Why You Should Do This First Before You Shop Online

 

With much of the country plunged into a deep freeze, you may opt for shopping online. But before you press that purchase button, listen up! You need to do something before you press the buy button that could double or triple your points, miles, or cash back. 

It's called shopping portals and they are my favorite! Most of the airlines have them, some of the hotel chains, some companies, and there are even independent cashback portals. There are even a few portals that will direct a percentage of your purchase to your favorite charity, think Amazon Smile and the Benefit app. 

So how do they work? Easy think of it as a giant marketplace, all your favorite retailers agree to be listed in the marketplace (free advertising for them) in exchange for giving you a percentage of your purchase back in the form of points, miles, or cash. 

I just got an email this morning letting me know that I have a big, fat check heading my way from Rakuten.com used to be Ebates.com. 

This is cashback on things I would have bought anyway....think pet food, printer ink, clothes, household items, and my favorite, flowers. For example, one of my favorite portals that you can only shop at with a personal referral offers 48% back on flowers. Wow! Makes sending flowers to my mom for Valentine's Day a bit less expensive. 

Here's how it works: if the flowers are $45, then the portal tracks my purchase and will send $22 back to my account as cashback. Yep, $22, incredible. 

Now some portals offer hotel points or airline miles like Southwest, United and American Airlines back when you shop and others offer cashback like Rakuten. If you use my referral link for Rakuten, you will get $25 extra cashback on your first purchase. 

You can also use the site cashbackmonitor.com to compare offers from the different portals. I switch which portal I use based on the percentage or points for that specific purchase OR if I am trying to top off an account OR if a portal is offering a bonus. If you are strategic, you can earn thousands of points/miles or cashback. 

Be very careful that you don't accidentally click out of the portal before you press the buy button. Sometimes, I will click through to the portal once I have everything in my cart just to be certain. 

This is FREE money, points, and miles and FREE or almost FREE is how we roll here!