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Every month, the Ultimate Rewards Mall has new month-long specials. Last month, I wrote about the May specials in the post “Ultimate Rewards Mall Awesomeness!” Today, I’ll show you how things look for June.
First, though, another thanks to HikerT for staying up late and updating his website that shows the Ultimate Rewards Mall payouts for different Chase cards. You can find his website here: lakebagger.com/ur/.
First the bad news
As expected, the goodies from last month went away:
- Staples dropped from 5X to 2X (oh no!)
- Sony dropped from 10X to 2X
- Overstock dropped from 10X to 3X
- Lenovo dropped from 5X to 2X
- Sephora dropped from 20X to 5X (this drop happened in May)
- QVC dropped from 10X to 3X
- J-Crew dropped from 10X to 3X
- Ann Taylor dropped from 5X to 2X
June Goodies
While June doesn’t have as many great offers as May, there are some nuggets:
Barnes & Noble: 10X
Double dip opportunity: log in to the UR Mall with your Ink Bold, but pay with your American Express business card to get 5% cash back through OPEN Savings. Yes, you can pay with other cards (see “Ultimate Question”). There are some really good opportunities with this one. I’ll post more about it in the future.
Saks.com: 10X (Sapphire & Sapphire Preferred)
The website states “not eligible for gift cards”.
Microsoft Store: 10X (Ink Bold only)
Double dip opportunity: log in to the UR Mall with your Ink Bold, but pay with your American Express business card to get 5% cash back through OPEN Savings. Yes, you can pay with other cards (see “Ultimate Question”).
Brookstone: 10X (Sapphire & Sapphire Preferred)
Note the fairly harsh Terms & Conditions: Not eligible for purchases on Deal of the Day items, Tempur-Pedic, Bose, Sony, Celestron, SkyScout, Panasonic & Braun, Canon, Cinemin, Optima, Panasonic, Power Plate, Sonos, Tempur-Pedic and TomTom products, gift cards or gift wrapping.
Buy.com: 5X
A while ago a reader reported success in getting 5 points per dollar by going through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Buy.com to purchase merchant gift cards (Home Depot was his example). They do charge a small shipping fee ($2.99 for the first card, $.99 for each subsequent card), but they also give you 1% back in the form of “Super Points” which can be used for future purchases. Thanks for the tip Pete!
NikeStore: 10X (Freedom), 7X (Ink, Sapphire, Sapphire Preferred)
The Frequent Miler Laboratory has shown mixed results for double dipping with Nike (e.g. buying gift cards & then using them for a combined 20X). Please let me know the results if you try this.
OfficeMax: 5X (Ink Bold only)
Double dip opportunity: log in to the UR Mall with your Ink Bold, but pay with your American Express business card to get 5% cash back through OPEN Savings as long as you spend $100 or more. Note that the specifics of this OPEN Savings deal are supposed to change on June 15.
Home Depot: 5X (Ink Bold & Freedom)
In past experiments, buying gift cards did not result in points. Using gift cards resulted in points only when part of the order was made with a credit card.
Reactions
What do you like or dislike with the June changes? Do you see any big opportunities here that I missed?
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[…] Frequent Miler has as great roundup of all the new Ultimate Rewards promos for […]
[…] Rewards Mall has new month-long specials. Last month, I wrote about the May specials in the post “Ultimate Rewards Mall June Edition” Today, I’ll show you how things look for […]
just wanted to report back that buying a $100 nike gift card did in fact result in 1000 ultimate rewards points. So, gift cards do seem to earn points.
Ali: Thanks! I’ll add this info to the Lab
Thanks for your answers. But what I’m trying to ask is if I can use my SW Chase through the Ultimate rewards portal because I noticed above that you posted a card next to each reward. I’m trying to build up points for United for future travel to Europe. I use the SW portal now but that only gives me SW points that can be used for domestic flights. Really, I’m looking for the best airline company to travel to Europe with. Thanks
katleg: Yes, you can use any credit card when buying things through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, BUT you have to own an Ultimate Rewards earning credit card to be able to log into the mall. You will need one of these cards: Sapphire, Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, Ink Cash, Ink Classic, or Freedom. The Sapphire Preferred has a nice sign-up bonus (40K points) so you might want to consider signing up. See my “best credit card offers” page.
[…] Ultimate Rewards Mall June Edition […]
Too bad there’s no visa gift cards for OM.
Hard to find any resale valueables at OM.
You find anything good FM?
Katleg, Yes there are several ways to earn SRR points even without using your cards. https://rapidrewardsshopping.southwest.com/ is just like Chase URM that can earn the points using their shopping portal. Although the points are not that great compare to URM, it would be nice if u don’t have the access to URM.
I’m new to this..Is there a way to get Southwest Rapid Rewards points if I use my SW Chase Visa? I’m also trying to get some United points if there is a way through the Ultimate Reward Mall. i tried to register but git that stupid error message. Thanks
Very sad to see Staples drop so much. Was just starting to enjoy those FAR deals!
thomas: Agreed!
katleg: When using your SW Chase Visa you will always earn Rapid Rewards points for any purchases. As chuck says, if you want to earn extra Rapid Rewards points you can shop via the Rapid Rewards portal which is very similar to the Ultimate Rewards portal.
I have used other “rebate sites” that work like the URewards works. You click through and make your purchase and you get the 1% or whatever the rebate is. On these sites there is a way to see what stores you have visited to help make sure you are getting your rebates. Does Chase have anything like this? Also, how often does Chase post points to your account? Is it when your statement cycles or does it happen through out the month? Thanks for helping this rookie!!!!
Quigs: Unfortunately, you can’t see your click-throughs in the UR mall. Points show up under “Ultimate Rewards Mall & Travel Earnings” in about 3 days to 2 weeks, but they aren’t posted for real to your account until your statement cycles.
I noticed the same thing as Ali above; Nike specifically excludes gift cards at UR Mall. Has anyone lucked out? Thanks!
FM: Got it. I appreciate the response.
JW: You can’t purchase gift cards (of any kind) with gift cards at Office Depot. Certainly won’t let you purchase Visa/MC/Amex…Noob
John Doe: JW’s question was perfectly valid. Some stores (but very few) will let you get away with buying gift cards with gift cards. Unless it was tested at numerous ODs, we can’t be 100% sure it wouldn’t work. I do agree that it is extremely unlikely though.
Pat, I purchased the AMEX/Reload with Ink card (5X) and went to Safeway (Lucky is w/Shell) to get HomeDepot cards (Fuel rewards at Safeway gas pump is roughly 4 to 8X depending on the size of your gas tank). And went to URM for 4X with a very little payment with Chase Sapphire card (for trying out various ways!). The full points posted a few days later! That is what I call triple dip.
chuck: Nice triple dip 🙂
FM,
Thanks for your posts. I have benefited a lot from them. I have tried to do my first double dip experiment with Kohls. I bought a few gift cards yesterday from Freedom card’s ultimate rewards mall (@ 10x).
My question to you is that where can I see the pending points on the site? Is there a click-by-click detail available like the one provided by Fatwallet?
Thanks
milesfan: you can’t see click by click detail, but you can look to see if points have posted yet. Log into Ultimate Rewards and look for the “Rewards Activity” tab on the right. When you hover the mouse over it you’ll see a link for “Ultimate Rewards Mall & Travel Earnings”. Click it. Then select the month in which you made your purchase to see if the purchase has shown up yet. It usually takes at least 3 days for anything to show up here.