Every few weeks, Kohl’s runs a sale where Kohl’s charge card holders get up to 30% off with a coupon and everyone gets $10 Kohl’s Cash for every $50 spent. In fact, a sale like this begins today and runs through October 5th. For this sale, charge card holders can use code SAVING30 to get their 30% off discount.
Even though the Terms & Conditions say otherwise, it has long been the case that one could stack the above mentioned savings with Ultimate Rewards Mall 10X bonus earnings. And, physical gift card purchases earn points too. And, Chase Freedom often offers Kohl’s as one of it’s 5X categories. So, one could do the following:
- Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall (10X)
- Buy physical Kohl’s gift cards and pay with the Freedom card (5X)
- Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall again (10X)
- Select charge card as form of payment
- Input 30% off code
- Enter in up to 4 gift cards for payment (before the charge card is invoked)
- Earn $10 Kohl’s Cash for every $50 spent.
In total, with the above steps, one could earn 25 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar, save 30%, and earn up to 20% in Kohl’s Cash.
Unfortunately, Kohls.com lately hasn’t been working quite right so some people have suffered from reduced Ultimate Rewards Mall payouts and cancelled orders. Hopefully, that will all be cleared up soon. But, this post isn’t really about that. It’s about Kohl’s Cash…
UPDATE: Since this post was written in 2013, I haven’t been keeping up with the latest Kohl’s changes. However, here’s a comment from a reader named Mike that you may find helpful:
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Earning Kohl’s Cash
When Kohl’s Cash is offered, you get $10 Kohl’s Cash for every $50 of merchandise purchased ($50 is after coupons but before sales tax). If you come within $2 of the first level of Kohl’s Cash, Kohl’s will round up for you. For example, if you spend $48 (pre-tax), Kohl’s will round up and give you $10 of Kohl’s Cash as if you had spend $50.
The value of Kohl’s Cash
Kohl’s Cash is sent in an email when you order online, or given as a paper certificate when you make purchases in-store. Either way, there is a set date range within which the Cash can be used.
When using Kohl’s Cash, the dollar amount of the Cash is taken off the total merchandise order before other coupons are applied. This has a few negative consequences: 1) The portion of your merchandise paid for with Kohl’s Cash is not discounted by any coupons; and 2) Coupons that require a certain dollar amount to activate are harder to use. For example, if a coupon gives you free shipping for orders of $50 or more, you need to have more than $50 of stuff in your shopping cart to account for the amount of Kohl’s Cash you want to use.
There is one positive aspect to the way Kohl’s Cash works: The portion of your purchase paid for with Kohl’s Cash is not subject to sales tax. For example, I had $40 worth of Kohl’s Cash that was about to expire so I visited Kohl’s in person and found an item that was on sale for exactly $40. The cashier rang it up, I paid the $40 Kohl’s Cash, and all of the sales tax disappeared.
Since Kohl’s Cash prevents you from applying coupons to that portion of your purchase, and since they are only valid for a limited amount of time before they expire, I like to think of Kohl’s Cash as worth about half of its face value. A $20 Kohl’s Cash certificate is, to me, worth about $10. It’s a convenient way to conservatively estimate savings when Kohl’s Cash is offered.
Returns
If you return something that was paid for with Kohl’s Cash, you are given store credit for the purchase price. If you then go to buy the exact same thing and pay with that same store credit, you’ll be charged sales tax. That’s the bad part. The good part is that the store credit doesn’t expire and you can apply discount coupons to the portion of the order paid for with that store credit. Store credit is treated exactly like a gift card.
Where things get really weird is if you return something that was in an order that generated Kohl’s Cash. For example, imagine buying a watch for $100 and earning $20 Kohl’s Cash. Now imagine that you’re unhappy with the watch and want to return it. If you don’t use the Kohl’s Cash before returning the watch, you get your money back and the Kohl’s Cash is understandably invalidated. If you do use the Kohl’s Cash before returning the watch, though, they will deduct the Kohl’s Cash value from your refund. So, if you buy something where there’s a high likely hood of a return, you might be better off not using the Kohl’s Cash.
Bottom Line
If you have a Kohl’s charge card, the frequent 30% off plus Kohl’s Cash sales are really a great way to save. It’s important, though, to understand the limitations and strange behaviors of Kohl’s Cash.
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I think it might be time to update this article. There have been a number of changes at Kohls involving kohls cash. For example, it used to be fairly easy to extend the life of kohls cash by buying something and then returning it. They used to give a merchandise credit with no expiration date for the portion paid for with Kohl’s cash. However, for the last few years, that policy changed and now you get back replacement kohls cash with a new 30 day expiration date. The best way to deal with kohls cash is still to convert it to a merchandise credit to get rid of the expiration date, and gain the ability to use other discount codes, shopping portals, easier free shipping, etc. So the way to do that is to make sure you get a gift receipt when you buy something with kohls cash, and then return it with the gift receipt. Returns with a gift receipt still get a merchandise credit with no expiration date. I just did this today and was pleasantly surprised to get a merchandise credit for not only the kohls cash, but also the sales tax on the kohls cash. It’s been awhile since I’ve done this, but I don’t think it was like that a few years ago – you would get a merchandise credit just for the kohls cash without sales tax, as this article implies in the first paragraph under returns. So this means that you no longer have to forfeit the one advantage of kohls cash (sales tax savings) in order to get rid of the expiration date, and gain the ability to use other discounts, portals and easier free shipping that you get with conversion. Also, although not directly related to kohls cash, but related to the method of making kohls cash more valuable, is that as of last September there is a time limit on all returns (180 days for most items), previously there was only a time limit on premium electronics.
Thanks Mike. I added your comment to the body of this post since I think that readers may find it helpful.
[…] Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven for $126 (comes with $20 in Kohl’s Cash). Keep in mind the strange economics of Kohl’s Cash. […]
You can buy similar clothing and merchandise at Walmart, produced by the same Chinese sweatshops, for about the same net price, without having to mess around with that silly Kohls Cash.
[…] Cash for every $50 spent + 20% off with code GIVE20 + $10 off $50 or more with code JACKPOT. See The Strange Economics of Kohl’s Cash before diving in and overvaluing […]
Returned 2 items recently. Got my full purchase price returned + $5.80 Kohl’s cash. Why did I earn Kohl’s cash? Anyone?
I used my cashback but had to return an item that was on the invoice that earned the cashback. They took off the cashback when the item was returned. I paid 24.99 and only received 19.99. Is this legal? I feel this is not a reward. I am disappointed in Kohl’s and do not want to bother with cashback again. Too confusing and disappointed. I will be happy to visit another department store who have more clear and good rewards. It is like you give a child candy and then take it away from them.
[…] like a coupon, but not. It behaves so strangely that I once wrote a whole post about it “The strange economics of Kohl’s Cash.” The details of how Kohl’s Cash behaves have since changed in some ways, but […]
Here is a problem with Kohl’s Cash.
At this very moment, I have in my “shopping bag” a subtotal (before shipping or tax) of 79.97. I then applied their current coupon of 25% off and it deducted 20.00, making my new grand total 63.97 (after 3.60 tax was applied). Don’t know what their norm is, but they are currently offering free shipping with 50.00 purchase, therefore, I am also getting free shipping.
Everything good so far.
Then I go to checkout. I have $60 in Kohl’s Cash to use towards my purchase.
I went in and entered my Kohl’s Cash code. It was accepted just fine. However, when I go back and look at my shopping bag it adjusted everything.
Now it reduced my $20 discount to a $5 discount. They are now, also, charging me shipping and saying that to get the free shipping, I need to spend 35.03 more. Really?? Does this seem fair?
I am quite unhappy. Kohls.com has been a fiasco for me thus far. 2 other stories to add, but won’t bore you.
Kohls Cash is no doubt very frustrating. It works more as a discount than as a gift card. This can work in your favor (it reduces the amount of sales tax you have to pay), but more often it works against you (it makes your purchase ineligible for free shipping, for example).
Makes perfect sense… Your total was $79.97 – $60 = $19.97 – 25% = $14.97. The REAL money total for the purchase was under $15, which doesn’t meet the $50 free shipping minimum. Kohl’s Cash is just their fancy-named coupon, and all of their minimum-purchase discounts indicate that coupons and taxes do not contribute toward the minimum.
[…] “Kohl’s Cash” is the equivalent of coupons to billionaire donors redeemable for tax breaks (spend $50 at Kohl’s, get $10 in Kohl’s Cash). For example, Jon Menard, who has reportedly donated more than $1.5 million to Walker through the […]
I recently earned $20 kohls cash from an online purchase. I ended up having to return an item from that purchase and the lady at the service desk informed me that my kohls cash would be deactivated since the return was over $50. I understood, however the problem was that both kc were deactivated which didn’t make sense since the items I kept added up to over $50. the lady at the service desk said she couldn’t help and to call the number from the website. since my kc expired that day I didn’t bother with the headache of calling. now again today I have to return a few items from an online order however the remaining items I’m keeping are over $50 which warrants $10 kc however I’m guessing my kc will be deactivated because of a return. If I was purchasing items in-store then I would separate each $50 purchase to avoid this, but since I buy online I combine everything for free shipping and unfortunately even a 15 return on an order that’s over $100 deactivates kc.
[…] Frequent Miler has a good explanation of how Kohl’s cash works! […]
As a Kohl’s associate I can say this:
In regards to expired kohls cash:
~if it was kc issued in the store, we will take it. However, it is in your best interest to use it when it’s active because if you return the merchandise you purchased with the expired kc, you are NOT going to get that back as in store credit. However if you use you kc in-store within the two days after it expires, it will still ring up as active
In regards to expired kc issued through email, unfortunately we cannot take those
Sorry if I repeated anything and hope I cleared something’s up
If I bought a Keurig for $150 and got kohls cash, but asked for a price adjustment online when the price dropped to $120, will my kohls cash be reduced? Thanks! This was done online btw.
My assumption is that your Kohl’s Cash would be reduced, but I never tried that. Can you let us know what happens?
I had the price adjustment on the Keurig processed and was able to keep my entire $20 Kohls Cash.
My break down was as follows:$149.99-30%=$100
-$10 Ibotta rebate
-$20 Kohls cash
-$22 adjustment
=$48
Great!
[…] There are, of course, restrictions on when and how you can use the Kohl’s Cash. Here’s an interesting article from blogger The Frequent Miler, who writes on the strange economics of Kohl’s Cash. […]
Question…Last week on Wednesday I made a purchase of $600 then the next day I find out they started the Kohls Cash deal…can I go back and get that or would I have to return everything?
It can’t hurt to ask