Portal? What does that even mean?
There are a range of web “portals” which track purchases and credit back some of the bounty/fees to consumers. Particularly for larger purchases, there’s no sense in leaving money on the table for one or two extra clicks. Also these stacking with other credit card rewards, discounts, and loyalty programs, so the rebate from portals is icing on the cake. While Credit Card rewards are a great start, why stop there?
Particularly with holiday shopping, who doesn’t want some extra discounts?
Does it work for Amazon? Sure, but typically it’s very restricted (cart-level with many categories ineligible), but for a wide range of other merchants, there are some moderate discounts offered generally on cart subtotal. While this generally doesn’t change the calculus for your purchase, it can get you some decent additional discounts. I refer to this as “portal” as it requires linking the purchase, which typically comes through clicking first from the portal vendor to your actual merchant purchase/cart.
This adds up big. My own Black Friday discounts were notable:
- 12% back on Ring Concierge purchase (jewelry) — this is $125 back, so no joke!
- 6% back on Waterford purchase (ornament)
- 4% back on Calpak purchase (luggage)
- 2% back on Away purchase (luggage)
How you make this easy?
My favorite tool for identifying the best portal to use is www.cashbackmonitor.com which a comparison of the earning rates for straight cash or bonus miles/points. That said, the handful that are my favorite are: (note, these links are referrals from me, so if you use them & sign up I may get a little bonus cashback in my account, as well as each comes with a decent sign up bonus for completing transactions)
- BeFrugal
- Rakuten
- Top Cashback
- Capital One Shopping (this is a browser app, and it’s particularly convenient because it auto-applies both coupons AND bonus “portal” cashback)
While one or two transactions may not be big this has added up to a few thousand dollars back over the past ten years (despite…occasional annoyance from my wife when doing online purchases together.) It absolutely adds up for me, and hope it does for you, too!
