Day 2 of Big Give Week. 4 blockbusters at 30%+ cash back (Incogni 100%, NordVPN 100%, NordProtect 97%, IONOS 30%), 60+ merchants at 15% via the catalog-wide BGW boost, plus a thinner mid-tier. Categorized so you can find what you actually shop.
TL;DR: Today's blockbuster Rakuten rates (verified May 5, 2026 from rewardsguru.club's rakuten_offers source-of-truth):
- 💯 Incogni — 100% Cash Back (data-removal subscription)
- 💯 NordVPN — 100% Cash Back (VPN subscription)
- 🔒 NordProtect — 97% Cash Back (identity protection)
- 🌐 IONOS — 30% Cash Back (web hosting)
- 🌸 FTD Flowers — 22% Cash Back (Mother's Day-aligned)
Plus 60+ merchants at the catalog-wide 15% Big Give Week multiplier (running through May 11). Stack any of these with a flat 2-3% cashback card and you're at 17-103% effective return on the eligible spend.
Always start at rakuten.com first — close your existing tabs, click through to the merchant from the Rakuten store page, then complete the purchase in the same browser session. No click-through = no cash back, no exceptions.
This is a snapshot of where Rakuten's biggest cash-back rates sit today. Rates are scraped continuously and the freshest numbers (within 24 hours of publish) are flagged below; older entries that haven't been re-scraped in 48-72 hours are flagged with a ⚠️ — verify on the merchant's Rakuten page before purchase.
This piece is sorted by tier, not category, so you can scan the headline numbers fast.
The four offers where the cashback rate is genuinely the headline of the deal. All worth structuring a purchase around.
What it is: Data-removal subscription that opts you out of data brokers. Why this rate is real: New-customer promotional offer; Rakuten's cap typically equals the subscription's first-year price (around $90 for the 12-month plan). Effectively makes the first year free. Catch: New customers only. Email tied to a previous Incogni account will be denied. Returning subscribers get the standard ~$30 referral commission, not 100%.
What it is: VPN subscription. NordVPN's 2-year plan typically lists at $99-$129 depending on tier. Why this rate is real: Same new-customer promotional structure — Rakuten covers the entire first-year cost as cashback. Catch: Same as Incogni — new customers only. Use a fresh email if you've ever held a Nord account.
What it is: Identity-protection bundle (NordVPN's parent company's product). Why the rate matters: 97% is unusually high; the 3% is essentially a tracking fee. Effectively the first year is free. Verification status: Rate was confirmed April 30, 2026. Rakuten has not re-scraped this merchant in the past 48 hours, so verify on Rakuten's NordProtect page directly before purchasing — rates can shift without notice.
What it is: Web hosting / domain registrar (Germany-based, big in the SMB hosting market). Why this rate is real: Standalone elevated promotional rate, not a Big Give Week boost — it's listed by Rakuten as elevated independent of the BGW catalog. Best fit: Anyone setting up a new website or migrating hosting. The 30% applies to first-year hosting + domain bundles.
What it is: Flower-delivery service. Why this rate matters: Mother's Day is May 10 (5 days from this article). The 22% rate puts FTD's effective discount on a $100 flower order at $22 — meaningfully higher than the 6-8% we typically see at competitors. Verification status: Last scraped April 30 via our scraper; verify on Rakuten's FTD page directly before purchasing.
All last verified April 30, all in the "subscription product with all-time-high promotional rate" category. Verify before purchase — rates this high are typically flash promotions that can drop without notice.
The Big Give Week boost runs May 4 through May 11. Rakuten lifts hundreds of merchants from their typical 1-3% rates to a flat 15%. This is the largest section of today's deals — sorted below by category for scanning.
Bluemercury, Clinique, Dermstore, Estée Lauder, Lancome, M·A·C Cosmetics, Sigma Beauty, Ulta Beauty. All elevated 5-7x above their normal rates.
Best move: if you've been holding off on a beauty restock, this is the week. Stack the 15% Rakuten with a 2% flat cashback card (Citi Double Cash, Wells Fargo Active Cash, Robinhood Gold at 3%) and you're at 17-18% effective return.
Bombas, Brooks Running, Carter's, Columbia Sportswear, Crocs, DSW, GU, Gap, Gap Factory, Hollister, Janie and Jack, kate spade outlet, Lands' End, Lane Bryant, MeUndies, Sanuk, Saks Fifth Avenue, Spartina 449, SPANX.
Best move: Adidas, Nike, etc. typically get pulled into BGW too — check rakuten.com directly for those if you're shopping athletic. The 15% applies to most full-price + sale-price items but typically excludes "outlet clearance" sub-departments at certain retailers — verify the merchant's "Cash Back Terms" section before checkout.
Belk, Bloomingdale's, Harvey Nichols, QVC. Note: Macy's and Nordstrom are NOT in the BGW boost today (still at 2%). If your shopping target is at Macy's, you're better off waiting for Macy's-specific boosted week or shopping direct.
Lenovo, plus IONOS at 30% (covered above). Note that Apple, Best Buy, and Newegg are typically NOT in BGW boosts due to thin merchant margins — check rakuten.com directly for those.
Baloo Living, Nectar Sleep Mattress, Saks (home), various others. The Nectar mattress at 15% on a $1,200 mattress = $180 cash back — meaningfully the largest single-purchase return available in this tier.
Cliganic, GNC, iHerb, Midi Health, Signal Relief, plus 1-800 CONTACTS, ContactsDirect, LensCrafters, Silk'n. The contact-lens trifecta is unusual — three competing optical retailers all at 15% means you should price-shop across them BEFORE clicking through Rakuten (you can only credit one).
Petco, PetSmart, Janie and Jack (kids), Carter's (kids).
CVS at 15% (normally 5%) — uniquely valuable because most drug-store cashback caps at 1-2% via flat-rate cards. Stacked with a 5% rotating card (if you happen to have CVS in your Citi Custom Cash top category for the month), you're at 20% effective return. (The Citi Custom Cash closed to new applicants on May 28, 2026 — this applies to existing cardholders.)
Halfday Travel. The thinly-populated travel section reflects that BGW typically doesn't boost the major OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com) — those keep their year-round 1-6% rates.
A thinner segment today than usual — most merchants are either in the 15% BGW catalog or below 5%. The standouts:
Most of the rest of Rakuten's catalog sits at 1-5% — Macy's at 2%, Nordstrom at 2%, Target at 1%, Amazon (when promotionally available) typically 1%. During Big Give Week these aren't really "deals" — they're baseline rates that haven't been boosted. If you're shopping these merchants right now, the cashback is incidental.
The mechanics matter. Cash back tracking failure is the single most common Rakuten user complaint — usually traced to one of three causes:
1. Click through Rakuten BEFORE adding items to your cart. Most failures happen because the user added items via a saved bookmark or direct merchant link, then went to Rakuten "to check the rate" — at which point the click no longer counts as Rakuten-originated. Always start at rakuten.com.
2. Disable any price-comparison browser extensions (Honey, CapitalOne Shopping, Karma) before clicking through. Multiple extensions installed simultaneously can override Rakuten's tracking cookie. Rakuten's official browser extension is fine; third-party ones are the problem.
3. Complete checkout in the same browser session. Don't add to cart on desktop, then complete on mobile — the tracking session won't carry over. Same browser, same session, ideally within 30 minutes of the click-through.
Stack with credit cards for additive return:
If you're building a Big Give Week purchase list, here's the rough hierarchy I'd use:
Definite buys:
Worth considering:
Skip unless you needed it anyway:
Rakuten's catalog-wide boost runs through May 11, 2026. Most merchants revert to their baseline rates the next day. Some smaller merchants stretch the boost by 24-48 hours but the catalog-wide multiplier is firmly time-bound.
Yes — they're new-customer promotional offers where Rakuten earns a high commission (these subscriptions have low marginal cost so the merchant can afford to give back the entire first-year fee to acquire customers). The trick is the "new customer" requirement — your email cannot be tied to a previous account.
No. If you cancel and request a refund, Rakuten reverses the cashback. The merchant reports the cancelled subscription, your pending balance gets debited. So plan around purchases you actually intend to keep — don't game the system with intent-to-cancel orders.
Margin economics. Big-box retailers operate on thin margins and structurally don't run high-cashback affiliate promotions. Amazon's Rakuten rate is sometimes 1% on specific categories but usually not promoted. Target rotates in and out unpredictably.
Tracking shows up within 1-7 days as "pending." It moves to "available" after the merchant confirms no return was filed (typically 30-90 days). The cash payout is quarterly via Rakuten's "Big Fat Check" cycle (Feb 15, May 15, Aug 15, Nov 15) — so a May 5 purchase typically pays out August 15.
Yes — through your Rakuten account within 30 days of purchase, with order confirmation as proof. They resolve manually within 2-4 weeks. Don't wait — file as soon as 7 days post-purchase if it hasn't shown as "pending."
Rates verified May 5, 2026 against rewardsguru.club's rakuten_offers source-of-truth table (most recent scrape: 08:01 UTC May 5, 2026, ~167 of 292 catalog entries refreshed in past 24 hours). Older entries flagged ⚠️ above. Rates set by individual merchants and Rakuten — verify on each merchant's Rakuten page before purchase, as rates can change without notice.
Sources: Rakuten.com, Rakuten Big Give Week landing, internal rakuten_offers source-of-truth (cron last run 2026-05-05 08:01 UTC, 174 fresh entries within 48h).