November 23, 2011
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 SapphireSM 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 $1000 in travel if you convert the points to United Airlines miles and/or Hyatt points. That last point is really key to the value of this card: Ultimate Rewards points earned with this card are instantly transferable to a number of airline and hotel programs. So, you can shop around to find the best miles and points redemptions before transferring your points and in that way get some incredible values from these points! I will get a small commission if you use my link, but you’ll get the same best offer available anywhere. I promise I would recommend this card with or without the referral commission. In fact, I have recommended it many times prior to my signing up for a referral network and I use it every day as my main go-to credit card.
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Why not use the credit card in the first place for purchases?
If you buy sears card on UR you can get anywhere from 6-20 points per dollar depending on deal they run and how you spend those gift cards.
Hey, not sure if this has been discussed already, but any luck double-dipping on Kohls? That 10 points/$ is mighty juicy!
Sears.com says gift cards does this mean online sears gift cards or cards off the rack at KMART
jeff
Oliver2002: Since there was some confusion about this, I’ve updated the post. See now the first paragraph that speaks briefly about why this is worthwhile.
Greg Z: I have successfully double-dipped at Kohls, but they disappeared from the list of gift card vendors the day after I bought their gift cards through the UR mall. More recently, I bought another gift card to see if this works, but no word yet. My guess is that it will work. The good news is that it won’t hurt to try it because I have proven that you will still get the 10 points per dollar when using a gift card at Kohls. I just don’t know if you will also get the points for the purchase of the card.
Jeff: I’m not sure I understand your question. The trick is to buy gift cards (physical or e-cards) online through the Ultimate Rewards mall. Then use the gift cards in Sears or Kmart. Sears gift cards work at Kmart and Kmart gift cards work at Sears. Kmart has racks where they sell other vendor gift cards, but you have to go in person to get them.
Unfortunately I don’t have a UR card, got any tips for other shopping portals? Heard you could use the UR portal without using the card, but you would have to have an account.
Frequent Miler-If you look at the buy gift cards page on the sears or kmart web sites it says you cannot use gift cards to buy gift cards. Does this mean that you cannot use a sears or kmart gift card to buy another one or is this a T&C to prevent us from doing exactly what you’re suggesting and they just aren’t enforcing it yet.
worldtraveller2: I believe you do need either the Chase Ink Bold business card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred personal card in order to use the UR mall to get Ultimate Rewards points. I highly recommend both cards, but the Sapphire is especially good because it gives you a 7% annual bonus for all points (even bonus points) that you have received each calendar year. It also gives double points for travel and dining. Here is the signup link if you’re interested: Chase SapphireSM Preferred Card
Jeff: that wording means that you can’t use, for example, a Sears gift card to buy another Sears gift card. If you try to do this online, it will give you a warning message saying you can’t do that. I actually have a post where I talk about exactly this situation: perpetual-point-machine-not
Am I missing somethign here.. You pay service/activation fee for the sears gift card and all other gift cards you buy unsing that card. the fees are some where like 3-4$ each. this may not work well for small amounts..
For ex: you buy a sears card for 1000.00.. assmuning you pay 4$ as service charge . Stores have 100$ gift cards max .so you buy 10 other gift cards , you pay 40$ (10*4) one time charges. you get 7000 miles for 44$..is it a really good deal?.
Sree: there is no service charge for buying Sears/Kmart gift cards. No taxes, and no shipping charges either.
Just wanted to give compliment to you for your blog. Your blog best of the new blogs on boarding area that has cropped up with some good insights.
Dracs
What no moderation like other blogs!!!! Need to spam the blog then
Dracs: thanks! Yes, no moderation: don’t make me regret it!
Actually, I have had to delete some spam, but not much yet
I’ve noticed that on the UR terms and conditions for Sears, that it says that it is not valid for Kenmore and Craftsman. Does this mean that you cannot earn points for purchasing Kenmore and Craftsman items at Sears.com, or does it mean that you just do not earn points if you click on the buttons for Kenmore.com and Craftsman.com that are displayed at the top of the Sears web site?
I don’t know but if you want to try captcha sort of thing to avoid spam. But hopefully would not resort to pick and post comments like other places.
Elizabeth: I’m pretty sure it means the latter. That is, you won’t get bonus points if you shop at Kenmore.com or Craftsman.com. Sears will give you bonus points for anything at Sears.com that allows you to click “Add to Basket”.
[...] your minimum spend requirements. To see how versatile Sears’ gift cards can be, read “An Infinite Number of Uses for Sears Gift Cards“. So, if you’re struggling to meet minimum spend requirements on some credit cards [...]
Are you still able to use sears or kmart gift cards to buy 3rd party gift cards? On my sears gc, it says you’re not able to buy 3rd party gc with it. I also check at the store and was denied. Was this just a recent policy change?
bfshopper: my Sears gift cards say “Not valid for purchase of third party debit or prepaid cards.” This means that you can’t buy Amex, Visa, or MasterCard cards using a Sears’ gift card. People have had different experiences with trying to buy 3rd party gift cards (such as EBay or BP) at Sears and Kmart. Locally, I’ve been successful 2 out of 2 times at Sears, and 2 out of 3 times at Kmart. Others have reported 1) No useful gift cards at their local stores; or 2) being told that it is against store policy.
It’s clearly a gamble.