I spent $60 on a VPN. Microsoft paid for half
You’d be crazy not to buy your Valentine’s Day flowers (or your next VPN) without taking advantage of Microsoft Cashback, the program that sends you wads of cash for using Bing.
Case in point: Over the holidays, I invested about $60 in a VPN subscription. Then, last night, Microsoft deposited $28 into my Cashback account, redeemable via PayPal or as an Amazon gift card. Wow!
You might be surprised to learn that Microsoft Cashback has been around for almost two decades now, on and off. It used to be called Bing Rebates, and I’ve complained about it before…mainly because there was always some degree of friction in the process. PayPal wasn’t that ubiquitous back then, and the discounts weren’t that great. But now that Amazon gift cards are an option, I’m singing a different tune.
Microsoft Cashback (aka Bing Deals) is Microsoft Rewards’ cousin, a different program that discreetly pays you in points for using Bing, Xbox, and other Microsoft services. Cashback pays you real cash back for purchases you make online. Rewards and cashback require a Microsoft account, which you should already have, as Microsoft now requires everyone to use Microsoft accounts.
I avoided Cashback for years because it still required a PayPal account. I’ve always associated PayPal with buying and selling goods on eBay (not my thing) and PayPal seemed to want my bank account information. I didn’t want to deal with that. Luckily, I no longer need to do this and Cashback is now easier to use than ever.
You can use Cashback with any credit card you normally make purchases with, meaning if you earn points or cashback with your card, you can essentially double. Cashback works automatically in the background. There’s nothing to click on and no codes to enter. (The only thing is that clicking on a retailer’s logo on the Cashback site will trigger an animation confirming that Cashback is activated.)
The best part? Some marketers are absolutely hungry for your business. See the VPN section in the screenshot below. If you sign up for NordVPN (our top-ranked VPN service), NordVPN itself will give you a discount… and your credit card can add another one… and then Cashback will be offered to you. Also you get 32 percent of your purchase back in the form of cash back. It’s a bit crazy. As of this writing, FTD Flowers is also offering 16% cash back. And if you can find discount codes for your purchase, I don’t see anything stopping you from adding them either.
Cashback is available from a ton of merchants, most aligned with smaller retailers. But not always! So even though Amazon itself doesn’t participate, Best Buy does and offers 8% in return. Walmart? Only 8 dollars back. Instacart? 12% off up to $10 for new customers. Certain product categories at retailers bring in more revenue than others.
How to use Microsoft Cashback
The first thing you need to do is register with a Microsoft account.
Is there a catch? The biggest thing seems to be that Microsoft requires you to be signed in to a personal account, not a work or school account. You must also be an “active” Microsoft Rewards member (it’s not clear what that means). You must also enable cookies in your browser.
Cashback also doesn’t happen immediately. Processing takes Microsoft between 30 and 90 days, in part to prevent scammers from buying something and then returning it to pocket the cash back. If you use both Rewards and Cashback, this information should be displayed prominently at the top of your Rewards dashboard.
As of now, Microsoft does not appear to be advertising Amazon gift cards as a redemption option. But the option appeared in my Cashback dashboard and it was successfully processed last night.
What I like about Cashback is the ability to double up: use my credit card or platform of choice for a purchase, then potentially get more cash back on top of that. Sure, Microsoft is essentially buying your clicks on Bing and Edge… but your credit card does the same thing. Why not use them both to save some extra money?
