Hi friends! I’ve been dealing with some personal life stuff for the past few weeks, and haven’t been able to create videos. I hope to be back soon, but in the meantime, I figured I would channel my energy into this newsletter!
If you’re anything like me, online shopping is a reliable (but dangerous) source of dopamine. But what’s even more satisfying to me is getting a good deal. I plan to do a video on this, but I figured I would give my newsletter readers the full overview first (p.s. we just hit 1,000 subscribers!).
I have a simple, 3-step process I use literally anytime I’m planning to buy something online to ensure I’m getting the best deal possible. I leverage credit card offers, cash back sites (e.g. Rakuten and others), airline portals, credit card cash back, and more, in a streamlined way. Here’s how:
Step 1 - Credit Card Offers
One of the most commonly overlooked benefits of premium credit cards is their shopping offers. These are typically deals for a set amount of dollars off, cash back earned, or points earned, for a rotating list of brands. So far this year, I’ve saved nearly $500 via Amex offers and just over $250 via Chase.
My total savings this year on Amex.
My total savings this year on Chase.
Recent examples include $10 off via Amex when ordering my favorite lip balm from Summer Fridays, $20 off ordering contacts via GlassesUSA, or earning an extra 500 Amex points while shopping on Amazon.
The problem is that they are buried in the credit card apps/websites, need to be manually “enrolled” into, and can be a burden to check. This can be a huge waste of time since most brands don’t have any offers at any given time.
My solution is an app called CardPointers. There is a free version, but I use the paid version for its Chrome extension which enables you to automatically add every single available offer on any of your credit cards (typically over 100), without having to manually click enroll. It then lets you search the brand anytime you’re considering making a purchase, and shows you if any of your cards currently have an offer.
(Before writing this newsletter, I reached out to CardPointers to see if they could offer an affiliate discount code. They got back to me right away with 50% off until Sept. 30th for my followers here. I get a small commission if you choose to sign up!)
For example, let’s say I need to order more contacts. Without a brand in mind, I’ll open the extension and search a few contacts websites to see if there are any current offers.
Offers that show up in the CardPointers extension when I search “glasses” (above) and “contacts” (below).
As you can see in the screenshots above, there’s a $40 offer via my Amex at Glasses.com, 5% at GlassesUSA, and $20 back at ContactsDirect.com. Let’s say I picked Contacts Direct for $20 off $100. I click on the offer, see that it’s via my Amex card (which has automatically been enrolled via CardPointers), and plan to make the purchase with my Amex card.
Total savings so far: $20.
On to Step 2:
Step 2 - Cash Back Portals
Cash back portals pay you a percentage of your purchase just for clicking through their link to the store before you buy. Stores pay them a commission for sending you, and they split it with you.
The catch: there are dozens of these portals, and the rates for the same store can be wildly different. So before I buy anything, I check Cashback Monitor. It's a free site that compares the current rates across 40+ portals, for over 15,000 stores, in one search.
Back to my contacts. Here's what Cashback Monitor showed for Contacts Direct:
As you can see, there are tons of different offers.
TopCashback wins by a mile, so I'd click through TopCashback, then check out on Contacts Direct like normal. 16% of $100 is $16 back.
🤔 Okay, but do I need to sign up for all of the portals?
Absolutely not! There is a balance to strike between absolute optimization and your administrative sanity. I personally chose the two that seem to most often have the best offer, and leave it at that: Rakuten and TopCashback. In my experience, between the two of them I catch 99% of the good offers out there.
Why these two specifically:
TopCashback often has the highest rate, and you can cash out to PayPal or your bank with no minimum. (My affiliate link here, but their sign-up bonuses are normally not that generous.)
✈️ What if neither one has the store?
There are often other options you’ll find on CashBack Monitor, like airline shopping portals (United, American, Delta, Southwest, Alaska) and credit card portals (like Shop through Chase) that pay in miles or points instead of cash. There’s almost always something available.
Total savings so far: $36 ($20 Amex offer + $16 TopCashback).
Step 3 - Pick the Right Card
Last decision: which card to actually pay with. My order of operations:
Is there a card-linked offer from Step 1? Use that card. The offer only works on the card it's attached to.
Am I working on a sign-up bonus? Use the new card, so the purchase counts toward the minimum spend.
Neither? Use my highest cash back card. For me that's the Robinhood Gold Card, 3% back on everything.
For the contacts, rule #1 wins: the $20 offer is on my Amex, so the Amex it is. It earns 1 point per dollar on this, so about 100 points. Valued conservatively at 1 cent each, that's about $1.
Final tally on a $100 contacts order:
Step 1 - Amex offer → $20
Step 2 - TopCashback 16% → $16
Step 3 - Amex points (100 points at 1 cent) → $1
Total: ~$37 back, or 37% off
📝 The Cheat Sheet
Before you buy anything online:
CardPointers → any card-linked offers for this store?
Cashback Monitor → which portal pays the most? Click through it.
Pick your card → the card with the offer, then your sign-up bonus card, then your best cash back card.
It takes me only a few minutes per purchase, and feels like a little win when I find a good offer.
Do you have a shopping hack I'm missing? Reply and tell me. I read everything!
And THANK YOU for 1,000 readers! I hope to be back to making videos soon!
Until next time,
xx
Hannah
Fine print: this is not financial advice and I'm not your advisor, just a person with opinions and a spreadsheet. For actual money decisions, please talk to a licensed professional who knows your full picture. Offers, cash back rates, and prices change constantly and were accurate when I wrote this.