This whole thread is fascinating to me. It was starting to get confusing so I reread the first couple of posts and with this one the neuron finally connected.
Question— with the PayPal rewards, do they show up in your PayPal account and you have to request a payout? I’m afraid they’ll show up and I’ll inadvertently spend them with my automatic payments.
The points are pending for 60 days, then you can tap “redeem points” to transfer those into cash in your account balance, then you can withdrawal/transfer to bank account, that cash back earnings if desired.
I did buy a gift card using the Rakuten 15% off, and unfortunately they didn’t credit the gift card. I did the 50th egift card- no Rakuten bonus…
When it was 10% earlier, I did get the Rakuten bonus on the same exact gift card, so I don’t know if they just closed the loophole or what…
No paypal pending points after gift card purchase for me this time. I did an e-gift card purchase. Last time i did a phusical one and it worked but not this time unfortunately.
My account is also currently showing 0 pending points. It has to be another error…
0 paypal pending points for me too. Hope they haven’t cracked down
I came here to see if others also saw 0 pending…I really hope it’s an error!
A bunch of people on one Disney & Points groups reporting Rakuten points in pending status back to October have been yanked on Disney gift card purchase transactions. (Some people in threads say theirs are still in place, but no details on whether they were pure GC transactions or some mix of products and GCs. Others reported successful transactions over the weekend.)
My PP purchase on Black Friday (15%) went into pending with 0 points and still sits there.
My previous October pending points are still there waiting to drop into account.
My visa card-linked 15% back on that Friday purchase did show up as a statement credit, but I didn’t have any doubt that would happen since that is on the Chase side of things.
So, I still got the 15% + some SW points, anyway. 
I have one more card-linked offer on another card for 10% back and I see PP is again 15% today. Thinking I might take one for the team and see if it works.
Just FYI…my purchase was just yesterday and I recieved an email today saying that I have zero points pending. I think it was too good to last. Lukily the purchase I made in sept already cleared so I did get the cash for that.
PayPal, between their app and website, seems messed up overall-
-I can search for stores/deals on the app, but usually I can’t on the website. Somehow, I did luck into a search box on the web yesterday, but now today it’s gone again.
-However, you can’t save a deal when it comes up in the Search results list, just when it’s in PayPal’s suggested list.
-App is clunky for how you get to pending points.
I don’t think I’m missing anything/having user error…just wish developers tested a bit more thoroughly!
Definitely a wonky site. Funny, I always have a search box on desktop - but never when I’ve checked the app. (I have only used the app after I realized people complaining they couldn’t find the store were using it, so I tested it out a few times.)
In general, IMHO all of the cash back portals make things difficult and weird on purpose to encourage more breakage in the process - and they get to keep more of the money they get for referrals. They know people will give up more often than fight to the death for 5% cash back.
I got this too. Actually the first time I got an email of any type from them.
All my Sept. PayPal purchases have now cleared. I started the transfer process and hopefully the cash goes through.
All my credit card bonuses are still there.
I had $150 from Nov 11 on Rakuten that first showed with the 11% cash back and now it shows as 0% My purchase at the beginning of October is still there.
I should add, I have bought $1500 worth since July - which is when I started tracking my efforts, and I was able to get a total of 12.69% back. So, not bad at the end of the day. Sad it is going away.
I am expecting the pending points to show up again… sometime. But if not, I have the email confirmation so will definitely contact PayPal if I have to.
Yeah, these cash back portal things all come and go… it’ll be back and someone will discover it in some form or another.
Now I will remeber to get it while the getting it good! I have what I need for now - DVC dues and food for DLR trip. I have time to figure out a new system.
If playing the points game with credit cards and you have a Chase Ink Business Cash card there’s a nice solid play for Disney gift cards with Sam’s Club.
If you don’t have Sam’s membership, you can easily find a deal to sign up for $40 get a $40 gift card - I’ve been doing that every year for a few now.
If you don’t have a Chase Ink, right now they have their best sign up bonus ever: 90,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) after you spend $6,000 in 3 months. (Usually the bonus has been 75K points for $7,500 spend.) If you have a friend with an Ink, use their referral and they’ll get 20K UR too.
The Tactic
The Ink Cash card earns 5x points at office supply stores.
You can just buy gift cards there and get those points, which is cool for Amazon, Starbucks, Home Depot, Lowes gift cards. Nice to get a bunch of Chase Ultimate Rewards points if you are going to spend at those stores anyway.
But, a better method: Staples has deals every few weeks where they sell $200 Visa Gift cards without a fee.
So, you can stock up on those GCs, then head over to Sam’s Club and buy their $50 Disney e-gift cards, which are discounted 4%.
You’ll end up getting about 11.5% return on your spend stacking those two steps.
(You can also just buy those Visa GCs and use them anywhere you spend so you get 5x points everywhere!)
Quick thumbnail spreadsheet below - for a $600 Disney GC purchase at Sam’s, you’d end up saving about $69. (Assuming you value Chase UR points at about 1.5 cents each, which is a reasonable estimate when using the points to book hotels or airfare, etc.)
How are you using the odd amount remaining on the VGCs after buying the DGCs from Sam’s? Don’t you need to know the exact amount remaining on the card and have the cashier bill that amount?
Easiest thing to do us use them at Costco or groceries when on site and self-checking - they should auto drain the remaining amount and you can just use several in a row.
No need to worry and track the remaining to the penny then.
You could of course also do this when a cashier is checking you out, but depends on how immune to annoyed side-eye you are. 
So my last ShopDisney gift card purchase in November says 0 pending. I’ve bought the 50th anniversary e-card every time, but this one time it appears to not have worked. I need to buy more, but I’m hesitant to do it now. Anyone else have a card show 0 pending, but then get the $ back?
