How to Get 20X Amex Points per $ this Labor Day!

Hey, credit warriors, welcome to the show. And today I am going to show you how to get up to 20 Amex points per dollar or 20% cash back in the Labor Day sales. So this is for today and today only. You got to act fast. But first, if you are new, my name is Ben Hedges. We cover all things credit card related on this channel, trying to save you money and help you accumulate cash back and points that you could even use for luxury travel. So if you do like the sound of that, please subscribe for new videos every couple of days. So Rakuten.com is a website that allows you to earn extra cash back on your purchases just by first going to their site and then clicking through to one of your favorite merchants. Basically, they're just doing marketing for several stores and they're sharing a portion of that commission with you in the form of cash back. So here's an example. You go to Rakuten.com. I see Nike at 8% cash back. I click through and bam, I'm earning 8% cash back on all my online shopping at Nike. And on top of that, today they're having a Labor Day sale where stuff is up to 50% off. So you got two layers of deals going on there and you would still be earning points or cash back on whatever credit card you use as well. That's like three layers of deals already. Now, the really great thing about Rakuten, though, is that if you want, you can choose to earn Amex points instead of cash back. So every one cent that you would have earned in cash back becomes one Amex point. Now, I used to earn cash back just for flexibility, but I recently switched to points. And that's principally because I have the Charles Schwab Amex Platinum. And what that means is I can redeem points, Amex points into my Charles Schwab account at 1.1 cents per point. So I'm actually earning if I choose to redeem for cash back, I'm actually earning more cash back, 10% more than I would get through Rakuten redeeming as cash back through them. So actually, I get the best of both worlds because if I want, I can redeem them for cash back or I can use them as Amex points. And actually with Amex points, if you book premium cabins like business class and stuff, you can often get two, three, four, five, even six cents per point in value. So you can really rack up the value. They pay out your points and cash back once every quarter, which I would say is the only downside of Rakuten. But to be honest, you need a bit of time to build up a good cash back balance anyway. So perhaps it's not a big issue. And to earn Amex points, you obviously do need an Amex card that is set up for membership rewards points to transfer those points to. So cards like the platinum, the gold, or if you're looking for a card with no annual fee, the Amex everyday card would work too and has all the same transfer partners. But OK, let's now actually have a look at what is available on Rakuten this Labor Day. So you're going to go to Rakuten.com and I'll put the link to their site below. And by the way, you can get $30 bonus cash back or 3000 Amex points. However, you choose to redeem when you sign up through my link and make your first purchase. But once you get to Rakuten today, you'll see this 3x banner. You can click there on shop Labor Day or you can go up here to 3x stores and you'll see all the stores with increased cash back for Labor Day weekend. So you have Nike at 8%, which we mentioned. You've got Dell at 15%, Adidas at 15%, Macy's at 10% and a load of others. Going back to Dell, this is a good one. If you have the Amex business platinum, since you get a $200 Dell credit every six months so you can shop at Dell and 15% of 15 points per dollar back through Rakuten and get refunded up to $200 every six months. And I've tested this. Even though you're getting refunded through the credit, you get to keep your points or cash back, whatever you've earned through Rakuten. You can also do this with the Saks Fifth Avenue credit on the personal Amex platinum. That's $50 every six months. I had a look today, though, and unfortunately, Saks is not participating in Labor Day. They're just offering 2% cash back, which I think is what they normally offer. Normally we see Saks offering some pretty good rates on Black Friday. But at the beginning of the video, I did say that you could earn up to 20 Amex points per dollar slash 20% cash back. And the store that you can earn that at would be at smart. Check that out. 20%. Now, I know that store isn't going to be for everyone, since if you don't have a pet, you're not going to go there. OK, but you guys can go to Rakuten and just have a look and see what's on offer. There's probably a load of stores that I didn't mention in this video. There's actually thousands of stores on there, many of which are offering extra cash back this Labor Day or even just good cash back rates at regular times. And don't forget, you can get a $30 cash bonus or 3000 Amex points when you sign up through my link and make your first purchase. But hey, you don't have to sign up through my link. If you have friends that use Rakuten, you can help them out as well, since they'll get a commission for referring you. So reach out to your friends for a referral link. But my link below is there for you anyway, just in case you don't have any friends. I mean, that sounded wrong, didn't it? You know what I mean. All right, guys, please subscribe if you're new. We'll see you next time.