One of my favorite ways to earn points
That does not (thankfully) involve opening a new credit card
This weekend my kids had basketball playoff games, we hosted friends for an afternoon of wine and cheese while the kids played upstairs (the dream!), we did some early spring cleaning and I managed to fill three giant IKEA bags full of clothes, toys and picture books (🥹) from the kids’ rooms to donate. Spending time with friends, seeing the kids do things they love all makes my heart so full and clearing out things we no longer need, organizing and donating makes me feel so much lighter. Such a nice, relaxing, Brooklyn weekend!
I’ve been thinking about how overwhelming it can feel to have a lot of credit cards for some people. Having a system to keep them organized is really important to preserve your good credit and keep track of all of your points. There are a couple different strategies I have for this - I will write a post about this soon!
And sometimes, you just want to use the cards you already have and maximize them! One of my favorite ways to do this is through using a particular shopping portal that earns transferable points back.
I want to preface all of this by saying that there is something innately spammy looking and sounding about this shopping portal. The graphics are a little (a lot) in your face, the name is odd, and it sometimes has deals and discounts that sound too good to be true.
But, if you’ve been around here a little while, you know my interest is in educating you all and helping you earn the most points to travel more with your family. And I am always honest! The things I tell you about are the things my own family does to be able to travel like we do.
Trips like the ones we’ve taken came about because I’ve taken advantage of every point earning opportunity I could, even when they require an extra step or two and life felt busy!
But this strategy is a REALLY easy one….
There is a a shopping portal that you can use to make purchases you were already planning on making.
If you use the portal you’ll earn cash or points back on top of your credit card points.
Here’s how it works (and I’ll try to keep it simple!):
Create an account for the shopping portal Rakuten here (thanks as always for using my referral link!). It’s free and takes less than 30 seconds.
After setting up your account, go back in on a browser (not the app!) and connect a card that earns points back (message me here if you’re not sure if your card earns the right kind). If not, np, you’ll just earn cash back instead:
Spend $30 in the first 90 days and get 3K points back (worth at least $60).
Simple!
Some more notes on how Rakuten works:
You can use any card to pay and you will still earn points through your credit card for the purchases if it’s a points earning card on top of the extra points or cash back you will get through using Rakuten.
Each purchase will get you a certain number of points (or cash) back if you click through the website or app before shopping.
Rakuten directs you to the store’s website so you will be logging in, shopping and paying on the websites you are used to. That doesn’t change!
There are thousands of stores listed on Rakuten, here is a small sampling today screesnhotted (is that a word) from the website. If you shop at these stores you will get this back in points or cash:
For example: If I spend $100 today at petsmart, I will get $10 back or 1K points (worth $20) depending on if I have Rakuten set up for points or cash back.
How you get the points/cash:
Every quarter, Rakuten sends a payout of earnings. By doing things like the SoFi deal in the screenshot and other larger ticket bonuses, I was able to get a payout in a recent quarter of over 150K points (not from spending a gazillion dollars). This is nearly $3500 worth of points to use for travel. Amazing.
How to sign up?
Click here! If you use this link, you’ll get $30 (or 3K points) once you spend $30 in 90 days.
Happy shopping! Go get those points :)
PS - Have a question about which card connects? Reply here and I can help!
Some important recent posts to help you on your points journey:
Will opening credit cards lower my score?
How to book a sold out hotel room
And some super useful (and fun!) comprehensive trip reports/guides/itineraries:
I started using Rakuten a few months ago and it was a game changer during the holiday season. I did the majority of my holiday shopping through there and got tons of points! Such an easy way to earn more points by doing what I'd normally do anyway.