Earn bonus points and miles: How to maximize your shopping portal for Black Friday deals
One of our favorite things about the holiday season is the sales: Black Friday travel deals, Third travel cheap hotels and of course a lot discounts at various retailers. If you’re thinking about taking advantage of any holiday sales, don’t forget that you can shopping portal to earn more points, miles or cash back on purchases.
For those unfamiliar, shopping portals are online hubs linked to loyalty programs that allow you to earn rewards for shopping at various retailers. Here’s what you need to know about using online shopping portals this holiday season.
Related: Top holiday destinations for families during the holidays
How to use the shopping portal
The shopping portal is extremely easy to use. Simply sign up for each portal with your loyalty account number and when you’re ready to shop, click through the portal to the retailer’s website before making your purchase. This allows you to earn points and miles through the portal in addition to any rewards you would normally earn on the credit card you use to make purchases.
You can simplify this process by downloading each portal’s browser extension. This will automatically notify you when the site you’re shopping at is eligible for rewards without having to click through to the portal’s website.
You may find that the hardest thing about shopping portals is choosing which portal to use for a given purchase, especially since rewards vary from portal to portal and often change daily or even daily. every hour. ONE Aggregate shopping portalsuch as Refund screencan help you find the store you want and quickly compare the bonuses offered across all portals.
Related: A beginner’s guide to airline shopping portals: How to earn rewards points and miles
Popular shopping portal
Nearly every major airline has a shopping portal, along with some that issue rewards credit cards and have third-party sites that let you earn rewards. Here are some popular ones among TPG employees:
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How to evaluate offers
When evaluating shopping portal offers, you will notice that payouts tend to vary widely. For example, Shop through Chase Currently offering 6 Chasing the ultimate reward points per dollar spent at Bloomingdale’s. Based on TPG November 2024 valuation of Final Rewards Points at 2.05 cents each, this would yield about a 12% return over any other discount Bloomingdale’s offers, which you can accumulate with your regular income through credit card rewards. However, Shop rewards quickly offers only 1 point per dollar spent at Bloomingdale’s, while Rakuten is offering 10% cash back.
Also, remember that Shopping portals sometimes offer bonuses to allow you to extend your rewards even further — especially around the holidays. They usually award a set amount of bonus points or miles when you spend a certain amount. The minimum spend is typically cumulative at any retailer participating in the portal, so you can use multiple purchases during the promotion period to earn the bonus. Even if a portal doesn’t offer a lot of points or miles per dollar spent, bonuses can make it the most lucrative option.
While most shopping portals only offer rewards for online purchases, some programs let you earn bonus points and miles for in-store purchases. For example, Shop by Mileage package currently offers 2 miles per dollar spent in-store and 0.5 miles per dollar spent online at CVS. To earn rewards when shopping in-store, link your credit card to the portal and activate individual in-store offers.
To further maximize your purchase, check out Amex offers And Chasing incentives. These programs offer cardholders discounts and other rewards for purchases with specific merchants. Amex offers are available virtually everywhere American Expressincludes business cards and calling cards; The Chase offer is currently only available to select consumer credit and debit cardholders. Because offers vary by cardholder and credit card, log in to your online account to see which offers you qualify for.
For example, here are some current Pursuit Deals that may be useful during Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping periods (note that offers may be targeted):
- Dell: Earn 5% cash back on all Dell purchases up to the maximum $100 cash back amount.
- Adidas: 10% back on Adidas purchases when you spend $100 or more, including taxes and after any discounts.
- Ulta Beauty: Earn 10% cash back on all online purchases up to the maximum $11 cash back amount.
Choose the best credit card for your purchase
In addition to scoring the best deals and earning reward points through shopping portals, using the right credit card is important to maximize your savings and rewards. Not only does it help you get the most points and miles on your purchases, but some cards even cover you in case of price drops, theft or damage.
In general, you’ll want to choose a credit card based on where you’ll spend the most and what type of protections you value most. Here are some of TPG’s top recommendations for Black Friday and holiday deals:
- Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express: You can earn 3% cash back on online retail purchases in the US (on up to $6,000 in purchases per year, then 1% cash back), making this a great card Great for your holiday gift purchase.
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: This card earns at least 2 miles per dollar spent on purchases, so it’s great to use on in-store and online purchases without earning any money Bonuses in specific categories on your other rewards credit cards.
- Premium Visa: This card is most useful for Prime members to earn 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases.
- Discover it® Cash Back Credit Card: This card can be a great choice if your shopping includes Amazon or Target. It earns 5% cash back when you activate it on up to $1,500 spent on purchases in Items rotate quarterlycurrently amazon.com and Target (through December 2024).
- Chasing Flex® Freedom: Earn 5% cash back on purchases up to $1,500 in categories that rotate each quarter. the Bonus categories for the fourth quarter of 2024 includes PayPal, which can help you get extra rewards when you shop online.
- Citi Double Cash® Card (see exchange rates and fees): This card earns 2% cash back on purchases: 1% when you buy and 1% when you pay your bill. It’s even better if you keep Citi Strata Premier℠ Card (see exchange rates and fees) or Citi Prestige® Card (no longer accepting new subscribers), you can transfer your cashback rewards to Citi’s transfer partner and often get better value from them.
Information about the Discover it Cash Back and Citi Prestige cards has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Bottom line
There are several ways to double or even triple your rewards earnings during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, and using a shopping portal is one of the easiest. The extra points and miles can add up in the long run, especially if a portal offers extra points or miles for every dollar spent at your favorite retailer or a portion of the rewards points or miles miles when you spend a certain amount. Besides increasing your rewards balance, using a shopping portal is also an easy way to keep your points and miles from expiring.
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