I hope your family had fun trick or treating last night! I think Little C and I were on a sugar high all night, but the good news is I got to see the new Ultimate Reward online shopping mall bonuses for November before heading to bed. I have really been looking forward to them as November is a month that many of us have lots of online shopping to do for the holidays. The bad news is, the bonuses are unimpressive compared to what many of us were hoping probably for. They aren’t bad by any stretch, but there aren’t any “home run” bonuses posted so far for November like there were last year when we saw one-day opportunities for 10x at Best Buy, Apple, and more.
They have a Holiday Section added in the Ultimate Rewards online shopping portal, but sadly I don’t see any “one day 10x deals” listed anywhere yet. They had those up by mid or late October last year, so I’m not sure if they plan to bring them back this year or not. I asked Chase, but didn’t get an answer one way or another on if they are returning this year. My fingers are still crossed though. This month we really haven’t seen many significant changes in many of the payouts from last month.
Here is a sampling of what you will find in the Ultimate Rewards shopping portal today.
Pottery Barn Kids/Pottery Barn Teen 5x
Famous Footwear 10x
Crabtree & Evelyn 10x
Gap 3x
Jcrew 5x
Home Depot 5x
1-800-Contacts 5x
Drugstore.com 7x
Walmart 2x
Lowes 5x
Kohls 10x
Toys R Us 3x
JC Penney 6x
Kohls 10x (that stacks to 15x when using Chase Freedom Q4 5x bonus)
Pottery Barn Kids/Pottery Barn Teen 5x
Drugstore.com 7x
Famous Footwear 10x
Best Buy 1x
Walmart 2x
Ugg Australia 10x
Ink Bold Charge Card or Ink Plus:
Kohls 10x
Apple 1x
Office Depot 5x
Sears 5x
Staples 2x
Lowes 5x
Famous Footwear 10x
Walmart 2x
Neiman Marcus 4x
The popular holiday shopping retailer, Walmart, doubled their payout from last month, but that still only puts it at a whopping 2x. I also saw less differentiation this month between the different cards. It has been pretty common that one or two pretty good bonuses will only be available with certain cards, but most of the bonuses were the same across the different UR earning cards this time around. There are some good shopping bonuses available, just not quite up to the level I was personally hoping for.
I’ll update the post in the morning if anything changes, or if I spot anything more interesting as the day goes on. Let me know if you see something I missed! Also remember that the Chase Freedom 4th Quarter 5x bonuses at Kohls, Best Buy, hotels, and airlines are now in effect and those amounts stack on top of the shopping portal bonuses.
To see a full listing of the bonuses, and to see how they have gone up or down since last month, head to HikerT’s helpful site. I’m sure the Frequent Miler will weigh in soon on any possible double dips or other ways to maximize Ultimate Rewards earnings in his Laboratory, so be sure to check out his site as well.
Disclosure: I do receive a commission if you are approved for a credit card using one of my affiliate links. As always, thanks for your support.
Does Kohls allow the use of gift cards for points?
A werewolf in flip flops?
Aaoooooo! Didn’t I see him drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic’s?g>
How long does it usually take for the points earned through the UR shopping mall to post to an account?
Isn’t this all moot for those of us who have Chase Exclusives and thus earn 10x points on all purchases made in the UR Mall?
@Chris, Chase Exclusives does not give you 10x for all purchases in the UR mall. It gives you a 10% bonus on base points earned and 10 extra points per transaction. You can earn points via the UR portal on top of that.
Here’s the response I got to an inquiry asking to expedite my enrollment in Exclusives.
I regret to inform that we will be unable to expedite the
process to activate into 10/10 program. However, once
your account is activated for the Freedom Exclusive 10/10,
you will earn:
- 1 point per $1 on all purchases
- 2 points per $1 on travel purchases booked through
Ultimate Rewards Travel Booking Tool
- 10 points per $1 on purchases made at the Ultimate
Rewards Mall
Plus you’ll receive these bonuses on all spending:
- 10% extra points on every dollar spent
- 10 bonus points on every purchase
Currently, you can still take advantage of the 5% cash
back up to $1500 spent in the bonus categories (Quarterly
Activation Required).
I don’t have any experience with this, but I also have no reason to doubt what the CSR wrote to me.
Chis S., I got basically the same response.
Chris, I am willing to bet it should have read “up to 10 points per $1 in purchases made at the Ultimate Rewards mall. I can guarantee others aren’t getting 10x on all UR mall purchases with the Freedom (though it would be awesome!). That message is very unclear though – maybe you can protest later if you don’t get 10 points per purchase in the UR mall.
Hm. Bummer.
Is up to 10x really a benefit of Exclusives? I thought that was pretty standard.
Yes, but so are the other benefits listed around it. Wish it were accurate info tho!
MP,
Do you think they will alter some of these points offers as we get closer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday? I know they offered much better earnings opportunities last year.
Amy
Wal-mart is now showing only 1 point with the Ink and Sapphire in the mall
Hello Mommy Points,
You mention that the Apple Store will offer 10x points today November 28. Can you let me know where I can find this offer?
Thank you,
Billy Bob
@Billy Bob, they had 10x one day around this time in 2011 (might have been today), but they don’t seem to be doing the one day bonuses again this year.