Earning Points through Shopping Portals
Editorial Disclosure – Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post..
What is a shopping portal?
A shopping portal (Rakuten, AAdvantage eShopping, Southwest Shopping, etc.) is a third-party website that rewards shoppers with bonus points, miles, or cash back for making online purchases through their website.
Shoppers pay the same price when shopping through the portal.
When a purchase gets made, the portal receives a commission, and you get bonus points, miles, or cash back! All you do is click on the shopping portal before visiting the website you want to shop with to earn the incentive!
Why use shopping portals?
Shopping portals are a great (and easy) way to earn even more points and miles without signing up for credit cards or spending more money.
Use online shopping portals anytime you make an online purchase.
Pickup or delivery orders to places like grocery and home improvement stores can often be placed through a shopping portal.
It helps to see a return on your time! I prefer only to use four portals. This helps me avoid getting overwhelmed and taking up a bunch of my time.
In previous years, I typically only used Southwest Shopping Portal, Rakuten, and TopCashBack. This year I added in regularly using the American Airlines AAdvantage portal. I’ve lazily earned almost 24,000 AA miles in 1/2 a year.
What shopping portal(s) should I use?
Select shopping portals based on what will benefit you most. If you fly on American Airlines, you would consider using their shopping portal. If you are more interested in getting cash back, you may consider TopCashback or Rakuten.
It all depends on what suits you best and whether you want to accumulate travel points/miles or cash back.
I prefer to keep my stacking game simple.
How do I make it so it’s not just one more thing to do?
Install the Chrome Extension Button. This lets the portal pop up on my screen (reminding me) when shopping from stores like Sam’s Club, Under Armour, Walmart, and Lowes. Then, I click the activate offer button and continue shopping as normal.
Scenario:
Nicole is working on earning a Southwest companion pass and wants to earn 135,000 Rapid Reward points as quickly as possible.
She makes all possible purchases online and uses the Southwest Rapid Rewards shopping portal to stack points.
Instead of walking inside Home Depot to shop for supplies for her DIY project, she orders all supplies online through the Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping Portal. She earns 2 points per $1 from the shopping portal and 1 point per dollar for credit card spend and then does order pickup at Home Depot.
How to manage using shopping portals so it’s not just one more thing to do and remember.
Are you ready for the next level?
If you want to take your shopping portal stacking game to a level above mine, use www.cashbackmonitor.com to find out which portal will give you the best points per dollar at the store(s) you are spending at.
Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
I found out about points and miles accidentally.
I was researching index funds and happened upon the points and miles community through creators who also post about budgets, financial independence, and investing.
Points and miles allowed those people to travel and work toward financial independence simultaneously.
Thank goodness I got started when I did. The past almost two years of travel have been something we will never forget.
Earning points and miles through credit cards is only a good choice if you have the financial discipline to use them, like cash/debit cards.
Since we started traveling with points and miles, we have had more money going into our investment and savings accounts than ever.
Now I'm excited to teach you!
Welcome
I am excited you are here
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