Rakuten named it themselves: the Big Deal Reveal, Black Friday in July Edition, July 14-18, one deal a day (Under Armour 20% today, Skechers 25% Saturday). Plus 36 elevated stores at once, Travel Week promos through July 20, a $275 card-application bounty, and three points transfer deadlines. Every number checked July 14, 2026.
Our tracker watches cash back rates at 220 stores on Rakuten. On a normal day, a handful are elevated. Today, 36 of them jumped at once, several at five to ten times their usual rate. Nobody calls it this officially, but that pattern has a name: Black Friday in July. Mid-month is when retailers counter-program each other's summer sales, and the portals ride along.
Every number below was pulled from our tracker and checked July 14, 2026. One rule before the list: the daily deals below are one-day offers by design, and the other elevated rates drop without notice. If a store page shows its normal rate when you look, that window closed.
Rakuten's own announcement calls this the Big Deal Reveal: Black Friday in July Edition, running July 14 to 18 with one big deal per day, each live for one day only:
| Date | Store | Cash back |
|---|---|---|
| July 14 (today) | Under Armour | 20% |
| July 15 | StubHub | 12% |
| July 16 | Lands' End | 18% |
| July 17 | Bluemercury | 20% |
| July 18 | Skechers | 25% |
Saturday's Skechers 25% is the biggest single rate of the whole week, so if you were waiting on shoes, that is the day. In parallel, the travel category is running its own Travel Week promos, covered below.
Usually 2%. One day only, gone tonight. $100 of gear returns $20, or 2,000 Amex Membership Rewards points if your Rakuten account is linked. We wrote up the full math and the points option in the Under Armour deep dive.
The sportswear aisle is clearly at war this week:
| Store | Today | Usually |
|---|---|---|
| Under Armour | 20% | 2% |
| Nike | 8% | 2% |
| adidas | Up to 4% | 2% |
| Store | Today | Usually |
|---|---|---|
| Expedia | Up to 10% | 3% |
| SIXT rent the car | 10% | 4% |
| Booking.com | Up to 8% | 4% |
| Priceline | Up to 8% | 4% |
| Viator | 8% | 2% |
| Hotels.com | Up to 6% | 1% |
| Vrbo | Up to 6% | 1% |
| IHG Hotels & Resorts | 6% | 3% |
| Agoda | Up to 6% | 3% |
| Hertz | 5% | 2.5% |
Rakuten is branding this cluster itself: the travel category page is running a "Travel Week" event this week (July 14 to 20), with store sales layered on top of the elevated rates. SIXT is running up to 15% off while paying 10% back, Booking.com has 15% or more off select stays plus the up to 8%, and IHG's mid-month sale is up to 15% off selected hotels with 6% back. Sale price first, cash back on top. That is the real double dip.
Two more items sitting on the event page that beat most of the rate bumps:
Hotels.com and Vrbo at six times their normal rate are the quiet standouts. One honest caveat on this whole table: booking hotels through an online travel agency usually means no elite night credits and no status recognition. If you have status with a chain, price that in before chasing the portal rate.
Groupon 12% (usually 2%). Dermstore 10% (3%). The entire eyewear cluster moved together: Ray-Ban, Oakley, Sunglass Hut, and LensCrafters all at up to 8%, from 4%. iHerb 8% (2%). Macy's 4% (2%). Staples 4% (2%). And the oddball prize: Magazines.com at 40%, if you are the one person still buying magazine subscriptions, congratulations.
Three transfer bonuses in our tracker touch this week:
The standing rule for all three: transfers are one way. Have the award in mind first.
No. That is the whole trick of a sale week. 20% back on something you were not going to buy is still 80% out the door. The right way to read this list: check it against what was already on your list, collect the elevated rate on those, and close the tab.
Retailers do not publish their reasons, and we only report what we can verify: 36 simultaneous elevations across one portal on one July day, when a normal day shows a handful. Whatever is driving it upstream, the pattern shows up every mid-July, and it rarely lasts the week.
Sources verified July 14, 2026: rakuten.com store pages via our 220-store rate tracker (Under Armour confirmed live on the store page the evening of publication) and our transfer-partner tracker. Transfer bonus details for Amex and Citi programs display inside each issuer's transfer portal.