BEST Cashback Apps and Cashback Cards In 2024

You do not need to play Grand Theft Auto to rob some banks.

In this video, I’m going to show you how to exploit brokerages, banks, credit cards, and apps to snag over $2,000 by spending money you were going to spend anyway.

At the time of this video, Christmas is right around the corner. I’m about to spend a lot of money. Between vacations and gifts, now is the perfect time to take advantage of bonuses.

Businesses love to dangle these sign-up bonuses in front of our noses to get us trapped in whatever account, card, or web they have spun. Well, I say, now it’s time to turn the tables.

On the go? Watch my video HERE.

Let’s get into it.

There are 5 different avenues that you can exploit this Christmas season to rack up money, enough money to fund both your winter vacation and your gift budget.

I’m going to quickly go through each one, starting with the smallest and ending with the largest.

Mission 1: Apps

Your first mission is to buy all of your Christmas gifts for your friends and family through a cashback app.

There is only one cashback app that I could find that can be coupled with a credit card. This is a key feature because it allows you to double dip. One purchase gets you cash back from two different sources.

According to Gallup polling, Americans estimate they will spend $975 this year on Christmas gifts. For this mission and the following missions, we will use a budget of $1,000 for Christmas gifts and a budget of $1,000 for vacation spending. That gives us a target of $2,000 in bonuses to fund our Christmas spending.

The app of choice for your first mission is Rakuten. As you can see, several stores offer cash back in the range of 5% to 10% through this app. Stores include Nike, Samsung, Macy’s, and many more.

Completing this mission will net you roughly 7.5% of your full $1,000 Christmas budget, totaling $75.

On top of that, if you divide up your shopping between you and your significant other, you can cash in on the referral bonus by referring them and getting an extra $35.

This brings your reward for this mission up to $110.

Mission 2: Savings Account

Your second mission is just the first attack on a bank.

In this mission, we are going after the savings account signup bonus. For this mission, you’re going to need some cash on hand. There’s just no way around it.

I have researched all of the savings account bonuses, and I have located the easiest one. TD Bank offers a $200 cash signup bonus for opening a savings account and depositing $10,000.

Ideally, you already have an emergency fund that you can utilize for this. $10,000 is a lot of money. So if you cannot complete this mission, it’s not a huge deal. You’re only missing out on $200.

As for extraction, you can get out with your $200 after 90 days if you’re not interested in keeping TD Bank as your emergency fund account.

Now, if you have more than $10,000 on the side, you can get even bigger bonuses. Wells Fargo offers $525 if you deposit $25,000 into their savings account. Other banks will offer thousands of dollars, but of course, you have to deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars to get that kind of bonus.

For this mission, $200 from TD Bank will be considered a success.

Mission 3: Brokerage Account

Your third mission will have you target a brokerage account.

Surely you have heard of Robinhood or Charles Schwab. These brokerages will commonly offer a sign-up bonus in the form of cash or shares of stock. To get access to these signup bonuses, you just need to fund your account.

The brokerage account that you will go after for this mission is Webull.

If you open an account and deposit $500, Webull will give you 20 fractional shares of stock, each share will be worth between $3 and $3,000.

Now don’t be fooled. The chances of you receiving even one share worth $3,000 are incredibly low. For this mission, we will assume that you’ll get a minimum $60 worth of fractional shares.

Webull also has a really good referral program. Once again, you’re going to utilize your significant other. Send them your referral code, have them open an account, and fund it with $500. They will receive an additional 20 fractional shares worth at least $60 and you will receive $100 worth of Apple stock.

This brings your total reward for this mission up to $220 worth of stock that you can immediately sell for cash.

Mission 4: Checking Account

The fourth mission has you going back to the banks for more money.

This time we will be exploiting the checking account signup bonus. This one is much easier than exploiting the savings account. You do not need to have thousands of dollars of cash on hand. You only need a paycheck. To complete this mission, you will need to set up direct deposit with the new checking account.

There are so many banks out there competing for your business. I’ve analyzed them all, and the easiest one to churn is U. S. Bank.

• Within 90 days of opening this account, you need direct deposits totaling at least $5,000 to secure a $300 bonus.

• If your direct deposits total at least $10,000, then you’ll get a $500 bonus.

Once again, you can utilize your significant other if y’all share finances. To ensure that you get $10,000 of direct deposit in the first 90 days, you can both deposit into the same account. Or if your incomes are high enough, you could both double down and get twice the bonus.

For this mission, we will consider $500 from U.S. bank as a success.

Mission 5: Credit Card

The fifth and most lucrative mission has you going after a credit card, and not just any credit card, the best in churning and travel bonuses.

This card gives you a massive signup bonus, travel credits, and travel perks for your winter vacation and your gift shopping. A great credit card will give you benefits not only in bonuses and perks but also in cash back from spending.

You and I both know there are so many credit cards out there. Lucky for you, I spent weeks building the ultimate credit card spreadsheet. I was able to mathematically determine the best credit card to go after in this mission.

I know that’s intimidating, but stay with me. If you’re going to go on at least one trip this Christmas, then you will immediately recoup $300 in the form of a travel credit.

Second, if you plan to scoop up Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, the Venture X card will get you that for free. That is a value of $100.

Third, if you’re like me, you like to get to the airport early and relax, get some food, and have a beer. With the Venture X card, you get access to the Capital One Lounge in the airport where you get all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink for free. If you and your significant other are gonna take at least a couple of trips this year, then this is gonna be at least $100 in value.

Fourth, the signup bonus is huge for Venture X. You will get $750 worth of miles if you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of having the card.

The final source of value is going to be miles earned from spending. In this case, one mile is going to be roughly equivalent to 1 cent.

• You get 2 miles for every dollar spent minimum on all purchases.

• You get 5 miles per dollar spent on flights.

• And you get 10 miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars if you purchase them through the Capital One travel app.

After spending the first $4,000 on your Venture X card on gifts travel, and regular expenses, you will get back roughly $135 in miles.

When you add that to your net gain, accounting for the annual fee from your sign-up bonus, travel credit, and travel perks, you get a total value from the Venture X card of $990.

After completing the 5 missions outlined in this video, you will come away with $2,020 in bonuses.

That being said, the biggest bonus by far comes from the Venture X credit card. If you already have the Venture X credit card or you're not eligible for the signup bonus for some reason, then you will need a backup plan.

Lucky for you, I have a whole series on the best credit cards for regular use and churning signup bonuses. For some of the best, check out these articles on Capital One, Chase, American Express, or Discover.

If you'd like to use my spreadsheet to do your own analysis using your own budget to see which credit card is best for you, you can find it HERE for free.

If you executed these missions properly, you should have gained lots of extra cash and you should not have gained too many extra stars.

Until next time.