Ebates, you are my favorite friend

I discovered Ebates a while ago, and can honestly say that it's the greatest thing since online shopping was invented. How it works:

1. Register for free with Ebates.com
2. When you online shop at certain stores, log into Ebates first so they can track your purchases
3. Buy stuff you would anyway, and get a percentage of that money back from Ebates

That's it. Take your money to the bank and feel like you got away with something.

I haven't used Ebates a ton, because I don't buy a ton of stuff, but I recently replaced my cell phone, and it was pretty awesome.

I hate cell phone salesmen--they seem to be the last holdout of the "aggressive salesman" model, at least among people that I have to deal with semi-regularly. Two years ago, when my previous cell phone died, I went to the kiosk in the mall to buy a replacement battery, and got sold a whole new phone. The new phone was a total lemon and for two years I hated it and the man who sold it to me. He also failed to mention that there would be all kinds of fees for changing phones, that the service provider I have basically doesn't stand behind their products and won't help you out if you get sold a lemon of a phone and generally made me feel very uncomfortable.

This time around, I did lots of web-based research, and found the phone I wanted. Because My contract was up, the phone was free, and because I bought it through Ebates, I got back $15. The money was delivered right into my paypal, no muss no fuss, and all for something I had to buy anyway.

I also recently found out that you can purchase Groupons through Ebates-- so you're basically getting cash back for buying a pre-paid great deal on something. Does that even make sense? For example: This past weekend's Groupon in my area is for a 51% discount on the Amica Marathon, Half-Marathon and 5k. This fills me with rage because I've already registered for that race and not gotten 51% off, but no matter. If I were registering for the 1/2 marathon using a Groupon, I would already be paying only $30 instead of $60, but if I did it through Ebates, I'd save another 6%, or in this case $1.80. That's not a ton of money, but it's savings, and takes very little time to get.

I love Ebates.