HP Extreme Stacking laptops, tablets, printers, Ink, and more

Whether you want to buy a computer, tablet, printer, or ink, there are many ways to stack rewards and savings when buying from HP:

• Amex OPEN Savings: 5%
• Amex SimplyCash Plus 3%, or Business Gold Rewards 3X
• Portal rebates
• Coupons
• Corporate and AAA memberships
• HP My Print Rewards

Below, you’ll find an example of stacking all of these options to secure a 54% discount!  First, though, let’s look at each of these stacking options one by one…

Amex OPEN Savings: 5% Cash Back

Amex Small Business credit cards and charge cards are automatically enrolled in the Amex OPEN Savings program.  OPEN Savings offers automatic rebates for purchases from certain merchants, including HP.  When you buy something from HP and pay with your Amex Small Business card, you’ll automatically get 5% cash back (or 2 Membership Rewards points if you choose that option) in addition to rewards offered by the credit card directly.  This benefit is limited to $30,000 in spend at HP per calendar year.

I recommend choosing cash back rather than points (unless you value Membership Rewards points higher than 2.5 cents each).  You can select your preference by clicking “Choose Your Benefit” on the Amex OPEN Savings page.

Amex SimplyCash Plus 3%, or Business Gold Rewards 3X

Two Amex Business cards offer computer supplies as a bonus category: SimplyCash Plus, and Business Gold Rewards.  With the SimplyCash Plus, you have to choose your 3% cash back category.  If you choose computer supplies, you should get 3% cash back when using the card to make purchases at HP.  Similarly, with the Business Gold Rewards card, you can choose computer supplies as your 3X category (otherwise you’ll earn 2X).

I haven’t yet tested to make sure that HP purchases earn category bonuses with these cards, but Amex does specifically list HP as an eligible merchant (found here), so it should work.

If you don’t have either of these cards, use any Amex business card to earn regular rewards (usually 1 point per dollar) in addition to the OPEN Savings described above.

Portal Rewards, 15% (or more) cash back

Cash back portals offer cash back when you click through from a portal to HP.  CashBackMonitor shows that HP is often available through eBates for 15% cash back:

Portal rebates for HP have actually gone as high as 18% cash back, but that’s very unusual.  Use CashBackMonitor to find current portal rates.

The Frequent Miler Laboratory shows that people often report success in going through a portal to buy e-gift cards from HP, and going through a portal to HP to use a gift card to buy merchandise.  Therefore, it should be possible to “double dip” to double your rewards: go through a portal once to buy a gift card and a second time to use the gift card.  That said, one person reported getting their rewards clawed back for the purchase of gift cards, so this is not a sure thing.

Coupons

Coupons for HP are readily available through various deal sites.  I recommend searching for these coupons in a different browser than the one you use for portal shopping.  One good place to look for coupons is this SlickDeals page.

I’ve had success using coupon code REWARD15 to save 15% off orders of $60 or more.

Corporate and AAA memberships

Many companies, AAA, credit unions, and other organizations offer HP discounts.  If you’re a AAA member, log into your AAA account and search for HP.  There is a one-time enrollment step.  Once you’re enrolled, you’ll get discounts on HP products automatically just by logging into your HP account!  If you’re not a AAA member and your company or credit union doesn’t offer HP discounts, you can try this instead.  I used a secondary account to verify that it works (Hat Tip: SlickDeals).

I compared ink prices before and after signing up for this program and found that ink was 15% cheaper after signing up for a corporate membership.  I saw discounts on computer hardware too, but the percentage savings were much more modest.

My Print Rewards

This is HP’s rewards program. I don’t have much experience with this one, so I’ll just pass along what it says on the screen:

Buy HP ink and toner direct and save

• 10% reward savings on ink & toner every day – after just one purchase
• FREE shipping with next business day delivery and convenient ordering
• More ways to save, including exclusive offers & deals

Might as well sign up for it.

HP Extreme Stacking Example: Save 54%

Here’s an example for saving 54% off HP’s list price for new ink cartridges.  Note that you may be able to save much more by buying off-brand ink, but quality may suffer.  I did compare HP’s prices to those found on sites like Amazon.com and found that, for HP branded ink, HP was equal or a bit cheaper before applying discounts.

Scenario: you want to buy $75 worth of new ink cartridges from HP.  You find a coupon code for 15% off $60 or more (REWARD15).  A cash back portal is currently offering 15% cash back.  And, you have the Amex SimplyCash Plus credit card…

1. Click through portal to HP.  Buy $50 e-gift card.  Get $7.50 cash back.
2. Pay with Amex business card with OPEN Savings, get $2.50 cash back.
3. Pay with SimplyCash Plus* with computer selected as 3% category, get $1.50 cash back.
4. Sign into your corporate / AAA HP account for automatic savings.  $75 worth of ink, after 15% discount = $63.75.
5. Apply 15% off coupon (REWARD15).  New total = $54.19.
6. Click through portal to HP buy ink for $54.19, get $8.13 cash back
7. Pay $50 with gift card (purchased above) and $4.19 with SimplyCash Plus. Get 13 cents cash back from credit card.

* The SimplyCash Plus card is used as an example. Any Amex small business card will earn regular rewards (usually 1 point per dollar) in addition to the OPEN Savings described above.

Totals:

• Spend: $54.19 for $75 worth of ink.
• Rebates: $7.50 + $2.50 + $1.50 + $8.13 + $0.13 = $19.76
• Net cost for $75 worth of ink = $34.43.
• Savings = $40.57 (54% of $75).

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