Last week I reported that there had been a few reports of people finding $200 MasterCard gift cards at Sears in the Southeast United States. In response to that post, people from many places around the country reported finding the same in their stores. In fact, one reader in the western US found not just MasterCards, but Visa cards too:
Both types have a $6.95 fee. As a percentage of total value, they’re a much better deal that the more commonly seen $100 MasterCard or Visa gift cards with $5.95 fees (3.5% vs. 6% fee, respectively).
Double dip:
- Go through a portal to buy Sears physical gift cards. You can find the best portal options here.
- Pay with either a
Chase Freedom orDiscover It card which offers 5X rewards this quarter (4th quarter, 2014) online. Or, reload an existing Sears gift card and pay with either a Chase Freedom or Discover card since both offer 5X at Sears this quarter. - Then, use the physical gift card in-store to buy other gift cards such as the ones shown above. NOTE: Not all cashiers allow this. And, not all Sears stores carry useful gift cards like these.
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OK, so I have been reading these deals now for a month or two and am a total sears portal newbie… Tell me if this strategy seems sound:
1. Buy $1600 (8 x $200) with Chase Freedom (5% Back this quarter)
2. Go through Discover shopping portal (10% back right now).
3. Cash out to serve or bluebird… Make roughly 11% back (the fees will be the other 4).
Sound good?!
1. If paying with Chase Freedom, don’t buy physical gift cards since they are processed by Kmart. Instead, reload an existing physical gift card to get the Freedom 5X bonus (this was a mistake in my original post not a misunderstanding on your part).
2. Yes, ShopDiscover 10%. Also consider Alaska MileagePlan Shopping (8X today plus holiday bonus)
3. Yep
Do they have to be physical gift cards? Has anyone bought an e-Gift Card and used it in a Sears store to purchase GCs? It doesn’t make much of a difference, but it would save waiting on the mail.
I’ve done it but I don’t like to. You have to convince the cashier to type in the gift card info or scan it from a printout. I find it easier to swipe a physical card
Seems that in MN, they were available for the last few months and just these past two weeks they have pulled them.
I tried to buy one two weeks ago as I have been able to multiple times in the past year (It’s a play I like to leverage and the $200 have been in stock throughout the summer here), and for the first time ever the system must have spit out a warning because the cashier looked at the screen and stopped and called a manager over. Then I got another manager called over, and they would only let me buy 1 non-VGC.
It was definitely something on the screen as the cashier didn’t even give a rip when I put the card down and started just ringing it up.
And I’ve done this many, many times at multiple Sears in the Mpls Metro.
And I didn’t even have my Sears GC out of my wallet yet, so they didn’t even know I was going to use them.
So, YMMV, I guess.
I have a question about CashBack Monitor:
I see 5% at BeFrugal; 6% at eBates; 9% Shop at Home.
I have had very good experiences with BeFrufgal and would not bother with a 1% difference, but a 4% difference could add up. Does anyone have experience with these sites? is there someone who has a list of sites to avoid?
I’ve used Shop at Home without trouble. The one annoying thing is that you can’t get any money out until you’ve earned at least $20 (or maybe $25, I forget). You can also search for portals here and you’ll see user ratings of each portal: http://www.cashbackholic.com/
Thanks.
I went through a portal for 5% cash back, loaded my cart with a $400 physical GC at Sears with standard shipping, total = $400. When I got to the payment screen it had an option to pay with a GC. So, I am now thinking why not do the following:
1) buy an eGC at Sears
2) go through the portal again, use the eGC to buy the physical GC
3) wait for delivery and then go to Sears and get the $200 VISA cards
Will that work?
I am guessing not or you would have suggested it.
Quick answer: nope.
Longer answer: checkout this very old post of mine: https://frequentmiler.com/2011/09/22/perpetual-point-machine-not/
Thank you.
Found a Sears in the Midwest that sells the $200 visa gift cards.
I’ve been told that you can use the sears gift cards at Kmart. Has anyone ever tried getting the visa/mc gift cards there with a sears gc?
YOU CAN, YOU CAN, At least I Could. Last night I bought $1400 worth of $200 Visa GCs using Sears GCs at Kmart. This is in the North East Boston Suburb area. GLuck!
eBay has $200 Sears gift cards for $170
http://runningwithmiles.boardingarea.com/get-sears-200-gift-card-170-better-last-week/
Yep, I posted about that on Monday: https://frequentmiler.com/2014/10/27/sears-gift-cards-15-off/