Buyers can reap eBay Rewards

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Call me Simon Legree, but I love receiving discounts, and I really twirl my ‘stache when I’m able to get a discount, or earn points on every purchase I make using a particular credit card or flying on a specific airline or renting a car from a specific company—because these really add up.

For example, my insurance company issued me a Visa card that accumulates “rewards dollars” on every purchase I make. Then, when I have built up an accumulation, the insurance company that issued my card lets me use my rewards dollars to pay the premium on any insurance policy that I have through the company.

My insurance agent told me about this, and it has worked really well for three years. I charge just about everything I buy to that card, every tank of gas, every dinner out, every video rental. For every dollar I charge, I’m building up reward dollars. It really adds up!

Each year, I pay all but $10 or so of my annual homeowner’s insurance premium using the reward dollars I have accumulated this way.

And the beauty of it is, I’m not buying items I wouldn’t otherwise buy, and I’m not paying any more for the items than I would if I used a different credit card or even paid cash. I’m just concentrating my purchases on one card and by doing so, I get pretty close to a free homeowners insurance policy on my house every year. Not bad, huh?

This week I saw that eBay has expanded its eBay Bucks program to all U.S. users. This program allows buyers to accumulate 2 percent on qualifying purchases made with PayPal. Now I am not a shill for eBay. The folks there aren’t giving me or Auctiva a thing—not one single thing—for telling you what I am about to tell you. But take it from me, a master accumulator of reward dollars, frequent flyer points, etc: Accumulating 2 percent on your purchases is worth taking a serious look at, because if you buy much at all, that 2 percent will add up quicker than you think.

And if you are a seller, which Auctiva users are, consider this: eBay is using part of the fees you are paying in a new effort to attract buyers onto the site to buy stuff. And, most important, it is doing so in a pretty sure-fire way to create buyer loyalty and keep those buyers coming back to build up eBay bucks.

There are rules, and not every purchase will qualify, but you can read all about it right here.

I’ll just leave you with one more thought, since Auctiva is paying me, after all. You can also get rewards on the purchases you make on eBay, Amazon and dozens of other retailers by using KickItBack. Sometimes you can get up to 20 percent back on your purchases. Just something to keep in mind. The more rewards, the better, I say.