Bing Cashback Program: Microsoft (MSFT) Pays You to Use Their Search Engine

Microsoft is offering an interesting program of cashbacks for using their search engine Bing, and in fact it is being supersized during back to school shopping. Cash for Stuff is here in yet another form, although at least this time we are tapping Microsoft's massive cash hoard rather than your grandchildren's piggy bank. Effectively the "affiliate" fee that a vendor would pay Microsoft for the traffic is going directly to you instead - and now it is being doubled for 3 weeks.

Via Bing.com

What is Bing cashback?

Bing cashback is a great way for you to save money when you shop online. Find great deals on millions of products from hundreds of brand name stores that you know and trust. You'll earn a percentage of the product price as cashback. The search advertising fees from participating stores are passed on to you. After we wait for potential returns and exchanges, your savings will be rewarded to you by your choice of a deposit to your PayPal account, direct deposit to your bank account, or a check in the mail. It's that simple.

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Even better from today (August 10th) to the end of the month, cashback is doubled

What are Double saving days?

Double saving days are a Bing cashback promotion where the amount of cashback offered by most stores will be doubled (up to a total cashback reward of 50%) for a limited time.

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Here is a list of the multitude of retailers who are using it - effectively almost everyone. You can sort from highest discount to lowest. I think if you go directly from this launch page you don't really even need to use Bing search.

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A complete FAQ can be accessed here.

Or in Cliff Notes version, Mashable tells us

To start shopping through Bing and collect your cashback, all you need to do is conduct your search as usual and you’ll notice a Bing cashback icon that you can click to expand to view all shopping results with listings that show item starting prices and the cashback percentage range. You can then click Bing Cashback on individual listings and you’ll either be directed to the site to make a purchase (and sign in with your account to earn rewards) or presented with a list of sellers, their price for each item, the cashback percentage, and shipping information.

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Just doing my small part, as a patriot, to get the conspicuous consumption economy rolling again.

Hat tip to Boaz Berkowitz for bringing this to our attention.