Maximizing points and miles on back-to-school shopping

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with the latest offers.

With school starting again, it's time for you to stock up on back-to-school essentials.

Whether you're stocking up on notebooks and pencils for your middle schooler or looking for a new laptop to get you through hybrid college classes, these expenses can add up fast. Fortunately, there is no shortage of ways to make the most of this from a points and miles standpoint.

Continue reading for a look at our favorite strategies for maximizing your back-to-school purchases.

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Factors to consider

A couple of quick disclaimers before diving in: While some of the tips below are universally available, others are targeted or may vary depending on where you live, what cards you have or other factors. Keep in mind that some are stackable but others aren’t.

For example, you may not earn bonus miles through an airline shopping portal if you use a discount code not listed on the portal itself (additional details below). It’s important to do your research to determine which of them applies to each purchase you make.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the best ways to maximize your back-to-school purchases.

Credit card welcome bonuses

One of the quickest ways to boost your points and miles balances is by applying for a new travel rewards credit card. Many of these cards offer significant welcome bonuses after spending a certain amount of money in a given time frame, so if you’re expecting a decent chunk of purchases in the next few weeks, you might as well earn a big haul of points or miles.

We’ve even published a guide to the best travel rewards cards for families, and here are a few top options:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred Card: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.
• Citi Premier® Card: Earn 60,000 ThankYou points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first three months of account opening.

You could also look to pick up a card with a limited-time welcome offer or one offering a 100,000-point bonus. Just be sure you understand the various application restrictions for the major card issuers before applying, especially Chase’s notorious 5/24 rule.

Targeted: Earn up to 150,000 points via the CardMatch tool

One final suggestion: If you apply and are immediately approved, you may want to call the issuer and see if they’d be willing to expedite the delivery of the card. Some issuers do this automatically for premium cards, but many will simply mail the new card via standard mail in a plain white envelope, which generally takes 7-10 days.

Alternatively, if you need to shop ASAP, you could focus on cards that display your new account number upon approval.

Credit card bonus categories

Another great strategy for maximizing your back-to-school purchases is to ensure you’re utilizing bonus categories on cards currently in your wallet. There are a couple of cards that immediately come to mind along these lines:

Ink Business Cash Credit Card

The Ink Business Cash Credit Card offers 5% cash back on up to $25,000 of combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year. If your kids need pencils, crayons, markers or anything else in the “office supplies” category, visit your nearest Staples or Office Depot and pull this card out of your wallet.

Keep in mind that the cash-back points you earn can be combined with points earned from cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve to boost their value and enable them to be transferred to partners like Hyatt and United.

American Express® Gold Card

If you’re all about efficiency, consider picking up some school supplies on your next trip to the store. The American Express Gold Card offers 4 Membership Rewards points per dollar on your first $25,000 of purchases at U.S. supermarkets each calendar year (then 1 point per dollar). Based on TPG’s valuations, that’s a solid return of 8% — or even higher if you can leverage a sweet spot in the program.

Best cards for Amazon purchases

Let’s be real, we know how families really shop. If it’s on Amazon, that’s an easy way to check it off the list. In that case, the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature is great for 5% back at Amazon. But there are other great choices, too, such as the Chase Freedom Unlimited which earns 1.5% cash back on spending regarding of where you shop.

The information for the Amazon Prime Visa card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Unfortunately, many stores (especially clothing retailers) don’t typically fall into the common bonus categories, so your best bet is to either use a new card to work toward a welcome bonus or use a card that offers a solid return on everyday (non-bonus) spending.

However, maximizing your earnings may not always be the best bet.

Credit card protection

If you’re looking to make a large purchase like a computer or tablet for your kid(s), you may want to consider a card that, while suboptimal from an earning perspective, offers stronger protections for those purchases. Four major perks would apply to these purchases:

• Purchase protection: This covers eligible purchases against loss, damage and/or theft within the first few months. Many cards offer this particular benefit automatically, so check out our guide to the best cards for purchase protection for additional details.
• Extended warranty: Many products come with a published manufacturer’s warranty, but it seems like things always go wrong right after they expire. However, if you use the right credit card for purchasing these products, you’ll typically get an extra year or two of coverage for no charge. Once again, we have a guide to cards with extended warranties, so check that out for more information.
• Return protection: While hopefully a rare occurrence, there may be times when a merchant doesn’t allow you to return an item, at which point this coverage will kick in, typically covering claims up to 90 or even 120 days after purchase.
• Price protection: This allows you to obtain a refund for eligible items if you find a lower price within a certain time window after purchase. Many restrictions apply, though, and this benefit is being scaled back (or even ended) by issuers like Chase and Citi due to huge increases in claim numbers.

With each of these perks, the details vary from card to card and issuer to issuer, including how long you have to submit claims, the amount of coverage provided and excluded items. Be sure to carefully check your policy to make sure you’re protected.

Related: Best credit cards for purchase protection

Online shopping portals

Getting back to the earning side of the equation, another way to make the most of your purchases is by going through an online shopping portal.

By starting at these sites and then clicking through to a specific store (rather than visiting the store directly), you’ll be eligible for bonus earnings on top of the regular credit card points or miles you’d earn for the purchase. These portals fit into a few different categories:

• Cash back: Sites like Rakuten and Top Cashback give you cash back for shopping at hundreds of retailers.
• Airline miles: Many large carriers (including Alaska, American, Delta, Southwest and United) partner with popular retailers to offer bonus miles on purchases. You may even find a specific back-to-school bonus on certain sites.
• Hotel points: Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards are two major hotel programs with their own online shopping portals.
• Credit card points: You can earn bonus points with Chase, Barclays and Wells Fargo while shopping at many popular sites.

Our recommendation is to start with an online shopping portal aggregator like Cashback Monitor to compare the various earning rates across the different sites before choosing which would be best.

Keep in mind that going through an online shopping portal can be stacked with category bonuses that you’d receive on the card anyway. For example, at the time of writing, Staples is offering up to 3 JetBlue TrueBlue points (a 3.9% return based on TPG valuations) when you click through via the JetBlue shopping portal.

This is in addition to the 5% cash back you’d earn on office supply purchases if you paid with the Ink Business Cash Credit Card. And as noted earlier, if you also have the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred Card, this is the equivalent of earning 5 Ultimate Rewards points and 3 JetBlue TrueBlue points per dollar spent. Based on TPG’s most recent valuations, that’s a return of up to 18% on your back-to-school purchases.

Related: Maximizing shopping portals for your online purchases

Amex Offers

Another option for discounts or enhanced bonuses is the Amex Offers program.

This is available to all personal and small-business Amex cards, including The Platinum Card® from American Express and Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. Unlike the strategies mentioned above, Amex Offers tend to be targeted, so you probably have a unique set of offers in your account.

The information for the Hilton Aspire Amex card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

For any offers that apply to online purchases, you can normally still click through a shopping portal and earn bonus points, since the credit or bonus points are typically given directly to you by American Express. The portal won’t have any idea that there’s an Amex Offer associated with your purchase — just make sure to read and understand the full terms of the offer to make sure it applies.

Related: Your ultimate guide to Amex Offers

Discount codes and offers

A final way to save this back-to-school season is through the old-fashioned coupon. You may see some mailers come to your house with these offers, but it’s even easier online, as chances are that there is some type of promo code for you to find. Some may be advertised on the retailer’s homepage, while others might be listed on the shopping portal merchant page.

For instance, you’ll find this one for Staples through the American AAdvantage eShopping site:

Some stores may give you a one-time discount code for signing up for their loyalty program, like Bed Bath & Beyond:

Finally, a quick Google search for “(Insert store name here) promo code” will yield results on sites like CouponCabin and RetailMeNot.

The big disclaimer here is that most shopping portals include exclusions like this when you click through to a retailer’s site: “Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site.”

Despite this clear, unambiguous language, you may find the actual enforcement of this restriction to be hit or miss and may still earn bonus points or miles. Just be prepared to miss out if you use a code not listed on the shopping portal.

Related: Food delivery promo codes to save you money

Bottom line

Getting your kids ready to go back to school can be a stressful and expensive proposition, but it doesn’t have to be.

By carefully strategizing with credit cards, online shopping portals and other methods for discounts or bonuses, you may find yourself closer to your post-pandemic vacation than you thought. The TPG team already uses these strategies to maximize our everyday purchases, so there’s no reason you can’t use them to make the most of your back-to-school shopping.

Additional reporting by Nick Ewen and Andrew Kunesh.