4 Proven Tips to Maximize Online Shopping Savings with Points

Today we feature Tiffany Park who writes for Little Bundle. She is a parenting, health, and communications writer with a passion for improving family connection for herself and others. Having studied communications, she enjoys learning about various cultures, seeing different perspectives, and seeking travel adventures with her husband and toddling daughter. Thank you for taking the time to write up this post Tiffany!

Online shopping has never been more popular, especially for Canadians.

And with the current pandemic and many of us trying to limit time outside of the house, it has become even more pertinent and even quite necessary.

But with a suffering economy and strained personal finances, saving money is just as essential.

Don’t let the high prices and shipping costs suck all the money out of your pockets. Learn instead how to save—and even earn—money while you shop online.

Plan & Research

It’s always a good idea to avoid spending on a whim—it just makes for smarter shopping. Not only does patience and planning your purchases help you avoid impulse buys, but it also gives you time to research the best brands, track pricing, and buy the items you need at a time and from a place that will give you the best bang for your buck.

Take Advantage of Shopping Portals

If you’re not using shopping portals to make online purchases, you’re missing out! Shopping portals are hosted by airlines, hotels, credit cards, and more. Check out this list of portals relevant to Canadians, through companies such as Air Canada or GreatCanadianRebates.

When you purchase a product through a portal instead of directly through the retailer, you can earn points or miles for spending the same money you were going to spend anyway. It benefits the retailer because the shopping portal brings them more business, the portal gets a percentage from the retailer, and you get the points! There’s no catch, no fee, and it’s a total no-brainer way to get rewards through buying.

Different portals have unique rules and offerings, so it’s a good idea to look around at your options to find the ones that will work best for you. If you’re using a reward credit card program that also has a shopping portal, you can “double-dip,” or gain double the points by purchasing through the portal using your credit card.

Use Rewards Credit Cards

Rewards credit cards can be a great way to earn points or miles with every expense. (Just remember to pay it off as quickly as you can each month, so you aren’t paying for those points by racking up high amounts of debt).

There are several types of credit cards, including fixed value (such as Canadian Scotiabank Gold American Express Card), transferable points (like the RBC Avion program), co-branded (see the American Express Marriott Bonvoy Card), and cash back (check out Canada’s Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card). Each has unique benefits, and once again, it’s a good idea to survey your options and select the program that best fits your lifestyle.

If you know how to use them wisely, credit cards can be a great asset to your online shopping experience—earning you awesome rewards from the purchases you already make all the time.

Get Discounts Through Apps & Extensions

Another super simple way to save money while online shopping is to use apps or browser extensions that act as deal-hunting tools. Honey and Wikibuy are both examples of this. They help to scout out the best prices on a product you’ve got your eye on. They also search out any active promo codes that can get you a discount on those items. They’re free, easy to install, and do their work while you shop, so you don’t even have to think about it.

You never know what savings you could be missing out on without one of these handy online tools.

You knew online shopping was convenient and often necessary. But now you know that with just a few simple tweaks to your approach, it can become an easy investment to both save you money AND earn you points and miles.