Kohls comes through with Ultimate Rewards points for gift card purchase
Well, well, look at that. It took more than two weeks to post, but the Kohls gift card that I bought by going through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall has paid off with the promised 10 points per dollar:
A few weeks ago, I reported a potential mega-deal from Kohls. In that post I speculated that Kohls may be offering more than 10 points per dollar through the Ultimate Rewards Mall on November 21st. I also speculated that it may be possible to double dip by first buying Kohls gift cards and then going back through the mall to use the gift cards and in that way earn points twice. Later, in the post No Mega Deal at Kohls, I posted evidence that I was wrong on both counts: double dipping wouldn’t work and Kohls will still be at 10 points per dollar on November 21st. Well, today I’m back to say that maybe I was wrong on the first part. I mean, maybe I was right originally about the double-dip opportunity, but was wrong to say it doesn’t work. Since Kohls has recently disappeared from the list of gift card merchants in the mall, I can’t promise that this will work anymore, but we’ll see. It seems that the double-dip has worked for me! Stay patient, though, I’m hard at work trying to figure out if this opportunity still works. Read on:
Last night I launched two Kohls experiments:
First, after going through the Ultimate Rewards mall, I ordered merchandise using the gift card I bought earlier. If this works out as I expect it will, I’ll earn another 10 points per dollar for a total of 20 points per dollar for my Kohls spend! To make this deal even sweeter, I used promo code NOVFF20 which gives 20% off your order until November 20th. So, for $50 out of pocket, I got about $65 worth of stuff and 1000 Ultimate Rewards points which I value at about $20. So, I really ended up with $85 worth of value for $50.
The second experiment I started was to check whether points for gift card purchases are still awarded. It may be that I bought my gift card just in time before they changed the policy. My guess, though, is that this stuff is automated and no one really changed any of the underlying code when Kohls was removed from the gift card list. So, to test that theory, I went through the Ultimate Rewards mall again and purchased another physical $50 gift card. I’m less confident about getting points for e-gift cards so I haven’t tried that at all with Kohls (although I have found it to work with Sears).
As before, I’ll report back about both of these experiments once I know the results.
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My brother recommended I may like this website. He used to be totally right. This post truly made my day. You cann’t consider just how so much time I had spent for this information! Thank you!
UPDATE: For the purchase of Kohls merchandise using a Kohls gift card AND the 20% off promo, 10 points per dollar have registered at Chase for the full purchase (less taxes)!
Since I also received 10 points per dollar for buying the gift card, I did pretty well! No word yet on whether new purchases of Kohls gift cards still result in points. I should know soon.
Looks like the hope to double the 10 points per $1 spend fizzled today, still 10 points per $. On the good news side, they are still showing $10 Ohio’s cash for every $50 spent…. And here’s a new 20% off code that is working today (and works for non-Kohl’s card holders/use, so by terms should qualify for the points) : FANSNOV20
As a follow up, it looks like as of today Sears has upped their offer from 5 extra points per dollar to 6. Not quite the 10 it use to be but still better than 5.
@ Brent: I saw that language too but took it literally, as only Kohl’s credit cards were impacted by the more than 15% discount language (due to the other benefits Kohl’s cards can earn, and that there are usually 30% off codes around for Kohl’s card holders and only smaller ones for non-card holders). It will be interesting to see if FM’s purchase with the 20% discount credits the points!
Ultimate Rewards Mall Terms and Conditions for Kohl’s:
“Not eligible on the purchase of physical gift cards or eGift Cards. Eligibility calculated on final sales total (after discounts or promotions are deducted from purchase price, including Kohl’s Cash). Not eligible on Kohl’s credit card sales made with coupon codes that are higher than 15%.”
So your use of a 20% coupon code may have made your purchase ineligible for the 10 extra points per dollar.
Brent: Yikes. Thanks for pointing that out. Of course, the language about not being eligible on the purchase of gift cards was there when I purchased my gift card and I still got the points so hopefully this will work out the same. If not, we’ll have to keep our eyes out for 15% discounts!
As of this morning I can report that double dipping using Sears giftcards does work. The transaction for purchasing the giftcard through UR and then redeeming it through UR both posted to my account this morning. Both posts were in a timely fashion as I had only purchased the giftcards through UR a week earlier.
Evan: thanks for confirming that the Sears double dip is still alive!
Will be interesting to see if your trials go through. Drugstore.com, Home Depot & Lowe’s all added language in their UR terms & conditions ending the purchase of gift cards as eligable for points around the same time too, either for seasonal reasons or to crackdown.
Speaking of crackdowns, all the gift cards on Staples.com (other than the Staples gift cards) are now showing out of stock, including those Visa ones. It was promising for the short while it lasted!