Earn Points on Your Holiday Spending
You know how important it is to have a good credit score or to improve it, which starts with responsible credit card management. With the holiday season quickly approaching, you’re likely looking for ways to save on your spending, including shopping, gifts, and meals. But what if you could take advantage of this time of year to earn points on your holiday spending? In this article, we share the best tips to help you earn points and cash back faster.
Optimize Your Restaurant Expenses
The holiday season is a time when we gather with family and friends, whether at home or at a restaurant.
Do what I do for your holiday spending: offer to pay the bill on your credit card, and ask everyone to give you their share in cash, Interac transfer or cheque. Not many people are points hunters… but you are! It’s a great way to earn points on your holiday spending.
The American Express Cobalt® Card is a flexible card that allows for fast point accumulation at restaurants and grocery stores, with its 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent. If your restaurant bill is $100, you will get 500 Membership Rewards points (100% x 5 points)!
But there are also other excellent choices of credit cards for restaurants, such as:
- National Bank World Elite Mastercard (5 points/dollar spent)
- TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card (6 points/dollar spent)
- and the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card (5 points/dollar spent)
Find out more:
| Credit card | Annual fee | Welcome offer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| $191.88 | |||
| $0 | |||
| $0 | |||
| $0 |
Earn Points by Buying Gift Cards
Buying gift cards with a credit card is a great opportunity to earn and accumulate more points on your holiday spending. Generally, gift cards can be used strategically in three ways:
- Give as a gift to a loved one
- Earn more points on your purchase.
- Reach the required spending level to unlock a credit card welcome bonus.
Gift Card – Give a Gift to a Loved One
More and more surveys indicate that people prefer to receive money rather than a gift. The gift card is therefore a happy medium, as we know the recipient likes a certain store… but we prefer to let them choose the gift they will truly like. And this allows you to earn points on your credit card by offering a gift card found at a grocery store, pharmacy, or gas station!
Gift Card – Earn Points for Spending at Other Stores
Your credit card often gives you more points in certain categories (for example, 5 points per dollar at grocery stores, but only 1 point per dollar everywhere else). The trick is to buy a gift card at the grocery store that gives more points instead of paying directly at the merchant that only gives the minimum.
Gift Card – Reach the Required Spending Level to Unlock a Welcome Bonus
When you get a new credit card, it often offers a large bonus if you spend a minimum amount in the first few months (for example: « Spend $3,000 in 3 months and get 80,000 points »). Buying gift cards helps you reach this amount faster.
Today, you buy a gift card from a store where you plan to make purchases you would have made anyway (grocery store, gas, restaurants, and other businesses).
While buying gift cards is a great way to earn points on your holiday spending, make sure to pay off your credit card balance before the due date.
Would you like to lighten your holiday spending instead? By opting for a cash back credit card like the CIBC Dividend® Visa Infinite* Card, you can get several hundred dollars back on your holiday spending by taking advantage of the welcome bonus.
- Annual fee
- $0 $120No annual fee the first year
- No annual fee the first year
- Our valuation
- $370Milesopedia first-year estimate First-year valueWelcome bonus$250Annual fee rebated$120Total$370Rewards on your spending are not included. The calculator that adds them from your own profile is on the card's page.
- Milesopedia first-year estimateFirst-year valueWelcome bonus$250Annual fee rebated$120Total$370Rewards on your spending are not included. The calculator that adds them from your own profile is on the card's page.
- Welcome offer
- Up to $250
- + First Year Annual Fee Rebate
on CIBC's website
Are you a Costco fan for savings? Double dip by using the welcome bonus of the CIBC Dividend® Visa Infinite* Card, which allows you to get up to 10% cash back in the first few months by using our tip for using a Visa credit card at Costco.
Best Credit Cards for Buying Gift Cards
The following three credit cards let you earn a significant amount of points or cash back not only during the holiday season, but also throughout the entire year:
- The Scotiabank Gold American Express Card: 5 Scene+ points per dollar at grocery stores and restaurants and 6 points per dollar at IGA/Sobeys!
- The TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card: 6 TD Rewards points per dollar at grocery stores, restaurants, and on public transit
- The National Bank World Elite Mastercard: 5 NBC Rewards points at grocery stores and restaurants
| Credit card | Annual fee | Welcome offer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0 | |||
| $0 | |||
| $120 |
Gift Card Ideas for the Holiday Season
There are countless possibilities offered by gift cards. Here is a short list of gift card ideas to earn points on your holiday spending and Black Friday:
- Entertainment : Apple, PlayStation Store, Xbox Live, Google Play, Roblox, Netflix, Steam, Facebook, Minecraft, Cineplex
- Home Improvement : Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Rona
- Gas : Esso, Petro-Canada, Shell, Irving
- Dining : Uber Eats, SAQ, Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Subway, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, DQ, Pizza Pizza, Baton Rouge, Scores, The Keg, Boston Pizza, Cora, M&M
- Stores : Walmart, HomeSense, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, American Eagle, L’Équipeur, Ardene, Golf Town, La Vie en Rose, La Senza, Simons, Amazon, Indigo
As you can see, there are plenty of gift card options for the holiday season or any other time of year! The list is long…
Maximize Your Online Shopping
For your online purchases, there’s a trick to getting even more rewards or cash back. To do this, you need to useonline shopping portals. They’re a great way to earn points for your holiday spending.
The best-known portals are:
- Rakuten (get $30 when you open a free account on Rakuten)
- Scene+ by Rakuten (get $30 by opening a free account on Rakuten)
- AIR MILES Airmilesshops.ca
- Aeroplan eStore
- Flying Blue Portal
- Avion Rewards
Let’s take the Aeroplan eStore as an example, which is a platform for Aeroplan members looking to earn points quickly. By going through this portal before shopping at over 250 merchants, you will get at least 1 Aeroplan point per dollar spent. You could then treat yourself and maximize buying an iPhone or a laptop, for example.
Keep an eye out during the holiday season! Cash back or point multipliers are common on online purchases, as are promotional offers. These even start in November, with Black Friday offers.
Bottom Line
In summary, the point hunt is well underway during the holiday season!
Of course, stick to your budget and practise responsible credit card management.
How do you earn points on your holiday spending?
You can take advantage of this time of year to earn and collect points with your holiday spending. Our top tips apply to your online purchases, as well as your grocery and restaurant expenses. Plus, buying gift cards and using online shopping portals can help you earn even more rewards.
What Would be a Christmas Gift Idea?
A gift card!
The trick is to use a credit card that offers a high multiplier in the « grocery » category. For example, if your card gives you 5 points per dollar at the grocery store versus 1 point per dollar elsewhere, favor this card for all your gift card purchases at the supermarket.
Do all Grocery Stores Sell Gift Cards as Christmas Gifts?
Most major grocery chains (Metro, IGA, Maxi, Super C, etc.) have a section dedicated to gift cards with a wide variety of brands: restaurants, popular stores, gas stations, entertainment, etc.
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