3 Easy-to-Use Online Sites That Give You Cash Back for Shopping

Is your child's school struggling? Do you wish you could afford to send your oldest child to a nice college? Are you looking for extra spending money for birthday parties and family vacations? You can earn cash for all of these things by joining cash-back sites.

There are tons of sites out there that give you cash back for your purchases, but some of them aren't that great. Here are the top 3 sites that I currently recommend. If I find others that are better, I will update this hub accordingly.

I'm not sure how long For the Schools has been around, but my friend swears that the site is awesome. I recently joined, and it seems pretty cool so far. I already belong to a few other cash-back sites, and For the Schools has a similar layout. You get $25 if you refer a friend, so you could possibly earn some extra cash that way even if you don't do much shopping.

You don't have to install anything into your browser, which makes me very happy. I hate installing stuff on my computer. You can shop via an iPhone app or log directly into the regular site, and your purchases will be tracked that way.

There are lots of familiar stores to choose from. I hate when I join a site and learn that I can only buying random stuff from weird places that I've never heard from. This site has Kohl's, Old Navy, Best Buy, Walmart, and a bunch of others.

Payments are only sent out twice a year, so you have plenty of time to save up cash for a big payment. The checks are sent directly to your school's administration office. I'm not sure if homeschoolers can use this program, but I'll update this post if I learn that they can.

I have a love-hate relationship with Upromise. They were the first cash-back site that I ever joined, so of course I love them for that reason. I've been a member for more than 10 years. I think I've actually been on the site for around 13 years, but I'm not entirely sure.

Anyway, Upromise credits a percentage of each purchase that you make to your account. You are supposed to use the earnings for college, but I don't think they really care what you do with them. Checks take forever to arrive, but they've gotten much faster over the years. I used to wait like half a year, but now it only takes a few months to get a check.

Upromise wants users to install a toolbar. Not gonna happen. I just linked my debit cards so that I can earn money that way. The only bad thing is that I've had some issues getting purchases credited to my account. This is a recent issue, so maybe it's just a glitch that will improve soon.

Fat Wallet is one of my favorite sites to earn cash back from. They have members who are very active on the forums, so it's easy to find hot deals. Sometimes I forget to even log in and get my cash back because I'm so busy chasing after deals. They also post coupons and freebies on the site sometimes, so you can score some pretty awesome stuff there.

I can't remember how long it takes purchases to be credited to your Fat Wallet account, but it seems to happen pretty quickly. The site also pays for referrals, which is pretty awesome. You don't earn as much as you do for referring people to For the Schools, but you can still earn a decent amount of extra cash by sending friends and family members to Fat Wallet.