Deal Stacking - Get minimum 10% savings on a consistent basis

Deal stacking or offer stacking or reward stacking is simply combining multiple offers/coupons or reward points from different sources to maximize savings on one’s spend. I personally believe that despite it seems tedious and also the kind of savings one does is very small, say like ~2%. But by stacking all the offers together one can get combined savings of 10%+, which is a pretty good rate of savings if done on a consistent basis.

General avenues of reward stacking

• Credit Card reward points
• Wallet cashback/discoun
• Cashback/discount/ loyalty rewards from respective website/company
• Reward points on Jet Privilege/ Payback
• Reward points from Cred (Will be writing a review on Cred App soon)

My experience is with some attention to detail, one can easily achieve 3-4 level stacking, but beyond that I have not been able to figure out a way for consistent stacking. 

As per me, one can save 10%+ via reward point stacking on a sustainable basis. Below are my personal examples where I have achieved both 3-5 level stacking along with calculations. 

3-level stacking

3-level stacking is pretty simple and straightforward. It can be achieved by combining credit card reward points with an offer on say Amazon, Flipkart, or any other wallet like Paytm, Freecharge and finally by paying credit card bills using Cred. Since Dec-18 till date, I have made an average 9% savings every month via 3-level stacking on my phone and utility bills. 

The break-up on 3-level stacking is below:

(Please note that while credit card reward points are generally sticky i.e. their accrual rate typically don’t change depending on spending level, wallet cashbacks are capped thus lowering savings on higher spending and value of Cred points can vary considerably, depending on how one uses them, my return rate of 1.5% includes occasional burns on CSR activities like planting trees  etc. and the fact that I always burn points on “Kill the bill”. Adjusting for these earn rate on Cred for me is a decent ~3%)

4-level stacking

For 4-level stacking, I rely on Payback and JetPrivilege points. Well if Jet Miles makes sense now or not is a topic for another post, but I keep collecting them as long as they don't cost me anything.

Using Payback:

I use Payback points primarily on BookMyShow account and my ICICI debit card spends (if any), but even while shopping on Amazon one can accumulate Payback points as earn rate on Amazon for Payback is higher than that off JetPrivilege. 

So 4-level stacking works in the following manner, earn points on credit card, BMS typically runs one or the other offer (could be 1 on 1 free offer, 25% off upto some amount etc. etc.). Link Payback account to BMS account, so any spends done on BMS accrue points in Payback account too. And finally, pay credit card bills via Cred.

(Kept reward rate for Amazon/BMS the same as in earlier example in order to facilitate comparison, in fact with offers in Amazon one can generally save 10-20%, while on BMS savings could be up to 50%)

Using Jet Privilege points:

I use Jet Privilege to stack up points while using Amazon, Flipkart, Bigbasket, Myntra etc. Just install a Chrome plugin, JetPrivilege Scout, and one can earn points while shopping on popular websites. The reward rates for JetPrivilege is generally around 2%, thus it adds to your savings by that amount.

Here are the calculations:
 

5-level stacking

I have been able to get 5-level stacking just once or twice, by combining offers from credit card company which would give extra cashback/discount or say 2x/5x points while spending on a particular website, but still haven’t been able to figure out a sustainable way to get 5 level stacking. In case you know a way to achieve this do share. 

Final takeaways:

For the level for efforts required combined with the savings generated I typically stick to 3-4 level stacking wherein I save ~10% on a consistent basis. My thought is, as you increase the stacking levels, the incremental savings would be lower and complexity of managing different account increases.

Eager to know your views on the article and manners in which you do offer or reward stacking