Rakuten Big Stack Week is live from June 22 through June 26, and it is one of the simplest wins on the calendar for anyone looking to earn more points. The headline is 15% cash back on top of existing deals at more than 200 stores, with many retailers boosted far above their normal rate. The best part about Rakuten is that instead of cash back, you can cash out in points – so 15% is equal to 15x points per dollar spent!

If you have never used a shopping portal before, this is the easiest possible week to start, so let me walk you through the basics.

If you don’t have a Rakuten account, sign up with our link here for a $50 (5,000 points!) bonus.

What Is Rakuten Big Stack Week?

Big Stack Week runs June 22 to 26 with a 15% cash back banner across 200+ participating stores. The number that matters is how far above normal these rates sit. Dermstore jumps to 20% from its usual 3%, Viator and iHerb hit 15% from 2%, and even everyday stores like Macy’s, Nike, and Dell climb to 10% from 2%.

How Rakuten Works, The Very Basics

Rakuten is a free shopping portal. You sign up, then before you buy anything online you start your trip at Rakuten, either on the website, the app, or the browser extension, and click through to the store from there. You shop and check out exactly as you normally would. Rakuten earns a commission from the store for sending you, and it hands a slice of that back to you as cash back or points. You still pay with whatever card you want, so nothing about your normal checkout changes except that you started at Rakuten first.

Stacking Rakuten On Top Of Your Credit Card Rewards

Here is the part that makes this worth your time. The cash back you earn from Rakuten is completely separate from the rewards your credit card earns. The same purchase pays you twice, sometimes three times once you add the store’s own loyalty program. Say you spend $200 at Dermstore during Big Stack at the 20% rate. That is $40 back from Rakuten, plus the points or cash back your card earns on that $200, plus any Dermstore rewards. The card in your wallet does not affect your Rakuten rate at all, so you are free to pay with whichever card earns you the most.

Cash Back Or Points? How You Get Paid

This is the choice most beginners miss. Rakuten can pay you in two ways. The default is cash, sent as a check or PayPal deposit. The better option for travelers is points, either American Express Membership Rewards or Bilt Points. You set this inside your profile under Account Settings, in the “How You Get Paid” section.

The conversion is generous and simple. One dollar of cash back becomes 100 points. So during Big Stack a 15% store pays you 15 points per dollar, which means a $100 purchase earns 1,500 Membership Rewards or Bilt points instead of $15. Cash is always worth one cent, but those points transfer to airline and hotel partners and routinely return well over two cents each, so the points route can more than double your earnings. Rakuten pays out quarterly, around the 15th of February, May, August, and November, so this is a patient game, not an instant one, but it does allow you to earn points faster and more consistently than you’d be without using it, since no credit card out there is giving you 15-20x points per dollar.

If you are new, use my link to get a $50 cash back bonus or 5,000 points after your first qualifying purchase. The bonus requires a qualifying spend within the sign up window, which is easy to hit during a week like this (the qualifying purchase requirement is the standard Rakuten mechanic, worth confirming on the offer screen when you join). The order of operations matters: sign up, set your payout preference to Amex or Bilt points before you shop if points are what you want, install the browser extension so you never forget to activate, then click through and buy.

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