zip Code:
Select your Province/Territory from the drop-down list.
Country: Canada is already filled in, or if you’re not from Canada, type your country of residence in the Or Enter Here box.
From the drop-down lists for the Help Us Serve You Better: section, select
- Male/Female
- Your Age Range
Choose your Payment Option by clicking to select the radio button beside
- Amazon.ca gift card, issued each month for the balance of your account if it exceeds $1. UPDATE: In July 2016 it’s now $3.
- Paypal, your balance is transferred to your Paypal account each month if it exceeds $5.
- Cheque, request a cheque anytime if your balance exceeds $30
You can change the payment option at almost any time after enrolling.
If you were sent here, in the I was referred by: field type in the email address of the person who sent you.
Select or click to not select requesting to receive a weekly email.
Click to select that you have read and accepted the User Agreement and the Privacy Policy.
Enter characters in image:
Click on the Register button.
That’s all it takes!
How To Shop Using Great Canadian Rebates
To shop, which is why I started this whole rigmarole in the first place, you can click on the Select Merchant drop-down list and choose the store at which you’d like to make your purchase.
For example, you can choose amazon.ca. If you do, you’ll be informed that there is no reward for purchasing books, electronics or videos unfortunately.
However, it looks like you could get cash back for booking and staying at some hotels. I found that interesting and if we ever travel again I will take a closer look.
When you’re done with your explorations, click on the Signout button.
Did Buying Through Great Canadian Rebates Work?
I’ll update this post when I see whether the purchase I made gets credited properly to my account.
In the meantime, I’ll mention that Krystal Yee at GiveMeBackMyFiveBucks has been successful using it.
Update: Yes! It works. I received a bonus for opening my account and I received credit for my purchases from Walmart.ca. And one day my first amazon.ca e-certificate landed in my inbox ready to spend the next time I buy a book. So it’s all been good!
Help Me Earn Thousands of Dollars! Please!
Ok, I admit that’s not going to happen.
Still, if you decide to join Great Canadian Rebates for your own reasons (and you have to shop too) and if you are feeling benevolent towards bloggers, please consider starting your signup from this link so I may share in your beneficence:
https://www.greatcanadianrebates.ca/Register/171462/
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Have you ever experimented with these reward programs? Please share your experiences with a comment.