December 2, 2012
Most offers hold steady for December.
Every month, the Ultimate Rewards Mall has new month-long specials. Last month, I wrote about the November specials in the post “Ultimate Rewards Mall November Edition.” Today, I’ll show you how things look for December.
As always, thanks goes to HikerT for updating his website that shows the Ultimate Rewards Mall payouts for different Chase cards. You can find his website here: lakebagger.com/ur/.
First the bad news
Here are some of the stores that reduced their bonus points since last month:
- Eddie Bauer dropped from 3X to 2X
- Newegg.com dropped from 2X to 1X
- Walmart dropped from 2X to 1X
- KaBloom dropped from 15X to 6X
Sears double dip dead?
Sears (still at 5X) has been a very reliable double-dip store. That is, it has always been possible to get points for buying their gift cards and then more points when using the gift cards. However, new language was introduced last month in the Terms & Conditions:
Not eligible on gift cards, gift certificates or any other similar cash equivalents as of 11/1/12.
Similar language has appeared in other portals as well. Has anyone had experience buying Sears gift cards since Nov 1 through the Ultimate Rewards Mall or any other portal that has this language in the T&C? Have you received points?
December Goodies
Sadly, just like November, there’s very little to get excited about this month. What’s going on, Chase? We love the Ultimate Rewards Mall, but we especially love your 10X specials! Bring them back! Please?
Here are some items worth mentioning…
Hayneedle 5X
This is a new addition to the mall. They sell stuff for your home, similar to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. They sell gift certificates. If anyone buys one, please let me know whether you receive points for buying the gift certificate and/or using it.
Holiday Inn, InterContinental Hotels Group 8X (up from 4X)
If you’re planning to book a stay at any Priority Club property, you can go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to earn an additional 8 points per dollar above any earnings you get directly from your credit card or from the hotel stay itself. That’s pretty good, but its worth mentioning that TopCashBack is offering 15% cash back too, so there are a few very good portal options here.
The North Face 8X
Reader Chris D recently reported success here in doubling their Ultimate Rewards earnings through a double dip. Here is what he wrote:
Went through UR portal and purchased North Face GC (8x). Went through again and purchased item but also paid a bit more on CC due to taxes so not pure GC payment(8x). Both the GC purchase and actual purchase posted in rewards mall activity. So 16x! The amount paid for tax did not post. This all worked despite The North Face t&c “Not eligible on gift cards.”
Kohl’s 10X
Kohl’s has repeated 10X every month for over a year, but it is still worth mentioning. This quarter, Freedom cardholders get 5X for shopping at Kohl’s (up to $1500 spend in bonus categories), and so will get 15X by shopping through the Ultimate Rewards Mall and paying with the Freedom card! Recent reader experiences have been mixed about whether Kohl’s will pay out points when you buy gift cards from them (some have reported success, some not), but they will pay points for orders paid for with gift cards. If you don’t have a Freedom card, checkout this old post of mine to see how to stack multiple discounts and rebates at Kohl’s: Fantastic points and savings at Kohl’s.
Home Depot 5X (same as November)
People have had success double-dipping by buying Home Depot gift cards elsewhere and then using them when shopping through the Ultimate Rewards Mall. For example, use a Chase Ink card to buy Home Depot gift cards at an office supply store (to get 5X), and then shop through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Home Depot to get another 5X. A total of 10X is pretty good! Reports are mixed on whether points are awarded if the entire purchase is made with gift cards. If at all possible, pay a small portion of the total with a credit card to ensure that your points track appropriately.
Lowe’s 5X (same as November)
This is the same story as with Home Depot. Read the text above to see how to double dip.
Prediction Results
On Friday I made some Ultimate Rewards Mall predictions. Let’s see how well I did:
- Home Depot and Lowes will remain at 5X. Correct
- JCPenney will stay at 6X. Correct
- Kohl’s will stay at 10X. Correct
- Staples will increase from 2X to 4X. Wrong. Staples held steady at 2X.
- OfficeMax will increase from 3X to 5X. Wrong. OfficeMax held steady at 3X.
- Office Depot will stay at 5X. Correct
- Sears will stay at 5X. Correct
- Best Buy will increase from 1X to 3X. Wrong
Total score: 5 out of 8 = 62.5% correct. That would be a pretty good score, except that I cheated! For all 5 guesses in which I predicted that the multiplier would stay the same, the T&C in November said: “Special increased earnings now through 12/31/2012!” So, I knew those stores would stay the same because it was written on the site. So, of my real guesses, where I predicted a change, I scored 0 out of 3. Not my best showing…
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That is fine. We still love you.
Just not exciting stuff to me. I want to do all my holiday shopping for extra points, which will likely just mean prepaid GCs from OD/ Staples.
Didn’t ultimate rewards mall have all kinds of holiday special deals last year? What is going on? This is very disappointing!
jettyboy: I appreciate that!
Mike H: Agreed. Definitely not exciting.
Brian: Yes, last year the UR mall has a slew of great specials. This year, nothing. Very sad.
I think companies know what’s coming next yr with the same gov regime but more taxes and they don’t want to spend (give u a break) b/c a lot of stuff is going to expire.
Not many interesting deals. Too bad we can’t buy third party gift cards on staples or OD with no fee.
Living Social gone
Come on Greg,, you’re better than that. Stay far far away from Vegas
will the Priority Club work for the Freedom Hotel category x 5?
Lucy: Yes, thanks for the reminder
Weren’t the Freedom card benefits lowered in November? Or am I thinking something else. I thought the card was only good to use if you had the card before November, but if you got it after it was kind of useless?
Well that stinks on the Sears GCs. Ruins a perfectly good strategy for next yr.
@Corey – only the Freedom card “Chase Exclusives” were an issue regarding “November”; that’s the 10% bonus on base points (so more than the 7% on the Chase Sapphire Preferred) and the 10 points for every transaction as long as you also had a Chase checking account also. The Freedom Quarterly 5% hasn’t gone away at all!
If I book a priority club hotel stay through UR mall right now, will i get the extra points, given that the stay is only going to be in May 2013 (and the hotel will only charge me during checkout)?
I purchased a dishwasher from Lowe’s on Cyber Monday using 3 gift cards from OD. I also used a 10% discount code and the miles just posted(6x). I made the purchase through United.com
@Jeff – Thanks for clearing that up =]
I purchased gift cards for Sears through the portal and purchased a camera through the portal November 10. I only received points for the actual purchase of the camera. Guess double dipping is dead!
Question regarding Freedom exclusives— I’ve had my Freedom for over a year now. I know new Freedom cards don’t get the 10 pts or 10%, but will cardholders from before November get that taken away?
Regarding Sears double dipping, Dainya just said that she didn’t get UR pts for purchase of the gift card. But I have almost $1000 in Sears gc from Sept. anybody have experience using gc via UR mall? Did you get points for the purchase?
@Dave, to get this you need to have opened a Chase checking account before the cutoff date to get the exlusives 10% and 10 points
Pilot, I’ve had my checking account for a few years now. I have been getting the exclusives, and I just want to make sure that wont go away. It’s great for small purchases.
I did purchase $100 of gift cards from Sears on 11/2 through UR and did receive the 500 points. Next day, I purchased items with the gc totaling $106 and received another 531 points.
My first post am new too points. Thank you all for your posts.
@Dave, no it will not go away, me and you are among the grandfathered accounts, only new ones will not have the exclusives benefit.
freedom cardholders prior to cut off date get to keep the exclusives program incentives.
[...] Frequent Miler has a list of the Ultimate Rewards Mall changes for [...]
Sears is 6X through my Ink shopping portal
Heels05: Thanks for the heads up about Sears 6X! HikerT has now updated his site to reflect that and a few other small changes.
When I called Chase UR about points that did not post in November, the Chase representative was adamant that I can earn UR points ONLY when I use a Chase card for a purchase thru the UR shopping mall at, e.g., Kohls, Staples, etc. That was not my understanding. What’s the story?
bf: That’s always what Chase will tell you, but in practice it doesn’t really matter what card you use — you will usually get points. The one area it doesn’t work is when your purchase isn’t properly tracked. In that case (as with what happened to you), using a Chase card is much preferred because Chase will then (sometimes) help you by crediting the points.
[...] Mall has new month-long specials. Last month, I wrote about the December specials in the post Ultimate Rewards Mall December Edition.” Today, I’ll show you how things look for [...]