8illy

When I first found out about Verizon's Smart Rewards program I was pretty excited to see what kind of rewards could be earned but after spending only a few minutes on the website it seemed like a complete waste: auctions that never end and 10% discount giftcards. The only good offer was the occasional $5 giftcard to a random retailer as part of their daily deals that was always sold out by the time I got logged in.

But after doing a *small* bit of research, I think I may have come up with a possible MS opportunity. I am looking for any feedback since I am new to this game. I noticed under their merchandise section today the following:

Lowest Price Guarantee

• Our Retail Price is the lowest we found in the online marketplace.
• Using your Points makes this price even lower.
• If you find a lower qualifying price online than what you paid, we will give back your points and refund the difference.

Every item we offer is reviewed each day to guarantee that our Retail Price (that's the price before your Points are applied) is as low as any you will find at online retailers including:

Amazon.com
Macys.com
BedBathAndBeyond.com
Walmart.com
Overstock.com
Nordstrom.com
Target.com
Sears.com
Sephora.com
BestBuy.com
Zappos.com
...and More!

As an Authorized Distributor of name-brand products, we proudly guarantee the authenticity of all merchandise in our catalog.


I took a look at some of the merchandise and saw that with the price discount using the points there may be a great reselling opportunity. Here is an example of two products I found.

1. PSB Over-Ear Headphones

Retail Price: $299.00
Points: –11,700
You Pay: $182.00

Price currently being sold on Amazon: $249.00

2. Beats Pro Over Ear Headphone - Black

Retail Price: $359.00
Points: –7,400
You Pay: $285.00

Price currently being sold on Amazon: $315.99


I haven't looked around too much but curious if anyone sees any value in this. In full disclosure, I am new to MS and have never done a "reselling" transaction before. But maybe this will be a great opportunity for me to start.

thehustla

Funny thing is, they actually sell Staples gift cards at discounted price ($90 for $100 value gift card at Staples, etc). I tried purchasing one of small value with my Ink+ but unfortunately no bonus points were given. Bummer

ftomasze

Interesting...I have 57K points...was wondering what I was going to use them for. I'll have to look deeper into the program.

Mamibear

I totally agree. The GCs there after using VSR pts isn't better than what I can get from Groupon most of the time.

jk77341

I looked into this as well and found that this was not worth it. My angle was to see if there was a GC that they were selling at 10% discount with the points and seeing if any of them could be sold to online GC buying sites and get close to 90% of value. At the same time, if the transaction for the purchase would generate 5x on INK since it was Verizon Wireless.

I also tried purchasing a GC that I could sell at 86% value but and I haven't seen it return the 5x on Ink. if that worked, it might be close to what my cash outlay currently is today with purchasing $200 VCG's at Staples and unloading at Kate. But alas, I think this is a dead end.

Julian Brennan

I just signed up for FIOS a few weeks ago so I didn't look into that whole rewards thing yet. However, the Verizon rewards are essentially free money, right? Why would I bother if I can resell the GC at or close to face value? If Verizon gives me free $50 just for being a customer and I cen resell the GC for say $37.50 (as in 75%) this is still $37.50 in free money I wouldn't receive otherwise.

Of course as a good capitalist I would want to maximize my profit but at the end of the day I'd take easy money over the headache of finding the perfect solution.

jk77341

Hi Julian. You would be right if those points translated into getting a full GC. But with these points, what Verizon is offering is only the right to buy certain GC's at 10% off. Or you can try the auctions for full GC's but the auctions seem to never end (i.e. people bidding them up constantly).

I suppose if you wanted to use a GC directly, you could use the points to get essentially a 10% discount to that retailer.

TheDapperDon

I have 170k points. The only thing I can think to do is to buy gift cards for a cruise I have to take next year.

ryejay98

Are we talking about the same thing?

For example, I just logged into my FioS account and was able to spend 2,500 points to get a $25 Amazon giftcard.

8illy

I don't think the real value here with MS is the giftcards, I believe the value is to use your points to buy merchandise at a fairly sizable discount then resell it via normal channels at current prices. In the example I gave, you would pay $182 for something that is currently selling for $249. The way I am looking at it, you get points for the purchase AND in this case about 30-40 dollars in pure profit (depending on the final sale value.)

Now a few things to point out is that some of the deals are not great and I think the resell value is better for either electronics or high end fashion items. Also, you are at the mercy of what these can sell for on Amazon and any fees Amazon may tack on but in the end you will still come out better than even.

Is this as simple as reloading serve or target redcard? No way, not even close. But this can be a lucrative way to resell for MS and earn points AND pure profit.

elg26

FIOS rewards and Verizon Wireless rewards seem to be different.

FIOS - have 2,700 points. Can buy GC

Wireless - have 75,000 points. Its really difficult as explained above to really take advantage of this. As the OP mentioned, the auctions are painful as they are never ending....if you click with under 10 seconds left, it resets back to 10 seconds...over and over and over....

RE GC - you are only using your points for 10% discounts on GC.

I wish my 75,000 points were under the FIOS account

TheDapperDon

If only they had GCs with our favorite flavor. I have 220k of these.

horseymen

Heck, if they'd let us upgrade to their higher end equipment with these, I'd be happy.

sunspotzsz

any good use for Verizon Smart Rewards points?

i see they charge shipping for gift cards, lame!

sean79

if u want to waste an entire day on the monitor of ur computer waiting for a bid to finally end is your problem LOL