This Perpetual Point Machine is best with two people working together.

In previous posts (such as this one), I defined the Perpetual Point Machine (PPM) as “a scheme in which, after a little push, hotel points and/or airline miles are accrued over and over again, forever, with little or no additional work or money.” We have yet to identify a perfect PPM, but it has been fun and rewarding pursuing it. Today I’ll describe a PPM that requires a little team work.

Gift Card Harvesting

Yesterday, I showed how it is possible to grow the value of gift cards over time (see Gift Card Harvesting). The idea is to buy Sears gift cards, use them to buy EBay gift cards at Kmart, and then use the EBay gift cards to buy discounted Sears gift cards. With the addition of 2% back in EBay Bucks, you will end up with more money than you started with! There are a few problems with this technique, though: 1) Not all Kmart stores / cashiers allow buying gift cards with gift cards; 2) Not all EBay gift sellers are honest (they can sell you a gift card with $0 balance, for example); and 3) There is no guarantee that Sears gift cards will be available to buy on EBay (especially if a lot of people start doing this trick!). I will explain soon how these issues can be overcome, but first let me remind you of another scheme:

Buying Miles

Last week, I wrote a post about how to buy miles cheaply (see Buy Miles for 1.2 Cents or Less). The idea there was to buy Sears gift cards for 6 to 10 extra points per dollar through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, then use them to buy more valuable gas cards (BP, for example) at Kmart, and then sell them through a service like PlasticJungle. As with Gift Card Harvesting, there are a few problems with this technique: 1) Not all Kmart stores / cashiers allow buying gift cards with gift cards; 2) From reader comments, it seems that not all Kmarts carry gas cards; and 3) Some people have reported having very bad luck with PlasticJungle. Now let’s see a way to overcome these issues:

Working Together

To make this PPM viable, you need two people: a gift card harvester and a mile buyer. The gift card harvester needs to live or work near a Kmart that carries EBay gift cards and is willing to let you buy them with Sears gift cards (Kmart is owned by Sears and their gift cards are interchangeable). So, this PPM doesn’t avoid the problem of finding a way to buy gift cards with gift cards, but only one person in the scheme needs to be able to do so. Both people need EBay accounts (you must be at least 18 years old to have one).

Here is what to do:

Step 1: Both Buy Sears Gift Cards through the Ultimate Rewards Mall

On December 9^th, all Sears’ purchases through the Ultimate Rewards Mall are awarded 10 points per dollar. This is the day to buy them! The mile buyer, in particular, must make sure to buy the highest $ value cards allowed ($500 each).

Step 2: Gift Card Harvester (GC Harvester) upgrades Sears gift cards to EBay cards at Kmart

See this post for more details about this step.

Step 3: Mile Buyer lists a $500 Sears Gift Card for sale on EBay

Set the “Buy it Now” price at $490 (or whatever amount both of you agree to).

Step 4: GC harvester buys the gift card through EBay

The gift card harvester needs to be ready to go as soon as the Sears card is listed because you don’t want anyone else to snatch it up! By selling a high dollar value item at a fixed price, the seller saves a bit on EBay seller fees. In this example, if the card is sold for $490, the buyer will get $442.59 after EBay and Paypal fees are factored in. This is 90.3% of the selling price or 88.5% of the card’s face value. Remember though, that the Sears cards were bought through the UR Mall and with a rewards credit card (ideally the Chase Sapphire Preferred). This way, the buyer receives 11.49 points per dollar spent on Sears gift cards. Since points are worth more than a penny each, the mile buyer comes out ahead. Meanwhile, the gift card harvester has just increased the value of the gift card by $19.80 ($10 by buying at a discount and $9.80 in EBay Bucks).

Step 5: Delivery

One of the hidden fees in selling things on Ebay is the cost of shipping whatever you sell. Ideally, the friends working together on this PPM live or work near each other and can simply hand over the purchases. This way, shipping fees are nonexistent and there is no danger of losing things in the mail.

Step 6: Repeat

Steps 2 through 5 can be repeated until the Mile Buyer has sold all of his/her gift cards. Note that EBay only allows you to list one gift card for sale at a time so you really do need to do this sequentially. If you want to go back to step 1 and buy more Sears cards, note that the value of buying gift cards will drop after December 9^th (probably back to 6 points per dollar). I expect (and hope!) that there will be more 10 point promotions in the future, though.

Variations

The mile buyer can do even better with this PPM if he/she becomes a “Top rated seller” on EBay. In this way, they will get discounted fees and so earn more with each transaction. The rules for becoming a top rated seller can be found here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/top-rated.html

You might be tempted to play both parts of this PPM yourself. You could theoretically open two EBay accounts under different names and do it all. I would advise against that, however. I’m pretty sure it would violate EBay rules and maybe even break a law or two. You really don’t want to risk getting caught with something like this.

Analysis

I think this PPM is viable, but I have to admit I haven’t tried it. I’m new to EBay so there could be additional “gotchas” that I haven’t thought about. I also don’t think the rewards here necessarily justify the effort involved. Most of the risk and work is on the side of the Gift Card Harvester so that person really needs to think about whether it is worth it to them. Let us know in the comments below what you think. Are you going to play this two player PPM?

Ultimate Rewards

Many schemes I have (and will) publish require access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall. In my opinion, the best option for getting access to the mall is the Chase Sapphire^SM Preferred Card. If you don’t already have one, you can sign up with this link. Even if you don’t want to try any Frequent Miler schemes, this is a great card. The signup bonus alone is worth $500 in cash back, or $625 in travel booked through Chase, or more than $1000 in travel if you convert the points to United Airlines miles and/or Hyatt points. That last point is really key to the value of this card: Ultimate Rewards points earned with this card are instantly transferable to a number of airline and hotel programs. So, you can shop around to find the best miles and points redemptions before transferring your points and in that way get some incredible values from these points! I will get a small commission if you use my link, but you’ll get the same best offer available anywhere. I promise I would recommend this card with or without the referral commission. In fact, I have recommended it many times prior to my signing up for a referral network.

With a green gift card thumb, you can grow the value of your gift cards over time.

Buried deep in the comments section of an old, no longer viable Frequent Miler post, a reader tossed out a little nugget of information that I found quite amazing. He had bought Sears gift cards and had found a way to grow their value over time. I didn’t publish his idea right away for a few reasons. First, I wanted to try it out myself to make sure the technique works. I’ve tried it, and yes I can confirm that it works! Second, I was concerned that publishing the idea would destroy it. Fortunately, I believe I have a solution to that issue, which I’ll explain at the end of this post.

Overview

The idea is to buy Sears, Kmart, or Lands’ End gift cards (they are interchangeable) and get bonus miles for the purchase. Next, upgrade the gift cards to EBay gift cards (details below). Then, on EBay, buy discounted Sears, Kmart, or Lands’ End gift cards. Rinse and repeat. Details of each step follow:

Step 1: Buy Sears, Kmart, or Lands’ End Gift cards

Since Kmart and Lands’ End are owned by Sears, their gift cards are all interchangeable. The best way to buy these gift cards is through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Mall. The UR Mall gives 6 extra points per dollar spent at Sears and Kmart, even for gift card purchases. Even better, on December 9^th, the UR Mall will give 10 extra points per dollar for Sears’ purchases! If you value UR points very conservatively at 1.5 cents each, then this is like a 15% rebate! So, my recommendation is to buy Sears gift cards on December 9^th through the UR Mall.

Fine print:
1. When shopping through the UR Mall, Sears will give you points for either buying or using gift cards. Kmart will give you points for buying gift cards, but not for using them. Lands’ End claims that it will not award points for gift card purchases, but is silent on whether the use of gift cards qualifies. The bottom line is that I can vouch for the fact that Sears and Kmart will award points for buying gift cards and I can vouch for the fact that using them through Sears will also get you points. Try any other combination at your own risk. Also note that these rules may change at any time.

2. No tax, delivery, or service fees are charged for gift card purchases

3. This technique will work with either physical or e-gift cards, but physical cards are a bit easier to use at Kmart (see step 2).

Step 2: Upgrade to EBay Gift Cards

Take your Sears/Kmart/Lands’ End gift cards to Kmart and search for their gift card rack. Note that Kmart often has multiple gift card racks and they’re not all created equal! Some racks have better selections than others. Your goal is to find the rack that has EBay gift cards. If your local Kmart doesn’t sell these, then you’re out of luck. If you do find them, take them to the checkout counter and pay for them with your Sears/Kmart/Lands’ End gift cards.

Fine print:
1. A number of people have told me that they have called their local Kmart and were told that you can’t buy gift cards with gift cards. All I can do is verify that this has worked at my local Kmart (Ann Arbor, MI), but it depends which cashier I go to!  It’s worth noting two things: Amex gift cards do not work (the register will reject gift cards as payments for them), but others I’ve tried (EBay and BP cards) do work. Also, I once had a clerk say “ooh, I don’t know if this will work”, but when she swiped my gift card in the register, it worked fine. So, if you’re at the register and you are told that you can’t buy gift cards with gift cards, ask them to give it a try just in case.  If they refuse, try again another day with a different cashier.

2. If you use e-gift cards, Kmart requires a manager override for using them at the store. This can cause a long delay which can be especially painful if you have irate customers waiting in line behind you. I highly recommend going to Kmart early in the morning or some other time when few customers are there!

Step 3: Buy Sears / Kmart / Lands’ End Gift Cards at a Discount

Now that you have a pile of EBay gift cards, you can shop online at EBay.com and use the gift cards as payment. The trick here is to find Sears, Kmart, or Lands’ End gift cards being sold at or below face value, and with free shipping. Make sure you are signed up for the “EBay Bucks Rewards Program”. This way, 2% of all of your purchases will be rebated to you in the form of EBay bucks. You can use the EBay bucks to buy more gift cards!

Step 4: Repeat

Go back to Step 2 and do it all again. You can repeat this process indefinitely. With each cycle, your gift card stash will grow by 2% or more. This may seem like a lot of effort for very small gain, but I would estimate that once you get used to this you can earn a minimum of $20 for a half hour of work (harvesting $1000 of gift cards). If you are able to find gift cards through EBay for less than face value, then your half hour income will be considerably more. This could be a great part time job for a teenager if you have a nearby Kmart and if you’re willing to let them use your EBay account (EBay users are required to be at least 18 years old).

Step 5: Cash Out

Once you have grown your gift card stash high enough, you can cash out in many ways. The best is to use the EBay or Sears gift cards directly for purchases you would make anyway. If you would rather get cash, I’ll be writing more about this in the future, but some ideas can be found in this post: Buy Miles for 1.2 Cents or Less.

Supply and Demand

Some of you have already realized a potentially fatal flaw in this whole scheme. The fact that I have published this process means that more people will start doing it and will therefore drive up competition for Sears gift cards on EBay. Pretty soon it will be impossible to find any gift cards at or below face value. So, what is the solution? Tomorrow I will publish a complimentary scheme in which people will profit from selling Sears gift cards on EBay. This way, we will hopefully simultaneously drive up both supply and demand. In fact, it should be possible to team up with a friend or relative to ensure that both a buyer and seller exist. Stay tuned for more!

Ultimate Rewards

Many schemes I have (and will) publish require access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall. In my opinion, the best option for getting access to the mall is the Chase Sapphire^SM Preferred Card. If you don’t already have one, you can sign up with this link. Even if you don’t want to try any Frequent Miler schemes, this is a great card. The signup bonus alone is worth $500 in cash back, or $625 in travel booked through Chase, or more than $1000 in travel if you convert the points to United Airlines miles and/or Hyatt points. That last point is really key to the value of this card: Ultimate Rewards points earned with this card are instantly transferable to a number of airline and hotel programs. So, you can shop around to find the best miles and points redemptions before transferring your points and in that way get some incredible values from these points! I will get a small commission if you use my link, but you’ll get the same best offer available anywhere. I promise I would recommend this card with or without the referral commission. In fact, I have recommended it many times prior to my signing up for a referral network.

4ZQMZGTEEN2M GiftCards.com SuperCertificates are FEE FREE today (CYBER MONDAY).

Today only GiftCertifates.com is offering FEE FREE SuperCertificates. You can redeem SuperCertificates for any of the gift certificates available through GiftCertificates.com. Normally there is a fee for purchasing SuperCertificates, but today you can use promo code CYBER11 to eliminate that fee. There is never a fee for redeeming SuperCertificates.

I’ve written many times before about how it is possible to “Double Dip” at some stores. The idea is to go through a rewards shopping portal to buy gift cards, and then go through a shopping portal again to use the gift cards. See, for example, Kohl’s Double Dip. Many stores, though, don’t allow this kind of double dip. Often, they allow shopping portal rewards for using gift cards, but not for buying gift cards. If you encounter a store like that where you would like to make a purchase, here is a way to get extra points:

Step 1: Make sure the purchases you are eyeing qualify

Suppose, for example, you want to buy some stuff at Staples and you want to get as many rewards for your purchase as possible. First, go to evreward.com and search for Staples. Find the shopping portal with the best cash back or points back offer. Click through and read the terms and conditions. Make sure that they allow the use of gift cards. Next, go to giftcertificates.com and make sure they carry gift cards from this store. If so, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Buy a SuperCertificate

Go through evreward.com again to find the best cash/points back option for shopping at giftcertificates.com. The current best option, in my opinion, is the three extra points per dollar you will get at the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall. So, assuming you have access to that mall (you’ll need a Chase Sapphire or Ink card), go to ultimaterewards.com/mall, find giftcertifcates.com, click “Shop Now”, and then buy yourself a SuperCertificate in whatever denomination you know you will actually use. Make sure to use promo code CYBER11 when checking out so that you won’t have to pay the usual fee.

Step 3: Redeem Your SuperCertificate

Once you have your SuperCertificate, go back to giftcertificates.com to redeem for whatever merchant gift card you actually want to use.

Step 4: Use your Gift Card

Go through whichever shopping portal you identified in Step 1 and use your gift card to buy merchandise. If all goes well, you will now receive cash or points back from both the SuperCertificate purchase AND the actual merchant purchases.

Is it worth it?

If this seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a small incremental reward, you’re probably right. I’m not planning to take advantage of this myself, but I thought I should get this post out today in case anyone sees the value in it. Are you going to try it? If so, let us know in the comments below.

More than 22 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar are possible at Kohl’s.

In my recent post Crank Up the Black Friday Discounts at Kohls I showed how to save more than 50% when shopping at Kohl’s, even for their most highly discounted and clearance items. Today, I’ll describe how to crank it up another notch to get the total savings closer to 70%! The trick is to do the Ultimate Rewards Mall “Double Dip“. This is where you navigate through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Kohls.com once to buy gift cards (for yourself), and then go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall a second time to buy Kohl’s items using your gift cards. Kohl’s offers 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar until the end of this year, so this method will get you 20 Ultimate Rewards points for each dollar spent! Plus, you get another 1 point per dollar for using your Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and then you get an end of year bonus of 7% which comes to another 1.47 points. All of this adds up to an astounding 22.47 points per dollar! If you value Ultimate Rewards points conservatively at 1.5 cents each then this amounts to a 33.7% rebate off of all of your Kohl’s purchases!

Caution:

This double dip technique shouldn’t work. The Kohl’s Terms and Conditions in the Ultimate Rewards Mall are clear: “Not eligible on gift cards“. However, despite that wording, the double dip has worked for me. I have received points for buying and using gift cards from Kohl’s. Today, a reader has confirmed that he too has received points for gift card purchases made as recently as November 22. So, the double dip has worked and probably will work for you, but be warned that there is some risk of not receiving points.

If, despite the caution, you would like to try to get up to 70% savings at Kohl’s, follow these steps:

Preparation

First, you need a Chase credit card that will give you access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall. I highly recommend the Chase Sapphire^SM Preferred Card because it is the only card that will give you an annual bonus of 7% of all points earned each calendar year. If you don’t already have one, you can sign up with this link. I will get a small commission if you use my link, but you’ll get the same best offer available anywhere. I promise I would recommend this card with or without the referral commission. In fact, I have recommended it many times prior to my signing up for a referral network.

Step 1: Go to the Ultimate Rewards Mall

Navigate to ultimaterewards.com/mall.

Step 2: Find Kohl’s, click “Shop Now”, and buy Gift Cards

Ideally you will know ahead of time roughly how much you intend to spend at Kohls. Buy enough gift cards to cover your purchases. So far this technique has only been tried with physical gift cards, but if you’re feeling lucky it might also work with e-gift cards which would allow you to complete all of your shopping in one day instead of waiting for a few days for the gift cards to arrive.

Step 3: Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall again to Kohls.com

Once you have your gift cards in hand, go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, find Kohls, and click “Shop Now”. Fill your basket with whatever you want to buy.

Step 4: Check Out: Apply Gift Card and Coupon Code

The check-out screen will allow you to apply your gift card numbers towards your purchase. It will also allow you to enter a coupon code. Currently, coupon code CON20HH4 will give you a 20% discount! If that doesn’t work, search online for current codes. Kohl’s almost always has coupon codes worth 15% to 20% off.

Step 5: Count Your Savings

Let’s say you find $125 worth of heavily discounted merchandise that you want to buy. The CON20HH4 code will give you 20% off and free shipping, so your total will come to $100 before taxes. You will also receive 100 * 22.47 = 2,247 Ultimate Rewards points, worth about $33 (based on a conservative estimate of 1.5 cents value per point). Based on a current promotion, you may also receive $30 in Kohls cash for future purchases. So, for your purchase of $125 worth of items, you will get a total of $88 back in discounts, points, and Kohls cash for future purchases! This is an amazing 70% of the original purchase price!

Today is the day to get the Best Best Buy Deals

I know that a number of you are happily fighting crowds today to get some awesome Black Friday deals, but if you’re anything like me you’re avoiding the brick and mortar stores at all costs. Luckily for us, many great deals are available online too so we don’t have to miss out on all of the action! In particular, I want to point out that if you’ve been waiting to buy stuff from Best Buy, today is the day. Not only do they have some incredible deals online, but if you shop at Best Buy via the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall, you will earn an extra 10 points per dollar on top of the points you already earn from your credit card.

No Double Dip

A number of people have asked me whether a double-dip opportunity exists here. As I’ve pointed out before, with Sears, you can go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall once to buy gift cards, and then a second time to use the gift cards. In this way you earn Ultimate Rewards points twice! Unfortunately, the terms and conditions for Best Buy are very clear that you will not earn points for the purchase of gift cards:

Great Deals

Despite the lack of a double-dip, 10 points per dollar is still terrific. If you value Ultimate Rewards points conservatively at only 1.5 cents each, then you are getting a 15% rebate on every purchase on top of whatever Black Friday deals are also in place. Here are just a few tempting deals I see right now online:

Half off coffee maker plus 10 extra points:

A laptop for $180 plus 1800 extra Ultimate Rewards points:

An iPod touch and a $50 Best Buy Gift Card:

This may not be the most amazing discount you can get, but it is notable that when you get a rebate rather than a discount, you get extra Ultimate Rewards points. For example, if they had simply discounted the iPod touch another $50, then you would get 500 fewer Ultimate Rewards points for this purchase.

Happy shopping everyone!

It’s possible to save more than 50% off of the already heavily discounted products at Kohls.  Here’s how.

I just browsed through the Kohls’ “Happy ThankSaving Days” catalog that fell out of the morning paper. I was surprised to see some pretty great deals – especially the Early Bird specials that are available Thursday Midnight to Friday 1PM. There is no way in a million years you would catch me going to Kohls in person on Friday (I hate crowds!), but the catalog text says “Selected Early Birds also available online“. Now we’re talking!

If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card or the Chase Ink Bold, then you have access to Chase’s lucrative Ultimate Rewards Mall. Take advantage of it to squeeze the most miles and discounts out of your purchases:

Step 1: Go to the Ultimate Rewards Mall

Go to ultimaterewards.com/mall.

Step 2: Search for Kohls and click on Additional Offers & Coupons

Note the CYBER20 coupon code offering 20% off everything & free shipping on orders over $50.

Step 3: Click on the Shop Now button

By shopping at Kohls.com through the Ultimate Rewards Mall you will earn 10 points per dollar spent. Ultimate Rewards points are quite valuable: they’re worth a minimum of 1.25 cents each when used to book travel, but can easily be worth at least 2 cents each when converted to airline miles or hotel points. For convenience, let’s say each point is worth 1.5 cents. In that case, the Ultimate Rewards Mall is giving you another 15% rebate for your purchases!

Step 4: Shop Online

Don’t forget to apply Coupon Code CYBER20 when you check out!

NOTE: At the moment, CYBER20 doesn’t seem to be working.  If this happens to you, try another 20% off promo code CON20HH4 instead (thanks dracs!).  If that doesn’t work, use promo code GOBBLE15  for 15% off (thanks Jennifer).

If you purchase items between now and Sunday November 27^th, Kohls will send you $15 in Kohl’s Cash to be used at a later date (online or in-store). You are given specific dates in which you can spend Kohl’s cash, but in my experience Kohls cash really does work as well as a gift card for buying things at Kohls.

Step 5: Count Your Savings

Let’s say you find $125 worth of heavily discounted merchandise that you want to buy. The CYBER20 code will give you 20% off and free shipping, so your total will come to $100 before taxes. You will also receive 1000 Ultimate Rewards points, worth about $15 (based on a conservative estimate of 1.5 cents value per point). You will also receive $30 in Kohls cash for future purchases. So, for your purchase of $125 worth of items, you will get a total of $70 back in discounts, points, and Kohls cash for future purchases!

For more tips on earning points and saving money over the holidays, check out Mommy Points.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

If you are interested in future deals like these, I highly recommend you get the Chase Sapphire^SM Preferred Card. If you don’t already have one, you can sign up with this link. Even if you don’t want to shop at Kohls, this is a great card. The signup bonus alone is worth $500 in cash back, or $625 in travel booked through Chase, or more than $1000 in travel if you convert the points to United Airlines miles and/or Hyatt points. That last point is really key to the value of this card: Ultimate Rewards points earned with this card are instantly transferable to a number of airline and hotel programs. So, you can shop around to find the best miles and points redemptions before transferring your points and in that way get some incredible values from these points! I will get a small commission if you use my link, but you’ll get the same best offer available anywhere. I promise I would recommend this card with or without the referral commission. In fact, I have recommended it many times prior to my signing up for a referral network and I use it every day as my main go-to credit card.

In my recent post, Buy Miles for 1.2 Cents or Less, I showed a way to get airline miles by buying Sears gift cards, upgrading them, and then selling them. What I didn’t mention in that post, is that you can get all of those miles for free if you can find ways to use Sears gift cards for things you would buy anyway.  For those new to this: you can buy Sears gift cards through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall in order to receive 6 to 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar (see the previously sited post for more information).  Since Ultimate Rewards points are quite valuable, this is a significant rebate off of the cards.  However once you buy the cards, you need to do something with them!   To help you out, below are some ideas for how to spend those gift cards. One thing to note: Sears owns both Kmart and Lands End, so you can use Sears gift cards in both of those stores as well as at Sears.  Another note: you can buy either e-gift cards or physical gift cards, but in my experience the physical cards are a bit easier to redeem at KMart.

Sears

• Shoes
• Clothing
• Jewelry
• TVs and other electronics
• Washer & dryer
• Refrigerator
• Vacuum cleaner
• Tools
• Power tools
• Garage door opener
• Automotive parts
• Tires
• Windows
• Doors
• Gutters
• Roofing

Lands End

• Clothing
• Shoes
• Boots
• Winter gear

Kmart

• Prescription drugs
• Over the counter drugs
• Laundry detergent
• Cleaning supplies
• Sports equipment
• Garden stuff
• Toys
• Holiday stuff

Other Stores

Go to Kmart and find the gift card racks. Use your Sears (or Kmart) gift cards to buy gift cards that you would actually use:

• Gas cards
• Movie cards
• Restaurant cards
• Southwest Airlines
• Marriott

Just About Anything

(This is the infinite part)

• EBay
  (One of the gift cards available to buy at Kmart is the EBay gift card. You can use that card to buy anything available through EBay – including other gift cards!)

Conclusion

If you plan to buy any of the stuff listed above, consider buying Sears (or Kmart) gift cards in order to get airline miles, and then use the gift cards to make the purchases you would have made anyway. You will find details about buying the gift cards here: Buy Miles for 1.2 Cents or Less

If you are interested in getting Ultimate Rewards points for purchasing gift cards, you will need your own Chase Sapphire^SM Preferred Card. If you don’t already have one, you can sign up with this link. Even if you don’t want to buy gift cards, this is a great card. The signup bonus alone is worth $500 in cash back, or $625 in travel booked through Chase, or more than $1000 in travel if you convert the points to United Airlines miles and/or Hyatt points. That last point is really key to the value of this card: Ultimate Rewards points earned with this card are instantly transferable to a number of airline and hotel programs. So, you can shop around to find the best miles and points redemptions before transferring your points and in that way get some incredible values from these points! I will get a small commission if you use my link, but you’ll get the same best offer available anywhere. I promise I would recommend this card with or without the referral commission. In fact, I have recommended it many times prior to my signing up for a referral network and I use it every day as my main go-to credit card.

For people who have been trying to earn American Airlines Million Miler status through credit card purchases, hotel point transfers, etc., this is a reminder that time is running out! Starting December 1^st, only miles flown on AA (or partners) will count towards your million miler status. The one exception is if you hold the Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard: Miles earned through that card will still count toward million miler status until the end of 2012. There is one catch: you must be an account holder of that card before December 1^st of this year. Here are the terms from American Airlines website:

Also, as a limited time offer, one mile for every dollar spent on eligible purchases using the new Citi Executive^SM / AAdvantage^® World Elite^™ MasterCard^® credit card*** that post to billing statements through December 2012 will count toward Million Miler status*. The Citi Executive^SM / AAdvantage^® World Elite^™ MasterCard^®credit card account must be open and in good standing by December 1, 2011.

I don’t know whether there is really time left to get this card. But I do know that if you want it (for earning million miler status), your only chance is to sign up right away! It would be a good idea to follow up with Citi on the phone and tell them that you want to use the card for holiday purchases and so would they be kind enough to rush it to you?

I will soon be publishing variations on this post that will give people with non-Chase credit cards ideas for how to rack up huge spends without spending much out of pocket. I’m just telling you in advance so that you won’t say “Darn! I should have signed up for that Citi card!”

Once again, Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall proves it is the very best.

Every morning I log onto chase.com and visit Ultimate Rewards. I then click on “Manage Ultimate Rewards”:

My goal is to find out if any of my latest schemes have paid off. So, next I click on “See Rewards Activity”:

Then, since most of my schemes involve the Ultimate Rewards Mall, I click on “Ultimate Rewards Mall & Travel earnings”:

Why do I do all this? On some mornings, like today, Chase gives me a present in return:

The first item above shows that Chase registered an order I placed at Kohls.com, using a Kohls gift card and a 20% off promo code, for which Chase has awarded me 10 points per $. The second item is a large purchase of Sears gift cards that I made at kmart.com in return for 6 points per $. Note that I paid for these gift cards with an American Express card. Both the Kohls order and the Kmart order registered within a few days of the original purchase! Those who have been following earlier posts (Buy miles for 1.2 cents or less, Potential Mega Deal, the Perpetual Point Machine series, etc.) will understand the significance of these items. For others, suffice it to say that the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall is awesome.

Thanks Chase! I love you too.

A faster, better, easier way to buy miles and points

In a previous post, I showed how it is possible to buy airline miles and hotel points for less than a penny. The problem with this approach was that it was overly complicated, required very high spending, it led to the risk of nasty credit card account reviews, and it violated terms and agreements (see a quick note about square). Other than that, it was great.

Today I’ll describe a better approach. Sure, the miles may cost a little bit more, but this approach is easier, has no minimum spend requirements, and is completely above-board. In fact, toward the end of this post I’ll show a variation of this approach that will let you buy miles for less than a penny.

Here is the basic idea: go through a points-back online shopping mall to buy gift cards; then upgrade the gift cards to more valuable gift cards; and then sell the gift cards. In the process you will lose a bit of cash, but gain lots of miles. Below are step by step instructions.

Preparation

Before you can follow the directions given below, you will need your own Chase Sapphire^SM Preferred Card. If you don’t already have one, you can sign up with this link. Even if you don’t want to buy miles, this is a great card. The signup bonus alone is worth $500 in cash back, or $625 in travel booked through Chase, or more than $1000 in travel if you convert the points to United Airlines miles and/or Hyatt points. That last point is really key to the value of this card: Ultimate Rewards points earned with this card are instantly transferable to a number of airline and hotel programs. So, you can shop around to find the best miles and points redemptions before transferring your points and in that way get some incredible values from these points! I will get a small commission if you use my link, but you’ll get the same best offer available anywhere. I promise I would recommend this card with or without the referral commission. In fact, I have recommended it many times prior to my signing up for a referral network. Another great benefit to this card is the 7% annual bonus for all points earned in the calendar year. This is a key part of the plan outlined below.

Step 1: Buy Sears or Kmart gift cards through the Ultimate Rewards Mall

The Chase Sapphire card gives you access to the very lucrative Ultimate Rewards Mall. By doing your online shopping through this mall, you can earn bonus points on top of the points regularly awarded for credit card spend. Also, unlike many other online malls, Ultimate Rewards is very good about crediting your purchases quickly. Most of my purchases have been credited within a week. The slowest took two weeks. The mall currently offers 6 extra points per dollar for purchases at Sears or Kmart. So, by going through the mall to buy Sears or Kmart gift cards, you will earn 7 points per dollar (1 base point from using the credit card and 6 extra points from the mall) plus another 7% for a total of 7.49 points per dollar spent. I recommend buying the physical gift cards instead of the e-gift cards. Both will work for this scheme, but the physical cards are a bit easier to use since the e-cards sometimes require manager overrides if spent in a physical store. The physical cards are also easier to sell if you need to get rid of them.

Step 2: Upgrade your gift cards

Go to your local Kmart and find a gift card rack. They often have multiple racks around the store. The trick is to find the one with the most cards from other retailers. The goal is to find the most valuable gift cards they sell and buy those cards using the Sears/Kmart gift cards you have in hand. To figure out which cards are most valuable, go to GiftCardGranny and search for cards that you can sell for at least 90% of their listed value. The best tend to be gas station cards (BP, etc.). Write down the list and bring it with you to Kmart (or look it up on your smart phone). I recently bought some BP cards from Kmart that are currently listed at 91% value.

Step 3: Sell your gift cards

The easiest way to sell your gift cards is through online gift card exchanges like PlasticJungle. GiftCardGranny is a great starting point because it lists the exchanges that are available and shows how much each will pay. I only have experience with PlasticJungle so I’ll describe how that works: You go to PlasticJungle and select “Sell us your gift card”. From there you can enter the type of card and the amount on the card. PlasticJungle will email to you a free mailing label so that mailing the card will cost you nothing. PlasticJungle will then pay you either through your PayPal account or by sending a check.

Another way to sell gift cards is through EBay. The problem is that EBay charges 9% in seller fees and another 2.7% in PayPal fees. So if you sell a card at face value, the most you will get is 88.3 cents per dollar. Strangely, though, gas station gift cards on EBay often sell for more than their face value. So, you actually do have a chance to profit more by selling through EBay than by selling to an online gift card exchange.

Step 4: Tally it up

Let’s say you follow the advice above by buying $1000 in gift cards. And, let’s say you sell those gift cards at 91% value. This means that you will receive $910 back for a net expense of $90. Now tally up the miles earned. Remember that you get 1 point from your credit card, 6 points from the Ultimate Rewards mall, and an extra .49 points from the annual bonus. Therefore you can multiple your $1000 by 7.49 to see that you have earned 7,490 miles! Since you spent $90, you can now see that you just bought your miles for 1.2 cents each ($90 / 7,490).

It gets even better (or worse)

The points awarded for Sears and Kmart through the Ultimate Rewards mall seems to change regularly. At the time of this writing, they are offering 6 points per dollar, but that amount might go up or down at any time. If you’re interested in this scheme, though, get ready for December 9^th: the Ultimate Rewards mall has a number of holiday promotions and one of them is Sears for 10 points per dollar on December 9^th!  Thanks goes to ThePointsGuy for pointing out the December specials! If you follow this scheme and buy your gift cards on December 9^th, you will get 11.77 points per dollar (1 credit card point, 10 extra points, .77 end of year bonus). Your total cost per mile will be .76 cents! If you convert Ultimate Rewards points to cash for a penny per point (I don’t recommend it, but you could), you could actually pay yourself back completely, and still get 2.77 miles per dollar spent!

Thank you Gabe!

A reader named Gabe recently commented in one of my posts about how he is profiting from his Sears gift cards. He has an ingenious scheme (which I’ll write about in a later post) that actually grows the value of his gift cards indefinitely, over time. The key to his scheme starts with the fact that you can buy non Kmart gift cards at Kmart — using your Sears or Kmart gift cards! Ever since I read Gabe’s scheme, my head has been swimming with possibilities! Frequent readers will probably see the possibilities for perpetual point machines (yep!), new ways to meet minimum credit card spend (yep!), and much more. So, over the last several days I made a few trips to Kmart to make sure this stuff works and it does! Stay tuned for more… much more.

“Expect the FIRST Skyteam Mega DO in November 2012!”

I’m excited. For better or worse I’ve been a Delta frequent flyer for many years (if you count all of the years with Northwest). As a fairly recent mile and point junkie, I missed out on the Star Alliance Mega DO and more recently I failed in the seemingly simple exercise of trying to sign up for the One World Mega DO. For those not familiar, a “DO” is an event in which frequent flyer junkies get together. A “Mega DO” is a DO sponsored by a major airline alliance and hotel chain and usually involves flying from hub to hub on chartered jets and getting behind the scenes looks at the latest happenings in the sponsoring airline and hotel organizations. I’ve been very interested in attending a Mega DO, but because of my history I’ve been more eager to attend one sponsored by Delta. Fortunately, a few days ago, Tommy777 announced on Milepoint that they “are finalizing the Skyteam Mega DO ideas right now. Expect the FIRST Skyteam Mega DO in November 2012!” Of course, Delta is in the Skyteam alliance so this means, finally, a Delta Mega DO! I can’t wait!

On the lighter side

Last Sunday I posted a fictional discussion between two of my favorite bloggers. It was meant to be funny and I think many people enjoyed it. So, I’m toying with the idea of doing a funny post every Sunday and calling it something like “LOL Sunday” or something like that. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep it up or if people will appreciate my warped humor, but hey I’ll give it a shot. Let me know what you think. Keep in mind that, just like Sunday comics, some posts will strike you funny (hopefully) and some not.

To get things started, today I will report, in advance, on my experience in booking a spot on the SkyTeam Mega DO. As most of you know, Delta.com is famously broken when it comes to award travel. So imagine if the same award engine will be used for booking the Mega DO:

Ring, Ring, Ring…

Delta: Hello, thank you for calling Delta Airlines. My name is Deltalina. How may I help you today?

FM: Hi, I’m trying to book the Mega DO, but your web site isn’t working.

Delta: I’d be very glad to help you sir. I’m sorry but Delta is unable to book bus tickets. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

FM: Bus tickets? What? Oh, no, you don’t understand. I’m not trying to book MegaBus tickets. I want to book the SkyTeam Mega DO.

Delta: Is that an item in the SkyMall catalog? I’m afraid I can’t help you with that directly, but I’ll transfer you…

FM: No! Wait! The SkyTeam Mega DO is an event sponsored by Delta. I need to book tickets, but the web site is broken.

Delta: Oh, I see it now. Let me read you the instructions: “please log in to megado.delta.com to make your reservation.” Is there anything else I can help you with today?

FM: No, I mean, yes! I can’t book through the web site because it doesn’t work! The tickets are supposed to be $800 each, but when I price it through the web site it comes up as $9 Million. Obviously it is broken!

Delta: I understand sir. It says here that the Mega DO leaves Atlanta for Salt Lake City on November 8^th 2012. Would you like me to look for availability for one way flights on that day?

FM: No! I need to be booked onto the chartered jet for the Mega DO!

Delta: I’m sorry sir, but we do not offer chartered jet service for individuals at this time. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

FM: Aaaaargh!