The Ultimate Guide to Saving (and Making) Money Every Time You Shop Online
What are my hobbies?
Reading, watching Netflix, cross-stitching, playing with my kitten… and shopping online.
OK, the last one isn’t really a “hobby” in the traditional sense, but it might as well be. And it’s a very dangerous one for my wallet.
Sometimes I just “Windows” shop. (Get it?) Other times, I splurge — especially if the return policy is lenient and the deals are plentiful.
But those online shopping deals aren’t always obviously pasted on a site’s homepage. With a little effort, though, you can find tons of cash-back opportunities online and through apps.
Without further ado (because I know you’re itching to get that box on its way), here’s your list of resources, tips and tricks you’ll want to check out before clicking “submit” on your next order.
1. Earn Cash Back Through the Ibotta App
Ibotta is my go-to app when scoring cash back on groceries to save money, but it houses tons of cash-back offers for online retailers, too.
Download the app (and score that $10 sign up bonus), then tap “Find Rebates.” Select the mobile shopping category to see what you’re working with.
My favorite recent addition is its partnership with Amazon. You can pocket a $20 Amazon gift card when you sign up for Prime.
Other online deals available (at the time I wrote this article) include:
- 10% cash back on BloomThat flower delivery purchases
- 10% cash back on Booking.com hotel reservations
- Up to 10% cash back on Groupon deals
- 10% cash back on anything from Jet
- 5% cash back from Urban Outfitters
There are tons of other offers, too: our Ibotta review has all the details.
Do note you’ll need to launch these shopping sites through the Ibotta app in order to score the deals.
2. Stop Deleting Your Emails
It turns out deleting your emails could be costing you serious money. Intrigued?
One of our secret weapons is called Capital One Shopping Price Protection — a tool that gets you money back for your online purchases. It’s free to sign up, and once you do, it will scan your email archives for any receipts. If it discovers you’ve purchased something from one of its monitored retailers, it will track the item’s price and help you get a refund anytime there’s a price drop.
Plus, if your guaranteed shipment shows up late, Capital One Shopping Price Protection will help you get money back for what you paid for shipping.
Capital One Shopping Price Protection compensates us when you sign up using the links we provide.
3. Share Your Amazon Purchase History
And that’s all.
The Harris Poll, a well-known survey company that measures U.S. public opinion, operates something called ShopTracker. Basically, it anonymously tracks what products users are purchasing from Amazon.
It’ll pay you $36 a year for that access and promises to keep your information private.
Before you sign up (it’ll take something like 3 minutes), here are the basic requirements:
- You should shop on Amazon, naturally.
- You must be 18 and live in the U.S.
- You’ll need at least a Windows 7-compatible PC. If you have Windows XP or a Mac, it won’t work.
Go ahead, and install the app for free. Then, log into your Amazon account to bank an extra $36 this year. No, it’s not a ton, but it’ll absolutely cover some impulsive Amazon purchases.
Or at least shipping…
4. Score Cash Back Through Ebates
Ebates is an online shopping portal that offers cash-back opportunities at more than 2,000 stores.
You’ll need to sign up (and score a $10 sign-up bonus!) and shop through the platform.
You can score up to 40% cash back on your purchases. Here are some examples of our favorite deals (at the time of writing this):
- Get up to 10% cash back on wedding decor and gifts from Etsy.
- Score $20 off your Tom’s order.
- Take up to 25% off your next car rental from Thirfty.
- For a limited time, Macy’s upped it’s 3% cash-back offer to 10%.
The deals are always changing. Just a few weeks ago, Ebates was offering 10% cash back at Walmart. There are thousands of offers, so I’ll spare you. But you can see if Ebates has something for your favorite online retailer (probably) by signing up here. And don’t forget that $10 bonus!
5. Swipe Cash Back on All Your Purchases
If you’re looking for a passive way to earn some money throughout the year, a cash-back credit card is perhaps one of the easiest methods.
You just have to be sure you don’t get too carried away with those purchases — and that the card is paid off at the end of each billing period.
Here’s an option we like: It’s the Chase Freedom Unlimited card. Its claim to fame? You’ll earn an unlimited 1.5% cash back on all your purchases. Plus, if you spend $500 in your first three months of opening the card (hi, groceries), you’ll pocket a $150 bonus.
There’s no annual fee, and the cash-back rewards don’t expire. We checked Credible’s annual rewards calculator, and it estimates $417 in annual rewards based on our spending habits.* (You can enter your unique spending habits and see what you’d earn, too.)
Get signed up — and 0% intro APR for 15 months — here.
*Annual Rewards amounts will change based on the amounts you enter. The monthly spending category names and definitions may vary among issuers, and categories may not align one-to-one.
The information for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card has been collected independently by The Penny Hoarder. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. The Penny Hoarder is a partner of Credible.
6. Check Out Through MyPoints
More points!
You’ll be able to exchange these for gift cards to your favorite retailers.
Download MyPoints, a rewards site that’ll pay you just for shopping through the portal.
Here’s how it works:
- Sign up for MyPoints using your email address.
- Next time you buy something online, use the MyPoints portal. It’s connected to thousands of stores — so chances are the one you desire will be on there.
- If you spend $20 at one of these stores, MyPoints grants you 1,740 bonus points, which you can redeem for that $10 Amazon card.
Points on points. Sign up for free and snag that bonus here.
7. Earn SBs Back and Exchange ’Em for Gift Cards
What’s an SB, you ask? It stands for Swagbucks, which are points you can exchange for gift cards.
Poke around our beginner’s guide to Swagbucks. Then sign up.
Whenever you make an online purchase, sign in and be sure to shop through the portal. If you order something from Target, for example, you can score 2 SBs per dollar spent. At Amazon, you can get up to 3 SBs per dollar. Macy’s offers 6 SBs per dollar.
Once you hit 500 SBs, you can cash them out for a $5 Amazon gift card. Or you can keep on saving for a larger redemption.
You’ll even snag some bonus SBs when you sign up here.
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
