If you’re like me you probably earned a lot of rewards points over the last year, and with travel restricted, had a lot less options on how to use them. One trick I’ve seen some retailers like Amazon using, is the “Shop With Points” option. This sounds like a great idea! Earn points from your credit card purchases, bank enough to be consequential to a purchase, use them toward that purchase. There’s a drawback here though that isn’t so obvious.
When you use your points on an initial purchase, you obviously aren’t earning any more points because you’re not using your credit card, you’re using a bonus! Instead, make the purchase on your credit card, and then apply the points as a cash back bonus directly to the account. This will do 2 things, allow you to use your points on that purchase, as well as earn points for making the purchase directly with your card!
As a one time thing, you’re probably not going to miss out on much in the way of points or cash back. But when done repeatedly this does add up over time. It’s a little “hack” that just takes remembering, and not much more effort than you were going to put in anyway. And if you use your points for travel, those opportunities are starting to open back up too!
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