More miles up for grabs, that’s what she found!

Shopping portals are a great way to earn extra points on things you’re already buying online, and most rewards programs have some sort of portal. If you have a rewards account, the chances are they also have a shopping portal.

Note:  you must register for each shopping portal individually and you must do so before you start shopping through it. 

Normally when you go to buy something online, you go directly to that website, pay for what you want, and earn miles at the base rate (the points you earn just by using your credit card). Shopping portals act like a sort of middle man, rewarding you with extra points for using them as an intermediary.

Recently, we needed more cat supplies, so I fired up EV Reward, an aggregator where you input the company you want to buy from (L.L. Bean, Wag.com, etc…) and it shows you which portals offer the most bonus points.

I saw that Amtrak was giving purchases on Wag.com an 3 extra bonus per dollar, and you all know that I love Amtrak (or you will soon know!), so I figured I would go with that. But go with what works best for you; you’ll see all sorts of shopping portals show up on EV Reward.

Once you choose your program, it will take you to the online site and you can continue to make your purchase. (Make sure that you have your ad-blocker turned off, as that can mess with the extra point earning.)

Finally, you’ll usually get an e-mail that says you’ve successfully used the portal and the extra points are on their way.

After it was all said and done, $80 of cat things net me 300 Amtrak miles (80 for base spend, 220 bonus miles). Thanks, Percy!

Using shopping portals is an easy way to earn even more points towards your next trip, no matter where you’re going!