Earning Points with my Favorite Shopping Portals
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EDITORIAL DISCLOSURE:
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.
We all know that the quickest way to earn a huge chunk of points and miles is to open up a new credit card and earn the welcome offer. BUT what can you do in between new cards to make the most of every dollar spent? That’s where shopping portals come in! And I’m going to break down my top two favorite shopping portals that have helped me earn tens of thousands of valuable points and miles! 👏🏻
What is a shopping portal?
A shopping portal is an online portal that rewards you for your every day spending at select online retailers. All you need to do is create an account on your chosen shopping portal, select a store that you want to shop at, then you’ll continue your online shopping like you normally would! Once you check out, the shopping portal tracks the purchases you made and you earn rewards for that purchase. How cool is that?!
So let’s jump into the two shopping portals that I use most, and how you can maximize every dollar you’re spending with just a couple easy steps.
Rakuten
Rakuten is a shopping portal that allows you to shop through a variety of stores, find great deals on popular products, and you can easily find stores that carry the items or brands you’re looking for in their search tool. You'll find amazing elevated offers too, especially around the holidays! 🎁❄️
You’ll see on the homepage below that you can search for specific retailers, find in-store offers, and it suggests deals for you based on your shopping history. All you need to do is click on the store you want to shop with, then Rakuten will redirect you to that site, and you complete your shopping as you normally would. Then after you check out, you can head back to the Rakuten page and it will begin tracking that purchase and you’ll see your rewards in your account within a few hours, or up to a few days in some cases.
One thing I love MOST about Rakuten is that not only can you earn cash back, but you can opt to earn points if you have an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards! You’ll link your American Express card to your Rakuten account for your shopping, and then you can choose in your settings if you want cash back (in the form of a check mailed to you) or points that will be added to your American Express Membership Rewards account (you’ll get an email notifying you of the points you have earned, like you see below). I have earned thousands of points for travel this way. And it’s free to sign up, so what are you waiting for?!
Cards I recommend that earn Membership Rewards Points:
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
The Platinum Card® from American Express
American Airlines Shopping
The other shopping portal you’ll find me using most is the American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping portal. It functions very similarly to Rakuten where you will find tons of stores to shop through and deals that change frequently.
🔑One key thing to note about this shopping portal is that you will exclusively earn American Airlines miles for your rewards, so you will need a free AAdvantage loyalty account to link to this portal. For me, I love this opportunity to earn AA miles since these miles can be hard to come by as they are not a transfer partner of any of the four major banks.
Wrapping Up
These are just two of the many options out there for ways to earn additional points and miles through shopping portals, and they all work very similarly! You can find shopping portals for many major airlines, like Southwest, United, or Delta, so my best recommendation is to use the portal that earns the points that most closely align with your travel goals!
Side note: I cannot say thank you enough for using my links to apply! I earn a commission for those applications at no cost to you, and it helps keep all the free resources and support coming! 🩷
EDITORIAL DISCLOSURE: 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.
