Turn your Holiday Spend into a FREE vacation
Last year, the typical American spent $1,530 on holiday purchases. That’s a lot of money and knowing this is the most expensive time of the year for most people, you may as well spend smart and earn some points!
Here’s what I do to maximize the points I get during the holidays.
Open a new card with a great welcome and transferrable points. Welcome Bonuses are the most points you will get out of credit cards so if when you know you will be spending more than usual, it’s the perfect time to make that spend work for you and get a large amount of cards.
My favorite beginner cards are the The Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Capital One Venture X. The welcome bonuses are on the lower end and very easy to reach during the holidays.
Shopping Portals like Rakuten-Rakuten is an online shopping portal where you can earn cash back or American Express Membership Rewards by shopping at stores you typically shop at like Nike, Lululemon and hundreds of other places. If you have an American Express card, you can link that card to your account to get American Express Membership Rewards instead of cash. I prefer this option as I get more value from the points then cash back. I’ve used Rakuten when online shopping at Sephora, Ulta, Nike, and so many other stores.
I like Rakuten because it’s super easy to use. You can install the Rakuten extension on your web browser and you if will automatically be redirected to their site if you are browsing on a store that has a cashback offer from Rakuten. It’s easy for me to shop as normal and get Amex points.
I look up to people who use coupons and who keep track of deals and sales but I am NOT that person, Rakuten makes it easy for me which is why I’m able to do it. I have earned over 15,000 amex membership rewards and to be honest I hardly remember to use it. I’m going to be more intentional about using it this holiday season and cant wait to see how many points I can rack up with my normal spend.
Rakuten has a large number of high cash back offers coming up along with black Friday deals so I’m keeping a look out to see what pops up.
If your interested in trying Rakuten, here’s a link to a $30 credit