A lot of this site is about consuming less. One way I make money is by cutting expenses. Cutting expenses leaves you with more money, and it’s easier to do than increasing your income. I believe in buying less, making more, finding things secondhand and making do with what you have. But sometimes you need to buy something new, and the internet is a great way to do that.
Cashback is a service that lets you get money back on purchases made online. You can get the money back on your credit card, in your bank account, in your PayPal account or as a gift card.
Some credit cards have cashback built in, and you can also join a cashback program, through your card company or independently, and get money back on online shopping.
My recommendation is the Cashdo cashback extension. You can sign up here. It offers the highest cashback I’ve come across on an Israeli site. But it’s worth signing up for more than one program.
How does cashback work?
The business model
The business model of cashback programs is similar to that of customer loyalty clubs. Members are offered a benefit (in this case, money back in their account). When someone makes a purchase:
- The retailers get people shopping with them instead of their competitors.
- The cashback companies receive a commission from the retailers they refer customers to. It is a small amount, but across lots of purchases on lots of sites. It adds up to significant sums.
How to actually get money back on online shopping
All these sites work the same way:
To get money back on an online purchase, you have to go through the cashback website, app or extension to reach the site you want to buy from. If you don’t go through it before ordering, you won’t be able to get the money back.
If you forget to do this before buying, and you’re using a computer, you can install a Chrome extension that reminds you when you’re on a site where your purchases qualify for cashback.
These Chrome cashback extensions don’t work in Chrome on your phone. If you shop on your phone, you’ll need to go through the cashback site or its app first.
Once you’ve accumulated enough to withdraw (more on that below), you go to the site, click the withdrawal button, and the money is on its way to you.
I really, really, really recommend installing the Chrome extensions and shopping on your computer rather than your phone.
After months of using these extensions, I discovered that lots of sites offer cashback without appearing on the list of participating sites at all. I’d never have found them without the extensions. The catch: the Chrome extensions I’m talking about work on a computer, not in Chrome on a phone.
How to install a cashback extension in Chrome
I mentioned that you can install a Chrome extension to remind you when you’re on a site that offers cashback. Here is how:
Time needed: 1 minute
How to install a cashback extension in Chrome
- Go to the cashback program’s website.
- Find the link to download the extension. For example, here it’s the purple button at the bottom of the page.
- Go to the Chrome Web Store to download the extension.
- Click the blue button. Click the blue button that says Add to Chrome (in Hebrew, probably something like הוספה לכרום; either way, it’s a big blue button).
- That’s it.
That’s all. You now have a cashback extension in Chrome that will remind you when you’re on a site that lets you get money back on your purchase.
There are several ways to remove it. The easiest, in my opinion, is to go back to the same link and click the button. This time it will say Remove from Chrome, or להסרה מכרום.
Cashback programs I recommend
I know the options here. Unless I say otherwise, I’ve tried the service myself, and my recommendation comes from experience.
We’re all clever, so you’re probably thinking you’ll sign up for all the programs and get cashback on the same purchase through several of them! Of course I thought of that too, and tried it. You can’t. You only get the cashback if you shop through that program’s link. They’re onto us.
One thing to mention: apparently some cashback programs outside Israel charge a fee to give you your money. The programs I recommend don’t charge a fee for paying it out, though PayPal may charge its own fees.
I’m signed up for three cashback programs: Cashdo, max and TopCashback. The first time I saw one program offering me a higher rate than the others, I realized this was a good idea. The first time only one extension alerted me to cashback, I realized that using several programs lets me get the most back.
Cashback to your bank account or PayPal: Cashdo
Cashdo is probably the largest Israeli cashback company that’s not tied to a credit card. It has a good range of participating sites. Its advantage is that you can receive the money in your bank account (and use it for living expenses rather than necessarily buying more things), as well as through PayPal or Tav HaZahav (an Israeli multistore gift card). The logic behind Tav HaZahav is probably that it costs them less to pay us that way.
Its big advantage: this is the highest cashback I’ve come across in an Israeli cashback program. Its rates are definitely higher than max’s. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that max itself is signed up with Cashdo and is giving us discounts through them…
You can sign up for the service here. There is a Chrome extension too.
How to get the money: you can receive it in your bank account, through PayPal or as Tav HaZahav credit.
| Payout method | Minimum withdrawal | Maximum withdrawal | Bonus | Transfer time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank account | ₪50 | None | None | 48 hours |
| PayPal account | ₪50 | ₪3,000 | None | 48 hours |
| Tav HaZahav NOW | ₪1 | ₪5,000 | 4% bonus on withdrawals over ₪50 | 48 hours |
The most sites, the highest cashback: TopCashback
Israeli cashback sites cover a relatively small number of retailers because of Israeli consumers’ bargaining power. If you want cashback from Israeli sites, TopCashback is not the place for you. But if you want cashback on, say, flights booked through international sites, or a wider range of sites outside Israel, TopCashback is the place.
In my original comparison, I quoted 6% cashback on Booking.com through TopCashback versus 4% through Israeli sites, and 7% versus 5% on Fiverr, a site for finding freelancers. Those are the figures from that comparison; check each provider’s current offer before using them as today’s rates.
And it offers cashback on flights too! My favorite site, CheapOair.com, is there, as are Kayak and airlines such as Emirates and British Airways.
How to get the money: for members outside the US, TopCashback pays through PayPal. You can transfer it from PayPal to your Israeli bank account, but PayPal fees may apply. I leave it in PayPal and use it for purchases later.
Why TopCashback? Apart from the highest cashback? Because it’s a way to get some dollars. Sometimes I pay in dollars, mainly to freelancers I hire outside Israel, but you can also order in dollars from clothing sites and the like. You can withdraw the money to PayPal (you can set up your PayPal account to hold both dollars and shekels), and I’ve yet to come across a site where you can’t pay with PayPal.
To sign up for TopCashback, click here. There is a Chrome extension and an app too.
Cashback through your credit card
Max Payback
With max’s cashback program (max is an Israeli credit-card company), you can get money back using eligible max cards: non-bank cards and certain bank-issued cards, excluding Cash Card, Debit, Free and purchasing cards. In other words, if you have an eligible max credit card, you can use it and don’t need to order a special one. The first cashback program I used was max’s, and it introduced me to this whole world. They also promote Max Payback as a perk.
How to get the money: for transaction cashback, max’s FAQ gives a ₪50 payout threshold. Approved Pinuk Online rewards can be redeemed without waiting to reach that threshold. Then one little click on the MAX PayBack site, and I get the money back on my card.
A personal note: I have extensions from Cashdo, max and TopCashback. Of the three programs, Max Payback offers the lowest cashback in the vast majority of cases. To the point that I requested a payout to my credit card and deleted the extension.
Read about the program and sign up on max’s website. You can also download the Chrome extension there.
The maxBack card
max has another product: a credit card with a built-in cashback program. I’m talking here about the original maxBack card. That sounds better, but it’s not.
- There is a card fee: at first I thought that if you’re getting money back on every purchase anyway, it should cover the fee. But it doesn’t, because the cashback comes as a gift card for shopping.
- The cashback is not high: on eligible regular purchases, you get 1% in the first year and 0.75% from the second year onward, with lower rates for payments to institutions. It is better than nothing, but here too, the more you spend, the more you get back.
- You have to do something yourself: the transfer to a gift card is not automatic. You have to do it yourself, once you have more than ₪75, in a dedicated app.
- The gift card is for shopping: if you paid your electricity bill and got money back, that money won’t go toward your next electricity bill. If you were planning to buy those things at those chains anyway, it’s not bad. But mostly it encourages you to buy more and does less to encourage saving. It is not bad; it’s just not good.
So unless you have the energy to deal with transfers in the app and with gift cards, if you can choose another max credit card, you might be better off doing that.
Also, you can use max’s cashback program with a maxBack card too.
TopCash: American Express
Another credit-card company that lets you get cashback on online purchases with its card is American Express (the Israeli program). The downside is that it’s American Express, which plenty of businesses don’t accept.
If you have American Express and want cashback, you might be better off signing up through a service such as Cashdo and getting the money in your bank account or PayPal. If you still want to sign up for the American Express program, here is the link.
There you can sign up for the service and download the Chrome extension and the app.
Cal
Cal (another Israeli credit-card company) has dedicated cashback cards, with a first-year card-fee waiver on the CashCal products listed on its site, as if that were a benefit rather than a trap. If you only have a Cal credit card, sign up for Cashdo or TopCashback USA and call it a day.
Withdrawing your cashback
With Cashdo, TopCashback and max PayBack, you request the payout yourself. Two years after I started using the program, I withdrew money. ₪241 came back to my credit card as a credit.
It is not much money, but it also means I didn’t buy much (at least on sites offering cashback). Either way, it’s better than nothing, and it’s pretty nice too.
6 financial points about cashback
- Use it for things you were going to buy anyway: I use cashback services for things such as ordering vitamins when I run out of iron and B12. I discovered I could get cashback on hosting for my website outside Israel, and things like that. They also work with major sites such as Terminal X, Amazon and Temu.
- Cutting expenses, not increasing income: getting cashback counts as cutting expenses rather than increasing income, because you’re getting some of your purchase money back. If you get 5% back on a ₪100 purchase, ₪95 has just left your pocket.
- The money adds up slowly, and that’s a good thing. The minimum depends on the program and payout method. TopCashback has no minimum for PayPal; Cashdo lists ₪50 for bank or PayPal withdrawals and ₪1 for Tav HaZahav. The more you buy, the more cashback you’ll accumulate, and the faster it will happen. But you’ll also buy more and spend more. Do not be tempted. It is better for it to add up slowly: it means you bought less. After more than a year, and a little affiliate commission, I had accumulated an astronomical sum in Cashdo: 61 shekels. That also says something about how little I bought during that time.
- Shopping rather than everyday living expenses. Money back on your credit card or in PayPal can mainly be used for shopping. It won’t free up more money for your electricity bill or rent. It can be used for business needs or things for your home, if they’re things you were going to buy anyway.
- Does it encourage you to spend more? If you notice that knowing you can get cashback is tempting you to buy more, remove the extension without hesitation and without thinking twice. Better to keep your money.
- The fine print: with max PayBack, cashback is calculated on the full eligible transaction amount, not on each installment, and excludes taxes, VAT, shipping and the other charges listed in its terms. For example, if an eligible item costs ₪100 before tax, shipping is another ₪30, and the cashback rate is 5%, the shipping doesn’t count. The cashback is ₪5, not ₪6.50.
So why use cashback after all that?
Because, after all, if I’ve already bought something on credit that I need and would’ve bought even without the benefit, I want to pay as little as possible for it. Even 3 shekels back on a purchase will make me happy. Especially when getting money back, particularly on a computer, is the easiest thing in the world.
If you’re looking for dresses with pockets, here’s my list of places to look.
Do you recommend using cashback?
Yes, but only if you were going to buy anyway. Spending ₪100 to get ₪5 back is a discount, not a way to make money. Cashdo is my top recommendation for shekels; TopCashback is great if you want to receive dollars.
How do you get cashback on online shopping?
Go through the cashback extension, website or app to the site you want to buy from. Once you’ve accumulated a certain amount, go to the cashback site, click the withdrawal button, and the money is on its way to you. It is better to use the browser extension than the app, because there are additional sites that don’t appear in the app but do offer cashback.
I’ve also written about making the most of your BUYME gift card.
