Cash Back Boy Fails Again

Sometimes its fun to live with someone not in the points game. My roommate, Cash Back Boy, has not caught the bug of earning points. As his name suggests, he prefers to use cash back credit cards; instead, of ones that earn points. I have given up trying to convert him over to the dark side.

Last week, he made a mistake that made me want to strangle him. I arrived home to a package for my roommate from Brooks Brothers. Supposedly, he bought two dress shirts like these:

When he showed me the shirts, I asked him if he went through a shopping portal to earn "cash back." His response took me back, "how do I do that?" You Cash Back Boy don't know how to get cash back?

I write this for him, but hope it helps others too!

There are websites that give you cash rebates for shopping at your favorite online stores. The only things you need to do to earn cash back for your purchases is to 1) login the cash back portal and 2) make the purchase after clicking through to the website. Some of the cash-back portals include Ebates, Mr.Rebates, and Bigcrumbs.

Each of them offer different rebates for shopping at the same store. For instance, if my roommate wanted cash back for his Brooks Brothers' purchase, Ebates would offer him 2.5% back:

On the other hand, Bigcrumbs would offer him 4.2% back:

And Mr. Rebates would offer him a whopping 8% back:

Want to compare what different cash back sites will offer you, head over to Cashback Holics. Their website breaks down how much each portal will offer you for shopping at particular retailers. Want miles; instead of cash, Cashback Holics list some portals that can earn you miles as well. For instance, United, Southwest and American Airlines' portal earn 3 miles per $1 for Brooks Brothers portals:

Delta's portal will net you 2 miles per $1 spent:

Hilton's shopping portal will earn you 4 points per $1 spent:

The lesson of this story is always earn something for your purchases. Be it points or cash-back, shopping portals exist to pay you back for shopping. All it takes is a little time to log-in into one of these websites before starting your shopping.

Don't leave points or cash-back on the table!

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Earn Points at Airports: Thanks Again

I love earning points, when I have to do little to nothing to get them. Swipe my credit cards (earn points!), dine out at certain restaurants (earn additional points!!), grab a bottle of water, magazine and snack at the airport (earn bonus points!!!).

How many of you know that you can earn points at major airports by registering your card?

Up until last year’s US Airways Grandslam, I didn’t.

There is a program called “Thanks Again,” that allows you to earn points by shopping at vendors located in major airports. Thanks You is very similar to Dining Rewards: one has to sign-up (free) with a points earning program and register your credit cards with that program. Unlike, Dining Rewards, you don’t have to complete surveys about your experience.

Thanks You currently has programs with US Airways, United, American Airlines, Delta. Again, you can only earn miles with the program that you are registered with. Most vendors at the airports earn you 1 mile for $1 spent. However, every once and a while a vendor might offer 2 miles per $1 spent.

According to their website, Thanks Again has afflictions with over 150 airports. However, their "affiliation" is sometimes only a car service and/or an entertainment store as in the case of LAX, MCO, SAN. You can use this search engine to see what merchants participate at particular airports:

How can you tell if a merchant is participating? My experience, at Dulles (IAD), was that merchants had signs up indicating they were a member. The type of vendors participating was numerous: from sit-down restaurants to kiosks selling jewelry. According to their website, Dulles has only 3 vendors: CNBC, Brooks Brothers and DC Express. However, my points earning statement says I have earned points (in the past month) from Gordon Biersch and Subway, so the search engaging might not be updated.

In addition to earning points at airports, Thanks Again allows you to earn points at local (non-airport) vendors. Most of the local vendors ares restaurants and require you to buy Restaurant.com gift certificates, earning you 3 points per $1 spent on the certificate. This is not a great rate, as the United Airlines shopping portal earns you 10 miles per $1 spent. Other local merchants include spas, storage units, and golf courses.  As I have previously mentioned, my former dry cleaners was apart of Thanks Again earning me 1 points per $1 spent.

Thanks Again has bonuses based upon the amount of money who spend in 90 consecutive days:

Earn 500 bonus miles/points when you spend $250 or more (2 miles/points per dollar spent)

Earn 1,500 bonus miles/points when you spend $500 or more (3 miles/points per dollar spent)

Earn 4,000 bonus miles/points when you spend $1,000 or more (4 miles/points per dollar spent)

Earn 25,000 bonus miles/points when you spend $5,000 or more (5 miles/points per dollar spent)

All it takes to earn points from Thanks Again is signing up and registering your credit cards.

Will you earn a ton of points by joining "Thanks Again," probably not!

Can you earn points for simplying registering your credit cards and using it at airports? Yes!

Will you? I think it would be unwise not to!!!!

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 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com