Wow shopping the smart way has definitely gotten more complicated. But if you really want to do this effectively, a few short words on how to make sure you are taking the most advantage of the various discount programs:
- Use Chrome or Firefox. Sadly until Safari supports extensions properly you can’t install the ones you need
- Install the critical shopping ones to install are Camelcamelcamel which tracks prices, Fakespot.com which gives you the true non-spammed reviews on Amazon and Best Buy, Honey which automatically applies coupons for you and Progressive Shopper so you know who you are supporting.
- With this in mind, when you want to buy something, go to Amazon.com and then make sure you set Fakespot to look at the real reviews and it will get injected onto the Amazon page.
- Then click on the camelcamelcamel icon to see the price history and set a price watch if it looks like it might drop later and you don’t need it right away.
- Finally when you do buy, Honey will popup and try some coupons.
Enable Quarterly Bonuses and Offers
Here it’s important to sign up for something like The Points Guy or Doctor Of Credit who monitors the various promotions that are being run. For instance in Q4 2020 we have:
- Discover. They have a 5% cashback for purchase made on Amazon up to $1500. I normally keep track of total purchases in a TRello card.
- Chase Freedom. 5x points for Paypal purchases up to $1,500. This stacks nicely with Best Buy which allows Paypal checkout.
- American Express. They are running a targeted promotions where the first $500 you spend at Amazon is 5x points.
Cashback Monitor
Finally not for Amazon, but for sites like Best Buy or Adorama, check cashbackmonitor.com to see if they have any promotions. This is another reason to use Chrome as Safari sometimes prevents this kind of tracking.
