johndoe123

Sounds like a good idea. Will they do this for building materials?

They are already giving me a simple 7.5% discount for quantity purchase. I'd imagine they might remove this discount if I show up with the coupon?

I find it interesting they let you pay off the house credit with a visa/mc

irrational

Very true! I forgot Freedom, those two get you $3K of that $15K without any hoops.

All the other suggestions are great too!

Edit: also, I just remembered that the Lowes credit card gives you a 5% discount... Just something to consider.

johndoe123

Unless it's unenforced, the lowes CC 5% is probably a no go

"Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any coupon, Lowe's military discounts, Lowe's employee discounts or Lowe's low-price guarantee."

flyertalker9867674

Need to bump this thread to get some opinions on what I'm running into. We just bought a 30yr old house that needs a lot of interior work - whole new kitchen, new floor, new paint, and new bathroom. I've spoken to a few contractors that have told me that they can essentially save me a boatload of money buy buying the materials themselves as opposed to going to Lowes or Homedepot. Even with the 5% off at Lowes and using the 10% off movers coupons. Outside of things like appliances, for materials like cabinets and flooring, how did you guys do price wise either by going on your own or using the contractor. Obviously, if I buy myself, I can get a boatload of miles. But that's not necessarily worth paying a 10-20% premium.

rufflesinc

Don't forget you can double dip on Freedom via lowes.com (buy GCs) at UR portal. Triple dip if you can order thru lowes.com

johndoe123

Concrete/foundation guys will probably require check/cash, but might take cc? I'm not sure. The truss company will take credit cards.

The rest of the labor is my own. It's a garage, so it's not too complex nor time consuming to just bang up four walls. There's zero finishing work, etc.

Thrilla

Speaking of eBay, GCM is currently selling a $200 Lowe's GC for $180. Instant 10% off plus eBay bucks and rewards from whatever CC you're using. http://www.ebay.com/itm/371017400663

Domat

Can you pay lowes credit card bill with HIGC or lowes giftcards at the store?

Happy

Need to replace bathroom vanity. It seems only Lowes has the acceptable choices.

I have Ink and Freedom. I hardly use UR portal as somehow the points never posted automatically when I tried it many months ago.

My initial thought is to buy Lowes GCs at Office Supply Stores.

If there are better ways to maximize the UR point gain, please advise the mechanisms used.

TIA!

explorer84

Thanks to Flyertalk for getting my into the game. Luckily, I got into the game right before we bought our house. We bought the house and then undertook a long process of remodeling which totaled about $80k. We still have about another $10k in furniture spend we have to do. I can safely say I used techniques learned in this forum and in the SD and DD forums. I did not stick with any particular card, but spread the spend around as needed and if spending categories mattered (e.g. grocery spend, quarterly spend)

Overall, we earned well over 200k points (not including sign up bonuses if you did its well over 600k).
We also saved over $8,500 in buying gift cards, credit card bonuses, and redemption of Amex MRs.

My strategy included:
-Buying gift cards from Cardpool, Raise, Cardcash, eBay, TwoSmiles and generally using cards that required a minimum spend. I averaged a savings of 8-15% off the gift cards. I took advantage of black friday sales, ebay bucks, shopping portals, and 10% coupons through the Lowes Coupon generators. There is an inherent hassle in keeping track of when the companies send you the cards, and then checking to make sure they are loaded. I would say that about 95% of all my home purchases were with GC. I even paid for my $18k in kitchen cabinets in Home Depot Gift Cards. The guy said it was the longest receipt he's seen during his 17yrs at HD.

- I would determine what I needed and then attempt to go through the shopping portals. I saw 10% CB through Shopdiscover a few times, 6x AA miles and 6x WN miles. I would use my gift cards to make the purchases - all have gone through, believe it or not. I would then stack coupon codes as well. HD usually has a beginning of the month coupon code. Sometimes its $5 off $50 or $10 off $100 (thats 10%, stacked with shopping portal, stack with GC savings)

- I am in the Reserves, so all in-store purchases had a 10% military discount.

- I received federal income credit for all my insulation and new windows ($500)

- I paid all my contractors, engineers and architect with BB checks funded with VGC and VRs. I got Hilton Diamond Status this way (i.e. VGC at Albertsons); did God knows how many VGCs and MGC when officemax had free money give aways; there are many hours in from of a kiosk.

- I got into the 100k Amex Plat sign up, and Amex was running a targeted redemption of MRs for certain platinum members. I redeemed my 100k MRs for about $2,300.00 in HD GCs. It came out to 1.25 c/MR. Some may argue thats a horrible deal. Whatever, stack that with my military discount and shopping portal discount and it adds up. Also, paid for most of my windows. FREE.

I have a detailed excel sheet of EVERY purchase, amount saved, and what particular award I earned. Overall, its been fun, challenging, and interesting.

During this time I also MSed and kept opening a lot of cards. Btwn the Ms. and I, we got in on pretty much all the lucrative sign up deals in 2013. We also took many trips with our signup bonuses.

Now, comes furniture. Macy's gift cards are always on sale. ^

MDtR-Chicago

Fantastic work! It really goes to show how successful this hobby can be for those who are truly frugal. Three themes I picked up in what you said:

• You had a well-researched plan of what you wanted - so that you could decide between cash back and particular types of points, plus how to stack
• There is a detailed system behind your approach (spreadsheet, MS unloading plan, etc.)
• There is at least some element of enjoyment on its own, to keep you moving forward even when the overhead of the processes was time-intensive

Hopefully you'll visit this thread periodically to help others troubleshoot in the future.

Note that "furniture stores" is a 5% category for the USBank Cash+ card until at least June and your first $100 redeemed earns a bonus $25.

jan_believes

Three CC bonuses to offset one's fees spent on CC air/hotel rewards.

Amex: $10 off $50 offer. Sign up.

Chase Freedom: 5%

And, the reason I thought to post.

BOA: 10% CB Amerideal; select the best card to assign it to. One time offer, limited time, up to $400 spend. Good for WN GCs, Marriott, Shell if you don't have a home improvement pending.

HTH!

CrediPig

You can also buy giftcards off Raise or Carpool for about a 10% discount plus any miles/points for the credit cards you use to purchase the gift cards. The Fidelity AMEX is a great choice.

If you are military or you know someone who is military (who can make the purchase), you can get another 10% off.

isle-hawg

Freedom this quarter give 5X at Lowe's. Why bother with GCs?

EDIT: Never-mind, I just now realized you posted this last month....

roneyc

Been said before by someone in this thread. In the race for points, don't pay 10-15% premium on purchases.

I found your post on strategy extremely helpful as I plan out my kitchen remodel for ~$80k. Major portion will be 2nd mortgage but 15-20 will be appliances that I shop for online.

I recently spent 2-3 months searching for a particular sofa. I purchased directly from manufacturer in High Point rather than a retailer like Macy's. I saved 22% on same model. The bad news - cc was only accepted for the 1/3 deposit. Remaining balance must be a check that clears prior to shipment - can you say BB check?