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Shopping through online portals can be a great way to boost a loyalty account balance, save some cash, or to prevent a loyalty balance from expiring. Right now a number of shopping portals are offering improved earnings rates for purchases made with Apple so this may be a good time to buy any Apple products you have been considering.
I generally use the evreward.com site to check which sites are offering the best earnings rate at whatever store(s) I’m planning to shop at and this is what’s on offer right now:
These deals aren’t quite as good as the deals we saw a few months ago, but they’re definitely still worth considering if you’re in the market for an Apple device.
For the purposes of comparison, Rakuten is currently only offering up to 2% cashback and TopCashBack.com (which evrewards doesn’t cover) is offering up to 4% cashback.
The more important terms
The key thing to be aware of is the fact that not all Apple purchases will trigger enhanced earnings.
Per the terms and conditions (which you’ll find on the individual airline portals) the following items will not earn up to 4 miles/dollar:
- MacBook Pro M1 Pro and M1 Max
- 14-inch and 16-inch, iPad (9th generation)
- All-new iPad mini
- Apple Pro Display XDR
- Gift cards
- Gift wrap
- Apple Developer Programs
- Shipping
The good news is that purchases of the iPhone 13 and the iPad Air both continue to earn up to 4 points or miles/dollar.
Having said that, there are a few other restrictions you should know about too:
- You may not purchase products for resale
- Customers will only earn miles on up to five units per eligible product, except iPhone, in which case only two units within a thirty-day period are eligible.
- Using a coupon or discount code not found on the portal will invalidate the mileage earning
- Orders purchased on the Government or Veterans and Military Stores are not eligible for rewards.
- Purchases made with a gift card may be ineligible.
Which credit card to use
By shopping through an online portal you’ll earn the miles that the portal is offering and you can earn more miles, points, or cash back by using a good credit card.
If you’re looking to earn a good rate of cash back, the Citi® Double Cash card is a very good option as it earns 2% cash back on all purchases with no cap on the cash back you can earn(1% cash back when you buy and 1% when you pay for those purchases)
If you happen to hold one of the Citi ThankYou points earning credit cards you can convert cash back earned from the Citi® Double Cash card (review) into ThankYou points at a ratio of 1:1.
If you’re looking to earn points, the best credit card to use will be the fantastic no-annual-fee Blue Business Plus® Credit Card from American Express (review) which earns 2 Membership Rewards Points/dollar on all spending (everywhere) up to a spending limit of $50,000 (terms apply).
Bottom line
There is no obvious end date for this deal on any of the portals but I’m reliably informed that this deal is for today only (most good Apple points deals only last a day). If you’ve been planning to make an Apple purchase (and it’s a purchase that isn’t excluded in the portal terms and conditions) now may be a good time to buy.
Note: Amazon is currently offering some good deals on Apple products (like Apple Watch – see here) so make sure you’re not missing out on good savings by shopping with Apple directly via the portals.
