Bing is the new search engine from Microsoft, and right now they are sponsoring a promotion called "Double Saving Days" that is giving shoppers cashback of up to 50% on select merchandise until the end of August, 2009. The Bing cashback program is completely replacing the old Live Search cashback program and this is how it works.

  1.  Go to http://www.bing.com/cashback/
     
  2.  Click cashback account on the left side and sign up for an account if you do not yet have one. You may need to sign up for a Windows Live ID first, and then sign up for the Bing cashback account. This requires your email address and physical address. The physical address cannot be a  PO Box and has to be in the United States. You also have to be at least 18 years old.
  3.  Search for the product you are looking for and look for the "Bing cashback" symbol:
     
  4.  Compare prices and shipping options and go to the store with the best option.
     
  5. A window will pop up asking for your email address if this is the first time you are using it. Make sure you use the same email as what you registered the cashback account under.
     
  6. If you purchase the item you will be able to claim your cashback after 60 days. You need a minimum cashback balance of $5.
     
  7. After you request your cashback payout it takes another 7 to 21 days to get your money. So you do have to remember that you need to wait up to 3 months to get your rebate and that means you need enough money now to cover the full price of the item you are purchase.
     
  8. There is a maximum cash back amount of $2500 per person per year.

Here are some pitfalls of this promotion you should be aware of:

  1. Using extra coupon codes at the store you are shopping at may void the cashback reward.
     
  2. Some items can be backordered, and some stores only charge you when the item ships, and that may be outside of the promotional period.
     
  3. Returns and exchanges may void your cashback.
     
  4. You have to purchase the item through the Bing search results. This is because they track your purchase with cookies. If you close the browser and then go back to the store directly to make the purchase, the cashback may not register correctly. Also, if you clicked through to a store via  another affiliate link before going to Bing, it is possible that earlier cookie could be overriding the Bing cashback cookie. Make sure to clear your cookies, and then go to Bing  if you want the Bing cashback. 

Currently both Eastbay.com and Footlocker are giving 50% cash back on Bing, but this may change at any time. This program is great for large purchases because the cash back amount is bigger. For example, I searched for some baby crib models that I was interested in and found stores giving cash back of up to 30%. Some of the prices of these new cribs were even less than the prices I saw on Craigslist because of the rebate. I also like the fact that Bing manages to search thousands of stores and products quickly, but you do need to know exactly what you want to narrow down the copious amounts of search results. 

For more information Bing has a very good FAQ available here about the promotion

The full Terms and Conditions of the program is available here.