Earn Amex points fast without opening a new credit card. Rakuten is once again running near-total cash back on three Nord security brands, and this round is dramatically bigger than the last one. The headline play is Coveron at 97% back, where a single purchase of the Full Family Protection plan earns you 65,160 transferable Amex Membership Rewards or Bilt Rewards points on $671.76 of spend.
Add NordVPN at 98% and NordPass at 100%, plus the 5,000-point new member bonus, and the full stack lands at 86,117 transferable points for $833.22. That’s not a credit card signup bonus. There’s no minimum spend to chase over three months. It’s a few purchases through Rakuten that take about five minutes each, and the points land in your account within a few weeks.
You don’t have to go all-in either. Each brand is a separate merchant, so Rakuten treats each purchase independently. Buy one, two, or all three at whatever tier fits your budget, and the points scale with your spend. Here’s exactly how the math works, what Coveron actually does, and how to set everything up correctly so your points track.
How to Set Up Your Rakuten Account for Points (Not Cash)
This is the most important step and the one most people skip. By default, Rakuten pays you in cash back. You need to switch your payout to earn Amex Membership Rewards or Bilt Rewards points instead. If you don’t do this before purchasing, you’ll get cash instead of points.
- Create a free Rakuten account if you don’t have one yet. New members earn 5,000 bonus points after their first qualifying purchase of $50+ (which you’ll hit easily with any of these offers).
- Go to your Rakuten Account Settings
- Under Cash Back Preference, switch from cash to either Amex Membership Rewards or Bilt Rewards
- Link your Amex or Bilt account when prompted
- Install the Rakuten browser extension so you never miss a deal
Once your account is set to earn points, every dollar of cash back becomes one point. So 100% cash back becomes 100x points per dollar. That’s where the magic happens, and at 100%, the product is effectively free. You’re converting dollars into transferable points at a 1:1 rate and keeping the subscription.
Not sure whether to choose Amex or Bilt points? We wrote a full breakdown here.
The Three Offers and How They Stack
First, Rakuten offers change daily. These are live as of the time of posting this article, but may not be live for long. Make sure you’re signed up for C9C daily emails so you get notified when these time-sensitive opportunities pop up.
All three of these were previously at 20%. They’re at 98–100% right now. That’s roughly a five-fold jump, and rates that high tend to get pulled quietly.
They’re stackable because they’re three different merchants. Rakuten treats each as a separate qualifying purchase. So whether you buy one product or all three, every dollar earns at the elevated rate, and the new member signup bonus pays out on the first purchase that hits $50+.
I’ve checked the fine print on these, but please always check yourself on the Rakuten page before buying. Sometimes the offers change and they exclude specific plans from being eligible!
Coveron at 97%: The Biggest Single Earner We’ve Seen
Buy: 2-year Full Family Protection plan, $671.76 → 65,160 points
This one purchase earns roughly double the entire three-brand stack from just a few weeks ago. The Full Family Protection plan runs $27.99 per month billed upfront for 24 months, which comes to $671.76. At 97 points per dollar, that’s 65,160 transferable Amex or Bilt points from a single transaction.
The family plan covers up to five adults plus unlimited children under 18, so one subscription can protect an entire household. If you don’t need family coverage, the individual tiers earn at the same rate on smaller spend, and the points scale down accordingly.
Two eligibility notes. This is for new Coveron customers only, and if you earned cash back with the service back when it was called NordProtect, you won’t qualify again under the Coveron name. Also check the day’s exclusions on the Rakuten offer page before buying, because on some past promos the Full Protection tiers earned only partial cash back while the mid tiers earned in full. Refunded orders void the payout entirely.
What Is Coveron, and Why Would You Want It Anyway?
Coveron is the identity theft protection service from Nord Security, the team behind NordVPN, rebranded from NordProtect earlier this year. The points math gets all the attention, but the product itself solves a real problem, because at this point your personal data has almost certainly been exposed in at least one breach.
The core of the service is monitoring. Coveron scans the dark web around the clock for your email, SSN, and other personal information, tracks your credit across all three bureaus on the full-tier plans, and watches your financial accounts for unusual activity. It also flags short-term loans like payday or auto loans opened in your name, which is one of the more common ways identity thieves cash out, and monitors criminal records for identities used in arrests.
The insurance is where it separates from cheaper monitoring tools. As of September 2026, Coveron carries up to $2 million in identity theft recovery coverage, doubled from the previous $1 million cap. That covers legal fees, lost wages, document replacement, travel, and counseling costs, and it comes with a dedicated case manager who walks you through recovery. On top of that, the Full Protection tiers add up to $100,000 each for cyber extortion, online fraud, and home title fraud, plus $10,000 for cyberattacks on your devices. Worth knowing before you buy: individual categories carry their own sub-limits (lost wages cap at $5,000, for example), and the policy is issued through HSB Specialty Insurance rather than Coveron itself, so claims run through HSB. Coverage applies to US residents only.
The full-tier plans also bundle in NordVPN access, next-gen antivirus, and a personal data removal service that scrubs your info from data broker sites. Comparable standalone identity protection from the big names typically runs $20 to $35 per month for families. Here you’re getting two years of it while nearly the entire cost comes back to you as points. Even if you bought Coveron at full price with zero points attached, it would be a defensible purchase for a family. Getting 97% of it back makes it close to free.
One thing to calendar: after the 24 months, the family plan renews at $39.99 per month. Set a reminder for month 22 to decide whether it’s worth keeping at the renewal rate.
NordVPN at 98%
Buy: 2-year Basic plan, $94.23 → 9,234 points
Here’s the counterintuitive part. Basic is the plan you want, not Complete or Prime. Cash back on NordVPN is only earned on the Basic portion of a bundled subscription, so the pricier tiers cost more and earn less. Basic at $94.23 for 27 months is the highest fully-earning option on the menu.
If you already use a VPN, this is a straightforward swap. If you don’t, you’re getting one for roughly $1.88 out of pocket and 9,234 points on top. New NordVPN customers only, on initial signup, one per Rakuten member. Skip this one if you’re buying Coveron Full Protection, since that tier already includes NordVPN and you’d be paying for it twice.
NordPass at 100%
Buy: 2-year Family Premium plan, $67.23 → 6,723 points
NordPass is the password manager in the Nord family, and it’s the only one of the three at a full 100% with no plan-tier restriction on earning. That means Family Premium, the top tier, earns every dollar back.
At $67.23 for 27 months, that’s about $2.49 per month for a password manager covering your whole household, and you get every dollar back as points. First-time subscribers only, one per Rakuten member.
The Full Stack Math
| Purchase | Cost | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Coveron Full Family Protection97% back · 2-year plan | $671.76 | 65,160 |
| NordVPN Basic98% back · 2-year plan | $94.23 | 9,234 |
| NordPass Family Premium100% back · 2-year plan | $67.23 | 6,723 |
| Rakuten signup bonusNew members, first $50+ purchase | $0 | 5,000 |
| Total | $833.22 | 86,117 |
Always read Rakuten fine print for each vendor, as offers change regularly and some products may not qualify.
That’s 86,117 transferable points for $833.22, which pencils out to under a cent per point. Valued conservatively at 1.5 cents each, that’s roughly $1,292 in travel, and the right premium cabin transfer can push well past that. Those figures are illustrations of what’s possible when a redemption lines up well, not guarantees, since your actual value depends on availability and how you book. Even without the signup bonus, the max stack still nets 81,117 points, and Coveron alone gets you 65,160 for $671.76.
Rules to Follow So Your Points Track
These Rakuten promotions are straightforward, but there are a few rules you need to follow or your points won’t track:
Choose upfront billing. You only earn the elevated multiplier on your first payment. If you choose monthly billing, you’ll earn on just the first month’s charge and miss the bulk of the points. Pay the full term upfront. After purchasing, the transaction should appear as pending in your Rakuten account within a few days, initially showing $0, and it will update to the correct amount later. Points from Rakuten pay out quarterly, with the next payout date shown in your account.
Switch to points. Make sure your Rakuten account is set to earn Amex or Bilt points, not cash back.
Click through Rakuten before purchasing. You must start from the Rakuten portal (or browser extension) and click through to LifeLock, Surfshark, or NordVPN. If you go directly to their websites, Rakuten won’t track the purchase.
Don’t use external coupon codes. Using promotional codes that aren’t listed on Rakuten can void your points. Stick to whatever Rakuten shows you.
Don’t cancel too early. Canceling your subscription within 60-90 days (depending on the offer) will result in Rakuten clawing back your points. Read the fine print on each offer.
No free trials. Points are not available on free trial signups. You need to purchase a paid plan.
The Bottom Line
If you’re looking to earn Amex points fast or build your Bilt balance without opening a new credit card or hitting a minimum spend, a 98–100% cash back rate is about as clean as it gets. You’re not chasing a multiplier or doing mental math on cents-per-point — you’re trading dollars for transferable points at essentially 1:1 and keeping the product.
Under $282 for nearly 33,000 transferable points, plus three subscriptions that cost you almost nothing net. Set your Rakuten account to earn points (not cash), click through the portal, buy the right tier at each brand, and let the points roll in.
Rates like this don’t sit near 100% for long. If you’ve been putting off a VPN, a password manager, or identity monitoring, this is the window.
Create your free Rakuten account and earn 5,000 bonus points →
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