The best way to maximize your cash back rewards is by using online shopping portals. These portals allow you to earn cash back, points, and miles just for doing what you would normally do... shop online!
These portals allow you to easily double and triple dip on rewards and they're free to use. If you're not using a cash back portal, you're literally leaving free money on the table.
What Is An Online Shopping Portal?
An online shopping portal is a website that offers you cash back, points, miles, or other reward incentive when you begin your shopping session at the portal.
Most online shopping portals receive a commission when you, the shopper, makes a purchase using any of the thousands of retailer links on the site. The portal then shares part of the commission with you.
Since the site already earns a commission when you make a purchase, there's typically no reason to charge for memberships which is why there's no cost to use most online shopping portals.
This is why using online shopping portals are so popular. You're basically receiving free rewards just for shopping online... something you would normally do anyway. So why not earn rewards when doing such?
How Does Online Shopping Portals Work?
Online shopping portals are pretty easy to use and they all function close to the same. Here's a quick rundown of how they work:
- You start at the online portal of your choosing.
- Search the portal for the retailer that you wish to make a purchase from.
- Click on the 'Shop Now' referral link that the portal has for that retailer.
- You'll then be dropped off on the retailers website to shop as normal.
- Once you make a purchase, the online shopping portal will be notified.
- Rewards will post to your online shopping portal account.
Since the portal drops you off on the retailer's website, you can log into your rewards account with that retailer and still earn rewards as normal to double dip on rewards.
You can even take it a step further by throwing a rewards credit card into the mix to triple dip on rewards.
Example
Let's say that Rakuten Rewards is offering 5% cash back for purchases made at Best Buy. Once I make a purchase with Best Buy through their portal, I can earn:
- 5% cash back on my purchase through Rakuten Rewards.
- Best Buy Rewards Points for my purchase since I can log into my MyBestBuy account.
- Rewards with the rewards credit card I used to make my purchase.
You can easily maximize the return on your online spend using online shopping portals. I highly recommend using online portals whenever you can, especially when booking travel.
How Do You Get Paid With Online Shopping Portals?
The payout methods for online shopping portals will vary depending on the portal, but you can always rely on the following methods to be available:
- Paper Check
- PayPal
- eGift Card
Depending on the portal, some also allow for other payment methods such as Zelle and Venmo. You can also earn points and miles with online shopping portals offered by airlines and hotel rewards programs.
Best Online Shopping Portals
There's a great deal of online shopping portals available, but the best portals with the highest payouts are:
Portal In Different Regions
Do note that several of these online shopping portals span multiple regions. You can sign up for cash back portals in other regions, even if you're not based out of that region.
For example, I'm based in the U.S. and I am a member of TopCashback UK, Rakuten Canada, Quidco (UK), and many more portals based out of other regions.
I typically book travel through other regional portals to earn rewards based on what they're offering. With travel, there's no difference in booking a hotel through a US, UK, Canada, or even Australian shopping portal. I just go for whichever is offering the rewards I'm looking for.
So don't feel like you're restricted to using portals in your region.
Rakuten Rewards
Rakuten is one of the leading online cash back shopping portals. They offer the ability to earn cash back or American Express Membership Rewards Points when using their portal to shop through more than 2,500 stores.
Payout methods for Rakuten includes check, PayPal, gift cards, and American Express Membership Rewards Points.
If you're looking to add onto your rewards, you can use the no-annual fee Rakuten Rewards Cash Back Visa Card. This allows you to earn 3% in Rakuten Rewards on top of what you would already earn using the Rakuten portal.
TopCashback
TopCashback is another one of the most popular online shopping portals next to Rakuten. They offer the ability to earn rewards when shopping at thousands of retailers online.
Payout methods for TopCashback includes bank transfer, PayPal, YooMoney, and eGift Cards. You can also sign up for a TopCashback.uk account which includes the payout method of British Airways Avios.
BeFrugal
BeFrugal has over 5,000 stores you can earning rewards with when shopping online. Payout methods for BeFrugal includes direct deposit, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, paper check, and eGift Cards.
Mr. Rebates
Mr. Rebates is the simplest of all portals with it's minimalist design. They feature thousands of stores that you can earn rewards with when shopping online.
Payout methods for Mr. Rebates include paper check, PayPal, Venmo, and gift card.
RebatesMe
RebatesMe has over 3,000 stores that you can use to earn rewards when shopping online. Payout methods for RebatesMe include PayPal, credit card (Visa/Mastercard only), paper check, and gift card.
We've run the calculations and checked them twice — here are the credit cards that consistently provide outstanding value to our users:
- Best flexible travel card: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Best overall value year after year: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Best for high cash back: Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
- Best for lounge access & luxury travel: The Platinum Card® from American Express
- Best for business travel rewards: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
- Best for heavy business spend: Capital One Spark Cash Plus
