Whenever I make an online purchase I start by checking to see if the retailer is on a shopping portal. The website Cashback Monitor tracks which retailers are on shopping portals and lists the payout offered. Some shopping portals have a minimum payout threshold, so I limit the sites I use so that I don’t end up with $3 wasting away at a portal I’ll rarely use. My favorites are Rakuten (referral link), TopCashBack (referral link), Swagbucks (referral link), and American Airlines.
With the right portal and credit card combination, I can end up with a lot of extra points which I especially appreciate when I’m spending money on something I want but don’t actually need. I buy a lot of concert tickets. The Citi Custom Cash offers 5% back on the highest spend category each month, so I’ve made that my entertainment card (I have other cards that earn good bonuses at grocery stores otherwise the Custom Cash is great for 5% back on groceries) and always start at a shopping portal like American Airlines before I go to Ticketmaster. The Ticketmaster portal bonuses are usually pretty low, but every point counts.
Sometimes I can end up with a pretty amazing deal. There’s been times when Rakuten has offered 10% back on Dell purchases and I was able to combine that with the $200 credit at Dell on my American Express Business Platinum (referral link) card that’s given for January-June and again for July-December. The same goes for Saks on the personal Platinum card for a $50 credit every six months. Unfortunately, Saks recently raised their minimum for free shipping so now I’ll be shopping in store.
Shopping portals frequently work with discount codes too although not always. In January Madewell sent out a fantastic coupon that worked with the American Airlines portal. I bought three pairs of socks for $1.17 that earned me 32 AA miles and 1.5 points on the Bank of America card that I was earning a sign up bonus for in January. Yes, those are small points numbers, but again, every point counts.
Over the years I’ve earned quite a bit of cashback or points through shopping portals. In the three years that I’ve used TopCashBack, I’ve earned $173.57 with another $8.32 pending.
Here are some of my recent transactions with Rakuten. Sometimes the earnings are small, but the extra step of the shopping portal can result in some great savings depending on the retailer.
