Update: Jewel is no longer available. The last day to access your Jewel account to view your order and payment details is April 22, 2021. Customer data will be retained per their Data Retention Policy as stated in the Jewel Privacy Policy (available on www.usejewel.com).
Jewel is a cashback website that specializes in luxury retail. In other words, you get to earn cash back just for shopping your favorite premium brands. Different than Rakuten (one of my personal favorites), Topcashback, and other similar sites, Jewel focuses on luxury brands exclusively. In fact, Jewel claims that 20% of its listed retailers are unique to its site, so you won’t find them on other cashback shopping portals. Some exclusive premium brands include Carbon38, Glossier and Serena & Lily.
Jewel now partners with over 300 luxury brands, like Blue Nile, Kiehl’s, Neiman Marcus, Net-A-Porter, Saks, and Tory Burch. You can shop for a wide range of items including women’s and men’s clothing, beauty, accessories, home and even travel.
UseJewel.com Sign-Up Bonus & Referral Program
Jewel offers new members a $5 sign-up bonus. I signed up and the bonus amount appeared in my account right away. Looks like I’ll need to earn at least $15 in cash back before being eligible to receive a payout.
Jewel members earn $5 for each new member they refer who completes one transaction and earns at least $10 in cash back from that purchase.
What Makes Jewel Special?
Besides working exclusively with luxury brands, Jewel also offers a “boosted rate,” one of the site’s shining features. Basically, the boosted rate is a significantly higher rewards rate, so high that it’s very unlikely Ebates, Topcashback or other cash back sites have much chance of matching it.
Retailer | Jewel Cashback Rate | Ebates Cashback Rate |
Hugo Boss | 7.1% | 3.5% |
Lancome Paris | 8.1% | 4% |
Nordstrom | 1.6% | None |
Oakley | 6.1% | 4% |
Sephora | 6.1% | 3% |
*Rates are constantly updated. I got these figures as an example at the time of this write-up.
Cashback rates depend on the retailer, but the average rewards rate for Jewel brands ranges from 4% to 10%. There is no limit to how much cash back you can earn, unless otherwise noted on the retailer’s page.
Redeeming Your Cash Back
Jewel pays its members every quarter, so you’ll earn your cash back for all confirmed purchases in the following time frame:
Purchase Period | Payout Date |
January 1 – March 31 | May 10 |
April 1 – June 30 | August 10 |
July 1 – September 30 | November 10 |
October 1 – December 31 | February 10 |
You have to earn a minimum of $15 in rewards over a purchase period in order to receive a payout.
Currently, Jewel pays its member via check or PayPal. The company is working on alternative payout methods which should be available soon.
Social Responsibility
For those who are socially conscious, Jewel has recently added two impact-driven, ethical brands that don’t normally offer discounts: Everlane and FEED. Additionally, Jewel gives 1% of its gross profits to charities like Charity Water and The Empowerment Plan.
Successful Tracking
Your order might not be valid for cash back for various reasons. To make sure all your orders are tracked, please do not do any of the following:
- Forget to log in. Make sure you are logged into your Jewel account before you shop.
- Visit another cashback site first. Do not click on another cashback site before you head over to Jewel.
- Purchase in multiple sessions. Add to your shopping cart and make the purchase in one shopping session.
- Use an invalid payment method. Do not use gift cards, points, or any other ineligible payment methods for cash back.
- Disable browser cookies. You must enable your browser cookies.
- Return items. If you return any items, you won’t earn any cash back on them.
My Impressions
Shopping portals are a dime a dozen these days, so it’s a difficult field to stand out from the crowd. Jewel does just that by focusing on premium brands that you can’t find on any other cashback site. Also hard to ignore are the excellent cashback rates that Jewel offers. Other portals often can’t compete for many of these luxury brands. So, if you’re a luxury shopaholic, I definitely recommend you compare cash back rates with Jewel along with your other preferred cash back option (I typically recommend 2 cash back shopping portals, as having too many will dilute your earnings too much for timely payouts).
I list all the best cash back shopping sites here.
READ MORE: SEE THE BEST BANK BONUSES HERE AND THE BEST INVESTING BONUSES HERE.
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Stay away from Jewel. I tried using them and earned $150 cashback on my purchase. The cashback has been “Pending” for over 120 days. I’ve contacted Jewel multiple times, but have only received one response simply stating that they’re “working on confirming my order”. They offer no recourse and have stopped responding to all inquiries regarding this matter. I’ve never had a cashback site just leave cashback as pending for this long and then ignore all inquiries. Horrible scam site.