Home improvement loadable card
Mar 14, 2013, 9:28 am
#33
Join Date: May 2010
Location: BNA
Programs: No preference
Posts: 1,176
Anyone actually received the 5x UR points for purchasing $500 Lowe's gift cards at OD? (Purchasing them at CVS wouldn't get you the 5x, would it, since CVS is not an office supply store?) A bit troubling that this OD manager says it won't work but who knows how well-informed he is? Would like to hear from those who have done this - successful or unsuccessful or too early to tell?
You are correct in saying the CVS is not an office supply store. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to CVS and looked for ink toner though.
How would the OD manager have any idea if a product earned the 5x points for a Chase product or not?
If you bought it from an office supply store (OD), you get the 5x. It can't be made much more simple. If you found halloween masks at OD, they'd count for 5x. So would a new pair of Adidas shoes, and as crazy as it sounds the gift cards they sell.
Mar 14, 2013, 9:39 am
#34
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 298
You've got to be kidding?
You are correct in saying the CVS is not an office supply store. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to CVS and looked for ink toner though.
How would the OD manager have any idea if a product earned the 5x points for a Chase product or not?
If you bought it from an office supply store (OD), you get the 5x. It can't be made much more simple. If you found halloween masks at OD, they'd count for 5x. So would a new pair of Adidas shoes, and as crazy as it sounds the gift cards they sell.
You are correct in saying the CVS is not an office supply store. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to CVS and looked for ink toner though.
How would the OD manager have any idea if a product earned the 5x points for a Chase product or not?
If you bought it from an office supply store (OD), you get the 5x. It can't be made much more simple. If you found halloween masks at OD, they'd count for 5x. So would a new pair of Adidas shoes, and as crazy as it sounds the gift cards they sell.
I think the OD managers are "shell shocked" by all these $500 ink purchases.
They shut down the $500 vanilla. They just shot down the $500 variable visa/amex reloads. Now they are getting hit with the $500 HI cards. I don't think they know about the tenacity of FF'ers. We are like mice. Close up one hole and we will find another.
Mar 14, 2013, 1:44 pm
#35
Join Date: Apr 2008
Programs: CO Plat, SPG Gold, HHonors Gold
Posts: 230
I think the OD managers are "shell shocked" by all these $500 ink purchases.
They shut down the $500 vanilla. They just shot down the $500 variable visa/amex reloads. Now they are getting hit with the $500 HI cards. I don't think they know about the tenacity of FF'ers. We are like mice. Close up one hole and we will find another.
They shut down the $500 vanilla. They just shot down the $500 variable visa/amex reloads. Now they are getting hit with the $500 HI cards. I don't think they know about the tenacity of FF'ers. We are like mice. Close up one hole and we will find another.
Mar 15, 2013, 11:34 am
#38
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Florida
Posts: 448
Hi all,
Just wanted to put this out there if anyone wanted to do some research/experimenting (it's quite labor intensive)...
This method could theoretically make the cpm for UR pts 0.533 with the HI GC. I haven't tried this yet for reasons I explain below.
Buy 2 $500 HI GC at OD for 5,000 UR pts. Use these via the UR mall to buy Sears GC for 3,000 UR pts (if it were to ever go back to 5X, or 10X!, this would be even better). Take the Sears GCs to Kmart to buy Visa/MC GCs. In order to get to 0.533cpm you will have to find a Kmart that
1) sells (at a minimum) $200 Visa/MC GCs for $6.95 AND
2) will allow a Sears GC to be used to purchase (multiple) Visa/MC GCs.
The math (assuming you get 2 $500 HI GCs then turn that into 2 $499 Sears GCs*):
$6.95 x 5 = $34.75 (for 5 $200 Visa/MC GCs) + $3.95 x 2 = $7.9 (for 2 VRs)...makes the grand total $42.65 for 8,000 UR pts = 0.533cpm
Purchasing the $200 Visa/MC/Amex GCs directly at OD then cashing out via BB gives a cpm of 0.853 (due to the fact that you only get 5,000 UR pts instead of 8,000).
I haven't tried this because my local Kmart only sells Visa/MC GCs in $100 denominations for $5.95 which brings the cpm to 0.843...virtually identical to 0.853 and much more labor intensive. However, if Sears were to go up to 5X on UR mall this would bring it down to 0.674 (at 10X it would be 0.449 cpm!). I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that there are Kmarts in nicer towns (mine's in the ghetto) that may sell $200 Visa/MC GCs.
The other big caveat is finding a VR cashier that wouldn't have a problem with you using 5 GCs to buy 2 VR plus a credit card to pay for the fees.
Would love to hear stories of anyone who has the cojones to try this. PMs would be fine too.
*This would leave you with $2 on the HI GC which is not taken into consideration when determining cpm.
Just wanted to put this out there if anyone wanted to do some research/experimenting (it's quite labor intensive)...
This method could theoretically make the cpm for UR pts 0.533 with the HI GC. I haven't tried this yet for reasons I explain below.
Buy 2 $500 HI GC at OD for 5,000 UR pts. Use these via the UR mall to buy Sears GC for 3,000 UR pts (if it were to ever go back to 5X, or 10X!, this would be even better). Take the Sears GCs to Kmart to buy Visa/MC GCs. In order to get to 0.533cpm you will have to find a Kmart that
1) sells (at a minimum) $200 Visa/MC GCs for $6.95 AND
2) will allow a Sears GC to be used to purchase (multiple) Visa/MC GCs.
The math (assuming you get 2 $500 HI GCs then turn that into 2 $499 Sears GCs*):
$6.95 x 5 = $34.75 (for 5 $200 Visa/MC GCs) + $3.95 x 2 = $7.9 (for 2 VRs)...makes the grand total $42.65 for 8,000 UR pts = 0.533cpm
Purchasing the $200 Visa/MC/Amex GCs directly at OD then cashing out via BB gives a cpm of 0.853 (due to the fact that you only get 5,000 UR pts instead of 8,000).
I haven't tried this because my local Kmart only sells Visa/MC GCs in $100 denominations for $5.95 which brings the cpm to 0.843...virtually identical to 0.853 and much more labor intensive. However, if Sears were to go up to 5X on UR mall this would bring it down to 0.674 (at 10X it would be 0.449 cpm!). I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that there are Kmarts in nicer towns (mine's in the ghetto) that may sell $200 Visa/MC GCs.
The other big caveat is finding a VR cashier that wouldn't have a problem with you using 5 GCs to buy 2 VR plus a credit card to pay for the fees.
Would love to hear stories of anyone who has the cojones to try this. PMs would be fine too.
*This would leave you with $2 on the HI GC which is not taken into consideration when determining cpm.
Mar 15, 2013, 12:19 pm
#40
Join Date: May 2010
Location: BNA
Programs: No preference
Posts: 1,176
Hi all,
Just wanted to put this out there if anyone wanted to do some research/experimenting (it's quite labor intensive)...
This method could theoretically make the cpm for UR pts 0.533 with the HI GC. I haven't tried this yet for reasons I explain below.
Buy 2 $500 HI GC at OD for 5,000 UR pts. Use these via the UR mall to buy Sears GC for 3,000 UR pts (if it were to ever go back to 5X, or 10X!, this would be even better). Take the Sears GCs to Kmart to buy Visa/MC GCs. In order to get to 0.533cpm you will have to find a Kmart that
1) sells (at a minimum) $200 Visa/MC GCs for $6.95 AND
2) will allow a Sears GC to be used to purchase (multiple) Visa/MC GCs.
The math (assuming you get 2 $500 HI GCs then turn that into 2 $499 Sears GCs*):
$6.95 x 5 = $34.75 (for 5 $200 Visa/MC GCs) + $3.95 x 2 = $7.9 (for 2 VRs)...makes the grand total $42.65 for 8,000 UR pts = 0.533cpm
Purchasing the $200 Visa/MC/Amex GCs directly at OD then cashing out via BB gives a cpm of 0.853 (due to the fact that you only get 5,000 UR pts instead of 8,000).
I haven't tried this because my local Kmart only sells Visa/MC GCs in $100 denominations for $5.95 which brings the cpm to 0.843...virtually identical to 0.853 and much more labor intensive. However, if Sears were to go up to 5X on UR mall this would bring it down to 0.674 (at 10X it would be 0.449 cpm!). I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that there are Kmarts in nicer towns (mine's in the ghetto) that may sell $200 Visa/MC GCs.
The other big caveat is finding a VR cashier that wouldn't have a problem with you using 5 GCs to buy 2 VR plus a credit card to pay for the fees.
Would love to hear stories of anyone who has the cojones to try this. PMs would be fine too.
*This would leave you with $2 on the HI GC which is not taken into consideration when determining cpm.
Just wanted to put this out there if anyone wanted to do some research/experimenting (it's quite labor intensive)...
This method could theoretically make the cpm for UR pts 0.533 with the HI GC. I haven't tried this yet for reasons I explain below.
Buy 2 $500 HI GC at OD for 5,000 UR pts. Use these via the UR mall to buy Sears GC for 3,000 UR pts (if it were to ever go back to 5X, or 10X!, this would be even better). Take the Sears GCs to Kmart to buy Visa/MC GCs. In order to get to 0.533cpm you will have to find a Kmart that
1) sells (at a minimum) $200 Visa/MC GCs for $6.95 AND
2) will allow a Sears GC to be used to purchase (multiple) Visa/MC GCs.
The math (assuming you get 2 $500 HI GCs then turn that into 2 $499 Sears GCs*):
$6.95 x 5 = $34.75 (for 5 $200 Visa/MC GCs) + $3.95 x 2 = $7.9 (for 2 VRs)...makes the grand total $42.65 for 8,000 UR pts = 0.533cpm
Purchasing the $200 Visa/MC/Amex GCs directly at OD then cashing out via BB gives a cpm of 0.853 (due to the fact that you only get 5,000 UR pts instead of 8,000).
I haven't tried this because my local Kmart only sells Visa/MC GCs in $100 denominations for $5.95 which brings the cpm to 0.843...virtually identical to 0.853 and much more labor intensive. However, if Sears were to go up to 5X on UR mall this would bring it down to 0.674 (at 10X it would be 0.449 cpm!). I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that there are Kmarts in nicer towns (mine's in the ghetto) that may sell $200 Visa/MC GCs.
The other big caveat is finding a VR cashier that wouldn't have a problem with you using 5 GCs to buy 2 VR plus a credit card to pay for the fees.
Would love to hear stories of anyone who has the cojones to try this. PMs would be fine too.
*This would leave you with $2 on the HI GC which is not taken into consideration when determining cpm.
the problem is ever finding a store that sells Visa/MC cards allowing store GCs to buy.
Mar 15, 2013, 12:29 pm
#41
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 164
Good luck trying to upgrade from Sears/Kmart to Visa/MC... various reports indicate any type of prepaid cards won't work
Mar 15, 2013, 12:32 pm
#42
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Florida
Posts: 448
"why buy VRs when you could use your newly acquired Visa/MC GCs to go online and buy more Sears gift cards, earning UR points? "
Well eventually I'd like to actually pay my credit card off with the cash from BB
...the Circle of Life (points) can't go on forever.
"the problem is ever finding a store that sells Visa/MC cards allowing store GCs to buy."
I completely agree, however according to the Frequent Miler, there is a decent chance that Kmart would allow you to buy Visa/MC GCs with a Sears GC. But this is just hearsay on my part and nothing I've ever experimented with.
Well eventually I'd like to actually pay my credit card off with the cash from BB
...the Circle of Life (points) can't go on forever."the problem is ever finding a store that sells Visa/MC cards allowing store GCs to buy."
I completely agree, however according to the Frequent Miler, there is a decent chance that Kmart would allow you to buy Visa/MC GCs with a Sears GC. But this is just hearsay on my part and nothing I've ever experimented with.
Mar 15, 2013, 12:36 pm
#43
Join Date: Jan 2007
Programs: PC Pl, UA 1K, CC Gl
Posts: 2,235
"why buy VRs when you could use your newly acquired Visa/MC GCs to go online and buy more Sears gift cards, earning UR points? "
Well eventually I'd like to actually pay my credit card off with the cash from BB ...the Circle of Life (points) can't go on forever.
"the problem is ever finding a store that sells Visa/MC cards allowing store GCs to buy."
I completely agree, however according to the Frequent Miler, there is a decent chance that Kmart would allow you to buy Visa/MC GCs with a Sears GC. But this is just hearsay on my part and nothing I've ever experimented with.
Well eventually I'd like to actually pay my credit card off with the cash from BB
...the Circle of Life (points) can't go on forever."the problem is ever finding a store that sells Visa/MC cards allowing store GCs to buy."
I completely agree, however according to the Frequent Miler, there is a decent chance that Kmart would allow you to buy Visa/MC GCs with a Sears GC. But this is just hearsay on my part and nothing I've ever experimented with.
Mar 15, 2013, 12:39 pm
#44
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Florida
Posts: 448
Hmmm OK, I hadn't seen these reports and only based this idea on the fact that FM said it stood a decent chance of working. Definitely not saying this plan is foolproof...was just hoping someone else may want to experiment with it. Worst case scenario is that I would end up with Sears GCs. If there was anything I needed from Sears, I'd definitely do this myself. But I'm a semi-broke grad student, so I don't really want to end up "having" to buy something at Sears when I don't really need too. Plus, trying this out with a very low amount (say $25) won't really give the best data since a Kmart cashier may be willing to sell a $25 Visa/MC GC to me with a $25 Sears GC, but not willing to scale up to 5 $200 Visa/MC GCs with 2 $500 Sears GCs.
Mar 15, 2013, 12:42 pm
#45
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Florida
Posts: 448
Did you use a Sears GC when you bought the 5 $100 Visa cards? Or some other GC (Kmart?)?