Which Shopping Portal Should You Use for Apple Purchases?

With the new 2018 iPhone releases, a lot of people will be making large Apple purchases soon.

Which shopping portal is best? You can find all the options on Cashbackmonitor:

There is a major difference between the cashback portals and the mileage/bank portals: the cashback portals only offer cashback on things like accessories and reburbished products, not on new iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watchs, AirPods, HomePod and Bose products.

On the other hand, mileage and bank portals DO pay out on new iPhones, iPads, Macs, etc. So for any purchase like that, be sure to use a mileage or bank portal, such as Discover, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Southwest, United, etc.

Unfortunately, the portals have added terms to exclude the new 2018 iPhone releases from earning portal rewards:

 

The terms were not there on September 14th when the devices became available for preorder, but they’ve added the exclusion now. Hopefully, they payout for purchases made before the terms were added.

Interestingly, the Drop app has Apple as a portal option with 2% back in Drop points, and they don’t have the updated terms to exclude the new iPhone. Good chance it’s just an oversight, but I guess it can’t hurt to use Drop if you’re ordering a new iPhone. Update 10/11/18: I now see they added the iPhone XR and Apple Watch 4 exclusions.

 

Update 10/16/18: iPhone XS products are now included on most portals. Only XR and Apple Watch 4 are still excluded.  (Discover still excludes XS.)
    Chuck
  • On October 16, 2018, 15:30

View Comments (59)

  • Just came across this post and wanted to add a comment in the good old days of discover deals with the first year double cash back discover had a tendency to pay out cashback for everything regardless of restrictions so even excluding the 2018 iPhone if you used discover there was a good chance you would get your cashback effectively 10% in the first year

    Rest in peace discover deals

  • Slightly off topic, but how do you make these comparisons like the graphic in this post? Would love to be able to do that for any store and get up-to-date info.

    • I just screenshotted Cashbackmonitor. I assume it's possible to create something like that with various programs like Powerpoint, though it's not something I'm adept at.

  • I used to chase the portal deals when buying directly from Apple, but recently I've had better success (read: higher total % off) by buying discounted Apple GCs on Cardpool, Raise, etc. with a 2% cashback CC and then buying the Apple products I want with those GCs.

    Apple gift cards can be tricky to get since they sell out in seconds it seems (on Cardpool at least) but when I get them, it's been better for me than the portals.

  • DP: At the beginning of September, I purchased a 2018-mid macbook pro on Apple's educational page (through the British Airway shopping portal). I customized the high-performance CPU and chose in-store picking up in Delaware. Eventually, I didn't receive any BA miles. What's the reason of missing miles? New model, customed CPU, educational page, or store picking up?

    • read the small print. maybe you added an ineligible product to the MacBook. or ADDED a coupon by using the educational page.

  • With the gift card trick, you’re foregoing the extra warranty by purchasing with a Gift card. For a large purchase such as an iPhone or Mac I’d much rather have the extra warranty coverage. I guess if you buy Apple care it doesn’t matter.

    Amex Business good rewards gives 3x at Apple if you select computer hardware as your 3x category. Can stack that with an airline portal.

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