Holiday Shopping Guide: How to Earn Cashback (2025)

The holiday season is a time of giving, and for most American families, that means spending time together. We create budgets, make lists, and hunt for the best deals to make our loved ones happy. But what if there was a way to make every dollar you spend work a little harder for you? What if every gift you bought this year actually paid you back?

By using a combination of cashback apps, browser extensions, and the right credit cards, you can earn a percentage back on nearly every holiday purchase you make. Think of it as a mandatory discount on everything you buy. This blog is your 2025 guide to holiday shopping: how to earn hundreds in cashback.

Part I: The Cashback Toolkit – Your Must-Have Apps and Extensions

Before you can start earning, you need the right tools. Your cashback toolkit should include a mix of portals, browser extensions, and the right credit cards.

The Foundation: Cashback Portals & Browser Extensions

These are the digital gateways to your rewards. The concept is simple: retailers pay these portals a commission for sending customers their way, and the portals share a piece of that commission with you in the form of cashback. You just have to remember to use them.

How They Work:

Cashback Portals: First, visit the cashback website, search for the retailer you want to shop at (e.g., Target, Macy’s), and click their link. You are then redirected to the retailer’s site, and your shopping session is tracked. After you make a purchase, the cashback is credited to your account on the portal.
Browser Extensions: These are even easier. You install the extension in your web browser (such as Chrome or Safari). When you visit a participating retailer’s website, the extension will pop up and ask if you want to “activate” cashback. With one click, you’re earning rewards without having to start at the portal.

Top Picks for 2025:

Rakuten: This is the giant in the cashback world, partnered with thousands of stores. It’s reliable, user-friendly, and often offers sign-up bonuses. They pay out your earnings quarterly via check or PayPal.
Ibotta: While famous for grocery receipts, Ibotta has a robust online shopping portal within its app. It’s a great all-in-one tool for earning on everything from your Christmas ham to your kids’ toys.
TopCashback: This portal often boasts the highest cashback rates because it gives 100% of its commission back to the user. It’s a favorite among serious deal-seekers.
Capital One Shopping & Honey: These are browser extensions that do more than just offer cashback. They also automatically search for and apply the best coupon codes at checkout, saving you money in two ways.

The Next Level: Cashback Credit Cards

Using the right credit card is a great way to supercharge your earnings. By paying for your purchases with a cashback card, you earn rewards from your card in addition to the rewards you get from the cashback portal.

Types of Cards to Consider:

Flat-Rate Cards: These are the simplest to use. They offer a straightforward percentage back on every purchase, regardless of the category. Cards offering 1.5% to 2% back on everything are common and provide excellent, consistent value.
Rotating Category Cards: These cards offer a very high cashback rate (typically 5%) on specific categories that change every three months. During the holiday quarter (October to December), these categories often include major retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart, and Target, or general categories like “department stores.” This is an incredibly powerful way to maximize earnings on your biggest holiday purchases.
Store-Specific Cards: If you do the bulk of your shopping at one or two retailers, their co-branded credit card might be your best bet. The Amazon Prime Visa Signature Card, for example, offers 5% back on all Amazon purchases, while the Target RedCard offers 5% off at checkout.

The Golden Rule: A cashback credit card is only a money-saving tool if you pay the balance in full every month. The interest you pay on a carried balance will always be far higher than any cashback you could possibly earn.

Part II: The Playbook – Strategies for Maximum Cashback

Having the right tools is only half the battle. Using them strategically is how you turn a few dollars in savings into a few hundred.

The Triple Stack: The Holy Grail of Cashback

This is the expert-level strategy that separates casual savers from cashback masters. The triple stack involves layering three different types of rewards or discounts on a single purchase.

The Formula:

Layer 1 (The Portal): Begin your shopping session by clicking through a cashback portal, such as Rakuten, or by activating a browser extension like Honey.
Layer 2 (The Payment): Pay for your purchase using a cashback credit card that offers a high rewards rate for that retailer or category.
Layer 3 (The Loyalty Program): Ensure you are signed into the retailer’s own loyalty program (such as Target Circle or Macy’s Star Rewards) to earn points or additional discounts directly from the store.

A Real-World Example: Imagine you’re buying a $200 kitchen appliance from Macy’s for Christmas.

You start at Rakuten, which is offering 10% cashback at Macy’s for the holidays.
You pay with your rotating category credit card, which is offering 5% back at department stores this quarter.
You are signed into your Macy’s Star Rewards account, which earns you points on the purchase.

The Result: On that one $200 purchase, you’ve earned $20 from Rakuten and $10 from your credit card, for a total of $30 in cashback. You essentially just paid $170 for a $200 item, not including the store loyalty points you also earned. This is the power of stacking.

The Gift Card Gauntlet

This is a slightly more advanced but incredibly effective strategy for creating your own sale.

The Concept: You buy discounted gift cards from a third-party marketplace and then use those gift cards to make your final purchase. This allows you to stack savings in a different way.

How It Works:

Visit a reputable gift card marketplace, such as Raise or Gift Card Granny. These sites sell gift cards for less than their face value (e.g., a $100 gift card for a popular retailer might be on sale for $90).
Start your shopping session for the gift card itself through a cashback portal. Many portals offer cashback on purchases made at sites like Raise.
Pay for the discounted gift card with your rewards credit card.
Once you have the gift card, use it to make your final purchase at the retailer—ideally, after clicking through a cashback portal again for that retailer (though some stores don’t allow cashback on purchases made with a gift card, so always check the terms).

Even if you can only complete the first few steps, you are effectively buying a gift card for a double discount (the initial discount + the credit card rewards) before you even start shopping.

Activate and Track Your Rotating Categories

This is one of the most common mistakes people make. Many of the best rotating category credit cards require you to “activate” your 5% bonus categories each quarter. If you forget to do this, you’ll only earn the base rate of 1%.

The Solution: A Simple System

Set a Calendar Reminder: At the beginning of each quarter (January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1), set a recurring calendar reminder to “Activate Credit Card Categories.”
Know Your Cards: Make a small note in your wallet or on your phone of which card offers which bonus. For example: “Q4: Chase Freedom = Amazon, Discover it = Target.” This ensures you use the right card for the right purchase to maximize your 5% earnings.

Part III: Actionable Tips for the 2025 Holiday Season

Timing is everything. Planning your shopping around key dates and knowing which strategy to use can make a huge difference.

Create a Cashback Calendar

Cashback portals often offer massively increased rates during specific promotional periods. Planning your shopping around these events can double or even triple your earnings.

Key Dates to Mark on Your Calendar:

Black Friday/Cyber Monday: This is the Super Bowl of cash back. It’s common to see rates jump to 15% or even 20% at major retailers. If you have big-ticket items on your list, this is the time to buy them.
Cashback Day: Many portals now have their own promotional days. Rakuten, for example, has historically held a “Big Fat Check Day” where it offers some of its highest rates of the year, typically in early November.
Free Shipping Day: This day, usually in mid-December, is a great opportunity for last-minute shoppers. While the cashback rates may not be as high as those on Black Friday, stacking free shipping with a standard cashback rate is still a solid win.

Your 2025 Guide to Holiday Shopping How to Earn Hundreds in Cashback

The “One-Stop Shop” vs. “Best Rate” Strategy

You need to decide which approach fits your personality and lifestyle.

The “One-Stop Shop” Strategy: If you value simplicity and are worried you’ll forget to use different portals, it’s perfectly fine to pick one (like Rakuten or Ibotta) and use it for all your shopping. You might miss out on the absolute highest rate for a given purchase, but consistency is key, and earning something is always better than earning nothing.
The “Best Rate” Strategy: If your goal is to maximize every single dollar, use a cashback aggregator site like Cashback Monitor. You simply type in the name of the retailer, and it will show you a real-time list of which portal is currently offering the highest cashback rate. This takes a few extra seconds, but it ensures you always get the best possible deal.

Don’t Let Rewards Lead to Overspending

This is the most important rule in the cashback world. Cashback offers are designed to incentivize you to spend. You must remain disciplined.

The Golden Rule: The goal is to earn money on what you were already going to buy. Never buy something you don’t need or want just to earn a few percentage points in cash back. The net result is still a loss. Your master gift list is your guide. If an item isn’t on the list, the cashback rate doesn’t matter.

Where Beem Fits Into Your Cashback Plan

Managing multiple cashback portals, credit cards, and loyalty programs can get complicated. A centralized financial app like Beem can act as your command center, helping you see the big picture and ensure your cashback strategy is actually profitable.

How Beem Can Help:

Track Your Spending: By linking your cashback credit cards to Beem, you can get a clear, consolidated view of all your holiday spending. This helps ensure you stay within your overall budget, even as you chase rewards across different platforms.
Monitor Your Credit Card Balances: Beem can help you keep an eye on your credit card balances, reminding you to pay them off in full so that interest charges don’t erode your hard-earned cash back.
Manage Your Cash Flow: Seeing all your account balances in one place helps you manage your cash flow effectively. You can see your holiday savings, track your spending, and ensure you always have enough to cover your bills. Beem’s features, like its Everdraft™(an interest-free cash advance), can also provide a responsible safety net for unexpected expenses, helping you avoid high-interest debt.

While Beem isn’t a direct cashback portal, it is the financial dashboard that keeps your entire strategy grounded and profitable.

Conclusion

Cashback is no longer a niche hobby for extreme savers; it’s a mainstream tool that every American family should be using, especially during the high-spend holiday season. By assembling a simple toolkit of a few trusted portals and the right credit cards, and by using smart strategies like stacking and timing, you can transform your holiday spending from a simple expense into a rewarding savings activity.

To achieve this, you can check out Beem. It’s an AI-powered wallet featuring cash advances, budgeting assistance, and tax calculations. Open a HYSA with it and let your money grow with purpose. In addition, Beem’s Everdraft™ lets you withdraw up to $1,000 instantly and with no checks. Beem’s Budget Planner allows you to track your expenses, stay on top of your debt repayment, and make adjustments. Download the app here.