This is the third of a three part series showing how you can earn 5X everywhere without gift cards.  In the previous posts I showed how you can earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points and ThankYou points in many categories including telecom, grocery stores, drug stores, and more.  In today’s post I’ll cover what to do with spend that is outside of those popular categories.

Three Part Series

1. 5X everywhere without gift cards, part 1: Ultimate Rewards
2. 5X everywhere without gift cards, part 2: ThankYou Points
3. 5X everywhere without gift cards, part 3: Everything Else
   (this post)

5X Categories

In the previous two posts I showed how you can earn 5 points per dollar (5X) at in the following categories:

Ultimate Rewards

• Office supply purchases
• Cell phone
• Landline
• Cable
• Travel (4.28X)
• Rotating categories

ThankYou Rewards

• Gas stations
• Grocery stores
• Drug stores
• Restaurants
• Bookstores
• Movie theaters
• Video rental stores
• Record stores

5X Everywhere Else

The Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature (and its twin, Club Carlson Business Rewards Visa) earns 5 points per dollar for all purchases (and 10 points per dollar at Club Carlson properties).  By falling back on this card for purchases that do not fall into the above listed categories, you will earn 5X for all credit card purchases.

Club Carlson point value

Using the Club Carlson card to earn 5X everywhere sounds good until you realize that Club Carlson points are worth much less than ThankYou points or Ultimate Rewards points.  In fact, while it is easy to get at least 1 cent per point value from Ultimate Rewards and ThankYou Rewards, Club Carlson straight up sells points for 7/10ths of a cent each.  So, even though it is sometimes possible to get more than 7/10s of a cent value from Club Carlson points, it is wiser to earn Ultimate Rewards points or ThankYou points, all else being equal.

A few months ago, I looked at Club Carlson hotel prices and redemption rates in a number of cities.  I found that, in my sample, the per point value of Club Carlson points ranged from .22 cents to .89 cents each.  The average point value came to .43 cents.  This is far less than the value of Ultimate Rewards or ThankYou points.

Two Night Stay Sweet Spot

Where Club Carlson points shine is in booking two-night stays.  The Club Carlson credit cards come with a benefit called “Bonus Award Nights” (see “Club Carlson rocks our world… Again“).  With this benefit, when you book a two night or longer stay, the last night of your stay is free.  That means that for a two night stay, the cost in points for your stay is cut in half.  In other words, you will pay for one night (with points) and get the second night free (up to 50 free nights per year).  So, when you have the credit card and you book two night stays, the value of your Club Carlson points is effectively doubled!

Going back to my old analysis:  Where I previously saw Club Carlson point values ranging from .22 cents to .89 cents in value, you can now get .44 cents to 1.78 cents value for the same hotels by booking two-night stays. 

By using your Club Carlson points primarily for two-night stays, and primarily in properties with the best redemption values, you can get value rivaling ThankYou points and (sometimes) Ultimate Rewards.

Diminishing Returns

It’s important to realize that points have value only if you use them.  Since Club Carlson points have specific limited use (e.g. use them for Club Carlson free nights and or Points & Cash awards) and are best used in limited situations (two night stays), you may soon find that you have more points than you know what to do with.  Once you’ve reached that threshold, earning points for someday may not be the best idea.  Instead, consider other options for your “all other” spend…

Other Options

Here are a few good options for maximizing your return on “all other” spend:

Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve 3.94%

The key to maximizing value with this card is to spend exactly $10K per year. At $10K you’ll earn a free weekend night at almost any Hilton property worldwide. You’ll also earn 30,000 points from spend (the card offers 3X everywhere, 5X airline & car rental, and 10X at Hilton properties). If you value the Hilton HHonors points at .48 cents each and the free night at $250, then the earnings per dollar come to 3.94%.  Owning this card is also a great way to ensure getting free breakfast and free internet at Hilton properties (thanks to automatic Gold status).

Delta Reserve Card 3.4%

If you are a big spender and you value Delta elite status, this card is a great choice (it is, in fact, my “all other” card).  At $30K of annual spend (and again at $60K), you’ll earn 15K bonus miles and 15K MQMs (“Medallion Qualifying Miles” are Delta’s version of Elite Qualifying Miles).  If you plan carefully and end the year just above the big spend threshold (either $30K or $60K) you can maximize earnings on this card: you will earn an average of 1.5 miles per dollar and .5 MQMs per dollar.  If you use the 1.29 cents Fair Trading Price of Delta SkyMiles, and 3 cents per MQM valuation, then your earnings per dollar come to 3.435%.  For more details, please see “An analysis of the Delta Reserve credit card” and “How much should you pay for Elite Qualifying Miles?“

Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard 2.2%

A simpler option for your all-other spend is to earn 2.2% per dollar with Barclays’ Arrival World MasterCard ($89 annual fee version).  This card earns two points per dollar.  Points can be used to pay charges on your credit card statement.  If you use the points to pay for travel expenses, you will get 1 cent per point value plus a 10% rebate in points.  This is a nice no-fuss way to earn very good returns.

Summary

Here, now, is a summary of the cards needed for 5X everywhere without gift cards:

• Chase Ink Bold (or Ink Plus): 5X for office supply purchases, cell phone, landline, and cable.
• Chase Sapphire Preferred: 4.28X for travel (when booking via Travelocity through the Ultimate Rewards Mall).  You must keep the card through February of the next year to earn its 7% annual dividend.
• Chase Freedom: 5X (or 5.5X) in categories that change each quarter.
• Citi ThankYou Preferred: 5X (for 12 months) at gas stations, grocery stores, and drugstores.  To get 5X earnings, you must sign up with the link shown here.  UPDATE 5/7/2013: The Citi Preferred 5X link appears to be dead. Sorry everyone.
• Citi Forward: 5X at restaurants, bookstores, movie theaters, video rental stores, and record stores.  New applications require proof that you are a college student, but some people have reported success calling and asking to switch a different Citi card to the Forward card.
• Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature: 5X everywhere (10X at Club Carlson properties).  Please see my note about diminishing returns above.
• Other options: Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve, Delta Reserve, BarclayCard Arrival World MasterCard.  For more options, see “Best Big Spend Bonuses“.

At FTU in DC last weekend, I presented “You can still earn 5X everywhere.”  Many of the tips I presented involved reload cards, gift cards, and Bluebird cards, but I also showed how you can earn 5X almost everywhere without gift cards.  In this three part series, I’ll show you how.

The cards shown above on the left earn Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points.  The cards on the right earn Citibank’s Thankyou points.  In this post, I’ll focus on Ultimate Rewards.  The next post will cover the ThankYou cards and I’ll finish up with a post about what to do with charges that don’t fit into the above buckets.

Ultimate Rewards

Ultimate Rewards points are my favorite form of currency.  Really.  All you need is one of Chase’s premium cards (e.g. Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, Ink Plus) to unlock Ultimate Rewards full potential.  For a frequent traveler, the points are better than cash.  If you want or need cash, fine.  Ultimate Rewards points can be exchanged for cash with a value of 1 cent per point.  Or, book travel through the Ultimate Rewards website and get 1.25 cents per point value.  Better yet, transfer points to any of numerous partners and you can often get far more value.

Additional transfer partners not shown above include Marriott and Priority Club.

Some of the best redemption options for Ultimate Rewards points are via partners.  Here are a few examples:

• Transfer to United Airlines and redeem for international business or first class travel on Star Alliance flights.  Redemption value varies widely but you can usually expect to get at least 3 cents per point value and often much more (if you find saver level availability).
• Transfer to Southwest Airlines and redeem for “Wanna Getaway” fares.  For these fares, you’ll get 1.67 cents per point value.
• Transfer to Hyatt for luxury stays.  Hyatt’s award chart tops out at only 22,000 points per night for their most expensive properties.  When redeeming for expensive hotel nights (think $500 and up) you can expect to get over 2 cents per point value.
• Transfer to British Airways and redeem for short non-stop flights on BA partner airlines (American, Alaska, Aer Lingus, LAN, etc.).  One great example that I’ve taken advantage of is to use BA Avios to book American Airlines non stop from Detroit to NYC.  Non-stop round-trip flights are usually $700 and up for weekday travel, but I was able to book the same for only 9000 points.  That’s a value of over 7.7 cents per point!
• Transfer to Amtrak and redeem for bedrooms or special routes.  With Amtrak’s special routes, they charge only 1500 points each way.  I’ve used this deal several times to ride the Wolverine train from Ann Arbor to Chicago.  Prices fluctuate widely, but in my experience I usually get over 3.5 cents per point value.  You can also do well by using points to book otherwise very expensive bedrooms for long-haul routes.

Sure, Starwood points are arguably more valuable per-point than Ultimate Rewards, but Ultimate Rewards points are much easier to earn and faster to transfer to partners.

5X almost everywhere

By filling your wallet with the right assortment of cards, you can earn 5 points per dollar almost everywhere you shop day to day.  Here are the Chase Ultimate Rewards cards that will help you get there:

Chase Ink 5X

I’ve said many times that the Chase Ink Bold (and its twin the Ink Plus) is my favorite card.  I even wrote a secure message to Chase to profess my love.  My feelings haven’t changed.

Chase Ink cards offer 5 points per dollar for office supply purchases, cell phone, landline, and cable.  Just by using an Ink card to pay your cell phone, landline, and cable bills you’ll rack up thousands of points.  And, of course, don’t forget to use the card whenever you shop at an office supply store.  Since Staples, OfficeMax, and Office Depot regularly offer specials that I blog about (such as Free after Rebate items and other lucrative discounts), the Ink card provides many ways to rack up points!

There are multiple versions of Ink cards: Ink Bold, Ink Plus, Ink Cash, and Ink Classic.  The Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards are premium cards with high signup bonuses (50K!) and $95 annual fees that kick in after the first year.  These premium cards award 5X for up to $50K per year of spend.  The Ink Cash and Ink Classic are no-fee cards with smaller sign-up bonuses.  These cards award 5X for up to $25K per year of spend.  For details of how these cards differ, please see “Preparing for Miles“. 

All of the Ink cards are business cards.  Yes, you do need a business to qualify.  If you have a new business (rental property, buy/sell things, consultant, blog author, whatever…) you do not need to lie about your business income, even if your income to-date is zero.  Hopefully you have other income or assets that you can also list to help assure Chase that you’re credit-worthy!  For more information, please see “How to sign up for the Ink Bold (or Ink Plus).”  If you have multiple businesses, you can get multiple Ink cards and you should get the signup bonus for each one (at least, that was my experience).

Chase Sapphire Preferred 4.28X

If you had to settle for just one rewards credit card, for most frequent travelers I recommend the Sapphire Preferred.  While it doesn’t offer any 5X categories, it does offer 2X for all restaurant and travel purchases, and it offers a 7% annual dividend on all points earned.  So, regular earnings are really 1.07X, and 2X earnings are really 2.14X.  With no foreign transaction fees, this is a great card to have in your wallet when dining or travelling (although it does lack a PIN at the time of this writing).  Of course, the card offers a terrific 40K sign-up bonus, so that doesn’t hurt either!

The trick for getting nearly 5X when using the card for travel expenses is to take advantage of the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  By initiating your online shopping through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Mall, you can earn extra points above and beyond those earned by your credit card.  So, when booking travel, go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to a site like Travelocity (which currently offers 2 bonus points per dollar) and pay for your travel with your Sapphire Preferred card.  With 2 bonus points from the Ultimate Rewards Mall and 2X earnings for travel with the Sapphire Preferred, you will earn 4 points per dollar.  Then, if you factor in the Sapphire Preferred card’s annual 7% dividend, you would earn 4.28 points per dollar.  It’s not 5X, but its awfully close!

Chase Freedom 5X to 5.5X

The final piece of the puzzle is the no-fee Chase Freedom card which offers 5X in rotating categories each quarter.  For example, this quarter, from April through June, the Freedom card offers 5X for restaurants, movie theaters, and Lowe’s.  Note that 5X earnings are limited to $1500 in spend each quarter.

If you have a Chase checking account, you will also qualify for a 10% annual bonus on points earned (see “The new king of the Ultimate Rewards Mall“).  This means that regular spend earns 1.1X, and 5X spend becomes 5.5X!

Wrap Up

The cards detailed above give multiple opportunities to earn 5 very valuable Ultimate Rewards points per dollar across many types of transactions: office supplies, cell phone, landline, cable, travel, and rotating categories.  In general, if you have competing cards that earn 5X for the same categories, I’d recommend going with the card that earns Ultimate Rewards points whenever feasible.

In the next post in this series I’ll show how it’s possible to earn 5X ThankYou points across many other categories of spend.  And, I’ll show you how to make the most of those points.

More details about the cards shown above,and signup links for each, can be found on either of these pages:

• Best Credit Card Offers
• Preparing for Miles

Caution

The purpose of this series of posts is to show how it may be possible to earn 5 points per dollar almost everywhere, but that does not mean that you should.  Not everyone can (or should) get all of the cards I’ve listed.  While it is true that between my wife and I we have all of the listed cards, this is not meant to be personalized advice for you.  Is this right for you?  Only you can decide.  And, as always, I do not recommend signing up for rewards credit cards unless you always pay your balance in full every month.  Otherwise the cost of the interest payments will far exceed the benefit of points earned.

This is a limited time opportunity that may be useful for some with very large Ultimate Rewards and/or Marriott Rewards balances. 

As you probably know, US Airways is running a promotion through the end of April in which you will get a 50% bonus when you convert hotel points to US Airways miles (details here).  My first thought was to convert my Wyndham points to miles, but then I read Lucky’s advice:

This would also be a good promotion through which to take advantage of Marriott’s Flight and Hotel Packages, whereby you can redeem points for a combination of miles and a set number of free nights.

Yes, indeed.

Marriott’s Flight and Hotel Packages offer 7 night stays plus airline miles in exchange for Marriott Rewards points.  The way most of these packages are priced is that they charge the usual cost for 7 award nights, but then charge extra for a one to one conversion to miles.  Let me give an example to be clear:

For 300,000 Marriott Rewards points, you can book a Category 6 Marriott for 7 nights plus you’ll get 120,000 miles (you can pick from quite a few airlines).  If you booked the same hotel for 7 nights outside of this package, you would get the 5th night free as a standard benefit, and so you would pay 30K X 6 = 180,000 Marriott Rewards points for 7 nights.  In other words, the Flight & Hotel package costs 120,000 points more, but you get 120,000 miles which are arguably much more valuable than 120,000 Marriott points.  As a general rule, if you are flush with Marriott points and you are planning a 7 night award stay, you might as well book this package.

This month, the deal gets much better.  By booking the package and selecting US Airways miles, US Airways will kick in 50% more miles.  So, in the example above, instead of getting 120,000 miles, you would get 180,000 miles.

Let’s now twist things around a bit.  Assume your goal is to convert Marriott points to US Airways miles.  By booking this package for 300,000 Marriott Reward points, you would get 180,000 miles plus a 7 night stay.  So, you can think of this as converting 180,000 points to miles (1 to 1), and then getting a 7 night stay for only 120,000 additional points, which is about 17,000 points per night.  That’s a great deal.

Marriott offers different versions of the package that vary depending on which category hotel you want and how many miles you want:

Since Marriott points are generally worth less than airline miles, the best value options are those earning the most miles (120K miles, before the 50% bonus).

If you think of this, as I suggested, as a way to convert 180K Marriott points to 180K US Airways miles, and to get a discounted 7 night stay, then the following chart may be helpful:

While the Ritz-Carlton prices are still high, Marriott properties top out at 25.7K per night.  Not bad!

Ultimate Rewards

With Chase’s premium Ultimate Rewards credit cards such as the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, and Ink Plus, you can transfer points one to one to quite a few airline and hotel programs:

Neither US Airways nor American Airlines are transfer partners.  So, if you want to transfer miles to either of those programs from Ultimate Rewards, you’re generally out of luck. 

Marriott is a transfer partner, but I usually recommend against transferring points to Marriott.  Ultimate Rewards points can be used directly to book stays at almost any hotel for a value of 1.25 cents per point.  It is very rare to get that much value per point from Marriott Rewards points.  So, if you really want to use Ultimate Rewards points to book a Marriott stay, you’re usually better off booking through the Ultimate Rewards travel service than to transfer points to Marriott.  With US Airways’ 50% bonus, though, the math changes…

With the combination of the Marriott Hotel and Air package and US Airways’ 50% bonus for transferred points, converting Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott may make sense.  For example, suppose you transfer 300,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott and then book the 7 Nights + 120K miles package for a Category 6 hotel, and you pick US Airways miles.  Then, you would essentially be trading 300,000 Ultimate Rewards points for 180,000 US Airways miles and 7 hotel nights.  If your goal was to get US Airways miles anyway, then this is like getting 7 hotel nights for only 120,000 points (about 17K points per night).

American Airlines

Thanks to the upcoming merger between American Airlines and US Airways, US Airways miles will eventually become American Airlines AAdvantage miles.  If your goal is to accumulate AA miles for a trip well in the future, it’s worth considering collecting US Airways miles today.

Does it make sense to do?

I think that if you are flush with Marriott points and can make use of a 7 night stay, then this is a no-brainer.  Marriott points are generally worth much less than airline miles so this is a great opportunity to trade-up.  Whether transferring Ultimate Rewards points makes sense, though, depends on your circumstances…

For the hotel portion of your 7 night vacation, you can often do as well or better by transferring points to Hyatt since you can stay at the best Hyatt properties in the world for only 22K points per night.  However, there may not be a desirable Hyatt property where you want to go.  If your vacation plans are better suited to a Marriott property, then this opportunity is definitely worth considering.

For the airline portion of the package, this makes sense if you are working towards building up your US Airways and/or AA miles for a specific purpose.  For example, you could go for US Airways sweet spot awards such as 90K round trip business class to northern Asia.  Or, wait for the miles to become AA miles so that you can book a dream first class trip on Cathay Pacific.  In general, though, I would prefer to keep points as Ultimate Rewards for their flexibility.  I love that Ultimate Rewards transfer to United, British Airways, Southwest, Hyatt and more.  By keeping points as Ultimate Rewards points, I keep my options open.

Should I go for it anyway?  In my case, I have about 100K Marriott Rewards points and many hundreds of thousands of Ultimate Rewards points.  I could transfer 170K Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott and then book a 7 night category 5 vacation for 270K points.  In return, I would get 180K US Airways miles and a 7 night stay.  That’s tempting!  What do you think?

By the way, for another great use of Marriott’s hotel and air packages, take a look at how Frugal Travel Lawyer used one to get a Southwest Companion Pass.

955,000 points earned. 45,000 left to go.

Background: Million Mile Madness is the fun and foolish quest to earn a million points in one month. Throughout March, I’m doing everything I can to earn as many points as I can while keeping within my ethical boundaries. I don’t expect that a million points will have been credited to my account by March 31st: points often take quite a while to get credited. Instead, I’ll track all of the points that I expect, and I’ll declare victory if the expected total is over a million. To keep things challenging, I will try to keep my net costs below $1,000.

All points earned and expenses incurred are tracked via this Google Docs spreadsheet. See all Million Mile Madness posts (in reverse order), by clicking here.

Easy Points

If you play this game long enough, every now and then points just fall in your lap.  Here are a few minor windfalls I’ve enjoyed receiving this month:

15,000 Membership Rewards points

I called American Express to cancel my year old Business Platinum card so as to avoid paying its $450 annual fee next month.  They asked if I would be willing to downgrade to their $99 Green card instead.  No.  Then they asked if 15,000 points would be incentive enough to keep the card.  I asked if I could do both.  Could I get the 15,000 points and downgrade to the Green card?  I was definitely willing to pay $99 for 15000 points!  The answer was that I could accept the 15,000 point offer now and then downgrade next month before the Platinum fee is charged.  The points won’t post for a few months.  So, I accepted the offer.  Next month I’ll call and downgrade.  Then, I’ll give the card a try to see if it like it.  Most likely, though, I’ll cancel altogether once the points post.  At most I’ll be out a small prorated portion of the $99 fee.

After the call it occurred to me that I should have haggled and asked for more points.  Ever since flying Singapore Suites on my return from Bangkok I’ve been eager to amass more Membership Rewards points (since they transfer to Singapore Airlines).  I can’t wait to fly Singapore Suites again!

20,000 Ultimate Rewards points

The annual fee on one of my Ink Bold cards is coming due next month.  Since I rarely use this particular Ink Bold card anymore (I have several), I decided to call and cancel.  The customer service representative offered to give me a $95 statement credit to offset the annual fee if I was willing to keep the card.  I asked if he could offer bonus points instead.  So, he offered 20,000 points.  Sold!  While technically I could still cancel the card next month after getting the points, I think that $95 is a small price to pay for 20,000 points.  That’s less than half a cent each!

50,000 Marriott points

I love how AwardWallet sends out emails when point balances have changed.  In a recent email, AwardWallet claimed that I had just received 50,000 Marriott points.  Nice!  But why?  I logged into my Marriott account and saw that I had been re-credited with two 25,000 point award nights that I had redeemed last year.  I remembered that, at check-in, the hotel was unable to find my reservation despite my confirmation numbers.  Luckily, they gave me a room anyway (actually it was a very nice suite upgrade).  Apparently the snafu was never really fixed, and the system thought that I had never completed the stay. 

Since this was such a strange fluke, I won’t count these Marriott points towards my Million Mile Madness quest.  And, if Marriott figures out what happened and pulls back the points, I won’t complain.  After all, I don’t really deserve those points.  If I keep the points, though, I need to see if I can find availability at that same hotel…

Learn about Million Mile Madness:

• A crazy million mile idea. Should I do it?
• Million Mile Madness, it’s on
• Million Mile Madness: Strategy
• Million Mile Madness: Preparing to buy & sell
• Million Mile Madness: Tracking points and expenses
• Million Mile Madness: The big churn story
• Million Mile Madness: buying, selling Kohl’s
• Million Mile Madness: Banking on Lowe’s
• Million Mile Madness: A setback from Sears
• Million Mile Madness: Pending Success
• Million Mile Madness: Bumps in the road

Another dull month in the Ultimate Rewards Mall… 

Every month, the Ultimate Rewards Mall has new month-long specials. Last month, I wrote about the January specials in the post “Ultimate Rewards Mall Jan 2013 Edition.” Today, I’ll show you how things look for February.

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/.

Many small changes

Usually I like to highlight good offers that appear each month, but while there were quite a few small changes to merchant payouts, nothing strikes me as particularly interesting.  I’m not saying there aren’t any good deals, its just that they haven’t changed much from last month.  For example:

• Kohl’s is still 10X
• Shoebuy is still 10X
• The North Face is still 8X
• Lowe’s, J-Crew, Macy’s, and OfficeMax are still 5X
• Sears, which had fallen to 3X, is back up to 5X (but that change occurred mid-month in January)

MileagePlus Shopping

HikerT’s website also shows payout rates for United’s MileagePlus Shopping portal whenever it’s payout beats the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  This month, that amounts to a pretty big list.  Most of these are merchants don’t exist at all in the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  There are, though, a few cases in which a merchant exists in both malls and the United mall is better:

• FTD.com 30X (vs. Ultimate Rewards Mall 15X)
• Lillian Vernon 10X (vs. Ultimate Rewards Mall 6X)
• HSN 6X (vs. Ultimate Rewards Mall 4X)
• Avon 6X (vs. Ultimate Rewards Mall 4X)

These payout rates are for United MileagePlus credit card holders.  Those without the MileagePlus credit card may see lower rates.

Note: The comparison between the Ultimate Rewards Mall and the United MileagePlus shopping portal is a good once since one of the best uses of Ultimate Rewards points is to transfer them to United miles.  In order to transfer points to United, you or your significant other must have a Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, or Ink Plus credit card.

Another boring month in the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  Sigh. 

Every month, the Ultimate Rewards 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 January.

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/.

New stuff

Several new merchants appeared this month:

• Darphin 5X
• Travelsmith 5X
• LastCall by Neiman Marcus 5X
• Horchow 4X
• Tory Burch 4X
• Williams-Sonoma 4X
• Bergdorf Goodman 4X
• Vitacost 4X

Now the bad stuff…

Here are some of the merchants that dropped their multipliers:

• Sears drops from 6X to 3X
• Holiday Inn, InterContinental Hotels Group drops from 8X to 3X
• Paul Fredrick drops from 12X to 8X
• FAO Schwartz drops from 4X to 1X
• Brookstone drops from 9X to 6X
• Home Depot drops from 5X to 3X

Continued good stuff

Some of the good options from before continue:

• Kohl’s 10X
• Shoebuy 10X
• The North Face 8X
• J. Crew 5X
• Lowe’s 5X
• Macy’s 5X
• OfficeMax 5X

MileagePlus

The United Airlines MileagePlus Shopping portal sometimes has better offers than the Ultimate Rewards Mall, specifically for MileagePlus Visa cardholders.  HikerT’s site now shows those instances where this is true. 

Double Dip Opportunities

For any of the above deals that you’re interested in, checkout the Frequent Miler Laboratory to see if buying and/or using gift cards has been tested and whether or not it works.  In some cases, it is possible to double your point earnings through a double dip: go through the portal to buy gift cards and then go through again to use the gift cards. 

At the beginning of each month, new promotions appear within the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  Usually, on the last day of each month, I make predictions about what we may see the next day.  And, usually, my predictions are wrong.

Today, instead of making specific predictions about specific merchants, I’ll make a few general predictions about the portal overall.

10X promotions return

In 2011, and frequently in 2012, a merchant or two would increase their payouts through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to 10 points per dollar.  In the last three months of 2012, though, we suffered without these special promotions.  Sure, some stores such as Kohl’s continued to offer 10X (which is the same amount that has been offered since I first looked at the Mall), but there were no more monthly 10X specials.  My guess (and its just a guess) is that we’ll see the monthly specials return.  Call me an optimist.

Gift card restrictions increase

The Ultimate Rewards Mall has a section titled “gift cards”.  This section lists the merchants that explicitly give bonus points for customers who purchase their gift cards.  In 2011, this section was pages long.  Now, it is just one page of mostly uninteresting options.  Worse, the fine print for many merchants now says “not eligible on gift cards”.  Despite that, many merchants continued to pay out points for gift card purchases.  Recently, though, some have started enforcing the restrictions (for example, you no longer get points at Sears for buying e-gift cards).  My guess (and its just a guess) is that we’ll see fewer stores offering points for gift cards, and more stores enforcing restrictions.  Call me a pessimist.

Holiday promotions reappear

In 2011, near the winter holidays, the Mall offered special one day bonus point offers such as Apple at 10X.  I’m hoping these specials will reappear.  Call me hopeful.

What do you think we’ll see in 2013?

I need more Sears gift cards like I need a hole in my head. However, Laboratory experiments must go on so I’ve recently bought no less than 5 new gift cards…

Sears has long been my favorite and most reliable double dip merchant.  Sears regularly offers fantastic point earnings through popular portals.  In the past, I’ve seen 10X through AAdvantage Shopping, 10X through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, and 15X through Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping.  Even better, it has usually been possible to double-dip: get points for buying gift cards and then get points again when buying merchandise using those gift cards.  This has meant that it was easy to double point earnings: 20X through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, 30X through Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping, etc.

A change in terms

On several shopping portals, a new phrase has appeared in the Sears’ terms & conditions:

Not eligible on gift cards, gift certificates or any other similar cash equivalents as of 11/1/12.

Uh oh.  Does this mean the double dip is dead?

Experiments

In addition to testing the Sears’ double dip, I wanted to test the limits of my new credit cards: the U.S. Bank Cash+ and the Discover More card (see “Cash+ Update” and “Discover More Experiments in Progress“).  Here is what I did…

Test 1: Go through ShopDiscover portal to Sears to buy a physical gift card and pay with my Discover card.  Would I earn portal cash back (10%) and Discover’s quarterly bonus (5%) for online purchases?  Result: SUCCESS!  I Earned a combined 15% cash back!

Test 2: Go through ShopDiscover portal to Sears to buy an e-gift card and pay with my Discover card. Would I earn portal cash back (10%) and Discover’s quarterly bonus (5%) for online purchases?  Result: MIXED.  I earned 5% back thanks to Discover’s quarterly online purchase bonus, but received nothing from the ShopDiscover portal.

Test 3: Go through ShopDiscover portal to Sears to buy a physical gift card and pay with my Cash+ card.  Would I earn portal cash back (10%) and 5% from Cash+ for department store purchases?  Result: MIXED: I received 10% cash back from the ShopDiscover portal, but only 1% back from Cash+.

Test 4: Go through ShopDiscover portal to Sears to buy merchandise and pay with a gift card. Would I earn portal cash back (10%) despite not using my Discover card?  Result: SUCCESS.  I earned 10% cash back for purchase made entirely with a gift card!

Test 5: Go to Kmart in person to buy a gift card and pay with my Cash+ card.  Would I earn 5% back from Cash+ for department store purchases?  Result: FAIL.  U.S. Bank did not count Kmart as a department store.

Test 6: Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Sears to buy a physical gift card and pay with my Sapphire Preferred card. Would I earn 6X from the Ultimate Rewards Mall?  Result: SUCCESS!  I earned 6X points.

Test 7: Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Sears to buy an e-gift card and pay with my Sapphire Preferred card. Would I earn 6X from the Ultimate Rewards Mall?  Result: FAIL.  No points earned.

Results Explained

The experiment results teach us a lot:

• You can earn points or cash back when buying physical gift cards from Sears.com.
• You cannot earn points or cash back (anymore) when buying e-gift cards from Sears.com.
• You can earn points or cash back when using gift cards at Sears.com.
• The ShopDiscover portal works regardless of how you pay.  That is, you can pay with a gift card or a credit card other than Discover and still get cash back.
• The US Bank Cash+ card does not consider Sears.com or Kmart (in person) to be department stores.  I had picked “department stores” as one of my 5% categories this quarter in the hopes of finding a new double dip opportunity.

In other words, it is still possible to double-dip with Sears, but it takes more planning than before.  Previously it was possible to hop on a one day sale by buying e-gift cards in the morning and then using them to make your purchases in the afternoon.  Now, however, you need to figure in the delay in processing and shipping of physical gift cards (in my experience, it takes approximately 5 days). 

Currently, the best deals I know of are 10% cash back through ShopDiscover, 9% cash back through Ebates, 6X through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, and 6X through United’s MileagePlus Shopping portal.  As a side note, the Ultimate Rewards Mall started the month with Sears at 5X, but quietly updated to 6X mid-month.

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:

1. Home Depot and Lowes will remain at 5X. Correct
2. JCPenney will stay at 6X. Correct
3. Kohl’s will stay at 10X. Correct
4. Staples will increase from 2X to 4X. Wrong. Staples held steady at 2X.
5. OfficeMax will increase from 3X to 5X. Wrong. OfficeMax held steady at 3X.
6. Office Depot will stay at 5X. Correct
7. Sears will stay at 5X. Correct
8. 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…

At the beginning of each month, new promotions appear within the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Tomorrow (or soon thereafter), I’ll provide full coverage of what’s new: both good and bad. Today, I’ll provide some completely baseless guesses as to what we might see. Keep in mind that I have no inside knowledge whatsoever. In fact, last month I scored only 43% correct. Let’s hope I do a little better this time…

Predictions

1. Home Depot and Lowes will remain at 5X
2. JCPenney will stay at 6X
3. Kohl’s will stay at 10X
4. Staples will increase from 2X to 4X
5. OfficeMax will increase from 3X to 5X
6. Office Depot will stay at 5X
7. Sears will stay at 5X
8. Best Buy will increase from 1X to 2X

Yes, I’m predicting a very boring December.  Sorry.  I hope I’m wrong.

Scoring

Once we see the real outcomes, we’ll score the guesses as follows:

• Correct guess: 1 point
• Directionally correct guess: half a point (e.g. if Staples increases, but not to exactly 4X, I get half a point)
• Wrong guess: 0 points

With the above scoring system, it is easy to turn the results into a “percent correct” calculation. %Correct = (# points / # of guesses) X 100.

Since bonus points vary across cards (Ink, Sapphire, Freedom), we will always look to the highest bonus across all cards to determine results. For example, if JCP is 6X for the Ink and Freedom cards, but 7X for the Sapphire then we’ll use 7X as the correct number, and we’ll count the 10X guess as being directionally correct.

Play along

Feel free to put your own guesses in the comments below. See if you can beat my score!

Use HikerT’s UR Mall Earnings by Portal page to see (mostly) current bonus points across cards.