Although the economy has recovered quite a bit since the beginning of the year, many people are still a bit cash strapped this holiday season and looking to get the most bang for their buck when it comes to holiday shopping. Some of you rushed out and and cashed in on some crazy deals last Friday. However most of us still have quite a bit of shopping to do in the next few weeks. The good news is that there are still plenty of ways to continue to save money on any purchases you make throughout the holiday season.
When searching for holiday deals one of the last places you would probably ever think to check is with your credit card company. However many card companies have partnered with certain merchants who give you a discount if you buy your gifts online through the credit card company’s “online mall”. For those of you who do a lot of online shopping like me, buying gifts with your credit card through these online malls when you buy online is almost a no brainier.
On top of earning cash back the reward points that you would normally earn, you can also earn up to 25% cash back on all of your purchases. So you can get an incredible deal through these online malls if you buy from the right merchants. Below I’m going to explore the two “major” online malls, one is offered for Discover card holders, and the other is for those who have cards with Chase.
Discover has partnered with over 150 online retailers, and allows you to earn up to 20% cash back or double miles by shopping at these retailers through Discovers online mall. This program is available to all Discover card holders, you don’t need to enroll and there is no fee to use the service.
After you buy something through ShopDiscover your account is credited with the CashBack Bonus within 8 weeks of when the product ships. It’s important to note that to get your CashBack Bonus you must visit the retailers site through the link on the ShopDiscover site.
Discover is also offering an additional CashBack Bonus through some retailers during the holidays. I’ve made a note of some of the more popular retailers that are participating in this below, but it looks like some have had CashBack amounts increased by as much as 10%.
Here’s a graphic of how it works:
Current Holiday Deals with ShopDiscover
Here are some of the current holiday deals, these are not all of the retailers but those who increased their cash back amount for the holidays.
- Bass Pro Shops: 10% Cash Back
- Best Buy: 10% Cash Back
- Dell: 10% Cash Back
- Dicks Sporting Goods: 10% Cash Back
- GAP: 10% Cash Back
- Kohl’s: 10% Cash Back
- Macy’s: 10% Cash Back
- Old Navy 10% Cash Back
- Omaha Steaks 15% Cash Back
- The North Face: (My favorite) 15% Cash Back
You can view all of the retailers currently involved with the ShopDiscover program here. Discover has the best online rewards system by far in my opinion, but if you don’t have a Discover card you’re not out of luck just yet.
Chase currently has a program that is very similar to ShopDiscover called Chase Rewards Plus. Chase has also partnered with many popular online merchants (over 340, which is more than Discover actually) and allows you to earn bonus points for any purchases made through the site.
The rate that you earn bonus rewards through each merchant is comparable to that of ShopDiscover and there is no cap on the amount of bonus rewards you can earn through the program. One problem I’ve found with the Chase program however is that not all cards can access the program.
It seems like some of the older Chase cards as well as student cards don’t have access, however all of the newer cards including the Sapphire Card, and Slate have access.
As you can see above, by using online mall programs correctly you can save a considerable amount this holiday season. The crazy thing is that many people don’t even know these programs, and saving up to 20% on big ticket items is a big deal, at least for me.
If you have any other advice relating to these online malls or want to add anything that I missed, be sure to comment below.
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