Building Those Miles and Points Balances Faster

I like to use the analogy of a cake and its icing when discussing Miles and Points. The cake in the Miles and Points hobby is the sizable sign-up bonuses that are received when getting new credit cards.

The icing is the accumulation of points through other means. And while the icing isn’t as exciting as getting a 50,000 point bonus, these seemingly small additions to your points’ balances definitely add up.

This post will show how one everyday-type purchase can be turned into a nice chunk of points –or icing – with just a little extra effort.

My Dog’s Food

Roughly every 5 weeks I buy a 25-pound bag of Whole Earth Farms Chicken and Turkey dog food.

I typically buy it at Petco for $39.99 plus tax.

Now, I could take any miles/points earning credit card into Petco, purchase the dog food, and because there are no spending bonuses associated with Petco in-store purchases, I’d get roughly $40 worth of points/miles added to my account.

That’s better than paying cash and getting no points, but there’s a better way if your goal is to build your points’ balances.

Gift Cards

Petco gift cards are sold at a variety of locations; grocery stores, home improvement stores, convenience stores, drug stores and office supply stores are just a few of the locations where they can be found.

Some of these locations even allow you to buy gift cards online and have an e-version of the purchased gift card emailed to you.

And, when you’re considering retailers that sell gift cards, you also want to look at which credit cards give bonus points for spend made at certain categories of retailers.

For example, the Chase Freedom card is currently giving 5x points per dollar spent at gas stations. And some gas stations – or grocery store connected convenience mart/gas stations – sell gift cards.

Another example is the American Express Hilton HHonors credit card which provides 5 Hilton HHonors points per dollar spent at grocery stores and gas stations.

These are just two of many cards that can be used to boost your Miles and Points balances through everyday spending/the purchase of gift cards when shopping at bonused retailers.

I’m going to focus on Chase Freedom for the rest of my example since I place a high value on Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

The Gift Card Purchase

Using my Chase Freedom card, I’ll purchase a $50 Petco gift card from a nearby gas station/grocery.

The $50 gift card purchase will earn the 5x bonus, earning me 250 Ultimate Rewards points.

Note: Non-gas related purchases at gas stations normally qualify for the bonus. However, it’s always smart to make a small purchase – maybe a Coke or candy bar – to test a specific location if your goal is to earn bonus points.

Online Malls

Now that I have my $50 Petco gift card, it’s time to buy some dog food.

I could be happy with my extra 210 Ultimate Rewards points (the 250 earned with the gift card purchase minus the $40 I’d have earned just going into Petco and buying the food) but I’m not; there’re more points just waiting to be had!

First I go to Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Mall (aka “Shop through Chase”) via the link on my Freedom card’s online account.

I search for Petco in the “Shop through Chase” section and see that I’ll receive 3 points per dollar spent. Nice!

Occasionally, the amount of points will change, both up and down, so I don’t know until I go to make the purchase exactly what I’ll be getting.

I click through to get to the Petco site and order the food.

When it comes time to check out, I simply use my $50 Petco gift card to pay. Any remaining balance, I save for next month’s dog food purchase.

My, roughly, $40 order will get me 120 Ultimate Rewards points, just for clicking through and making my purchase via “Shop through Chase.”

Total Points for Buying Dog Food

 As I’ve mentioned, I could have taken my Freedom credit card into Petco, purchased my dog’s food and earned roughly 40 Ultimate Rewards points.

Or, I could put in a little extra effort, and earn a total of 370 Ultimate Rewards points for the same exact purchase.

An extra step for even more points would be to purchase the gift cards through the “Shop through Chase” or similar online mall. However, many of the online shopping malls have language stating that gift card purchases do not earn bonus points. That’s not always followed though, so if you can buy a gift card through an online mall retailer, it’s worth it to try.

Other Online Malls

 If I wanted to earn airline/hotel specific points, I could have swapped the “Shop through Chase” mall for a number of other online shopping portals. Below are just a few airline/hotel specific shopping portals, and what I could have earned as compared to the 3 points per dollar with “Shop through Chase.”

American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping  3 AAdvantage miles at Petco

Delta SkyMiles Shopping  2 SkyMiles at Petco

Marriott Rewards Shopping  3 Rewards points at Petco

Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping  2 Rapid Rewards points at Petco

If you know the retailer at which you’d like to shop, evreward is a site that searches many of the online shopping portals and shows what each is paying for a specific retailer.

Evreward is a great resource when you want to earn the most points/cash back for online purchases. I’ve noticed it’s not always accurate with the current bonus offerings, though, so I look at evreward first and then double check with the specific online shopping site.

More Than Just Dog Food

This tactic for accumulating extra points, or the icing on the cake, can be used for any normally occurring – or not normally occurring – purchases.

My wife makes purchases at the retailer Sephora regularly. She could go into a local Sephora store and buy what she needs, or she could buy a Sephora gift card using a credit card that earns extra points at a bonused retailer, take the Sephora gift card to an online shopping portal and make the purchase, earning significantly more points than she otherwise would have.

Or, if we have a large home improvement project, purchase Lowe’s or Home Depot gift cards first, and then make the purchase. And if it’s a product that can be ordered online and picked-up in store, make the purchase at homedepot.com or Lowes.com by going through an online shopping portal, and earn those extra portal points, too.

The extra earning options are only limited by your purchases and motivation to take a few extra steps to make those purchases.

So, the next time you go to buy something, think if you can buy a gift card first and then if you can use a shopping portal to make the purchase. Before long, you’ll be amazed at how your Miles and Points balances have grown.

target image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net and Master isolated images