Before you ever purchase anything online you should always consider going through a shopping portal. That’s because you can earn extra miles and points for your normal purchases so there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t do it.
But it can be difficult to find the best cash back rates because there are so many options.
That’s when Evreward comes in.
What is Evreward?
Evreward is a website that scours the web to find you the best cash back deals being offers by more than 40 leading cash back, frequent traveler, savings reward and points programs.
In total, their directory includes over 20,000 rewards for over 10,000 online stores.
They also bring you over 10,000 coupons from some very popular stores so that you can combine your rewards with extra savings.
Here are some examples of shopping portals:
- Citi Bonus Cash
- Discover
- Ebates
- Mr. Rebates
- Upromise
- Barclaycard
- Ultimate Rewards
- Plenti Points
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- Amtrak
- British Airways
- Choice Privileges
- Delta SkyMiles
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Hilton Honors
- JetBlue ShopTrue
- Marriott Rewards
- Southwest
- Spirit Airlines
- United Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
If you want to find out more details about a couple of these portals you can check out my articles on the Chase Shopping Portal and the Southwest Shopping Portal.
Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!
How does Evreward work?
There are various ways that you can use Evreward.
The home page
Once you’re taken to the home page you can search for stores directly in the main search box.
So you can type in stores like Apple, Target, Amazon, etc.
If you click on browse, you can view some of the top shopping deals from various stores.
Browse by specific categories
You can also browse through specific categories like:
- Apparel
- Computers & Electronics
- Home & Living
- Flowers & Gifts
Here’s what you’ll see if you click on Apparel.
And here’s what you can expect from some popular stores.
Macy’s
When you click on a merchant you can first see the Coupons section.
As you can see, various coupons might be available at the top. You should be able to see the discount amount and the expiration date for that coupon.
They also display the promo code and have a link that will take you directly to the retailer.
If you scroll down to the bottom, you can see if more deals are available.
Best Buy
Ebay
Home Depot
The alternative: Cash Back Monitor
There are other sites similar to Evreward.
In fact, I would highly suggest checking our Cash Back Monitor to ensure that you see the cash back rates for the most amount of portals as possible. (See my full review here.)
For example, when I searched for Wal-Mart in Evreward I saw the following cash back rates:
- Citi
- Discover
- Ebates
- Mr. Rebates
But when I searched for Wal-Mart via CashBackMonitor I saw all of the following cash back rates:
So clearly CashBackMonitor can be much more comprehensive, depending on the type of rewards you’re looking to earn. You can see all of the rewards portals for CashBackMonitor here.
Cashback Monitor also has the Cashback Monitor Bookmarklet that enables you to quickly jump to Cashback Monitor page from the store you are visiting. It’s a convenient way to view all the reward information for that store with a quick, single click.
Another option that you might want to look into is Cashbackholic.
Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!
How do these shopping portals work?
Shopping portals are set up to reward their members for shopping and they are built with a two-tiered commission structure.
First, the portals are paid paid commissions the by retailers when they refer business to them. So, for example, when you purchase something at Sears when using the Southwest Shopping Portal, Sears will pay out a commission to Southwest’s portal.
The rewards program then gives a portion of that commission back to you, either in the form of cash back rebates, frequent flier miles, loyalty points, or other incentives.
So in the example above, the Southwest portal would then pay you in Rapid Rewards.
So everybody gets to benefit.
Are the prices and products the same?
The prices and products available on the websites are the same since you’re visiting the same website. So someone using a shopping portal for Macy’s would see the same products and prices as someone not using the shopping portal.
The only thing you have to watch out for is that some coupons in promo codes will not work when you shop through a shopping portal.
So in some limited cases, you may not want to use the shopping portal and you would rather shop directly with the store.
Preparing to use the portal
Before you ever even access the portal, there are a few things you should consider doing to decrease the odds of your purchase not tracking properly.
Clear your shopping cart
If you’ve already been browsing online with the merchant and dropping items into your shopping cart here and there, you might want to remove those items first. (After you click through the portal and get back on the merchant’s website later on, you can add those items back.) This is not necessary all the time but many people choose to do it out of precaution.
Turn ad blockers off
Make sure your ad blocker is off before you access the portal. This could prevent necessary pop-ups from showing or interfere with your tracking.
Enable cookies and javascript
Make sure you have enabled cookies and javascript. Some people also like to clear their cookies before they access the portal but you could also just use an incognito browser to do the trick.
Also, you might want to disable your browser toolbars so that they don’t interfere with your tracking.
Verify the earning rates
Sometimes sites like these can have outdated information. In fact, it’s happened to me on numerous occasions.
So always be sure to check the earning rate on the portal’s page before proceeding.
Final word
Evreward is a good website to use to search for the latest cash back rates and points earnings for various portals. You’ll be able to find the top earning portals along with a lot of discounts you can use to save you money. But you might want to consider using CashBackMonitor as well to ensure that you’re going to find the most lucrative rates.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.