Cashback Monitor Does the Research For You
All year I’ve been showing you various websites and apps which can either save or earn you cash back on purchases you’re already making. I’ve decided to close out the year with this website: Cashback Monitor. They do the research for you to help you decide your best deals when shopping online.
- What is it?
- The Site
- Cashback Tab
- Travel Miles/Points Tab
- Credit Card Points Tab
- Other Reward Points Tab
- My Monitor Tab
- Combine
- Example
- Final Thoughts
What is Cashback Monitor?
Everyone loves a deal, but did you know you can save even more with purchases online? Earlier this year I discussed shopping portals like Rakuten, Swagbucks, and Ibotta. If you purchase a product through the websites or apps of these companies, you earn a specified amount back and they earn an affiliate commission.
In order to figure out which site or app is going to give you the most back on your purchase, you’d have to log in to each one and see what the deal is for your chosen retailer. Most people don’t have time or interest to do this.
This is where Cashback Monitor comes in.
Think of Cashback Monitor’s website like a portal, or an informational savings dashboard. They do the research for you. It’s not just apps like the ones I talked about throughout the year, either. This website also looks at credit card points and travel miles, so you can earn a variety of rewards through your purchases.
The wonderful people at Cashback Monitor look at all of this for you and update regularly. From the main screen, you can see the time of the most recent information update.
As of writing this post, Cashback Monitor currently provides information for 50 Rewards Portals, and I’ve never even heard of many of them. If you want us to research these portals and report back like we did throughout 2020, let us know in the comments.
The Site
Check out the site, and you can go between tabs or windows to look at it as we go if you like.
For the purpose of this post and to show the most information, I’m going to be showing the site as it would appear on a computer vs tablet or mobile.
When you bring up the site, you will first see a search bar. We are going to skip that at the moment, and save it for the example below.
Underneath that though, you’ll see five tabs:
- Cashback
- Travel Miles/Points
- Credit Card Points
- Other Reward Points
- My Monitor
Cashback Tab
Here, 24 different portals are monitored, almost half of all portals.
Most if not all of these sites and program operate similarly. They make deals with the retails that if you shop that retailer through their website, you’ll earn a predetermined percentage back on your purchase. You can then cash out, or receive your payment either once you hit a specified amount back or on a schedule.
Portals we’ve reviewed:
Travel Miles/Points Tab
Fifteen travel portals are monitored here, covering most of the popular airlines, in addition to Amtrak and Caesars Rewards amongst others.
Most people are familiar with the concept of travel credit cards. Many credit cards have offers where you can earn travel miles when you sign up for their card and spend a specified amount within a specified time. Another way to earn miles is through regular purchases while you are a cardholder with that company. You then redeem those travel miles for airline tickets or travel related expenses like car rentals, Uber, and more. There are many advantages to these cards if you are smart with them. We will cover the ins and outs of that another day.
Another way to earn miles without a specific credit card is through a travel portal website.
For example, United Airlines has the United MileagePlus Explorer credit card. With the card, you can earn travel miles like I mentioned above, through purchases and deals upon sign up. If you don’t want the card for that specific airline, but you do travel with them, you can use your Frequent Flyer or traveler number. For United that is your MileagePlus number. You can log in through their shopping portal to discover deals and discounts available to you as a member of that airline. In return, you also earn miles you can redeem later for travel expenses. This is another topic which deserves a post of its own.
Credit Card Points Tab
Just five portals are monitored here, three of which are via Chase.
Like with travel miles, credit card companies offer points at signup, spending a certain amount in a certain time, and for your everyday purchases. You can redeem these points for a credit on your account, credit towards partnering retailers, or transfer to partnering travel companies for miles or hotel credits.
Other Reward Points Tab
The “Other Rewards Points” tab monitors 6 different portals. These programs operate a bit differently than the previous three so they have their own category instead of being lumped in with the Cashback category.
Much like the Cashback portals, they use cookies and make deals with the retailers. If you log onto a retailer’s site through one of these portals and make a purchase, in a month or so you’ll earn a predetermined percent back that you can redeem later.
Portals we’ve reviewed:
My Monitor Tab
The final tab is the “My Monitor” tab. You’ll need to log in to access this tab.
Here, you can select up to eight portals and 20 stores to monitor on a regular basis. It’s kind of like your favorites tab.
This is helpful for when you want to just check your favorites immediately, Or the only programs you use, cards you have, or airlines you wish to travel with. Or for any other reason.
Combining Offers
If you have a credit card that works with one of the stores or categories of stores, you can combine offers.
Because of cookies, you can’t login to the retailer of your choice with both Rakuten and Swagbucks and earn points at each portal. It won’t work that way. You’ll need to choose one. But, with the cards, you don’t really need to log in through the card.
If that type of retailer, or the retailer itself is already an added deal with your card company, you shouldn’t have to do any more. Choose the Cashback or Other Rewards portal which will give you the best return. Login to the retailers site through that portal and start shopping.
This should yield a cashback option through your chosen portal, and reward points through your card. Where this may not work is through the Travel tab options. Especially if you are using the United card to try to shop through the United portal. You may only get one of the rewards in that instance.
Example Shopping Trip with Cashback Monitor
To make this easier to understand, I’m going to do a walk through. Say you’ve been eyeing up these Fendi Sunglasses.
Saks Fifth Avenue happens to have them on sale right now.
- Head to Cashback Monitor’s website.
- Use the search bar to find Saks Fifth Avenue and hit enter or select the search button.
- The next screen will show you the top rebates from each portal.
Lets expand on that results window.
You’ll see I’ve circled Rakuten in the Cashback Portal column and Chase United Rewards in the Credit Card Points Portal You should be able to click on the Rakuten link which will take you to your account. From there select Saks and find the sunglasses. Because you are shopping on the Saks website through Rakuten they will monitor that purchase and reward you 10% on your purchase ($28.20). Use your Chase Freedom card to earn 2 points per dollar spent. This would be 564 points or $5.64.
If this all works out, this essentially comes to $33.84 cash back. Though it is split between an amount from Rakuten to arrive at the end of the current quarter, and Chase Freedom points to be redeemed at whatever time they can be, it’s still cash back.
If you don’t have a Rakuten account, you could earn another $10 back on this purchase by signing up for one.
HOWEVER….
Using our referral code will get you $20 back instead of $10 on any purchase over $20 within 90 days of signing up.
The Math
That then brings you to $53.64 off of the sale price of $282.
The original price is $470.
So when you combine the sale difference from Saks of $188, the $28.20 back from Rakuten, a $20 bonus from Rakuten for signing up and $5.64 back in credit on your Chase Freedom Card, you get a total discount of $241.84. Subtract that from the original retail price of the sunglasses and you have a final price of $228.16, 48% of the original price.
You can save even more with Groupon! Purchase a Groupon to save on a product or service, and earn money back through one of the portals. Right now you can earn back up to 12% with iConsumer and 4pts per dollar with your Chase Freedom card. You can also do the same with Raise.com where you can purchase gift cards to your favorite stores for a discount.
Final Thoughts
I think this is a fantastic site. It does the research for you. With so many of us shopping online now, why not get as much back as possible?
You don’t hear much about Cashback Monitor, and even a YouTube search yields only two videos. One from Cashback Monitor themselves, the other from a smaller channel with not many views.
If you really want to get the most for your money, this is a site you should add to your bookmarks. Sign up for the cashback programs (I recommend Rakuten and Swagbucks), and get to saving. If you are looking to earn travel points for a future trip, check out the variety of travel cards and travel points portals listed. As I review the portals that Cashback Monitor keeps an eye on, I’ll update this post.
There are so many savings possibilities with Cashback Monitor. There are also so many ways to use the site to find the deals that work best for you. You can monitor the best rate history of a store and try to analyze when a big deal may be approaching. Check out the best rate history for Groupon here.
Have you used this site? Are you a member of any cashback rebate sites? Let us know!