I wanted to make a quick post during this crazy shopping season to talk about how to make the most of shopping portals so you can get as much cash back or points as possible! (I will be posting my personal referral links…if you sign up through me, I will get some extra points and you might too…no cost to you!)
I’ll elaborate…
Shopping Portals
What are they? Why do they matter? Is it worth the time?
What are they?
Well, online shopping portals are an easy way to make back cash, points, miles, etc for shopping you are already going to do. Most airlines, hotels, and credit cards have shopping portals. There are also many cashback portals as well like Rakuten (formerly Ebates) and portals for points where you can cash them in for giftcards like Swagbucks. I’ve personally redeemed over $1500 worth of Amazon giftcards or cash through Paypal giftcards from Swagbucks since I started about 9 years ago. It’s one of my favorites.
How do they work?
Well, to use them, you simply go through whichever shopping portal you choose and search for the store you want to shop through. Then, click on that store. The portal tracks your activity and takes you to the store’s website. That’s it. Shop like normal, and you will get whatever type of currency back based on the percentage that the portal is offering in your account. For example, I just made quite a few purchases at Kohls. I went to Swagbucks, typed in Kohls, clicked on the link and was taken to the Kohls normal site. I spent $169. Swagbucks was offering 4% back. A few days later, 677 points were posted to my account. I only need 2200 to get a $25 Amazon giftcard.
Is it worth your time?
Well, considering it adds about 20 seconds to your time and you receive great benefits, then YES!!! It’s free money people! I never buy anything without getting something back whether it is through shopping portals, points on my credit cards, or other cash back apps that I wrote about in this post! Sometimes you can even use a combination of these to double or triple dip! That makes me super happy! I know, I’m a nerd. But, I’m a nerd with more money in my pocket!
How to pick which portal to use?
You want to use portals, but you’re thinking that there are so many! How will you choose? I decided a while ago to just pick one and start earning consistently. And, I chose Swagbucks because it is so easy, and I earn points through other ways as well from them. And, you can use coupons and still get points while some of the sites (like the Chase or Southwest portal) don’t allow for this. But, it is personal preference. The point is to get at least some kind of currency back (airline points, cash, etc) for your shopping! If you want to get the highest percentage back available and you don’t care about using different portals, I have a fun website for you! Some genius knew that one day people would ask this question and created a website called Cashback Monitor. You go here and type in your store and they will list all the available offerings. I used this recently for Wayfair. They did not have any offerings on Swagbucks, so before I made my purchase I decided to check if anyone else had any offers. The only shopping portal that did was the Southwest airlines portal! Since I wasn’t using a coupon, I was good to go! We bought a new light for my dining room. I clicked on the Southwest shopping portal, making sure I was logged into my Southwest rapid rewards account and it took me to the Wayfair site. I made my purchase and a few days later, I had 390 points post to my Southwest account! Sure, its not that many, but I’ll take something over nothing! It only took 3400 points per person to fly to Denver recently so that helped me reach that for one of us! And, when done every time you shop, it adds up quickly!
What are you waiting for?
So, what are you waiting for? Shopping portals are such an easy way to earn some money back on purchases that you are already going to make. If you have to spend money, then you might as well get a little back, right? Hope this helps and if you have any questions leave me some comments! Have an amazing Christmas!