Before I buy anything online I check Cash Back Monitor for offers. That way I see which airline, credit card and cash back portals have offers with the merchant I’m going to use. I can compare shopping portal deals all in one place. (This site has largely surpassed the previous tool I relied upon, EV Reward.)
This is a crucial step because you can earn rewards for the purchases you’re going to make anyway.
- Stores will pay commissions to send them buyers
- These shopping portals rebate much of their commission to you, to get you to use their links
- So you can get miles, points or cash for the things you’re going to buy anyway
Sometimes these offers are even stackable – portal purchases that use cookies to track your spend can work with portals that scan your credit card transactions to reward you, and those both can stack with rebates through Amex Offers, Citi Offers and Chase Offers to name just a few.
There’s a new tool, Save Wise, to help you find and stack these deals. Two things they do really stand out:
- Offer Alerts they’ll notify you when a store you’re interested in has offers at a level you select. This way you can make purchases during times of elevated offers.
- Support for Amex and Chase Offers so you see not just portal payouts (like how many miles per dollar or percent cash back you receive) but where the same store also has a live Amex or Chase Offer to stack.
Here’s how they describe the tool,
Search offers for 15,000+ stores across 21+ shopping portals
See offers for over 15,000 online stores and compare offers across 21+ shopping portals including Rakuten, Chase, AAdvantage eShopping, and Capital One Shopping.
We support portals that help you earn cash back, airline miles, and credit card points.
View Offer History Trends
See how cash back offers for a store fluctuate across each portal. Just click “view offer history” you’ll see 14-90 days of offer history data, so you know whether you’re getting a good deal today or should wait.
Offer Alerts
Set up offer alerts so you’ll automatically get notified whenever a store has an offer that meets your specified threshold.
Stack Amex and Chase offers
Easily see whether the store you’re viewing has any Amex and Chase card-linked offers available. These can be used to “stack” offers, so you get cash back or credit points in addition to what you’re getting via a shopping portal.
Chrome Extension
Savewise has a Chrome extension that automatically shows you offers when you’re shopping directly on a store’s website.
Mobile-Optimized
Savewise is fully optimized for use on mobile. It also supports mobile home screen shortcuts, so you can launch Savewise directly from your iOS/Android home screens and use it like an app.
Since most of their features are free this is a really nice site to play around with for your purchases. They make money, for instance, signing you up for some of the portals if you don’t already have an account.