Yes, Rakuten is a legitimate cashback site. It's the UK arm of Rakuten Group, a publicly traded company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange that's been running cashback platforms internationally for over a decade. UK operations are run through Rakuten Marketing Europe Limited (Companies House registration 05751526, active since 2006), based at 7 Savoy Court, London.

Cashback sites aren't FCA-regulated, and they don't need to be. Rakuten never holds your money like a bank would, it tracks your purchases at partner retailers, the retailer pays Rakuten a commission, and Rakuten passes a share of that commission back to you as cashback. Your bank account is linked so payouts can be sent directly when you withdraw.

The trust model here is operational rather than regulatory. The things that matter are: do purchases track reliably, do payouts arrive, and is the company solvent? On all three, Rakuten has a long international track record and a parent group that publishes audited financials.

The most common complaints are the same as for any cashback site: occasional tracking failures and rate changes set by retailers. Neither is a legitimacy issue, but worth knowing before you rely on a specific deal.