April 1st kicks off with a cruel joke from Chase.  Many of the big bonus point offers in the Ultimate Rewards Mall have dropped precipitously.  Below are some of my findings this morning when logged in with my old Ink Bold and my Sapphire Preferred (note that you may see different results with a Chase Freedom).

First, the good news:

• Office Depot: 10X Ink Bold; only 4X Sapphire Preferred
• Kohl’s: Still at 10X for both cards
• Nordstrom: 10X Sapphire Preferred (only for 3 days)
• Drugstore.com: 10X Sapphire Preferred; only 5X with Ink Bold

The exciting news here is the Office Depot 10X opportunity.  Since the New Ink Bold offers 5X automatically when used in office supply stores, you will get a total of 15X when making Office Depot purchases with your Ink card through the UR mall!  Last I checked, though, there were no merchant or bank gift cards available online (also the T&C says “not eligible on purchases of gift cards”).  If they begin to offer free after rebate products, though, this could be a big win.  It might even be worth filling out rebate cards for 15X!

And now the bad news (very bad):

• Staples: down to 2X (from 4X).  Noooooooo!!!!!  The perfect PPM may still be perfect, but for fewer points.  And for those of you who have been buying gift cards with your Ink card for a total of 9X, the total is now down to 7X.  Nooooooo!!!!
• Barnes & Noble: down to 2X (from 10X).  No longer can you buy ultimate rewards points for less than a penny.  Nooooooo!!!!
• Home Depot: down to 4X (from 10X).
• Magazines.com: down to 25X (from 40X).
• Sears: down to 4X (from 5X on the Ink).
• Lands End: down to 2X (from 5 or 6X)

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I called the Chase Sapphire customer service desk twice this week.  The first call was a disaster.  The second was awesome.  Read on.

Background:

Recently I posted how to get huge savings at Kohl’s by buying discount gift cards, going through Ultimate Rewards Mall, and applying a 20% off coupon.  There was some speculation in the comments of that post that you won’t get Ultimate Rewards points unless you pay at least part of the transaction with your Chase card.  So, I made 4 Kohl’s purchases in March.  Two were exclusively paid for with gift cards and two were paid partially with my Chase Sapphire card.  3 out of 4 purchases posted to my UR account correctly, but the one that didn’t post was one in which I had used my Sapphire Preferred.  So I called Chase to inquire about the missing transaction.  The transaction was for about $150, but only 80 cents was on my credit card.

Call 1:

After I explained the situation 3 or 4 times, the Chase rep told me that there was nothing she could do.  I pointed out that she could see that I made a transaction, but she told me that I must not have gone through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to make that purchase.  I told her that I use the mall frequently and I was 100% sure I had done everything correctly.  She replied that she had never seen the mall lose a transaction.  What?!!  Now paraphrasing:

Me: Could you give me a courtesy adjustment?

Rep: No, there is no way I can do that.

Me: Can I talk to your manager?

Rep: He can’t help you either.

Me: Really, let me talk to your manager.

Rep: Sir, he can’t help you, I can do more than he can.  He just manages people.  I work with your account.

Me: Really, you won’t let me speak to your manager?

Rep: He can’t help you sir.

Argggg!!!!  I hung up.

Call 2:

Paraphrasing:

Rep: Oh, wow, you’ve earned a lot of points

Me: Yep, I love the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  This is the first time I haven’t received points when buying something.

Rep: This is strange.  I see more Kohl’s transactions from the mall than I see on your credit card.

Me: Yep, the mall gives points even when you pay with gift cards.  So some of those transactions were paid entirely with gift cards and don’t show up on my credit card

Rep: Wow, I didn’t know that, that’s great!  I like to shop at Kohl’s too!  Hey did you know that you can get a 10% off coupon at Kohl’s and get points too?  I discovered that recently and I like to tell everyone.

Me: You can do even better!  I’ve blogged about this.  Go to cardpool.com to buy Kohl’s gift cards for 15% off, then google for a 20% off Kohls coupon AND go through the UR mall.

Rep: But then you won’t get points for the part of the order you made with gift cards.

Me: No, actually you do.  That’s what’s going on with all of the transactions that did post to my account.

Rep: Wow, that’s great!  Cardpool.com?  I’m writing that down.  How much was the total for the missing transaction?

Me: $148.29, but we should subtract taxes…

Rep: No, that’s fine.  I’ll credit your account for $150 X 10.  1500 points.

Me: That’s great!  Thanks!

I know some readers have struggled with points not showing up when they should.  My only advice: keep calling until you get rep #2

Kohl’s doesn’t always have the best prices, but if you stack readily available discounts, it’s hard to beat.  Here’s how to save 32% and get 10 points per dollar on everything at Kohl’s (even clearance items):

Step 1: Estimate your total cost

Find what you want to buy at Kohl’s and note the total price.  This technique will work even for clearance items so look for big markdowns!  When you’re ready, make sure your shopping cart is empty because, later, you’ll want to add the items after going through the Ultimate Rewards Mall.

Step 2: Calculate 20% off from coupon

In a later step, you’ll apply a 20% off coupon to your order.  For now, simply calculate the discounted total:  To do so, take the total from step 1 and multiply by .8.

Step 3: Buy Kohl’s e-gift card for 15% off

Go to Cardpool.com and buy a Kohl’s e-gift card.  They sell Kohl’s gift cards for 15% off.  Ideally you will find a card with a face value close to the 20% off amount you calculated in step 2.  If you plan to make future purchases at Kohl’s you could go ahead and buy a gift card for a larger amount.  Note that it may take several hours for Cardpool to email the gift card.

Optional: you can get an extra .8% cash back by starting at ShopAtHome before clicking through to Cardpool.com.  This will only work for your first $1000 in transactions at Cardpool.com.

Step 4: Go through Ultimate Rewards Mall for 10X

Once you receive your gift card from step 3, go to the Ultimate Rewards Mall, find Kohl’s, and click through to shop at Kohl’s.  Now any purchases you make will return 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent!

Step 5: Shop Kohl’s, apply coupon and gift card

Load up your Kohl’s shopping cart.  When you go to check out, make sure to apply a 20% off coupon code.  These are readily available through Google searches.  One that I used successfully recently was SMS6532 (with free shipping too).  Also make sure to apply your gift card to the order.

Add up the savings

Let’s say your total purchase before savings is $100.  The 20% off coupon will reduce the price to $80.  At Cardpool, you can buy a $80 gift card for $68.  So, your total savings on $100 worth of items is $32 or 32%.  Plus, you will get 10 points per dollar based on the $80 spent at Kohl’s, or 800 total points.  The fair trading price of 800 Ultimate Rewards points is $10.48. 

Additional savings:  Kohl’s frequently runs special deals where you can earn $10 in Kohl’s bucks for every $50 spent.  If you spend very close to a multiple of $50, then this becomes nearly a 20% rebate that stacks on top of all of the savings shown above!

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Through a special triple dip with the Chase Ink Bold credit card, you can earn 20 points per dollar at Kohl’s and Sears!

In a previous post, I wrote about how to get 10 points per dollar using the Chase Ink Bold credit card (for more about this card, please see Preparing for Miles).  In this post, I’ll show how to turn that trick into a triple dip worth 20 points per dollar!

Step 1: Log into the Ultimate Rewards Mall and shop at Staples.com

By going through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Staples you will earn 5 points per dollar from the mall and another 5 points per dollar when using your Chase Ink Bold credit card at Staples!

Step 2: Buy Gift Cards

If your goal is to shop at Kohl’s, then buy Kohl’s gift cards.  If your goal is to shop at Sears, then buy Lands End gift cards (which work at Sears).  With the exception of Visa gift cards, Staples does not charge any service fees or shipping charges for gift cards.  Use your Ink Bold for these purchases.  As described above, you will earn 10 points per dollar for this transaction! 

If you do not have an Ink Bold, another option is to use the Chase Sapphire Preferred.  You will get 5 points from the mall, plus 1 base point from the credit card, plus a 7% annual bonus.  In total, you will get 6.42 points per dollar using this card.

If you have both the Ink Bold and the Sapphire Preferred, then log into the Ultimate Rewards Mall with your Sapphire account, but make your purchases with the Ink Bold.  In this way, 5 of the bonus points will count towards your annual 7% bonus and you will increase your points per dollar to 10.35!

Step 3: Spend your gift cards online via an appropriate portal

Kohl’s currently offers 10 points per dollar through the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  So, when shopping for Kohl’s merchandise, go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Kohl’s and then use your gift cards to make your purchases.

Sears currently offers 10 points per dollar through the Aadvantage eShopping Mall.  So, when shopping for Sears’ merchandise, go through the AA mall to Sears and then use your Lands’ End gift cards to make the purchase.

With either of the above steps you will earn an extra 10 points (or miles) per dollar, for a total of 20 Points Per Dollar!

Win a Nook!

Reminder: Until Feb 14th, you can win a Barnes & Noble Nook Color simply by adding a comment to our ever growing story. Visit this page to participate!

There is so much going on; I don’t know where to begin!

Sears 10X Points Posted!

Last week I wrote about how it was possible to “buy” 162,000 miles for $500 by double dipping at Sears during the 10X promotion and then selling off what was bought. I ended up not quite going all-in with that, but I did buy $3000 of Sears’ gift cards and just over $2500 of merchandise using gift cards. Well, as the picture above shows, the points posted today! As predicted, I got over 55,000 Ultimate Rewards points in one day! Plus, since I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred account to log in, I will get 7% more points as an end of year bonus!

Small side note: you’ll see a $50 Kohl’s charge above as well. This was for a gift card. This is further proof that, despite Kohl’s terms and conditions, you can usually successfully double dip at Kohl’s (I’ve had one miss where the gift card purchase didn’t take, but the use of gift cards always works).

10 Points per Dollar at Barnes & Noble

Today only, through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, you can get 10 points per dollar at Barnes & Noble. Their usual amount is 8 points per dollar, so this isn’t a huge promotion, but if you need stuff from there you might as well take a look. Don’t forget to search for B&N coupon codes as well. 20% off codes are common. I’ve seen as high as 25% off as well.

If you’re not sure what to get, note that gift card purchases do count! However, purchases made with gift cards do not count. I haven’t tested this yet, but it might be possible to double dip by buying gift cards through Ultimate Rewards and then using them through a different shopping portal. If you try this, check the terms and conditions of the second shopping portal to make sure they don’t prohibit purchases made with gift cards. And, report back your success or failure!

UPDATE (NOON, EST):

I have three B&N purchases to make so I just went to B&N through the Ultimate Rewards mall to buy myself an e-gift card for the full price of all three.  Next, my plan is to make three separate purchases using the gift card: I’ll go once through Big Crumbs (9.6% back), once through EBates (8% back), and once through Mr Rebates (6% back).  The reason for trying all three is to see if any award cash back on purchases made with gift cards.  Of course, I’ll post the results in the future.  Note: If I get charged more for shipping by doing this separately I’ll abandon the plan and just go through Big Crumbs.  If anyone wants to do something similar, please signup with one of my signup links below (I’ll get referral cash and you’ll get my gratitude!):

• Big Crumbs
• EBates (plus get a free $10 gift card after your first $25 purchase!)
• Mr Rebates

UPDATE (12:45 est):

I was sitting here wondering why my B&N gift card hasn’t arrived yet so I logged onto my account and looked at the order status.  It has two conflicting messages.  One says “This item is emailed immediately.”  The other says “Expected ship date: December 19, 2011.”  What?!!  That’s four days from now!  Will it take that long for someone to prepare my e-gift card for shipping?  Seriously?  That better be a mistake!

UPDATE (1:15 EST):

The e-gift card finally arrived.  Luckily the “December 19th ship date” was incorrect.

Up to 70X points at Magazines.com

A reader who goes by the name “LoveToFly” posted in Milepoint that he successfully double dipped with Magazines.com through the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Read the post here for more information. He got full credit (35 points per dollar) for the purchase of a gift card, but only half credit for the purchase using the gift card. Still, he made out with over 50 points per dollar! I plan to try this myself and hope to figure out how to eek out the full 70 points per dollar here. I noticed that they sell books in addition to magazines so I think there are some great gift opportunities here. Imagine buying someone a $75 gift and getting over 5000 points in return! That would be awesome!

UPDATE (12:45 EST): I decided to give this a try right away.  I ordered $40 worth of books with free shipping by doing the double-dip (buy e-gift card, then use e-gift card).  I’ll report back in the future with the results.

UPDATE (7:30 PM EST): Well, I ordered some books, but then a helpful Milepointer pointed out to me that the terms and conditions specifically say that books are excluded!  Oh well, now all I can do is hope that they make a mistake!

The OfficeMax Perpetual Point Machine

OK, so a kind reader tipped me off to this, but I haven’t yet had the time to fully research it. Anyway, it appears that if you belong to OfficeMax’s rewards program, you can get in on regular deals in which you buy stuff and get 100% back in the form of OfficeMax rewards. Those rewards can then be used to buy more stuff for 100% back. Rinse and repeat. You can even start by buying a gift card that gives you a bonus gift card on top of that! If each purchase goes through an online mall, you can essentially earn points and office junk merchandise forever, after a single initial outlay of money. I don’t plan to jump on this until I understand it better, so try at your own risk. Here is a link to SlickDeals with more details: http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3694256

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!

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.

Kohls comes through with Ultimate Rewards points for gift card purchase

Well, well, look at that. It took more than two weeks to post, but the Kohls gift card that I bought by going through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall has paid off with the promised 10 points per dollar:

A few weeks ago, I reported a potential mega-deal from Kohls. In that post I speculated that Kohls may be offering more than 10 points per dollar through the Ultimate Rewards Mall on November 21^st. I also speculated that it may be possible to double dip by first buying Kohls gift cards and then going back through the mall to use the gift cards and in that way earn points twice. Later, in the post No Mega Deal at Kohls, I posted evidence that I was wrong on both counts: double dipping wouldn’t work and Kohls will still be at 10 points per dollar on November 21^st. Well, today I’m back to say that maybe I was wrong on the first part. I mean, maybe I was right originally about the double-dip opportunity, but was wrong to say it doesn’t work. Since Kohls has recently disappeared from the list of gift card merchants in the mall, I can’t promise that this will work anymore, but we’ll see. It seems that the double-dip has worked for me! Stay patient, though, I’m hard at work trying to figure out if this opportunity still works. Read on:

Last night I launched two Kohls experiments:

First, after going through the Ultimate Rewards mall, I ordered merchandise using the gift card I bought earlier. If this works out as I expect it will, I’ll earn another 10 points per dollar for a total of 20 points per dollar for my Kohls spend! To make this deal even sweeter, I used promo code NOVFF20 which gives 20% off your order until November 20^th. So, for $50 out of pocket, I got about $65 worth of stuff and 1000 Ultimate Rewards points which I value at about $20. So, I really ended up with $85 worth of value for $50.

The second experiment I started was to check whether points for gift card purchases are still awarded. It may be that I bought my gift card just in time before they changed the policy. My guess, though, is that this stuff is automated and no one really changed any of the underlying code when Kohls was removed from the gift card list. So, to test that theory, I went through the Ultimate Rewards mall again and purchased another physical $50 gift card. I’m less confident about getting points for e-gift cards so I haven’t tried that at all with Kohls (although I have found it to work with Sears).

As before, I’ll report back about both of these experiments once I know the results.

In a prior post I wrote about a few strange things in the Chase Ultimate Reward mall having to do with Kohls. I speculated that it might be possible to double dip at Kohls by buying Kohls gift cards through the mall and then using those gift cards to buy merchandise through the mall. In that way, I suggested it might be possible to double your Ultimate Rewards earnings for Kohls purchases. I also pointed out that Kohls was advertising a special holiday deal in which they would give 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar, but only on November 21. The weird thing about that was that they were already giving 10 points per dollar. So, I wondered if maybe on November 21 they would give even more?

Since I wrote the post, a few things have changed. First, I still haven’t received any points from buying a Kohls gift card. The Ultimate Rewards mall is usually quick with these things, so I’m ready to throw in the towel on that one. Also, while Kohls used to show up in the list of stores for which you can buy gift cards through the Ultimate Rewards mall, as of today they do not:

Another change is that they no longer say “Only Nov 21″ for the holiday promotion. They’ve changed the text to “Nov 21 – Dec 31 EARN 10 EXTRA POINTS”. This is still confusing since the current rate is already 10 extra points, but I think it’s enough evidence to suggest that 10 points is the highest they’ll go:

Oh well. Ten Ultimate Rewards points per dollar is still quite valuable, so it’s still a good deal, but it’s not the mega deal I was hoping for. Sigh.

Is Kohls the next best double dip opportunity?

Some strange things are afoot in the Ultimate Rewards Mall – specifically with regards to Kohls:

Strange Thing #1: Extra 10 Points per $ on Nov 21

As reported by Mommy Points, several stores in Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Mall will be offering increased bonus points on specific dates. These include Groupon, the Apple Store, Best Buy, Target, Overstock.com, and Kohls.

The strange thing is that Kohls reports that you can earn 10 points per $ on November 21^st. That’s weird because Kohls has offered that same deal since August, when I first started shopping in the Ultimate Rewards Mall. It makes me wonder: Is this a mistake? Did someone at Kohls say to the Ultimate Rewards people something like “yes we’ll go along with the promotion and give an extra 10 points per dollar”? Maybe they meant they would bump up the rewards to 20 points? I’d recommend checking the mall on November 21 to see what’s up.

Strange Thing #2: Gift card purchases are allowed… or not?

If you log into the Ultimate Rewards mall and click on “Buy Gift Cards”, then sort by “Highest Earn Rate”, you will find Kohls near the top:

That’s great right? But then click on Kohls, and click to view the terms and conditions, and you will see that supposedly, purchases of physical or eGift cards are not eligible! So who’s right here?

Potential Deal

I bought a $50 Kohls gift card last week to test whether or not gift card purchases will work. The points haven’t posted yet, but If/when they do, I’ll update this blog. So, here’s the potential deal: if gift card purchases do work out, then it seems likely that Kohls will be a great “double dip” opportunity the way Sears was when it offered 10 points per $. The trick would be to go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to buy gift cards for the amount you want to spend at Kohls, and then go through the mall again to make your purchases using the gift cards you bought. With this approach, you will get 20 points per dollar from the Ultimate Rewards Mall and 1 more point per dollar from your credit card.

Potential Mega Deal

What if on Nov 21^st they offer not just 10 points per dollar, but 20? And what-if the gift card double-dip idea works out? Wow, that would mean you could get 41 points per dollar! Ultimate Rewards points can be converted directly to cash, so this would be, at minimum, 41% off everything they sell including discounted and clearance items. Many people value Ultimate Rewards points much higher than 1 cent each though. You could easily make the argument that each Ultimate Rewards point is worth 2 cents. If so, you would be looking at more than 80% rebate off everything.

Personally, I’m going to see what happens with the gift card purchase experiment and then I’ll wait until November 21 to see what happens in the Ultimate Rewards mall. I don’t think it’s terribly likely, but if the points per $ does go up to 20 I’m going to fill my e-shopping cart to the limit! If this happens, you can bet that Warm the Children and other charities that accept new clothing will be getting huge donations from me!