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In Canada, there are several portals where you can earn rewards for your online purchases that you can’t get in physical stores.
The best known are:
Through these portals, you can earn cash back, Aeroplan points, Scene+ points, AIR MILES or Flying Blue miles. And you’ll discover an interesting technique for buying gift cards !
Before you can earn rewards for your online purchases through these various online portals, you need to understand how they work.
Many brands like Amazon, Gap or The Bay are looking to attract customers to their online stores. To do this, they work with partners like AIR MILES, Aeroplan, or Rakuten, paying them a commission for each customer they refer.
Then, once your purchase has been confirmed, AIR MILES, Aeroplan, or Rakuten will give you back a portion of the commission they received in the form of a reward (AIR MILES miles, Aeroplan points, or cash back with Rakuten).
The common rule: your shopping basket must be empty in the online store BEFORE you proceed via one of these portals. Otherwise, the business will consider that these portals didn’t contribute to bringing you in as a customer! And you won’t get your reward (since they won’t have received any commission for the sale).
Therefore, it’s important to go through the portal’s website! Buying directly from Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart or your favourite retailer won’t work.
Many of these portals offer a Chrome extension to use in your Chrome browser as a reminder to activate the affiliation when you are on a partner retailer’s site.
Rakuten.ca is an online shopping portal offering cash back.
By going through this portal BEFORE shopping at participating online retailers, you can earn a percentage of cash back on your purchases.
Signing up via our referral link gives you a $30 credit!
https://www.rakuten.ca/r/milesopedia
There are often promotions to earn more cash back for purchases at the many retailers listed on Rakuten.ca. Sometimes, it is also possible to combine cash back with promotional codes available on Rakuten Canada.
This can rise to 10% or even 20% during special events like Black Friday!
However, pay careful attention to the product categories involved for each online retailer.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for promotional percentages to vary. At Best Buy, for example, the special conditions state that no cash back is offered on purchases of:
It’s the same with Amazon.ca; you need to take a close look at the cashback accumulation rates by category, which are indicated on the Rakuten Canada page dedicated to Amazon.
Scene+ and Rakuten are partners, and you can now link your accounts to get the equivalent payout of your cashback in Scene+ points. This becomes interesting as Scene+ members who use Rakuten often benefit from exclusive and higher cashback offers.
However, you will no longer be able to purchase gift cards via Rakuten after linking your account with Scene+.
Remember to register with Rakuten via Milesopedia first (to benefit from the $30 welcome bonus) before linking your accounts!
Rakuten Canada is a great place to earn cash back on online purchases. But it’s also a great place to buy gift cards from a wide range of retailers!
By purchasing gift cards via the Rakuten.ca site (not accessible from the mobile application or to Scene+ members who have linked their account with Rakuten), it is possible to earn cash back.
More importantly, it’s a crafty way to use an American Express card in stores that don’t accept them (although this has changed for most IGAs recently).
In fact, you can pay for your gift cards with Mastercard, Visa and Paypal, which takes American Express! Some gift cards will be sent by post, while many can be received electronically and used instantly.
Please note that the discount obtained on your credit card for the purchase of a gift card via Rakuten.ca will be that of the basic category. Therefore, it is not considered a grocery purchase, even if you buy a grocery gift card.
So choose the credit card that earns the most points or cash back in any category.
Still, it’s a convenient way to earn rewards with your American Express card without changing grocery stores. American Express cards are accepted at Métro and Super C, and most IGA stores. Or to unlock a welcome bonus!
If you do your grocery shopping at Metro or Super C, it’s best to use the American Express Cobalt® Card or the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card directly. These are among the best credit cards to use for groceries.
The Aeroplan eStore is the online shopping portal of the Aeroplan loyalty program. By using this portal BEFORE shopping at partner online stores, you can earn at least 1 Aeroplan point per dollar spent.
There are often promotions where you canearn additional Aeroplan points for purchases at stores listed on the eBoutique.
This can range from 2x to 10x points and even more. At various times of the year, such as public holidays, or around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there are interesting promotions at the eBoutique.
These promotions can concern:
To earn even more Aeroplan points on your purchases, you’ll need an Aeroplan-linked credit card available from American Express, CIBC or TD!
Here are some cards that offer a different accumulation:
On occasion, Aeroplan co-branded credit cards offer additional bonus points on purchases made through the eStore, allowing you to double up and quickly multiply your points on every dollar spent.
There is a shopping portal offering Flying Blue miles for your online shopping with partners such as Apple, Indigo, Nike, Sephora, etc.
For your first purchase on the portal, you can earn 500 Flying Blue Miles.
It works in a similar way to other online shopping portals: you log in to the portal, choose the merchant you’re interested in and click on the corresponding link.
Make sure your shopping cart is empty before you do this!
Please note that Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard® holders also have dedicated offers (inCard and eShop) to earn more Flying Blue Miles through their purchases.
Club Boomerang is the online shopping portal launched by François Charron.
By using this portal BEFORE you store at partner online stores, you can earn cash back and coupons for discounts.
Here’s how to take advantage of it:
To double dip and save even more, pay for your purchases with a cash back credit card like the CIBC Dividend® Visa Infinite* Card!
By subscribing to one of the KOHO Essential, Extra or Complete packages, you’ll benefit from access to an online shopping platform integrated directly into your KOHO application, allowing you to receive up to 50% cash back on your purchases!
Simply look at the offers available directly in the KOHO app before you make your purchase, to find out how to get the extra cash back. Once you’ve completed your purchase, you’ll receive your cash back within 30 to 60 days.
The KOHO online shopping portal features over 1,000 brands, some of which offer up to 50% cash back.
airmilesshops.ca is the online shopping portal for the AIR MILES Loyalty Program.
By using this portal BEFORE shopping at online partner stores, you can earn 1 mile / $20 on your purchases.
However, it is possible to earn more AIR MILES miles through various promotions:
On a regular basis, AIR MILES miles collectors receive promotions allowing them to earn a fixed number of AIR MILES miles after a certain amount of purchases at airmilesshops.ca.
Like in this example: 95 AIR MILES miles after an initial purchase of $20 on Amazon via airmilesshops.ca .
Regularly, AIR MILES partner stores offer mileage accumulation promotions via a multiplier.
For example, if it says you’ll earn 5 X the miles, that means:
Which means 5 miles/$20 of purchases.
Knowing that 1 mile = $0.105, 5 miles = $0.53.
This gives a cash return of 2.6% in this example ($0.53 / $20).
Sometimes, AIR MILES also offers a multiplier on the entire airmilesshops.ca portal.
The multiplier offered by the retailer and that offered by airmilesshops are added to the basic offer:
In the example above with Altitude Sports, if it says you’ll win:
This gives you a total of 5 x + 11 x = 16 x miles.
This means that:
That’s 16 miles / $20 in purchases.
Knowing that 1 mile = $0.105, 16 miles = $1.68.
This gives a cash return of 8.4% in this example ($1.68 / $20).
Here’s another example.
For a $120 purchase at The Bay, with a multiplier of 3 X for The Bay, and 20 X on the entire airmileshop site:
Then, we add up:
For a grand total of 138 miles earned on a $120 purchase, or 23 X miles! This has a value of approximately $14.50 (or 12%).
To earn even more AIR MILES miles on your purchases, your best choice is to use a credit card linked to the AIR MILES program!
Here are two cards with different earning rates:
When you make a purchase directly at an AIR MILES partner (Shell, Jean Coutu, IGA, etc), the accumulation is even more generous:
By using online shopping portals at key times such as back-to-school, Black Friday for Christmas shopping or other promotional events to make major purchases such as a cell phone or laptop, it’s possible to pick up a large number of rewards and cash back from your favorite retailers, without having to go to the store. With a little preparation, this kind of promotional event can become the ideal moment to multiply your rewards.
A discount is a reduction in the price of a good or service on a price previously offered to consumers.
You could opt for Aeroplan eStore, the online shopping portal of the Aeroplan loyalty program. Through this portal, you’ll earn at least 1 Aeroplan point per dollar spent. There are often promotions where you can earn additional Aeroplan points for purchases at stores listed on the eBoutique.
Several sites regularly offer discounts on travel, such as Air Transat, Air Canada Vacations, Cheaper Vacations, and Bergeron Travel.
Decathlon, Sephora, Lululemon, Adidas, Aldo, Simons, Gap, The Bay: you’ll find plenty of boutiques and brands on shopping portals like Rakuten and Aeroplan eStore.
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