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At the beginning of each month, new promotions appear within the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Tomorrow, I’ll provide full coverage of what’s new: both good and bad. Today, I want to remind everyone that some great deals are ending today. I’ll also provide some completely baseless guesses as to what we might see tomorrow.
Reminder. Today is the last day for the following deals:
- Lowes 10X. Available to Ink and Sapphire cardholders. Freedom cardholders get only 5X.
- Office Depot 10X. Ink cardholders only. Remember, Ink cards automatically give 5X for purchases at office supply stores, so this is a 15X Ink deal!
- JC Penney 10X. This was initially listed as expiring July 3rd, but was then extended to July 31. Available for Freedom cardholders only. Everyone else gets 6X.
- Bloomingdale’s 10X. Sapphire and Sapphire Preferred only. Everyone else gets 6X.
- Other deals: Please see “Ultimate Rewards Mall July Edition”
August Predictions
I’ve made predictions in the past and have been mostly wrong about most things, so take the following guesses with a grain (or two) of salt:
- Target
Target is currently at 2X. I expect to see a back to school increase to, perhaps, as high as 5X. 3X is more likely. - OfficeMax
OfficeMax will try to nab the back to school revenue with a bump from 3X to … 5X? - KMart
KMart will jump from 2X to 4X or 5X. - Sears
Sears will pop up to 5X - Staples
Staples will hold steady at 4X (and will drop the 5X from Freedom cardholders)
Who will go to 10X?
Each month there are a few 10X promotions, so who will it be in August? Kohl’s has held steady at 10X forever (except for Ink cardholders) so I expect that will stay. Sears was 10X this time last year. Will they bring that back? Sadly, I doubt it. JC Penney seems likely to repeat 10X. It would be great if they expand 10X to other cards besides the Freedom. Drugstore.com goes up and down all the time, so they’re a good bet. Most likely, I think we’ll see some clothing stores hold big promotions to encourage people to start buying cool weather clothes. I’ll go out on a limb here and bet on J. Crew at 10X for August.
As mentioned above, I’ll post the real story tomorrow.
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@Will: what do you mean “starts”?
Staples starts charging extra $1.99 for each gift card.
@Preacher: do all 2nd party $100 giftcards at Staples cost 6.95 extra?
Don T: Staples only charges extra for Visa cards. All other gift cards are free (and free shipping).
I recently made a purchase from Staples and threw in a gift card as a test. At first I just got the points for the other items, but then a week later I got the points for the giftcard.
smitty06: Thanks for the update. I’ve corrected the Laboratory table.
UR Mall does not give points for OD gift card. I purchased one last month as an experiment. Ony got 5x from Bold Ink. 0x from UR Mall.
It’s $6.95, I believe now, as an activation fee for a $100 GC from Staples. So it’s only a net of about 2% when you buy them. It’s a profit, but not as much as you might think.
What are the best gift card options for Sapphire or Freedom?
So….I can order gift cards from Staples and get 9x. Freedom or Sapphire? All gift cards? Thanks.
ZA: Only the Chase Ink cards will get you 9X (Ink Bold, Ink Classic, Ink Cash, Ink Plus). Yes, all gift cards that they sell online.
Mommypoints suggest’s staples is still paying UR on GC’s even though T&C says no ?
“Staples at 9x has also been quite helpful for ordering gift cards to restaurants (including Starbucks) using my Ink Bold for a total of 9x Ultimate Reward points”
You’ll get the July bonus. Points are calculated from the day you order the item.
And thx, FM, for the reminder! I bought a back-to-school office chair ($170) from my OD store yesterday, forgetting about the 10X online bonus. Ordered the same one this morning for a cool 1700 bonus points and will return the one I bought yesterday when the new one comes! Bless you, man!
I bought online a microwave from Lowes yesterday but it won’t be ready for pick up till late August. Will I receive 10x on this as the purchase was made on July 30th or will it show the date I pick up the item from Lowes in August and perhaps a new “bonus rate”?
sil: Yes, Preacher is correct, you should get the full 10X points.
Preacher: Glad to help!
Jim: Yes, this has been confirmed by a number of people now.
Apple 10X……hahahahahaha
MSPDeltaDude: I do remember one day last year (close to the holidays) where Apple was 10X. Will they repeat this year? Let’s hope so!
Checking the Lab, there are mixed results. So this is a very YMMV thing.
Then the question is whether they allow to purchase other gift cards with an OD gift card.
So you CAN buy OD gc then and get 15x? Or are you saying according to tc, you cant get any gc?
Mike: No, I’m saying that you can’t get 15X when buying OD gift cards unless the UR mall T&C is incorrect. There are cases were the T&C is incorrect, but I haven’t tried this one so I don’t know.