A Few Tips to Maximize Your Holiday Spend

If you’re a typical U.S. consumer, your spending will ramp up a bit, for some quite a bit, over the coming weeks as the holidays get into full swing.

And while, for many, it’s the season of giving, there’s absolutely no reason to not think of yourself while thinking of others.

And no, I’m not talking about the habit of every time you buy something for someone else, you buy something for yourself!  If saving money is at all of interest to you, please do not indulge in that practice.

Rather, put forth a little effort to maximize YOUR earnings this holiday season by taking advantage of a few of the saving tips, tricks, and advice we at Savings Beagle pass along on a regular basis.

Here are a few of our favorite money-saving practices that are perfect for this time of year.

Credit Card Sign-Ups

Whether it’s building airline miles, hotel points, transferable points, or simply cash back, applying for a credit card to earn the sign-up bonus is the quickest way to bulk up your desired balance.

And with minimum spends to earn those bonuses ranging between $500 and $5,000, what better time than the holidays (right now) to apply for that new card to take advantage of your increased spending?

Depending on your holiday budget, hitting the $4,000 minimum spend on the Chase Sapphire Preferred to earn 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points (worth $750 toward travel or $600 cash) might be a little easier than at any other time of year.

Or, maybe you want to jump on the American Express Gold Card to take advantage of its Membership Rewards earning power on dining and grocery purchases?  It currently is offering 35,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $4,000 in 3 months.

If cash back is your thing, the Chase Freedom is offering $200 cash back after you spend $500 in the first 3 months.

These are just three suggestions to get your application juices flowing.  There are a number of other credit cards with lucrative sign-up bonuses at various minimum spend levels just waiting for your application.

Not sure which is right for you?  Give our Miles and Points posts a look, or head to the major players’ websites…Chase.com, AmericanExpress.com, Citi.com, to peruse their credit card offerings and see what card fits your financial goals.

Maximize Bonus Categories

If a new credit card’s not something you want to bother with right now, then maximizing the benefits of your current card is the way to go.

For example, if you have a credit card that earns multiple points per dollar on grocery spend, then be sure to pull that card out every time you head to the supermarket.

Certain credit cards, like the Chase Freedom card, currently offer bonus points (5x points per dollar spent) on purchases made at department stores where at least a portion of holiday shopping is likely to occur.  If you’re going to make a purchase at one of those retailers, be sure you’re using the Freedom card to pay.

Dining out seems to increase this time of year, too.  Make sure you’re using a card that earns multiple points per dollar on dining when it comes time to pay the bill such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred (2x), Chase Sapphire Reserve (3x), American Express Gold (4x), or the Capitol One Savor (4x) to name a few.

Take a look at the credit cards you have and the bonus categories they offer and strategically use them to maximize your rewards earning this holiday season.

Cash Back and Points Earning Shopping Portals

Online shopping continues to grow as a percentage of overall shopping in the U.S.  Which means you have one more opportunity to earn cash back or reward points for your purchases.

Prior to making an online purchase, you should first check Cashback Monitor for earning options for the retailer at which you plan to shop.

Use the link below to search for your preferred retailers and the current cash back/rewards points earning rates.

Cashback Monitor

Not all retailers participate, and the larger ones such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc., sometimes restrict earnings to specific categories of items.

There are plenty of retailers, however, at which significant amounts of cash back and rewards points can be earned.  All you have to do is click through a specific shopping portal before making your purchase and watch your cash back/rewards points balances grow.

Enjoy Free Shipping

A free ShopRunner membership is a benefit available on most (all?) American Express credit cards.  Select Mastercard credit cards offer a free ShopRunner membership, too.

ShopRunner provides free 2-day shipping and returns at over 100 retailers.

You’ll have to set up your free Shoprunner membership/account and log in when shopping at a participating retailer to get the benefit.

You can enroll at the links above, or read more about ShopRunner and see participating retailers here.

Shipping of online purchases can get expensive.  If you’re shopping at a retailer who partners with ShopRunner, the savings can really add up.

Just remember to use it!

Take Advantage of Targeted Promotions

Credit card issuers know consumers often carry a few cards from various banks.  The goal of each bank is to get you to put a specific credit card top-of-wallet and use it for the majority – or all – of your holiday spend.

How do they do that?  By offering bonuses for spend, of course.

We recently published “Earn Some Easy Ultimate Rewards Points Just by Tapping Your Chase Card” in which we discussed a Chase promo that provides extra Ultimate Rewards points for paying contactlessly.

And, of course, if Amazon is your thing, you can find savings deals when Chase, American Express, Citi and Discover credit cards are used to pay in our post “Save on Your Amazon Purchases with These Credit Card Deals.”

Often these are targeted to get certain credit card holders to begin using, or more regularly use, a specific card.

Sometimes, though, these promos are open to all cardholders as a gesture of goodwill…ha, or, more likely, an attempt to get more credit card “swipes” that’ll earn the banks additional fee revenue.

No matter the reason, these promos are often a good opportunity to earn cash back or rewards points for spend you’re going to make anyway.

Use Those Card “Offers”

If you’re a regular reader of Savings Beagle, you know we love Amex Offers, regularly publishing a list of recently released Offers that we think will be of interest to many.

If you’re not familiar with Amex Offers, read our post “American Express Offers – A Great Way to Save.”

By simply adding Amex Offers to your American Express credit card you can save money – in the form of statement credits – when you meet the Offers’ terms.

Of course, Amex Offers are only money-savers when the deals are for retailers or products you were going to buy anyway.  But, with so many Offers currently available, the odds you’ll find at least a few Offers beneficial are pretty good.  So add them to your card and use them to save even more.

Chase has its own Offers program, and now you can even find Offers on Chase business credit cards.

If you have worthwhile Chase Offers available to you, that’s just one more money-saving opportunity of which you should take full advantage.

Wrap Up

Maximizing YOUR return on credit card spend can be confusing at best and overwhelming at worst.

Hopefully, the strategies listed above can be used as a guide each time you go to make a purchase this holiday season, helping you to more easily save (or earn, depending on how you view it) on this year’s holiday spend.

Did we forget any tips/tricks?  Let us know in the comment section below so we all can save/earn the absolute most this holiday season!