Best Stacks Feed: Find the Highest Combined Cashback Deals

#What Are Stacks?

A "stack" is a store where multiple cashback sources combine into a single, high-value opportunity. Unlike a simple portal rate or a lone card-linked offer, a stack represents the total savings when you layer a shopping portal + credit card rewards + card-linked offers on one purchase.

The Best Stacks feed ranks stores by this combined value, showing you where the full cashback stacking strategy pays off the most right now.

#Reading a Stack Row

Each row in the Best Stacks feed includes:

• Store name and category: The retailer and its primary product category
• Portal rate: The best available rate from 50+ portals, with portal identity
• Best credit card: The card that earns the most at this store based on merchant category matching (personalized to your cards if signed in with the extension)
• Normalized % value: The total stack value converted to an equivalent percentage for apples-to-apples comparison
• Total $ bonus: The sum of fixed-dollar offers (statement credits, flat bonuses)
• Deal signal badges: Heat tier and urgency indicators when the stack contains an active rate spike
• Money-maker badge: Appears when the normalized stack value exceeds 100%

Hover over or tap any stack row to see the breakdown tooltip: a layer-by-layer visualization showing exactly how much each source contributes.

Here is a live stack breakdown for Walmart:

#Stack Types

The feed categorizes stacks by completeness:

Full Stack: All layers are present: portal cashback + credit card bonus + at least one card-linked offer. These are the most valuable combinations because every additive layer is contributing.

Offer Stack: Driven primarily by card-linked offers (CLOs, PayPal Offers, SimplyMiles). The portal rate may be modest, but the offer value makes the total stack worthwhile.

Partial Stack: Missing one or more layers but still producing above-average combined value. A store with a very high portal rate and a strong category card match can be a valuable partial stack even without offers.

Filter chips at the top of the feed let you show all stacks, or narrow to a specific type. Full stacks tend to have the highest total value; offer stacks can surface time-limited opportunities that disappear when the offer expires.

#Sorting Modes

The feed supports two sorting perspectives:

By dollar bonus: Ranks stacks by the total fixed-dollar offers (statement credits, flat bonuses). Best for finding stores where you receive the most absolute dollars back, regardless of purchase size.

Both modes use server-side sorting, so every page reflects the current global ranking. The table view allows column-level sorting for more granular exploration.

#Deal Signals on Stacks

When a stack contains a portal rate that is significantly above its historical average, deal signal badges appear on the row:

• Warm: The portal rate is in the top ~25% of recent rates for this store. Worth watching.
• Hot: Top ~10%. The rate is notably higher than usual. Good time to buy.
• Blazing: Top ~3%. An exceptional rate spike that rarely occurs. Act quickly.

These signals come from the same ML-powered scoring system used in the Hot Deals feed. When a stack has a deal signal, it means the portal layer is time-sensitive. The combined value may drop when the promotion ends.

Premium subscribers see evidence strings explaining the signal (e.g., "Best Buy at 10% via TopCashback is 2.5x the 30-day average of 4%").

#Money-Maker Stacks

A money-maker stack occurs when the normalized per-dollar percentage value exceeds 100%, meaning you effectively earn more in cashback than you spend on the purchase itself. Fixed-dollar bonuses (statement credits, flat offers) are shown separately and do not count toward the 100% threshold. These are rare, time-limited opportunities that typically arise when:

• A portal runs an exceptionally high promotional rate (e.g., 50%+ cashback)
• Combined with a strong credit card category bonus (e.g., 5% on the store's category)
• Plus additional per-dollar card-linked offer stacking on top

Money-maker stacks are gated for free users: their store identity is hidden behind a Premium upgrade prompt. This protects the time-sensitive nature of the opportunity.

#The Gift Card Path

Every stack row implicitly includes a gift card path comparison. When buying a discounted gift card would produce higher total savings than the portal path, the stack indicates this. The comparison accounts for:

• Gift card discount from 14+ providers
• Credit card rewards on the gift card purchase
• Versus the full portal stack (portal + card + offers)

This ensures you always see the optimal path, not just the portal-based stack.

#Personalization

When signed in with the browser extension, the Best Stacks feed becomes personalized. The website reads your extension data through a local in-browser bridge; your cards and offers never leave your browser.

• Your cards drive the credit card column: instead of generic "best card" suggestions, you see which of your actual cards earns the most at each store
• Your synced offers affect offer counts and values: only offers you can actually activate are included in the calculation
• Card-offer mappings ensure the right offer is paired with the right card in your portfolio

#Free vs. Premium

#Using Stacks Effectively

1. Check daily: Stack rankings change as portal rates fluctuate and card-linked offers rotate. Today's top stack may not be tomorrow's.
2. Combine with watchlist alerts: Set up rate alerts for stores you shop at frequently. When a watched store appears in the top stacks, you know it is time to buy.
3. Time your purchases: If a stack has a deal signal (especially Hot or Blazing), the portal rate is above average and likely time-limited. Prioritize purchases at that store while the rate is elevated.
4. Check the gift card path: Before assuming the portal stack is best, check whether the gift card alternative produces higher total savings for that specific store.
5. Use the stacking calculator: Model hypothetical purchases to understand how each layer contributes before committing to a purchase.