One of the problems with credit card sign-up bonuses is that many have large spend requirements.  For example, the current public offer for the Ink Bold requires $10K in spend in 3 months to get the full 50K bonus (half of the bonus is given when you first use the card).  Most cards have more modest requirements, but even those can be a challenge.

For a high level overview of ways to meet minimum spend, see my post from last year “Top 10 ways to spend a lot of money and get most of it back”.  In that post, the #2 option I listed was to make loans via Kiva.  You can read more about Kiva here “How to maximize points and virtue through Kiva loans”.

Kiva is a nonprofit organization that facilitates micro-loans to enterprising individuals around the world so that they may earn their own way out of poverty.  By making loans through the Kiva website, you can be part of the solution to poverty AND earn points and miles.  You can use your credit card to make loans (that’s how you earn points and miles) and you will get paid back over time.  A typical loan takes about a year to pay off fully, but you will usually begin to see partial repayments in a month or two.  Kiva’s default rate is barely over 1% (1.06%).  Personally I have not yet had a single loan default.

If you’re new to Kiva, you can try it risk-free by signing up through this link: http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/FrequentMiler.  This will give you $25 that you can loan to get a feel for the process.  Just note that this loan is different than ones you fund yourself in that when it is repaid you will not get the money back.  Also, while you’re in the process of joining Kiva, consider joining the Milepoint Lending Team on Kiva.  It’s a fun group of like-minded micro-loaners.

The only problem I have with Kiva is that their web site can be a challenge if your goal is to loan a lot of money all at once.  Kiva.org is setup for the average person who browses through prospective borrowers one at a time to find the ideal candidate for a $25 (or so) loan.  Suppose, though, you want to loan thousands of dollars all at once?

Kivalens is a web app that makes it easy to loan lots of money all at once.  The web site uses a technology called SilverLight so it may not load on your favorite smart phone or tablet, but it should work with most full fledged laptops.  Browse to kivalens.org and you’ll see a screen like this:

On the left side are filters.  In the “Loan” section you can pick characteristics of the loans.  For example, if you want to be repaid quickly, you can filter out loans with greater than, say, 8 months before they are repaid. 

On the left side, you will also see a “Partner” section.  Kiva loans are managed by field partners.  These are the organizations made up of people who actually live and work in the region being served by the loans, and who provide bank-like services to people seeking loans.  In this section of the screen, you can filter to highly rated partners with low default rates in order to ensure you make only relatively safe loans.

In the middle of the screen are the loans that meet the criteria from the left side.  When you click on a loan, more information is given to the right (not show above).

What I really like is the little “++” button at the bottom of the screen.  When you click it, the following dialog box appears:

Let’s say you need to spend $3K on a credit card to meet it’s minimum spend requirements.  Assuming you have enough money in the bank to cover the credit card bill, you can use this “Bulk Add” tool to spend $3K all at once.  Simply slide the “Max Basket Amount” slider to the right until the total comes to $3000.  You can also increase the max amount per loan if you want to.  Personally I like to keep it at $25 in order to spread my risk as much as possible.  Click OK, and then click the “Checkout!” button at the bottom of the screen.  This will move all of your selected loans to the Kiva.org website where you can then pay for the loans by credit card.

For details about how to use a credit card to pay loans on Kiva.org, please see “How to maximize points and virtue through Kiva loans”.

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Three weeks ago I wrote about my Sony gift card experiment in which I bought a Sony gift card through the Ultimate Rewards Mall and then used the gift card through the same mall with the hopes of earning 10X for each purchase.  To make things even more interesting, I used a Visa card that can be bought for 10X through the Ultimate Rewards Mall at Staples.com (if using a Chase Ink card).  In total, I hoped to earn 30X overall.  You can read the details in the post  “Experiment in progress: Sony 30X.”

First try: failure

Last week, I revealed that the experiment was a failure.  I had bought an eGift card which was sold by CashStar.com instead of Sony.  And, I had bought a clearance item with the gift card (which is against the T&C for Sony giving points in the Ultimate Rewards Mall).  Neither purchase resulted in any points.  You can read details in the post “Sony 30X only mostly dead.”

Take 2

Due to the mistakes I made with the original experiment, I re-ran the experiment.  This time I bought a physical gift card (sold by Sony) and I used a gift card to buy an item that doesn’t violate the terms & conditions.

As a reminder, here are the Terms & Conditions for Sony in the Ultimate Rewards Mall:

Not eligible on Sony outlet, refurbished, clearance items, and Sony Ericsson locked phones, or Employee Purchase Programs.

Results

All of the results are now in for the second experiment.  Success! I received 10X for both the purchase of the physical gift card and the use of a gift card!  30X is possible after all!

Too Late

Unfortunately, it is very likely that Sony will drop down to a much lower bonus rate on June 1.  Currently, the offer reads “Special increased earnings now through 5/31/2011.”  See the red print at the bottom:

If you still want to earn at least 10X, you can go ahead and buy physical gift cards before the offer ends.  Unfortunately, they won’t arrive in time to double dip for 20X.

Caution: for most readers this will be a “so what?”, or a “who cares?” post.  If you’ve never heard of Cartera Commerce, then you’ll probably want to skip this post.

Cartera Commerce is the company behind many miles-earning shopping portals including American Airline’s AAdvantage eShopping, Delta’s SkyMiles Shopping, United’s MileagePlus Shopping, and Southwest’s RapidRewards Shopping.

When shopping portals work well, they can be a fantastic way to build up your portfolio of points and miles.  Sometimes, though, things do not go well and shoppers are left without the points and miles they expected.  I’ve never had much trouble with Cartera, but others have.  In fact, one guy who goes by “Marathon Man” had so much trouble that he sued them.  You can read the background in this FlyerTalk blog post.  Ultimately Marathon Man lost the suit, but was (coincidentally?) given most of the miles due to him (details are buried deep in this FlyerTalk thread).

Ultimate Rewards Mall

While I can’t find specific references, I have seen people praise Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Mall and claim that it works well because it is not run by Cartera.  That may or may not be true, but they certainly use the same software that Cartera does.  Take a look at some screen shots of the Ultimate Rewards Mall compared to RapidRewards Shopping:

Search for Sears in the Ultimate Rewards Mall results in:

Search for Sears in RapidRewards Shopping results in:

Click to view Gift Cards in the Ultimate Rewards Mall results in:

Click to view Gift Cards in RapidRewards Shopping results in:

While not every screen is as near a perfect match as the examples shown above, it should be clear to everyone that the two shopping portals use the same software with just slightly different skins to make them unique.

Additional Evidence

I found this post on MilePoint which references this Cartera press release.  This is evidence that in 2009, at least, Cartera was involved in the Ultimate Rewards Mall.

Speculation

Unlike the other shopping portals, I can’t find any written proof when viewing the Ultimate Rewards Mall that Cartera is behind the scenes.  It’s clear to me that Chase private labeled the software to make it look like it is fully run by Chase.  And, it’s possible that Chase bought or licensed the software and does fully run the program.  My guess, though, is that Cartera runs the day to day operation, but that Chase owns the site and provides customer support.  I don’t have any proof of this, it’s just speculation.  I won’t be surprised if some readers know better and post the facts below.

So What?

Sorry, but I don’t have any great reason to give for this post.  There’s no wise conclusion that will show you how to exploit this finding.  Quite a while ago I simply noticed how similar the various web sites were and figured it was time to share. 

Happy e-shopping!

On May 1st, I published “Ultimate Rewards Mall Awesomeness!” where I showed a number of great deals in the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  This post is simply a reminder of those deals.  You only have a few days left.  Most of the deals are scheduled to end May 31st (this Thursday).

Ink Bold

If you log in with your Ink Bold account, you’ll find the following:

• Staples.com at 5X! If you want to get 10X for buying gift cards online, now is the time!  (5X from the mall, plus 5X from the Ink Bold’s category bonus).  Staples carries a number of gift cards including Starbucks, Marriott, Southwest Airlines, and even Visa.
• Sony at 10X! While my double-dip experiment didn’t pan out (see “Sony 30X only mostly dead”), I have since verified that buying physical gift cards (but not eGift cards) does result in points.  So, if you know you have a Sony purchase coming up, but you’re not yet ready to pull the trigger, consider stocking up on gift cards.  Beware, though, that when you buy things will gift cards you don’t get automatic extended warranties or purchase protections given by some credit cards.
• Overstock.com at 10X A reader double-dip experiment didn’t pan out, but 10X is pretty good by itself!
• Lenovo at 5X

Freedom

If you log in with your Freedom card, you’ll find the following:

• Sephora at 20X! This 20X deal only lasted about a week.
• QVC at 10X!  A reader who goes by carwag25 tried a double dip experiment with QVC, but it didn’t work.  No points were given for buying an e-gift card (which was sold by CashStar), but points were given for using the gift card.  It is likely that the double dip would work for a physical gift card, but we don’t yet have proof of this.

Sapphire Preferred

If you log in with your Sapphire or Sapphire Preferred, you’ll find the following:

• J. Crew at 10X! Mommy Points, you were going to re-test the double-dip on this one.  Any luck?
• Ann Taylor at 5X

Comparison Shopping

Since Ultimate Rewards Mall has different deals depending on which card you log in with, Hiker T has been maintaining a web page that makes it easy to see the current rates and to see which card you should log in with.  You can see his page here: lakebagger.com/ur/

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Last week the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) offered 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears.com.  I wrote a number of posts with ideas for capitalizing on the promotion. The key was to buy gift cards for 15 points per dollar and then to sell the gift cards, or to use the gift cards through the shopping portal to get another 15X.  For many, this appears to have worked well, but some people ran into issues:

• A few people received messages from Sears that the ordered merchandise was out of stock.  These messages arrived too late to get 15X by buying something else.
• Sears outright cancelled some orders without explanation.
• One reader reported trouble from PlasticJungle.  When he tried to sell his gift cards, PlasticJungle canceled the order.

If you find yourself stuck with gift cards that you don’t really want, here are some options you have:

Use gift cards for day to day expenses

First, to get the obvious one out of the way: Sears gift cards can be used at Sears, KMart, Lands’ End, Sears Outlet, MyGopher, Crafstman, etc.  Most Kmart stores carry groceries, pharmaceuticals, and other commonly needed goods.  Simply moving some of your regular spend to these stores can go a long way in lowering expenses you would normally incur at other stores.

Upgrade gift cards to ones you actually want

Many KMart and Sears stores will let you use Sears gift cards to buy gift cards from other merchants.  Use this technique to save at gas stations, restaurants, or even for travel (KMart often carries Marriott and Southwest Airlines gift cards).

Don’t call

It seems to be universally true that when people call Sears or KMart to ask if they can buy gift cards with gift cards, they are told no.  However, it usually works (but not always) when you go ahead and try in person.  I’ve found that it helps to buy just 2 or 3 gift cards at a time.  It also doesn’t hurt to load your cart with other items as well.  I don’t think it’s a glitch that allows you to do this.  Take a look at the Terms & Conditions that you agreed to when you bought the gift cards.  I’ve bolded the important part:

This card is issued by SHC Promotions LLC and is redeemable for goods and services at participating Sears, Roebuck and Co., Lands’ End, The Great Indoors, and Kmart store locations in the U.S., P.R., Guam and U.S.V.I., and at sears.com, kmart.com, landsend.com and Lands’ End catalogs. Not valid for purchase of third party debit or prepaid cards. Not redeemable for restaurant, Olan Mills Portrait Studio transactions or for cash, except where required by law. Cannot be applied to credit accounts. Lost, stolen or damaged gift cards may only be cancelled and replaced with proof of purchase.

Notice that they explicitly exclude 3rd party debit and prepaid cards, but not gift cards.  I’ve seen this myself at the register.  The register has no problem with regular gift cards, but if you try to buy an American Express or Visa card with a Sears gift card, the register won’t allow it.

Upgrade and sell

Some KMart stores carry BP gift cards.  BP cards can usually be sold to gift card resellers for 91 or 92 cents to the dollar.  Currently, Plastic Jungle lists the buy price for BP cards at 91 cents to the dollar.  If you start at TopCashBack before selling to PlasticJungle, you can earn another 4% cash back (4% of 91% = 3.64%).  This amounts to a 5.36% loss.  If you got 15 points per dollar for buying Sears gift cards, then selling your gift cards in this way is equivalent to buying Southwest miles for only .36 cents each.  That’s an incredible bargain!  I will admit, though, that upgrading and selling gift cards can be a slow, painful process, but if you’re stuck with Sears gift cards this may just be the best way to go.

Other ideas?

If you have other ideas for how best to use Sears gift cards, please comment below.

Related Posts and Links

• Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal
• Sears 15X: Free Southwest Companion Pass
• Sears 15X: Shopping for 110,000 points
• Sign up for TopCashBack (referral link)
• Sign up for PlasticJungle (referral link)

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Earlier this week, the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) offered 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears.com.  In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways one could capitalize on the opportunity.  In the post “Sears 15X: Free Southwest Companion Pass” I showed how one could (theoretically) earn a Southwest companion pass by buying and selling gift cards.  And, in the post “Sears 15X: Shopping for 110,000 points” I showed how one could earn 110,000 Southwest points by double-dipping: buy gift cards for 15X and then use them to buy merchandise for another 15X.  It’s not easy, but it is possible to find merchandise that can be resold at an acceptable loss.

The 15X deal is no longer available, but let’s take a look at what we’ve learned so far:

The double dip worked!

A number of people who bought eGift cards and then used them to buy merchandise have reported that their points have already posted within the portal!  My points showed up this morning:

Reports from those who have shopped this portal before suggest that it will be a while before the points become real.  We will likely see these points post to our actual Southwest accounts by early July.

Purchases of physical gift cards worked!

There was some concern that physical gift cards wouldn’t get 15X because of a message that said they were sold and shipped by KMart (not Sears).  At least one reader, though, has reported getting all 15X points from their purchase!

Not all went well

Here are some issues that have been reported by readers:

• A few people received messages from Sears that the ordered merchandise was out of stock.  These messages arrived too late to get 15X by buying something else.
• Sears outright cancelled some orders without explanation.
• One reader reported trouble from PlasticJungle.  When he tried to sell his gift cards, PlasticJungle canceled the order.
• One reader received less than 15X for a part of their order.

As a result of some of the issues listed here, some of you are stuck with lots of Sears’ gift cards.  I’ll follow up later with suggestions for how to get the most out of them.

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I don’t really want to keep writing about Club Carlson for business, but I can’t seem to avoid it.  I opened this can of worms in my post “When 138000 points is not enough” where I showed how to maximize the latest Club Carlson promotions through a variety of techniques including setting up a business account.  Since then I learned that getting extra points for a business account is not as straightforward as it seems.  I had hoped I had written my last post on the subject when I wrote “Club Carlson for Business final word (I hope).”  In the comments of that post, though, reader Asen commented “If you are club carlson gold or higher, you will not get the 2000 point online booking bonus using this method.”  Uh oh…

I checked with Club Carlson and they confirmed Asen’s assertion.  Normally, when you book a Club Carlson stay, you get bonus points for booking online.  Regular members earn 1000 points, Silver and Gold members earn 2000 points, and Concierge members earn 3000 points.  This is a great perk, especially for one night stays.  For example, suppose you book a $100 stay: 1000 bonus points is equivalent to 10 extra points per dollar.  Silver and Gold members get the equivalent of 20 extra points per dollar.  For cheaper stays, the points per dollar equivalent is even higher.

In the post “Club Carlson for Business final word (I hope)” I showed how to earn extra points for your business account by logging in through your business account to make reservations.  When you do this, though, you won’t earn the bonus points for booking online.  Unless you book an expensive stay, the extra points earned for your business (10 points per dollar) will not make up for the loss of the bonus points.

To try to simplify things, here are a set of rules that should help:

Initial research

• Always start by going through TopCashBack to Radisson for an additional 10% rebate for your stay.
• Log in with your personal Club Carlson account.
• Check prices with and without your business ID in the “Corporate Account ID” box.

If the corporate rate is the best rate:

• Book the room from your personal account after making sure that your business ID is in the Corporate Account ID box.  This will automatically give you 5% off of the standard room rate.

If a promotional rate is the best rate:

If you find a promotional rate (e.g. AAA rate, B&B package, etc.) that is better than the corporate rate, then you need to make a decision based on your elite status level:

• No status: If you have no status with Club Carlson, then book the room from your personal account unless the entire stay will cost more than $100.  If the stay will be more than $100, then book the stay with your business account.
• Silver or Gold status: If you have Silver or Gold status with Club Carlson, then book the room from your personal account unless the entire stay will cost more than $200. If the stay will be more than $200, then book the stay with your business account.
• Concierge status: If you have Concierge status with Club Carlson, then book the room from your personal account unless the entire stay will cost more than $300. If the stay will be more than $300, then book the stay with your business account.

In general, if you plan to limit yourself to one night stands stays throughout these promotions, then it is almost always better to book from your personal account even though that may mean losing out on business points.

After booking

Search the web (Kayak, etc.) for better rates for the same hotel and night.  If you find a better rate, submit a claim with Club Carlson’s best rate guarantee.  If you’re lucky, you’ll get 25% off that better rate! (Hat tip to Mommy Points)

Related Posts and Links

• When 138000 points is not enough
• Club Carlson for Business final word (I hope)
• Sign up for TopCashBack (referral link): www.topcashback.com/ref/frequentmiler

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Today is our last chance to get 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears through the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping).  In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways to capitalize on this promotion.  Today, I will do something a little bit different…

My goal today is to find items at Sears that I can buy and re-sell for minimal loss.  First, I’ll buy eGift cards for 15X Southwest points, and then I’ll double-dip: I’ll use those gift cards to make my purchases.  Overall, I should earn 30 points per dollar for my purchases.  My overall goal is to earn enough points for a companion pass (110,000 points) for as little out of pocket loss as possible. 

I will update this post multiple times today as I make progress.

UPDATE 1 (8:30 AM EST): Currently I’m researching Sears.com to find good deals.  My goal is to find expensive but small and lightweight electronics that can be resold easily and for minimal loss.  From past deals, I still have almost $500 worth of Sears gift cards, so I’m planning to buy $3500 worth of new gift cards and then buy at least $3850 worth of merchandise.  The gift card purchases should net 52,500 Southwest points, and the merchandise purchases should net another 57,750 for a total of 110,250 points. 

UPDATE 2 (9:30 AM EST): Well, BoardingArea is down so I haven’t been able to publish this post, but I’ll keep on plugging away.  So far I’ve found one item that looks like a great candidate for resale.  I’ll keep looking to see if I can find at least one more so that I can minimize my risk through diversification.  From past experience, I know that eGift cards take about an hour to arrive and usually involve a call from Sears’ fraud department so I’ll get started on that part right now…

UPDATE 3 (10:05 AM EST): OK, I bought $3500 worth of eGift cards!  Now it appears that BoardingArea is running again, so I’ll try to publish this, and then I’ll continue to research what to buy.

UPDATE 4 (12:20 PM EST): I now know what I want to buy.  I only found one item that I’m sure I can resell for a reasonable price, so I’ll go with that.  I have about $700 worth of personal purchases to make as well.  In total I’ll buy $3200 worth of the re-sellable item and $700 worth of items to keep.  The only problem?  The gift cards haven’t arrived yet!  I’ve never seen them take longer than an hour before.  I did get an email saying that “additional processing time is needed.”  I’m guessing Sears is getting a lot of gift card orders today.  If mine don’t arrive soon, I’ll call them.

UPDATE 5 (12:50 PM EST): Ooh, this is interesting!  I finally got a call from Sears’ fraud department (they always call to verify online gift card orders).  The guy asked me if I was buying the gift cards for the Southwest points.  I said yes, and I asked him if he could verify that this order qualifies for points.  He said yes!  Nice!  I asked him if he could verify whether physical gift cards also qualify, but he didn’t know.  He suggested calling customer service.  If you’re thinking of buying the physical cards, consider calling customer service first and let me know how it goes!

UPDATE 6 (2:05 PM EST): I received all $3500 worth of eGift cards and I successfully made two separate orders.  The first order totaled $3386 and was made up entirely of items I expect to sell.  I paid this order entirely with gift cards.  The second order totaled just over $800 and is made up of stuff that I’ll keep.  I paid this order partly with gift cards and partly with my prepaid Amex card with which I’ll earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points (see “One card to rule them all”).

With both orders, I tried to apply the code MAXFREE4, but both times the system said that the code didn’t apply to my order.  I then tried a code I had been sent via email, but that didn’t work either.  I didn’t really need free shipping on these orders (although one item did cost $3 for shipping), but I did want to get 2X ShopYourWay Rewards points.  Oh well.  Did anyone else have success with this code?

A note about ShopYourWay Rewards: I had about $90 in rewards on my account which I was able to apply to the first order.  By the time I placed my second order, I already had additional rewards available from the first order.  This was a great way to save a few bucks!  By default, you earn the equivalent of 1% back in rewards when you make qualifying purchases at Sears, Kmart, etc.  Buying gift cards doesn’t count for these rewards, but using them does.

FINAL UPDATE?  As far as I know, update 6 was the final update for today.  I’ll continue to read and answer comments though.  I’ll also follow-up in future posts with results from this shopping spree.

Background

I’ve done this before.  In February the British Airways shopping portal briefly offered 36 points per dollar when shopping at Nordstrom.  To capitalize on that deal I bought and sold $4000 worth of electronics and raked in over 140,000 BA miles.  You can read about that deal in my posts “How Amazon paid me to collect miles” and “Round trip to Hawaii for $125!”

Similarly, in December, the Ultimate Rewards Mall offered Sears at 10X for one day.  I happened to be doing a mileage run that day, but luckily all of my Delta flights were fully equipped with Wi-Fi.  So, on that day I bought and used gift cards to increase my take to 20X and I purchased over $2000 worth of electronics that I later sold.  On that day I earned close to 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points.  You can read about that deal in my posts “Mileage Run Shopping: Buying 162,000 Miles for $500” and “Mileage Run Shopping Results.”

When buying and selling items as I’ve done, you should generally expect to lose money on the deal.  Unless you’re lucky enough to be in a sales-tax free state, you will have to pay sales tax on each of your purchases; you may have to pay for shipping to your home; you will have to pay for shipping to the buyer; and you will have to pay seller fees if selling through EBay or Amazon.  I’ve been lucky enough to keep my losses to about 20% or less in previous deals, but to be safe I think it’s a good idea to assume you will lose about 25%.  Be careful, though, you could lose even more!

Why is it OK to lose 25%?  The miles earned are what makes it a deal!  The loss due to buying and selling can be thought of as the cost to buy those miles.  With this current deal, if the double dip works, and we successfully earn 30 points per dollar, then a 25% loss will amount to buying miles for .83 cents each.  Southwest points are worth much more than that, so that’s a great deal!

If you’re interested in doing this, read my post “Hunting for deals” to see how I go about finding the best items for re-sale.

Cautions and Risks

Everything written in this post carries some risks. Don’t do this unless you are prepared for the worst. Here are a few obvious risks:

1. You shop through the portal, but don’t get any points. To minimize the chance of this, please see my post “How to ensure your portal points”.
2. Purchases of gift cards don’t receive points. I think this is unlikely, but it is possible since I’ve never tested this portal.
3. When selling merchandise, you may have trouble finding buyers.
4. When selling merchandise you may find merchant fees and other costs to be higher than expected.

Related Posts and Links

• Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal
• Sears 15X: do gift cards count?
• Sears 15X: Free Southwest Companion Pass
• How to ensure your portal points

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Today and tomorrow, the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) is offering 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears. In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways to capitalize on this promotion. In this post I’ll show step by step how to get a Southwest Companion pass for free!  The trick shown here involves buying and selling gift cards.  It is also possible to do this by buying and selling merchandise, but that will be left for another post…

Background

Southwest has a fantastic program in which a designated companion can fly free on all flights you take. To qualify for a companion pass, you must earn 110,000 points within a calendar year. Once you qualify, you designate a companion, and that person then can fly free anywhere you go on Southwest for the rest of that calendar year and the next calendar year. You may change your companion up to 3 times during the validity period of the pass. Full details of the pass can be found here: rapid_rewards_program_terms_and_conditions_faq.

Million Mile Secrets has written about how to earn a Companion Pass through credit card sign-ups. However, if you are already maxed out on Chase sign-ups (who isn’t?), don’t want to blow your valuable Chase sign-ups on Southwest credit cards, or have other reasons not to sign-up, then this 15X deal may be the way to go.

Step 1: Calculate how many points you need

To earn the pass, you need to earn 110,000 points in a calendar year.  Check to see how many you’ve earned so far this year and calculate the difference needed to get to 110,000.  Personally, I’ve earned 0 points so I would need the full 110,000.

Step 2: Calculate how much you’ll have to spend at Sears

Divide the number of points needed by 15 in order to figure out how much you need to spend.  Example:

110,000 points needed / 15 = $7333.34 needed to spend

If you plan to use a Southwest Airlines points earning credit card for these purchases, then divide by 16 instead of 15.

Step 3: Log into the Rapid Rewards Shopping portal

If you don’t already have a Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards account you’ll need to sign up for one first.  Then go to rapidrewardsshopping.southwest.com.

Step 4: Click through to Sears

Step 5: Buy gift cards

Take the result of your calculation in step 2 and buy that amount of gift cards.  Buy physical cards (card type “mail”), not e-cards because the physical ones are easier to sell.  If you need all 110,000 points, then you would need to buy $7335 worth of gift cards.  Don’t do this unless you have plenty of available credit and the ability to pay off your credit card bill in full.

Step 6: Sell gift cards

Once you receive your cards in the mail, sell them as follows:

1. Log into TopCashBack and click through to Plastic Jungle.
2. Sell your gift cards to Plastic Jungle

Currently, Plastic Jungle offers 83% cash back for Sears gift cards and Plastic Jungle adds another 3.32% (4% of 83%).  If you sell $7335 worth of gift cards you should get back $6088.05 from Plastic Jungle and $244.19 from TopCashBack.  In my experience Plastic Jungle pays very quickly.  TopCashBack takes longer because they can’t pay until they get paid themselves by the merchant.  In total you should get $6332 back.  At this point you would be out $1003.

Step 7: Wait for your points to post

Once your points post, you should have enough points for a Companion Pass!

Step 8: Liquidate your points (optional)

First, consider keeping the points so that you and your companion can travel for free for a long time!  If you really need your $1003 back, though, then do the following:

1. Log into your Southwest account and go to “Redeem Points”.
2. Find the option to redeem points for gift cards.
3. Buy Walmart gift cards with your points.
4. Once you get the Walmart gift cards, sell them in the same manner described in step 6.

110,000 points would get you 22 $50 Walmart gift cards. Plastic Jungle will currently buy them for 92% of their value. By going through TopCashBack, you will get another 3.68% of their value for a total of 95.68%. In other words, 110,000 points should translate into $1052.48 cash back.

Add it up

If all of the above works, here is what you will get for the effort (assuming you went for the full 110,000 points):

• One Southwest Companion Pass
• About $50 in profit
• $7335 in credit card spend.  If you’re working on meeting minimum spend requirements or liquidating gift cards, this could be a huge win.  At the very least this means 7335 points or miles depending on what credit card you use.

Cautions and Risks

Everything written in this post carries some risks. Don’t do this unless you are prepared for the worst. Here are a few obvious risks:

1. You shop through the portal, but don’t get any points. To minimize the chance of this, please see my post “How to ensure your portal points”.
2. Purchases of gift cards don’t receive points. I think this is unlikely, but it is possible since I’ve never tested this portal.
3. Southwest may change the redemption rates for gift cards.
4. Plastic Jungle may reduce the payout amount for Sears or Walmart cards, or TopCashBack may reduce the cash back amount.
5. Gift cards may get lost in the mail or improperly cataloged by Plastic Jungle.

Related Posts and Links

• Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal
• Sears 15X: do gift cards count?
• How to ensure your portal points
• Sign up for TopCashBack (referral link): www.topcashback.com/ref/frequentmiler
• Sign up for PlasticJungle (referral link): plasticjungle.extole.com/a/clk/4bHsml

Today and tomorrow, the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) is offering 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears.  In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways to capitalize on this promotion.  Many of my suggestions were based on buying Sears gift cards for 15X.  The question explored in this post is whether gift card purchases really count…

Terms & Conditions

In the Rapid Rewards shopping portal, the Sears Terms & Conditions are as follows:

Not eligible on Home Delivery Charges, Auto Services, PA & Installation, Master Protection Agreements, Take With, Protection Plans, Sears auctions, Landsend.com, PartsDirect, Craftsman, Kenmore or Outlet purchases. Sears Marketplace products with “Go to Site” button are not eligible. Only products with “Add to Cart” button are eligible. Great Indoors & Kmart products are eligible. Kmart.com products are eligible as a Kmart.com purchase.

In general, the above T&C mean that your purchase must be made at Sears.com, not at Kmart.com, Kenmore.com, etc.  Sears.com has links along the top that will take you to other URLs.  Don’t go to any of them:

The other telling part of the T&C is the part that says ‘Only products with “Add to Cart” button are eligible.’  Even though this isn’t explicit, in my experience this means that all products at Sears.com with an “add to cart” button are eligible.

There is nothing in the Terms & Conditions that would exclude gift card purchases.  And, gift cards do have “Add to cart” buttons:

Experience

While I don’t have experience with the Southwest portal, I have bought and used Sears gift cards through other portals many times and have almost always been successful.  The one exception was when I once bought Sears gift cards through the AAdvantage eShopping portal.  I didn’t get credit for that purchase, but since then I’ve heard from multiple people who have received miles from buying Sears gift cards through that portal.  I have also had 100% success in getting points when using gift cards at Sears.

Other Issues

If you fail to get points when buying Sears gift cards, the issue may be with a failure to properly track the purchase through the portal.  See “How to ensure your portal points” for details of what could go wrong and how to ensure success.

Wrap Up

I believe that purchases of Sears gift cards (both physical and electronic) do count as valid 15X purchases.  In order to protect yourself, make sure to keep your purchase receipts in case you need to file a missing points claim in the future.