golf7

There is a current promotion going on with Sears and $50 Visa Gift cards. It goes like this:

"Buy 2 $50 Visa Gift Cards, get $10 in a Sears Gift Card. Plus Shop Your Way members get $2 back in points".



Some of the criteria yall might want to know:
- 4.95 Fee Per Card
- Promotion is valid from 11/3/13 - 11/16/13
- Gift card is only valid from 11/17/2013-11/30/2013
- Visa Gift card is issued by University National Bank
- I loaded many of these to BB at WM by setting a pin and swiping as Debit
- $2 in "points" did not post immediately, but the fine print said they would post within 30 Days



What makes this deal lucrative?
- Chase Freedom 5x at Sears this Quarter (Great way to max out the $1500)
- Plink at Sears
- $2 in Shop Your Way points
- You can buy gift cards with gift cards at Sears
- Bonus Points: Chase Ink Card, UR Portal, HIGC at OD

Math of Deal:
Basic Deal:
- $109.90 on Chase Freedom nets 549.5 UR Points
- $10 back at Sears in gift card form
- $2 in points at Sears (not redeemable for gift cards)
- 300 Plink Points (not sure of value)

Buy 10 Cards (In 5 Transactions)
- Earn 2747 UR Points
- Get a $50 Sears Gift Card Back
- Get $10 in Shop Your Way points
- Get 1500 Plink Points (not sure of value of this)

After 11/17/13, take the $50 gift card back to Sears and buy another $50 Visa Gift Card. Pay the 4.95 fee. Overall Earning 2747 points + $10 Sears Points + 1500 Plink Points all for $4.95. This is a solid return.

Bonus Points:
- Buy a HIGC at OD with Chase Ink (5x)
- Go through UR Portal to Sears, buy Sears Gift Cards with HIGC (5x)
- Buy the promotion at a retail Sears Store with the Sears Gift Cards
- If you buy 10 GC you would get: 5495 points and $10 in Sears Points all for $4.95

Downsides:
- Dealing with a ton of $50 gift cards
- Going to Walmart
- Lots of time wrapped up in the deal
- Not being able to find the "Secret Gift Card Rack" at Sears

nmp0

Question, do you get the Award card instantly? Sign says "Limit 1 per person", did you try more than 2 cards at one time?

I tested the waters tonight buying $200 in Best Buy gift cards at Kohls with Freedom 5% and then buying a Visa GC at Best Buy and it worked easy. This deal would be more profitable though and I can buy Best Buy cards online at 5.5% off all day.

I will hit Sears this weekend and test it out.

golf7

I was able to buy more than 2 at a time and received $10 gift card for each pair instantly

Note that the gift card you receive is only valid from 11/17-11/30, so you have to go back to use it, but that shouldnt be a big deal, if nothing else, buy another $50 Visa as I suggested or another Gift Card.

Note #2: The first store I went too didnt know about the promotion and just gave me a regular sears gift card which could be used as a normal GC with no restrictions.

Alcibiades

well, the cash register allows it

Jenniefer

This is a very good thing, as its easy to carry and handle. You don't need to take lots of cash with you to buy gifts.

express3

Kmart is having a very similar deal this week. Except that I believe the $2 Shop your way reward (kmart points) is limit one.

aeneas3

if you already maxed your BB cost goes up as very YMMV how many of these gc walmart will let you use to buy one money order

jyx

One thing I am not sure is: for bonus point (with HIGC), you suggested going through UR portal for 5x. Why not doing the same when buying visa gc with Freedom?

FlyingBoat

Way too much work for me for MS because these are only $50. It would take for ever at WM kiosk. But thinking about it, it is a way to get 10 to 15% back for all your credit card spending. It is like having a 15% back credit card.

If you can get GC for 15% off, say using a 2.2% card to purchase them, that is 17.2%. The $10 GC is close to a wash with the fees. The $2 rewards is another 2% if you can get that with every purchase. So all of these cards can be purchased at about 19% off. Does any one else have a CC that gives them 19% back!
Problem is here as well they can only be used on online purchases of $50 or less. I already get 25% off my gas by buying GC, so where would I use these? Maybe my dentist will take 40 $50 GC, LOL!

Plink + portal can get you $50gc for 15% off or more. The problem is the scaling on relying on the cb on portals for buying physical GC. Its against many of the portal terms but seems to work. I have another source for 15% off but they limit me as well.

I also don't know if sears is going to let me buy several $k of $100 transactions using GC to buy visa GC. I may try with the few hundred $ GC I have in hand.

lacuadra

Why is Plink asking for my Chase account password? Never seen a program that asks for this except Mint ( took me like one year to finally feel comfortable to enroll). This sounds fishy....

pier11

Because it works the way similar to Mint - reads your transactions and then decides if your purchase is eligible for points.

No one heard of any problem with them. Yet.

TAWS

Kroger is having the same promotion...get $10 coupon when buying two Visa giftcards.

pier11

Upgrade (GC -> VGC) is YMMV and I see as a major issue.
Liquidation is painful, especially without working kiosk, but doable. Hardly scalable because of that.
VGC availability at Sears I'd guess is limited as well. Never seen amounts similar to office supply stores for example.

TAWS

I'm really skeptical if they would let you use a GC to buy a VGC. If they do, then a far more lucrative deal would be to get Sears GC for 20% off (through various methods) and then just buy VGCs with them.

golf7

I haven't seen any vgc at sears. I think some people have reported $100 Visa cards I. Some stores but I have just seen the $50 cards

I agree that it is a lot of work but wanted to throw the suggestion out.

I couldn't find the promotion online or else we would be going through a portal to get even more points