From shopping portals to cash back: Your complete guide to maximizing Black Friday purchases

10 hours ago 1

At TPG, we're all about teaching you how to maximize your savings and points-earning at all times, including while shopping. And Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, is quickly approaching.

Here are some tips to make the most of your purchases this holiday season and beyond.

Use an online shopping portal

Before you shop online, check to see if your desired store is available on an online shopping portal. If you are unfamiliar with online shopping portals, know you are not alone. I hadn't heard of online shopping portals before working at TPG.

However, I quickly learned how easy it is to use portals to boost the amount of points, miles or cash back you can earn on general spending. These earnings are for purchases you were planning to make anyway, so it really is a win-win.

There are various portals shoppers can use depending on whether they'd like to earn points, miles or cash back. Many loyalty programs, such as American Airlines' AAdvantage, have their own exclusive portals, allowing you to earn points or miles with your favorite airline or credit card program.

How to use a shopping portal

Using a shopping portal is simple. For example, instead of going directly to the Macy's website to make a purchase, you would visit the website of a shopping portal first and search to see if Macy's is a participating store. The answer is likely yes.

Every portal agrees with its partners on a different payout. To determine the best payout, you can use a shopping portal aggregator such as Cashback Monitor (illustrated above) or Evreward to search for the store you want. Since payouts change frequently and vary among programs, you can quickly compare the current bonuses.

In doing so, you might find one portal that pays 10% cash back while another offers 3 bonus miles per dollar spent. For example, let's say you're making a $50 purchase and have two portal options: a site offering 10% cash back ($5 back in your pocket) and an airline portal offering 3 miles per dollar (an additional 150 miles on your purchase). To determine the best value between these two offerings, use TPG's monthly valuation guide to see what your bonus miles are worth.

Many of these programs offer Chrome extensions that notify you when you visit a website eligible for extra rewards. These will also help you instantly activate the bonus earnings — points, miles or cash back — without clicking through the portal's website.

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Currently, new Rakuten users can get a $40 bonus after spending $40 within 90 days of signing up. This could be better than any bonus miles or cash back you'd earn with a different site.

Earn hotel points and airline miles through their portals

If you want to earn points or miles for a future trip with a specific hotel or airline, there are several loyalty programs with their own shopping portals.

You must first register on your desired portal and link it to your loyalty account. Once you log in to your account, you can search for the store you want to shop; then, you'll be redirected to the store's website, where you can shop as usual. The redirect will be tracked using cookies provided you are logged in to the shopping portal before clicking through to the store link. If you're not logged in before clicking through to the store website, your purchases will not be tracked, and you will not earn any bonuses.

For more information, check out our guide on how to use shopping portals to maximize your purchases.

Below is a list of loyalty program portals through which you can earn points and miles:

Earn credit card points

Similar to airline and hotel programs, some credit card providers have shopping portals where you can earn extra points on your purchases. You can earn points within the respective program, similar to how you accrue points from regular credit card spending. From there, you can redeem your points as you'd like, such as for cash back, through the program's travel site or by transferring to a partner program.

Bank portals include:

Capital One Shopping (earns cash back that can be redeemed for gift cards)
Shop Through Chase (the earning rates you see might differ depending on the Chase account you are signed into)
Barclays RewardsBoost
Wells Fargo Rewards

Earn cash back

If you'd prefer earning cash back to reduce the purchase price of a specific item, you might favor a cash-back shopping portal.

Each portal will offer a different amount of cash back, so compare the various sites. You'll also find that some portals will pay you back quarterly, while others allow you to request your cash back more often.

Here are some of the most popular shopping portals to earn cash back on your online purchase:

Rakuten (or you can earn American Express Membership Rewards points instead)
TopCashback
BeFrugal
Mr. Rebates
Swagbucks

Use Amex Offers

AMERICANEXPRESS.COM

If you have an American Express card, you can take advantage of targeted Amex Offers, including for cobranded cards, such as the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, and cards that earn Membership Rewards points, such as the American Express® Gold Card.

Log into your Amex account online to see which specific offers you are eligible for; they vary from card to card. Also, be sure to add the offer to your card if you see one you like because they can disappear. Some are only available for a limited time.

The below Amex Offers were available at the time of writing on The Platinum Card® from American Express:

Hilton: Spend $500 or more, get $100 back
Four Seasons: Spend $900 or more, get $200 back
Destination by Hyatt: Spend $300 or more, get $75 back
Adidas: Earn 6 Amex Membership Rewards points per dollar spent (up to 5,000 points)
Sur la Table: Spend $50 or more, get $10 back

The terms of each offer vary, so be sure to double-check the details of each promotion; some require the minimum spending to be a single purchase, while others are for cumulative spending. Some offers are for purchases made online or in-store, so know which purchases will trigger the statement credit.

You can combine these Amex Offers with any other coupon or a bonus from an online shopping portal, allowing you to double or even triple your savings.

Try Chase Offers

Like Amex, Chase also offers statement credit offers when you use your registered credit card to make a purchase. To do so, log into your Chase account online or on the app to see which offers you are eligible for. Some accounts will show more offers than others, and some might not display any offers at all.

Below are some recent travel and shopping offers on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card at the time of publication:

W Hotels: Get $50 back
Renaissance Hotels: Get 10% cash back
Dell: Get 5% cash back
Patagonia: Get $20 cash back
Hydro Flask: Get 10% cash back
Lululemon: Get 10% cash back
Adidas: Get 10% cash back
Crocs: Get 10% cash back
Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store: Get 10% cash back

Know which credit card gets you the most points

When you're spending a lot of money, it's important to choose the credit card that will earn you the most rewards based on what you're buying.

Below are some recent bonus-earning opportunities available by spending strategically with the right card at certain merchants:

Best cards for Amazon

Discover it® Cash Back: Enroll to earn 5% cash back (on up to $1,500 in cumulative spending on purchases for the quarter, then 1%) at amazon.com and Target through Dec. 31.
Prime Visa: Earn 5% cash back on Amazon purchases. Plus, earn 2% cash back at restaurants and gas stations and on local transit and commuting (including ride-hailing services such as Lyft and Uber), and 1% cash back on all other purchases. Earn 10% cash back or more on a rotating selection of items and categories on amazon.com.

Best card for Target

Target RedCard: Earn 5% savings on qualifying purchases at Target.

Best card for wholesale clubs (Costco, BJ's, Sam's Club)

Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card: Earn 2% cash back at wholesale clubs (in combined purchases up to $2,500 spent each quarter; unlimited 1% cash back after).

Best card for department stores

Citi Double Cash® Card: Earn 2% cash back on all purchases — 1% when you buy, plus 1% when you pay (see rates and fees).

Best card for office supply stores

Even if you're not gifting someone a new office chair, remember that many office supply stores sell gift cards for third parties — like Amazon, Delta or Disney — that you might want to give someone on your holiday shopping list.

Ink Business Cash® Credit Card: Get 5% cash back (on up to $25,000 in combined spending in all 5%-cash-back categories each cardmembership year).

The information for the Discover it Cash Back and Target RedCard 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

With Black Friday nearly upon us, now is the time to implement a shopping plan. Start by checking online shopping portals and then surveying the Amex and Chase offers on your credit cards.

When the day comes, be sure to use the cards that offer the most points, miles or cash back for your purchases.

Lastly, remember that certain credit cards offer price and purchase protections.

Happy shopping!

Related reading:

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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