Offermatic.com

Offermatic.com gives you rebates in exchange for your credit card account info: login and password. Dangerous! Insane! Who would do such foolishness?!

So I went ahead and did it. Reputable newspapers and investors have faith in the security. The NY Times reported on the website and an investment group is pouring money into this, so I am fairly sure it's safe. The company backing the security side is Yodlee, the former web machinery behind Mint.com when they started out.

The Mint.com look and feel is here. Adding accounts is similar, with a dropdown screen appearing where users search for their credit/bank websites. Clicking on the Offers link right away I saw a few offers based on my purchases history from my credit card. They amounted to spending $10 to get $5 back in a few weeks. When I saw the offers clicked to activate them. Expiration dates are listed on the offers, but you receive no penalties from not using them. The offers I choose were:

$5 Barnes & Noble
Stacking bonus here: Barnes & Noble's 10% discount from AAA took an additional bite out of the price. I bought more than the ten dollars I needed to spend. So maybe Offermatic's business plan is good.

$5 Trader Joe's
Just edged over spending $10 thanks to the Trader Joe brand rippled chips, some avocados, and a red pepper. Hoping the taxes are counted as well.

The nice thing about the offers is the explanation of why you received them. I spent money at B&N and Trader Joe's, so I I got those offers. I ignored an offer of a Restaurant.com giftcard for 250 points. Last month I ate at restaurants a lot so I got this offer and I planned to cut down. Plus, I never ate at any of the the restaurants listed and only a few were close by

Offermatic allows you to grind for points. The user spends those points for various stuff: rebates, higher level offers, or coupons.  By typing out a few quick but truthful reviews (+25 points a piece), attaching a few of my credit cards (+150 each), and linking to my often unused Facebook and Twitter accounts (+100 each), I acquired 900+ points. When I reach a certain number of points I can redeem them for gift cards:

$25

2,500 Points

Bloomingdale's Gift Card

$25

3,000 Points

Amazon Gift Card

Amazon is the highest cost gift card at 3000 points. Another option from Offermatic is for my account to level up to receive level 2 offers. Cost: 4000 points. The preview of level 2 offers included $10 rebates to Big Y and T-Mobile, places I bought stuff recently. I'll probably stick to getting the $25 gift cards for now.

Not everything went smoothly. My incentive for signing up, a choice of $5 rebates from Amazon, didn't appear. I had to contact their support staff to have it show up. It took a few days but it appeared.


Needless to say, many will shy away from giving out personal info. So: error or triumph? Will I experience Desert Storm or Pearl Harbor? I'll let you know when/if I get my rebates.

And if you're willing to take the plunge, try my referral link (I get 200 points if you do).

Update: Got 2 of 3 rebates so far, for $10. Score!