Boost your credit card rewards this holiday with a few extra clicks

By Craig Joseph and Jae Bratton, NerdWallet

The average consumer plans to shell out $1,778 on holiday expenses this year, according to Deloitte’s 2024 holiday retail survey. However, the same survey also noted that “all income groups are showing signs of frugality,” indicating that households continue to feel pressure from inflation.

While searching for the best deals, remember that strategic use of credit cards can rev up your rewards — rewards that can translate into meaningful savings. And here’s more good news: Saving with a credit card isn’t as hard as you think. Taking just one or two steps can give your holiday budget more breathing room.

Here are six tips to turbocharge your credit card rewards this holiday season.

1. Open a credit card

Many credit cards offer sign-up bonuses in the form of points or cash when you open a card. The catch: To earn the welcome offer, you must spend a certain amount of money on the card within a set time frame. The holiday shopping season can be the perfect time to knock out that spending requirement and earn a hefty bonus.

If that new credit card earns cash back, those extra funds can stretch your holiday budget. Some popular cards offer new cardholders $200 once the spending requirements are met. If your new card bonus earns a nice stash of travel rewards, those can offset future travel costs.

Some cards even give you the sign-up bonus upon approval without you spending a dime. The welcome offers on these cards tend to be more generous during the holiday season, too.

2. Shop in online portals

Deloitte’s study found that 71% of consumers preferred online retailers for their holiday shopping. If you’re in the majority, consider using shopping portals, also sometimes known as bonus malls.

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A shopping portal is a website that provides an incentive of cash back, points or miles — on top of any rewards your credit card might earn — if you click through its links to shop on a retailer’s site. The portal receives commissions from retailers and then shares a portion with you when you buy through that portal’s link.

Many airlines, hotel brands and major credit card issuers have proprietary shopping portals. Log in to the portal you want to use, find the merchant you want to shop with, and click through their link. Shop and check out with that merchant’s site as normal.

Though it might take a few extra clicks, once your purchase is verified by the portal, the extra rewards will be deposited into your account automatically. This verification can take a few weeks or, less frequently, months.

3. Use cash-back apps for in-store purchases

Similar to shopping portals that offer bonuses for online purchases, mobile apps like Rakuten, Ibotta and Swagbucks provide bonus points or cash back for in-person purchases.

Download the app to your mobile device, enter your credit card details and then select an in-store offer within the app. When you get to the store in question and are ready to check out, use the card you added to the app. The app tracks your purchase, and bonus rewards will generally be deposited into your account within a few weeks. Many of these apps require you to reach a minimum threshold before you can cash out your rewards.

4. Load up on card-linked offers

Many credit card issuers offer discount programs for using their cards at certain retailers. These programs include but are not limited to:

American Express offers.
BankAmeriDeals from Bank of America.
Chase offers.
U.S. Bank’s cash-back deals.
My Wells Fargo Deals from Wells Fargo.

These offers are like digital coupons that can be loaded to your credit card. And just like paper coupons, card-linked offers usually have a spending requirement and expiration date.

Discounts are issued as statement credits or bonus points within your credit card’s rewards program. Log in to your credit card account to find the deals section, and activate whichever offers you want to use. You’re not obligated to use the offers once they’re added, so feel free to load them on your credit card in case you end up shopping at any of those retailers.

Earn even more rewards by “stacking” such card-linked offers with cash-back sites such as Rakuten and TopCashBack.

The aggregator website Cashback Monitor can help you find the best discounts at over 15,000 stores, whether that’s through a card-linked offer or bonus mall.

5. Buy gift cards

If you’re buying gift cards to give as holiday presents, you can earn extra rewards by purchasing them from certain stores with your credit card.

Let’s say you want to give Aunt Sally a gift card to a clothing store. If you buy that gift card from the clothing retailer, you’ll probably only earn your credit card’s standard base rate on that purchase. But if you get that same gift card from the big gift card rack at the grocery store, you can earn more rewards. (Many popular credit cards offer anywhere from 3% to 6% back at grocery stores.)

While there’s typically no problem buying a few gift cards with a credit card to lock in bonus rewards, don’t go overboard. If credit card issuers see a trend of gift card purchases, they may claw back your bonus points, particularly if you’re trying to earn an initial sign-up bonus.

6. Eat out within your card’s dining rewards network

You can earn extra points and miles simply for dining at certain restaurants. Most major hotel and airline loyalty programs are linked to a dining rewards network that you can join for free.

Search for your favorite hotel or airline dining rewards site, and enter your ZIP code to see which restaurants near you are part of the program. You’ll need to register your credit card with that dining program and use that card at the restaurant when you pay to earn the bonus rewards. These programs frequently offer a first-dine bonus of extra points, and additional rewards for leaving restaurant reviews.

Because these programs are all run by the same parent company, you can generally sign up to earn bonus rewards with only one airline or hotel dining program per credit card in your wallet. And if you link a new credit card to the dining program, the old card will get removed.

Craig Joseph writes for NerdWallet. Email: cjoseph@nerdwallet.com.

The article Boost Your Credit Card Rewards This Holiday With a Few Extra Clicks originally appeared on NerdWallet.