Shopping Portals to earn more Credit Card points and miles
From purchasing clothes for the kids, to booking cash rates for hotels – you can earn lots of extra credit card points and miles without spending ANY additional money. Here I will give a simple overview of how to use shopping portals to earn thousands of more points towards your family’s travel.
What are Shopping Portals?
Shopping portals act as a middleman or broker between you as the customer and the retailer. If you start with the shopping portal to navigate to an online store, the shopping portal earns some percentage back from your purchase. They track your purchase and then pass a portion along to you at the advertised rate.
Sometimes the percentage back to the customer is low (1%), but it is worth a look – since there can be rewards back up to 20-30% or even a fixed rate for a subscription (ie meal plans). The rates can fluctuate, and often around the holidays in November and December they increase significantly.
You can use ANY form of payment to earn points through shopping portals. For example, you can go through the Chase Freedom shopping portal to make a purchase and pay with an American Express card, gift cards or Paypal and still earn the points.
The points from shopping portals will not be posted until the transaction is complete. So if you go through a portal to book an Airbnb or reserve a hotel room, those will not post until after your stay is done.
Where to start? Find the best shopping portal deals
There are tons of shopping portals to choose from! I decide what to use with 2 things in mind. One, what is the best rate? Two, are there any points or miles I need more of?
Cash Back Monitor
I will almost always start by going to the website Cash Back Monitor to compare shopping portals. It is free and easy to use. You simply type the name of the store in the search bar and see what rates are available.
Here I will search for Dick’s Sporting Goods and see my potential earning rates.
There are lots of options, but I focus in on the highest rate where I am familiar with the program. If you have a Chase credit card you can earn 1 point/$ spent through their shopping portals. Rakuten, another popular shopping portal earns 2% in cash back (which can be redeemed for American Express Membership Rewards).
If you shop at a store like Macy’s where you can buy anything from socks to furniture, there will often be different rates for specific categories. This is identified by Cash Back Monitor as “up to 4pt./$ “, so definitely read the terms so you know what rate to expect.
Now, that I have all this information – I ask myself if I need more miles with a certain airline, maybe to earn towards a Southwest Companion pass or to try an earn elite status on American Airlines. You can pick any portal that works for you!
My Favorite Shopping Portals
I posted on how to earn British Airways Avios when booking an Airbnb vacation rental. Airbnb is not linked to any other shopping portal to my knowledge, and does not show up on Cash Back Monitor. This is a great way to earn extra points on a cash booking.
Rakuten – referral link
Rakuten is extremely easy to use and has options to earn online and in-store. After you sign-up for an account you choose to earn a percentage back either in cash or American Express Membership Rewards points. *Note you can only choose Amex Membership Rewards if you have an American Express credit card that earns Membership Rewards.
To earn points, make sure you are logged in. Type the store in the search bar and view the terms for earning points. In this case at Hotels.com, you will earn 6x for specific locations (Las Vegas, London and Paris hotels) and 3x at other hotel bookings. Click on shop now and you will go directly to the hotels.com webpage.
For online purchases, I like to fill my cart at a store first, then go back to the shopping portal so there are as few steps as possible between linking the shopping portal and making a purchase. In this case, I might use the Hotels.com app to research where I would like to stay and compare prices. Then open up Rakuten and go to the Hotels.com website to complete the booking.
For in-store purchases, you must first link a credit card to Rakuten and add the offer to your account. This can also be done in the Rakuten app. You must use the linked credit card to make the purchase at the store and the order will track on its own.
Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you are looking to add to your Chase Ultimate Rewards points – focus on the Chase Shopping portals. If you have more than one card (Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Freedom) note that different rates might be available for your purchases.
Head to your Ultimate Rewards account and navigate to Shopping and Experiences, then go to Shop and Earn Bonus points. Search for the store, read the terms and press ‘Shop Now’ to open up the store’s website.
Use any credit card or form of payment to make the purchase and your order will be tracked.
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Shopping –
If you have plans to book a Southwest flight with points, you can grow those quickly with the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Shopping portal. Points earned in the shopping portal count towards points earned for the Southwest Companion pass – so this might be a good strategy to get that pass.
Sign in with your Rapid Rewards account number. It works the same way as the other portals by searching for the store, checking the terms and then clicking the link to shop.
If I am serious about earning extra points – I like to “View all stores” then sort by Earn Rate. Here are some examples where you can sign up for a meal subscription and earn thousands of points!
Add to your shopping routine
Before you hit the “purchase” button on any online order, just have a peek at Cash Back Monitor. This includes IHG, Hilton and Marriott hotels and even some airlines. There is no wrong choice for picking a shopping portal – this is a great way to earn extra points! Add it to your online shopping routine and watch the points add up.
