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Part 1
Rakuten referral code: get £25 for £50 of spend
Rakuten's bonus turns on a spending target rather than a cashback one, which is what separates it from the other two cashback sites here: £50 across as many brands and orders as you like, within 90 days of joining. Your referrer gets the same, and there is no cap on how many people you go on to refer.
The reason to use a link here is arithmetic, not generosity. Rakuten's own Welcome Bonus pays £10 for £30 of spend, and both sets of terms say the two do not combine, so you are choosing the bigger offer rather than stacking on it. I have not been paid by this scheme in either direction, and Rakuten pays a referred member whatever was advertised on the day they joined, so £25 is a promotional figure dated 29 August 2026.
Last tested on by Seb Place.
Part 1
The offer
Rakuten
Rakuten is a UK cashback site: you start at Rakuten, click through to a retailer, buy at that retailer's normal price, and a share of the commission the retailer pays Rakuten is credited back to your Rakuten account. Joining is free and there is no paid tier. It is the smallest of the three cashback sites covered here. Rakuten's own pages put its store count at 400 on some and 500 on others, against Quidco's 5,000 and TopCashback's 5,500, and Rakuten.co.uk moved to a new platform in April 2024, so its UK track record is shorter than either.
Or copy the referral link below:
Reward
Get £25 when you join Rakuten through a referral link and spend £50 on qualifying cashback purchases within 90 days.
How it works
- Click the referral link on this page and join Rakuten, which is free
- Link a bank account to your Rakuten account, which both you and the person who referred you have to do before either bonus can be paid
- Shop through Rakuten, clicking through to the retailer immediately before you buy
- Spend £50 excluding VAT on purchases that earn cashback, within 90 days of joining, across as many brands and orders as you like, though Amazon orders and gift card purchases do not count towards it
- Your £25 is added to your next Cashback payment, generally within 90 days of the qualifying purchase, and £25 goes to the referrer on the same terms
- Cashback and bonuses are paid out monthly, to a linked bank account or PayPal
3.3 / 5
My rating for this deal
This rates the Rakuten referral itself: what you get, what you have to do to get it, and how long it takes to arrive. It isn’t a rating of Rakuten as a company.
Why this rating
The conditions are the friendliest of the three cashback schemes here and the reward is the largest, which on its own would put this near the top of the site. It sits below both because the evidence behind it is a terms page rather than a receipt, and because the bonus is not additive the way the other two are: it replaces Rakuten's own new-member offer instead of stacking on it. Money you have to take instead of other money is worth less than the same amount on top.
Part 2
Is it for you?
Rakuten referral summary
- Reward
- £25 bonus
- Reward type
- Cashback balance, paid out to a bank account or PayPal
- Requirement
- The new member spends £50 excluding VAT on purchases that earn cashback, within 90 days of joining, splittable across brands and orders; Amazon and gift cards do not count, and both people need a bank account linked to their Rakuten account
- Time to receive
- Generally within 90 days of the qualifying purchase, then added to your next Cashback payment, which goes out monthly
Rakuten referral pros and cons
Pros
- Free to join, and the referrer does not have to buy anything for the reader's side to pay
- £25 to each side, the largest fixed sign-up bonus of the three cashback sites here
- Rakuten states the amount publicly on rakuten.co.uk/referral, so you can check it logged out before you join
- The £50 can be spread across as many brands and orders as you like, rather than earned in one
- No cap on referrals, stated in the terms rather than just in the marketing
Cons
- Nobody has been paid by this scheme in either direction, so nothing here is payout-verified
- 400 to 500 stores against Quidco's 5,000 and TopCashback's 5,500, which decides whether the site is any use at the shop you are buying from
- Amazon orders and gift card purchases do not count towards the £50, and Amazon is where a lot of ordinary spending goes
- Both people need a bank account linked to their Rakuten account or the bonus cannot be paid
- Taking the referral means giving up Rakuten's Welcome Bonus, because the terms on both sides say they do not combine
- Rakuten.co.uk moved to a new platform in April 2024, so its 804 Trustpilot reviews cover a short UK history
Rakuten referral bonus or Rakuten Welcome Bonus?
Take the referral. Rakuten's Welcome Bonus pays £10 once you spend £30 within 90 days; the referral pays £25 once you spend £50 in the same window. The terms on both sides say the two do not combine, so you are choosing, and the referral is £15 more for £20 more spend.
Rakuten referral bonus or Rakuten Welcome Bonus?
Take the referral. Rakuten's Welcome Bonus pays £10 once you spend £30 within 90 days; the referral pays £25 once you spend £50 in the same window. The terms on both sides say the two do not combine, so you are choosing, and the referral is £15 more for £20 more spend.
Every new Rakuten member faces this choice and almost nobody is told about it, because the two offers are documented on different pages and neither one mentions the other's amount.
| Route | Bonus | Spend needed | Window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome Bonus | £10 | £30 | 90 days |
| Referral link | £25 | £50 | 90 days |
The non-combination is stated twice, once from each direction. Rakuten's Welcome Bonus terms (opens in new tab) say it is "not combinable with other offers including the Referral Bonuses", and the referral sign-up terms say the reverse.
One wrinkle, and it is live right now. Rakuten sometimes runs an extra-cashback welcome offer instead of the flat £10: on 29 August 2026 it was advertising 10% extra cashback capped at £40, on purchases made within seven days of joining, at participating stores only. That one is also not combinable. It beats £25 only if you are about to spend more than £250 at those stores inside a week, which is a different shopper from the one this page is written for.
What is Rakuten, and why is it smaller than it sounds?
Rakuten is a cashback site: you click through from Rakuten to a retailer, pay the retailer's normal price, and a share of its commission comes back to you. The name is a large Japanese company, but Rakuten.co.uk moved to a new platform in April 2024 and lists 400 to 500 stores, an order of magnitude fewer than Quidco or TopCashback.
What is Rakuten, and why is it smaller than it sounds?
Rakuten is a cashback site: you click through from Rakuten to a retailer, pay the retailer's normal price, and a share of its commission comes back to you. The name is a large Japanese company, but Rakuten.co.uk moved to a new platform in April 2024 and lists 400 to 500 stores, an order of magnitude fewer than Quidco or TopCashback.
Cashback is not a discount, and the difference decides which one you want. A voucher code cuts the price at the till. Cashback leaves the price alone and pays you afterwards, which makes it useful on purchases you were making anyway and useless when you need the money off today.
The size gap is the thing to weigh. Rakuten's own pages cannot agree on the count: the homepage title says 500 stores and its FAQ "500+ partner shops", while /f/how-cashback-works and /f/influencers both title "Shop 400 Stores". Either figure sits against 5,000 at Quidco and 5,500 at TopCashback.
The short history is the other half. Rakuten says Rakuten.co.uk switched to a new platform on 10 April 2024 (opens in new tab), and that balances earned before 3 April 2024 had to be withdrawn by the end of that year. That is why its Trustpilot profile carries 804 reviews where Quidco's carries 130,995: the UK operation is effectively two years old, whatever the parent company's age.
Rakuten pays confirmed cashback out monthly, to a bank account or PayPal, and says brands usually take 60 to 90 days to validate an order.
How does the Rakuten referral scheme work?
You join through a referral link, then spend £50 excluding VAT on purchases that earn cashback, within 90 days. That releases £25 to you and £25 to the referrer. Amazon orders and gift cards do not count, and both people need a bank account linked to their Rakuten account before either bonus can be paid.
How does the Rakuten referral scheme work?
You join through a referral link, then spend £50 excluding VAT on purchases that earn cashback, within 90 days. That releases £25 to you and £25 to the referrer. Amazon orders and gift cards do not count, and both people need a bank account linked to their Rakuten account before either bonus can be paid.
The £50 is a spending target rather than a cashback one, which is the opposite of how Quidco and TopCashback set their thresholds, and it makes this the easier bar to see coming: you know what you have spent, whereas £5 of confirmed cashback depends on rates you have to look up.
What does not count. Amazon orders are out, gift card purchases are out, and so is any cashback Rakuten awarded as a courtesy or that the retailer never reported. A bonus is also voided if you cancel, return or exchange the qualifying purchase, or if it turns out to have earned no cashback at all.
The bank account catches people. Rakuten's terms say "you and your Referee(s) must have your bank account linked to your Rakuten account", and the sign-up side says the same about you and your referrer. Two people can do everything else right and neither gets paid.
When the money lands, in two halves. Rakuten says you will generally receive the bonus within 90 days of the qualifying purchase, and separately that bonuses are added to your next Cashback payment. Payments go out monthly, so the honest worst case is those 90 days plus a wait for the next payment run, not 90 days flat.
Treat £25 as a promotional amount. Rakuten's own FAQ says bonus amounts "are subject to change from time to time" and that a referred member gets "the bonus that was available on day of sign up", and the page tells you to check it for "the latest qualifying promotion amounts". £25 is what rakuten.co.uk/referral (opens in new tab) stated on 29 August 2026. It is the number canonical on the day you join that decides what you are paid, not this page.
How to get and use a Rakuten referral code
There is no code to type. The link carries the referral, so you click it, sign up, and link a bank account. After that the only thing that can lose you the bonus is buying without clicking through from Rakuten first.
How to get and use a Rakuten referral code
There is no code to type. The link carries the referral, so you click it, sign up, and link a bank account. After that the only thing that can lose you the bonus is buying without clicking through from Rakuten first.
Link the bank account before you shop, not after. It is a condition of the bonus rather than just a payout detail, and it is the one step on this page that has nothing to do with shopping and so is easy to leave for later.
Then the ordinary cashback rule applies to every purchase. Clicking through from Rakuten has to be the last thing you do before you buy. A comparison site, an email link or a browser extension firing after Rakuten can take the credit for the sale, and an untracked purchase does not count towards the £50 even though you spent the money.
Already a member? You cannot use a referral link, since the sign-up bonus is for new members only. Your own link is on the Refer & Earn page (opens in new tab) inside your account, and the referrer side pays £25 with no cap on how many people take it.
What is not verified on this page
Every figure here was read off Rakuten's own pages on 29 August 2026 and none of it has been confirmed by a payout. No bonus has been received on either side, and the site holds no Rakuten receipts of any kind.
What is not verified on this page
Every figure here was read off Rakuten's own pages on 29 August 2026 and none of it has been confirmed by a payout. No bonus has been received on either side, and the site holds no Rakuten receipts of any kind.
The other two cashback pages on this site are written from an account with money in it. This one is not, and the difference matters more here than the £25 does.
What that rules out, specifically: whether the referral tracks at all, whether the £50 is measured the way the terms read, how long the payment actually takes against the stated 90 days, and whether the referrer side pays without chasing. Those are the four things a referral scheme fails at, and none of them can be answered by reading a terms page.
What is solid is the sourcing. The £25, the £50, the 90 days, the Amazon and gift card exclusions and the bank-account requirement are all on rakuten.co.uk/referral (opens in new tab) in Rakuten's own words, checkable in one click without logging in. This page will say what happened once a referral has run end to end.
Rakuten, Quidco or TopCashback?
Rakuten pays the biggest sign-up bonus of the three at £25, and it is the one we have never been paid by. TopCashback and Quidco each pay a new member £10 and both have paid out here. Open one of those two first, and add Rakuten if you want the £25 and can reach £50 of non-Amazon spending.
Rakuten, Quidco or TopCashback?
Rakuten pays the biggest sign-up bonus of the three at £25, and it is the one we have never been paid by. TopCashback and Quidco each pay a new member £10 and both have paid out here. Open one of those two first, and add Rakuten if you want the £25 and can reach £50 of non-Amazon spending.
The three sites list at wildly different scales, and the store count is what decides whether a cashback site is any use at the shop you are actually buying from.
| Rakuten | Quidco | TopCashback | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You get | £25 | £10 | £10 |
| Threshold | £50 spent | £5 confirmed cashback | £10 confirmed cashback |
| Deadline | 90 days | None stated | Campaign-set: three years to 1 September 2026 |
| Stores | 400 to 500 | Over 5,000 | Over 5,500 |
| Paid out to us | Never taken | Yes, £25 in July 2026 | Yes, Tell-a-Friend bonuses received |
Rakuten is listed third here, and the reason is the last row rather than any of the others. It pays two and a half times what either rival pays a new member. Ordering by payout is not something this site does, and the evidence behind the other two pages is a receipt where the evidence behind this one is a terms page.
If you want the biggest bonus and you know where your next £50 is going, Rakuten is the one to take, provided it is not going to Amazon. Nothing stops you holding all three: they are free, per-retailer rates differ between them, and the sign-up bonuses are per-site.
Part 3
How it compares
Rakuten referral at a glance
| Your reward | £25 bonus |
| Friend's reward | £25 bonus, on the same £50 qualifying spend by the new member |
| Reward type | Cashback balance, paid out to a bank account or PayPal |
| Requirement | The new member spends £50 excluding VAT on purchases that earn cashback, within 90 days of joining, splittable across brands and orders; Amazon and gift cards do not count, and both people need a bank account linked to their Rakuten account |
| Time to receive | Generally within 90 days of the qualifying purchase, then added to your next Cashback payment, which goes out monthly |
| Referral limit | Unlimited. Rakuten's terms say you may qualify for a referral bonus more than one time, and the page says bonuses are unlimited |
Rakuten key facts
Stores
400 to 500 stores, a count Rakuten's own pages do not agree on
UK platform
Rakuten.co.uk moved to a new platform on 10 April 2024, and balances earned before 3 April 2024 had to be withdrawn by 31 December 2024
Part 4
Questions & related
Rakuten referral FAQ
What is the Rakuten referral link?
Referral Plug's verified Rakuten referral link is https://www.rakuten.co.uk/r/SEBPLA3?eeid=28187 (opens in new tab), last tested by Seb Place on 2026-08-29.How do I get £25 bonus from Rakuten?
Use Referral Plug's verified Rakuten referral link https://www.rakuten.co.uk/r/SEBPLA3?eeid=28187 (opens in new tab) when signing up. The link gives you £25 bonus; verified by Seb Place on 2026-08-29.Is Sebastian Place's Rakuten referral link verified?
Yes, Seb Place personally verified the Rakuten referral link https://www.rakuten.co.uk/r/SEBPLA3?eeid=28187 (opens in new tab) on 2026-08-29. Referral Plug's full testing methodology is at https://www.referralplug.co.uk/methodology (opens in new tab).Does Rakuten offer a discount code, voucher code, or promo code?
Rakuten is not a shop, so there is no Rakuten discount code, voucher code or promo code to paste at a checkout. It is where you go to earn cashback at other retailers, and the only sign-up saving on Rakuten itself is a bonus: £25 through a referral link once you have spent £50 on qualifying purchases, or £10 through Rakuten's own Welcome Bonus at £30 of spend. The terms say you cannot have both. Some store pages on Rakuten list that store's voucher codes next to its cashback rate, but those are the store's codes, not Rakuten's. Last verified: 29 August 2026. Compare how this works across every brand I cover in my UK voucher codes guide.What is the Rakuten referral reward?
£25 to you and £25 to the person who referred you, released once you have spent £50 excluding VAT on purchases that earn cashback, within 90 days of joining. Both figures were read from rakuten.co.uk/referral on 29 August 2026. Rakuten's own FAQ says bonus amounts are subject to change and that a referred member gets the bonus that was available on the day they signed up, so treat £25 as a promotional amount rather than a standing rate.How much do I have to spend to get the £25?
£50 excluding VAT, on purchases that earn cashback, within 90 days of joining. It can be split across as many brands and as many orders as you like. Amazon orders and gift card purchases do not count towards it, and neither does any cashback Rakuten awarded as a courtesy or that the retailer never reported.Can I get the Rakuten Welcome Bonus and the referral bonus?
No. Rakuten's Welcome Bonus terms say it is not combinable with other offers including the referral bonuses, and the referral sign-up terms say the same in reverse. The Welcome Bonus pays £10 for £30 of spend and the referral pays £25 for £50, both within 90 days, so the referral is £15 more for £20 more spending.How long does the Rakuten referral bonus take to arrive?
Rakuten says you will generally receive it within 90 days of the qualifying purchase, and that it is added to your next Cashback payment. Payments go out once a month, so the realistic worst case is that 90-day wait plus the gap to the next payment run. We have not had a Rakuten bonus paid, so that timing is Rakuten's statement rather than something observed here.Why do I need to link a bank account?
Because Rakuten's referral terms make it a condition of the bonus on both sides: you and the person who referred you must each have a bank account linked to your Rakuten account. It is also how cashback is paid out, alongside PayPal. Skipping it means the bonus cannot be paid even if everything else qualifies.Is there a limit on how many people I can refer?
No. Rakuten's referral page says bonuses are unlimited, and its terms say you may qualify for a referral bonus more than one time. The new member's side is capped at one sign-up bonus per person, which is the usual shape.Is Rakuten free to join?
Yes, and unlike Quidco and TopCashback there is no paid tier to opt into or out of. Rakuten makes its money from the commission retailers pay it for sending shoppers, and shares part of that with you.How do I get my Rakuten cashback paid out?
To a bank account or PayPal, sent once a month. Cashback has to be confirmed before it is paid, and Rakuten says brands usually take 60 to 90 days after the order to validate it.Rakuten, Quidco or TopCashback?
Rakuten pays the largest new-member bonus at £25, against £10 at each of the others, and asks for £50 of spending within 90 days where Quidco wants £5 of confirmed cashback with no deadline and TopCashback £10 within a campaign-set window. What separates them is evidence and breadth: Quidco and TopCashback have both paid out to us and list 5,000 and 5,500 retailers, where Rakuten lists 400 to 500 and has never paid us anything. Open one of the older two first and add Rakuten for the bonus.Is Rakuten legit?
Rakuten shows 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 804 reviews on its own homepage, which links the profile; Trustpilot blocks automated checks, so that reading is Rakuten's rather than ours. The money is commission the retailer pays for a referred sale, shared with you, so nothing about the price you pay changes. The caveat specific to the UK site is its age: Rakuten.co.uk moved to a new platform in April 2024 and members had to withdraw their old balances by the end of that year.
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