Stacking Deals To Save Money
The points and miles hobby has a big emphasis on the points earnings side of things via a focus on credit card welcome offers. But there are also plenty of ways to save money and juice up your miles and points earnings as well. I do think we see some FOMO (fear of missing out) on many of these ways to save and maximizing every purchase. Spoiler alert: you do not get too crazy over analyzing every little purchase. Instead, we need to build out a system for stacking deals to save money that can kind of be on autopilot. Let's dive into some easy ways to do just that!
Bank Bonuses
Lets start with an easy way to earn some money! Bank account bonuses are a great way to pad your travel accounts to help pay for those pesky taxes and fees, or any other expenses you have while traveling. We cover many of the popular ones here on the site. Most of these account offers will earn you between $200-$1000 cash. There are some chances to earn points at times too, like is with American Express accounts. Sometimes you can pair up a bonus with a Rakuten offer that snags you some extra Membership Rewards too, but more on Rakuten in a bit.
To earn a bank bonus, you must open a bank account and meet the offer's terms. These usually include making a certain deposit amount, maybe making some direct deposits, or using your debit card so many times etc. While many of these offers focus on direct deposits, which can be difficult for some, there are ways to work around that. Doctor of Credit has a great database that shows what may work, and what does not. Just remember that if you go this route you have no recourse if the bonus does not post normally.
Once you have earned the bonus, you need to decide whether you want to close the account or keep it. Usually, to keep an account fee free, you will need to meet certain requirements. For example, with US Bank, I simply need to make a direct deposit to my account to keep it active every month. My Wells Fargo account has the same requirements, so I've kept both open. This is my personal preference and there is no right or wrong answer on whether to keep an account open. Follow the terms and conditions and you can close it once you have met those if you choose. Just remember that these bonuses, whether for business or personal, will issue a 1099 form when tax season comes around.
Shopping Portals
Who has time to go to stores and malls when you're busy traveling the world? If you're like us on the ToP team, most of your shopping happens online. Many rewards programs have a shopping portal that offers extra rewards points for shopping through their site. Even better, most of these shopping portals to use any credit card you like for the purchase. Our favorite starting point for shopping portals is Cashback Monitor. This site tells you what each portal offers for a particular site you're using. This allows you to compare rates and which one works best for your earning needs. It also gives you an idea of just how many portals are out there. Let's look at some popular ones.
Rakuten
First up, there are “cashback-only” portals, like Rakuten, which will pay you your earnings via a check or PayPal every quarter. The cool thing about Rakuten thought, is that you can also earn valuable Membership Rewards instead of cashback. All you need to do to rack up cashback, or bonus Membership Rewards points, is to click through Rakuten before shopping, or use their browser extension. I prefer setting up the browser extension, since it can automatically notify you of sites that are on Rakuten while you are surfing the web. Another thing to be on the lookout for is their frequent promotions. A popular one is when they have increased rates on Dell thanks to those pesky Amex Business Platinum credits.
American Airlines Shopping Portal
Many airlines and hotel programs have their own shopping portal. The American Airlines (AA) portal is a popular one because American still makes it relatively easy to earn status by spending, especially when paired with their shopping portal. While it's important not to get too hung up on chasing status, some find the ease of earning with American Airlines enticing. For example, you only need to earn 40,000 Loyalty Points to earn gold status with American. Many things on the portal, like meal kits (Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc) can earn you 5,000 points for signing up. That makes 40,000 somewhat easily reachable for many.
Bank Shopping Portals
Chase, and some other banks, have their own shopping portal. You gain access to theirs if you have any of their Ultimate Rewards earning cards. If you're trying to accumulate those valuable points with a specific redemption in mind, these portals can help. Keep in mind that according to its terms, it should only award bonus points for purchases made with your particular bank's cards. Your milage may vary on how, and when, that is actually enforced.
Examples Of Stacking With Shopping Portals
You may be wondering what are some examples of stacking deals to save money with shopping portals? Here are some basic examples of how one might stack earnings and savings for substantial wins with shopping portals.
Dell Purchases
- Buy something on Dell Via Rakuten for $200
- Earn 15% back (15x) for the purchase (3000 Membership Rewards or $30)
- This would trigger any Dell Credits you have with your American Express Business Platinum card
- If you have an Amex Offer (10% off a purchase is an example) in your account, this would stack.
- That would make the purchase $35 after the credit and 10% Amex Offer, and you would also earn 3,000 MR worth $45+ for most
Meal Kits
Meal kits are a great way to get food you need or want anyway, plus earn some points / save some money. The idea is to sign up for these to get that initial promo which may only be 1-3 orders.
- Buy a meal kit, whose first order totals may vary. Lets say $50
- Earn 65% back under an elevated portal offer (3250 MR or $32.50 cashback)
- Option two could be earning 4,100 points through the American Airlines Shopping portal
- If you have an offer in your Amex offer or Chase offer, you might be able to earn a few more points or get cash back as a statement credit. Many times these might be $10 off an order of $50 and sometimes you can use them multiple times.
- That would be a couple of meals for $40 after the Amex offer, plus you would earn points or miles that are worth more than the $40 in outlay.
These are just a couple ideas, but generally an Amex or Chase offer, credit plus a portal is a great start to stacking.
Rebate Apps
Another way to save is through rebate apps on your phone or computer. Each of these work somewhat differently, but give you cash back for your purchases. These come and go over time it seems, but there are a few consistent ones.
Receipt Apps
Ibotta: While widely considered a grocery shopping app, Ibotta actually has many retailers available and even its own shopping portal. You simply add offers to your account and get cash back when you redeem them. Our full review is available here.
Upside: Claim offers in the app (note the limited time you have to redeem), complete your purchase, and upload a picture of your receipt. This helps you to earn cash back through the app. Upside's use may be regional and location specific, but it is growing. You can stack it with Shell Fuel Rewards to earn you even more cash back on some of your gas purchases.
Fetch: Fetch is a receipt scanning app that only requires a picture of your receipt. At a minimum you will earn 25 points for each receipt. You can earn up to thousands in additional points by buying special items at the store. You can also link Fetch to your Amazon account to earn on Amazon purchases. They have devalued over the years, but are still worth it for free pennies (as Mark loves to say). You can redeem these for some great gift cards once you build up your balance. You can read our full review of Fetch here.
Portal/Credit Card Linked
Payce: Similar to what Dosh used to be (R.I.P), this app has offers that can be activated monthly. You link your credit card(s) to the app to earn cash back. Payce is one of the slowest to pay out, but again, it's free money. Read our full review here.
Gas Saving Programs
Many gas stations, and grocery stores, have points programs that allow you to earn credits towards your fuel purchases. One of our favorites is Fuel Rewards, which is redeemable at Shell stations around the country. You can earn savings directly through Fuel Rewards, or you can link to other rewards programs. You can then redeem your points through Fuel Rewards on gas at Shell. Some of us on the ToP team have linked our Giant card to Fuel Rewards.
Grocery stores have rewards programs which can also be a source of great savings on their own. Many earn points for shopping and can be redeemed for money off your gas purchases. Check the weekly circular (available on the store's website) or the mobile app to add digital coupons. Some of these programs, like the Albertson's (Safeway) and affiliates, let you use these points for grocery discounts too.
Dining Programs
Another aspect of stacking (think Amex offers, chase offers, rent day earning etc) are dining programs. These programs are credit card linked where you add a credit card and earn miles when dining at certain restaurants. Most airlines and many hotels have their own program. It is important to note that most of these programs are run by the same company. This means you cannot usually have the same credit card linked to multiple programs and dip more than one bonus at the same time.
Stacking Deals To Save Money: ToP Thoughts
You might be reading lots of information on points, miles, and welcome offers. However, by overlooking some of the methods we have mentioned in this guide to stacking deals to save money you could be leaving extra money or points on the table. That extra money could be to the tune of thousands of dollars a year, if not more. All it takes is simply doing a few bank accounts per year, maximizing your online purchases and scanning some receipts after each shopping trip. Just like investing, I like to diversify, and stacking deals to save money is no different. What are your favorites? Come over to our ToP Facebook Group and let us know your thoughts.
