Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
More than 22 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar are possible at Kohl’s.
In my recent post Crank Up the Black Friday Discounts at Kohls I showed how to save more than 50% when shopping at Kohl’s, even for their most highly discounted and clearance items. Today, I’ll describe how to crank it up another notch to get the total savings closer to 70%! The trick is to do the Ultimate Rewards Mall “Double Dip“. This is where you navigate through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Kohls.com once to buy gift cards (for yourself), and then go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall a second time to buy Kohl’s items using your gift cards. Kohl’s offers 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar until the end of this year, so this method will get you 20 Ultimate Rewards points for each dollar spent! Plus, you get another 1 point per dollar for using your Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and then you get an end of year bonus of 7% which comes to another 1.47 points. All of this adds up to an astounding 22.47 points per dollar! If you value Ultimate Rewards points conservatively at 1.5 cents each then this amounts to a 33.7% rebate off of all of your Kohl’s purchases!
Caution:
This double dip technique shouldn’t work. The Kohl’s Terms and Conditions in the Ultimate Rewards Mall are clear: “Not eligible on gift cards“. However, despite that wording, the double dip has worked for me. I have received points for buying and using gift cards from Kohl’s. Today, a reader has confirmed that he too has received points for gift card purchases made as recently as November 22. So, the double dip has worked and probably will work for you, but be warned that there is some risk of not receiving points.
If, despite the caution, you would like to try to get up to 70% savings at Kohl’s, follow these steps:
Preparation
First, you need a Chase credit card that will give you access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall. I highly recommend the Chase SapphireSM Preferred Card because it is the only card that will give you an annual bonus of 7% of all points earned each calendar year. If you don’t already have one, you can sign up with this link. I will get a small commission if you use my link, but you’ll get the same best offer available anywhere. I promise I would recommend this card with or without the referral commission. In fact, I have recommended it many times prior to my signing up for a referral network.
Step 1: Go to the Ultimate Rewards Mall
Navigate to ultimaterewards.com/mall.
Step 2: Find Kohl’s, click “Shop Now”, and buy Gift Cards
Ideally you will know ahead of time roughly how much you intend to spend at Kohls. Buy enough gift cards to cover your purchases. So far this technique has only been tried with physical gift cards, but if you’re feeling lucky it might also work with e-gift cards which would allow you to complete all of your shopping in one day instead of waiting for a few days for the gift cards to arrive.
Step 3: Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall again to Kohls.com
Once you have your gift cards in hand, go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, find Kohls, and click “Shop Now”. Fill your basket with whatever you want to buy.
Step 4: Check Out: Apply Gift Card and Coupon Code
The check-out screen will allow you to apply your gift card numbers towards your purchase. It will also allow you to enter a coupon code. Currently, coupon code CON20HH4 will give you a 20% discount! If that doesn’t work, search online for current codes. Kohl’s almost always has coupon codes worth 15% to 20% off.
Step 5: Count Your Savings
Let’s say you find $125 worth of heavily discounted merchandise that you want to buy. The CON20HH4 code will give you 20% off and free shipping, so your total will come to $100 before taxes. You will also receive 100 * 22.47 = 2,247 Ultimate Rewards points, worth about $33 (based on a conservative estimate of 1.5 cents value per point). Based on a current promotion, you may also receive $30 in Kohls cash for future purchases. So, for your purchase of $125 worth of items, you will get a total of $88 back in discounts, points, and Kohls cash for future purchases! This is an amazing 70% of the original purchase price!
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I got 2 AMEX gift cards from Simon. Any way I can get a Visa card for it. Costco doesn’t take AMEX anymore.
Kohls e-gift card purchase through UR Mall didn’t appear to work for me (transaction was 11/30). I made a purchase afterwards at kohls.com and that has shown up though on UR Mall.
BothofUs2: Thanks for reporting back about that. I have made 3 Kohl’s gift card purchases and only received credit for 2 of them. So, yes, it appears to be a gamble: sometimes the double dip works and sometimes not. Since it has only been a week for you, though, it is still possible you’ll get credit later.
OK. It is official now. I got my 1000 points for $100 GC after three days of purchase. I have yet to receive the GC. So one dip is confirmed. Next step is the double dip
Caveman: that’s great to hear! Thanks for the update.
In general how long does it take points from the UR shopping mall to post? Or any points earned with the card to post for that matter. I made my first purchase at Drugstore.com on November 17, and have many many daily purchases since then, but my UR balance is still 0. I’m thinking perhaps it is because I still havent had my first billing cycle close yet. Is this the typical wait?
Everett and bringer:
How long does it take points to post: I have had points post in as little as three days and in as much as 16 days. There is at least one purchase I’m still waiting to see the points for, so that one might go longer. When I say “post” I mean that it shows up under “Rewards Activity… Ultimate Rewards Mall & Travel earnings”. Once it shows up there it still takes some time for the points to be credited to your account so that you can use them. My guess is that this last part is tied to your statement cycle, but I’m not sure.
How long does it take for physical cards to arrive: My experience is that they can take anywhere from a few days to over a week.
Can you walk us through how long it took..How long did it take after placing the GC order to get the physical gift cards in the mail. Also, once you made the order, how long did it take for everything to post? Thanks!
Can you purchase more gift cards with your gift card, resulting in multiple dips?
No, it doesn’t appear to work to buy gift cards with gift cards at Kohls.
[…] gift cards, and then go through a shopping portal again to use the gift cards. See, for example, Kohl’s Double Dip. Many stores, though, don’t allow this kind of double dip. Often, they allow shopping portal […]
Just post. I’ve been wondering about this and wondering if the double dip worked.
Definitely time to do some more Kohl’s Christmas shopping.
Thanks!
How many days does it take to get a physical sears card (to then use for xmas shopping) through UR?
Please keep us posted
Thanks for this info. To test the waters, I just made a purchase of $100 gift card. I will keep my fingers crossed and update as soon as I find something.
Anyone buy e-gift cards?
I think the Kohl’s cash would be used like a coupon, in that it lowers the subtotal before taxes are calculated.
I am not familiar with how returns are handled with the UR Mall, but I know with any other cash back portals they usually have a 2-3 month wait period before pay out in case you try and take things back for points. The reason that I bring this up is that if lots of people are trying to double dip with Kohls at the UR Mall.. they may catch on and just retroactively deduct points for their over looked mistake. You can have a negative point total with the UR Mall (for instance if you returned items and then cashed out your points for miles with an airline).
with sears on dec 9th or any day after u get the gift card can you double dip again with a gift card to but another gift card and get the miles
Can you triple dip by spending Kohls Cash through the UR shopping portal?
Scott: great question. My guess is yes I expect you would get points while using Kohl’s cash, but I don’t have any evidence yet to back that up. Anyone else?