I've shared before that in addition to earning credit card sign up bonuses, two other conscious methods I use to earn more points are:
1. Maximizing category spend (this post talks about my favorite everyday cards and maximizing category spend; which using the "right" card to earn more points on purchases like groceries, dining out, and all other purchases)
2. Utilizing online shopping portals, like Rakuten
Now, generally speaking, the points earned from these methods are nowhere close to a sign up bonus; but at the same time - any and all extra points add up!
What's a Shopping Portal?
As a refresher, an online shopping portal is a website or platform that acts as a gateway to online retailers, offering bonus rewards like cash back, airline miles or points, for purchases made through the shopping portal.
How to Use Shopping Portals
Instead of going directly to a retailer's website, you visit the shopping portal first, search and click on a link to your retailer of choice, and then make your purchase from the retailers website. The portal tracks your purchase (but not your personal information like shipping address and/or credit card number), then credits your account with the bonus rewards offered.
There are dozens of options for shopping portals; from banks like Chase and Capital One, airlines like Southwest and American, and third party like Rakuten. In order to "remember" to use shopping portals, I've downloaded browser extensions, so that when I visit almost any shopping website, I get multiple pop-ups offering to activate a shopping portal.
For example, when I visit Gap, this is what happens; four pop-ups appear, all from different shopping portals, based on the web browser extensions I have downloaded for these specific shopping portals.
Payment Method
Keep in mind, when using a portal, you don't have to use a specific credit card to earn the points or cash back. Utilizing the shopping portal is earning ADDITIONAL points and/or cash back, in addition to any benefits earned from the specific card you're using to make a purchase.
For example, I can shop through Chase portal, but pay with an American Express card. I would then earn portal points from Chase AND purchase points on my American Express.
Comparing Shopping Portals
Now, generally speaking you can only use ONE shopping portal benefit for any given purchase. Naturally, you likely will want to use which ever portal is offering the highest value (unless you are trying to build points up for a specific bank or airline). Usually my goal is to get the most Chase points I can. While Chase has a "shop through Chase" portal (that I've been using for over 10 years!!), it still does not have a web browser extension, which means there's no pop-up for Chase. You simply have to remember.
This is where one of my favorite tools comes in:
Cashback Monitor. This is a free website, that you can search any store and it automatically reviews all of the points and/or cash back shopping portals for the specific store. It does all of the comparison for you, so that you simply look at the options and pick which you want to use.
From our example above, searching
Cashback Monitor for Gap, yields the results of:
Generally I prioritize Chase points, Bilt points, or American Express. You can earn Bilt points or American Express depending on how you set up your Rakuten account. In this case, both Chase and Rakuten are offering 2 points per dollar spent. I would then go to either Chase Shopping Portal or Rakuten to make my Gap purchase and earn 2 points per dollar.
Sometimes, there is a clear "winner", ie one shopping portal that offers a higher point yield than others; which makes it more obvious who to shop through for a given purchase. For example, lets say I was using Instacart to buy groceries (which we do for Costco purchases). Southwest is offering 1 point per dollar spent, Chase Freedom offers 2 points per dollar; but Rakuten offers 3 points per dollar, so I'm going to shop through Rakuten to make my purchase.
Keep in Mind
Shopping portal rates are fluid! They can change. What you see today may not be the same as a rate tomorrow. Sometimes there are promotions if you spend X-amount in a given time period, you can earn bonus points (I see this frequently with United and Southwest).
Or, Rakuten is known to have higher cash back/points earn for certain weeks or holidays. For example, over Presidents Day weekend, several websites that are usually 1-2 points per dollar where as high as 10-15 points!
Summary
Shopping portals add another step to online shopping; but at the same time, offer a convenient way to earn more points (or cashback) without spending more!
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Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.
Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!