Shopping portals are by far one of the easiest ways to earn miles for something you already are doing – shopping online. It works like this – you start at a portal and click their button to go to your favorite stores. All the deals are the same but that retailer pays the portal a bit for sending you to them and the portal turns around and gives you something back as well!
Great Shopping Portal Deals!
Link: Rakuten Deal of 15% Off Retail and Travel
Right now, the popular site called Rakuten is giving 15% (or 15X Amex Points, more on that below) back on hundreds of popular retailers. This is a great deal for anyone that needs to do some online shopping at these locations. Even if you have a brick and mortar store near you, shopping online is quick, convenient, and, with deals like this, able to give you a return on your shopping. But, if you do want to shop in-store, some stores are giving you these bonus points this way as well!
New Members Earn $30 for Free!
This deal goes on all week and can be accessed through the link above. If you are not yet a member of Rakuten (free to sign-up), you can sign up through this link and you will get a free $30 after spending $30+ at any of the stores through them. I will also get $30 back if you sign-up and complete the shopping.
Cash Back or Amex Points?
The great thing with Rakuten is that you can choose to use super valuable American Express Membership Reward points at the same 1:1 as you would earn with cash. All you need is an Amex card that earns Membership Reward points to do this.
After that, you can convert those points to airlines that give you some great bang for your spending buck!
But, if you don’t have an Amex card that earns MR points or you prefer cash, you can always earn the $30 instead. So, when you spend a minimum of $30 with this offer (can be at any retailer through Rakuten), you will end up getting $30 back later – perfect!
Some of the Great Store Options
Let’s take a look through at some of the excellent deals. Make sure you look at the whole list because you may have a favorite that I don’t know about and did not list here!
Travel
There are a number of travel companies also offering this kind of a deal so here are some of the good ones. I mean, getting 15% cash back on a hotel is not too shabby!
- Best Western Hotels and Resorts
- Candlewood Suites by IHG
- Crowne Plaza by IHG
- EVEN Hotels by IHG
- Groupon
- Holiday Inn by IHG
- Holiday Inn Club Vacations by IHG
- Holiday Inn Express by IHG
- Hotel Indigo by IHG
- IHG Hotels and Resorts
- Intercontinental Hotels and Resorts by IHG
- Samsonite
- VRBO
Shopping
Here are some of what I believe are the best retailers taking part in this deal:
- Bose – up to 15%
- Dell Outlet – 15%
- Canon – Up to 15%
- Jabra – 15%
- Samsung – Up to 15%
- Adidas – 15%
- ASICS – 15%
- Backcountry.com – 15%
- Bass Pro Shops – 15%
- Cabela’s – 15%
- Camping World – 15%
- JackRabbit – 15% (sports seller, including running shoes)
- Joe’s New Balance Outlet – 15%
- LifeLock – 90%
- Nike – 15%
- Oakley – 15%
- Saucony – 15%
- Under Armour – 15%
There are a lot of other places as well but these are some of the highlights that caught my eye.
While you will always save more money by not spending it at all, if there is shopping that you have been planning on doing, this is a great time to get some cash back or points for doing it! For me, I used up all my current running shoes in the training for and running of the Badwater 267 VR Elite race so I will be hunting for some new ones!
Stack with Amex Offers
If you want to make the deal even sweeter, check your Amex Offers! There are some stacking opportunities here but make sure you save it to the Amex card that will be the most helpful to you (either in giving you the most regular points on the purchase or if hitting a spending threshold).
Here are some of the ones I noticed that could stack with the above retailers:
- Dockers – Spend $75 and get $15 back
- Oakley – Spend $125 and get $25 back – up to 2 times
- Crocs – Get 4% back on purchases, up to $140 using the link provided (it specifies that you must use this link but I would save the offer to your card and go through the Rakuten link on the chance that you could get both)
- Levi’s – Spend $150 and get $30 back
- InterContinental Hotels – Spend $250 and get $50 back
- Children’s Place – Get 1.6% back on purchases (again, it says you must use the link but give it a shot using the Rakuten link instead)
Enjoy!
