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?
A few weeks ago I wrote about my plans for “Rocking Chase Offers: Staples, Lowe’s, Whole Foods.” The basic gist is this: Chase now has offers that are similar to Amex Offers, but currently only for Marriott and Slate cards. My wife and I have four Marriott cards, combined, and so we registered all four with Chase Offers and activated offers for Whole Foods, Lowe’s, and Staples. Then we proceeded to buy gift cards at each merchant.
The purchases at Whole Foods went well. We received $10 back for each $25 Amazon gift card we bought in-store.
Lowe’s and Staples were another story…
The Lowe’s and Staples’ offers both had terms that excluded gift card purchases: “Not valid on gift card purchases.” I didn’t expect it, but it seems that those terms are enforced… Sometimes.
Out of the four cards I used at Lowe’s to buy gift cards, I received a statement credit for just one of them. With Staples I was more cautious. I bought only one gift card online from Staples and did not receive credit. I polled people in the Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook Group and found similar patterns: Whole Foods purchases always worked whereas Staples and Lowe’s were hit or miss.
Lesson Learned
This is simply a caution: If the Chase Offer terms state “Not valid on gift card purchases” then don’t expect the offer to work with gift card purchases. I know, it sounds obvious, but many things in this hobby do not work that way. That’s why, for example, we have the Frequent Miler Laboratory for testing what works with shopping portals. The stated terms are often wrong. In the case of Chase Offers, they’re only sometimes wrong.
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[…] Chase Offers trials often excluded gift cards, an exclusion that was sometimes enforced, sometimes not. I suspect Chase will continue trying to exclude gift card purchases, but I’d love to be […]
Hmmm…, Interesting, Greg. I’m going to test your theory. I received portal rewards with a Starbucks physical gift card. I’ll purchase another one and see if history repeats itself. However, Staples is currently only at 2x points through UR shopping, so I will wait until the portal reward goes back up to a more lucrative value.
josh
I recommend using cashbackmonitor to watch for better portal rates. They even list the different payouts by card that you observed. Currently it looks like the best payout for Staples is 5% cash back from uPromise: https://www.cashbackmonitor.com/cashback-store/staples/
Hi Greg, Just wanted to get back to you on this gift card thread. During the thanksgiving – christmas shopping period I spent a total of $1200 on gift cards by entering the Staples online portal through my Chase Ink Cash card UR portal. All of the purchases received 5x UR points. Imho, this in and of itself makes the Ink Cash card one of the most underated cards out there. How else can you earn 5x points for shopping (by means of Staples purchased gift cards) at stores like CVS and Bed Bath and Beyond, or at restaurants like Starbucks?
However, at the time of the purchase the Staples portal was offering 8x UR points for purchases made through the portal. And the results are in. I tried various combinations. I purchased single gift cards sent to me by mail, single gift cards emailed to me, and cards combined with other purchases. On $300 spent on gift cards I received the 8x Staples UR points in addition to the 5x Chase UR points. On the remaining $900 I did not.
The hit or miss nature of being awarded points makes me think there is an actual person approving or denying points on each purchase. How else to explain the discrepancy?
In any case, my 25% success rate is not bad. For $300 out of $1200 spent I received a grand total of 13x UR points. Makes me think there is no reason not to continue and hope I get lucky again in the future.
Thanks Josh. I’m betting that it’s not really hit or miss, but has to do with which gift cards you purchased. For example, I’ve found that Whole Foods e-gift cards purchased from Staples.com will earn portal rewards, but Whole Foods physical gift cards will not. With some other types of gift cards, the opposite is true. And others don’t earn portal rewards either way.
[…] Gift cards are excluded. Sometimes they work, most times they don’t. See: Chase enforces gift card terms (sometimes). […]
[…] we’ve reported that Chase Offers mostly haven’t been triggered by gift card purchases, I can report that I bought a coffee and a $50 Starbucks gift card and successfully received the […]
Hi Greg, One thing I wanted to mention for your readers. I have never NOT received the 5x points for gift cards when using the Chase Ink Cash. This is in and of itself a great deal. Especially when I can buy $500 Airbnb cards which I can then double dip on to earn Skymiles through the Delta/Airbnb portal. So the only question is whether one will earn the additional points by purchasing through a shopping portal.
By the way, one thing I recently discovered is that not all UR shopping portals are the same. For example, the Saphire UR portal now only offers 2x points on Staples purchase, while the INK UR portal offers 4x.
I will be happy to do so. I’ll wait until my statement hits so I can know for certain. If the GC points do not post I may play dumb and call Chase just to see what’s up.
I am going to make one more purchase in the Chase Staples store (8x points) through the Chase Ink portal and pay with my INK Cash. (5x points) This will NOT be a GC. If all is working as planned this non controversial purchase should receive a total of 13x points.
Worked at Whole Foods with Marriott Personal, but not with purchases as Lowes and Staples for gift cards. I think it may be system issues still because I went back to Lowes to get out Christmas tree and few other other items and still did not get a notification on that purchase. I am following up with customer service, but Chase seems much more spotty than Amex. Hope they figure it out.
Greg, I will be happy to do so. I’ll wait until my statement hits so I can know for certain. If the GC points do not post I may play dumb and call Chase just to see what’s up.
I am going to make one more purchase in the Chase Staples store (8x points) through the Chase Ink portal and pay with my INK Cash. (5x points) This will NOT be a GC. If all is working as planned this non controversial purchase should receive a total of 13x points.
Greg, I’ve tried both email cards and cards mailed by US post. In addition to that first Starbucks card, which was mailed via US post, I’ve since ordered Bed Bath Beyond, CVC, Forever 21 and Sephora cards. I’ve also varied the amount on the card. It could be that Chase is waiting for my statement to post before crediting the miles.
It’s probably just the case that those particular combos don’t pay out. It would be great if you’re willing to contribute your findings to our Laboratory page: https://frequentmiler.com/laboratory/
I recently received 4x UR points on a $100 Starbucks gift card purchased at Staples through the Chase INK UR portal while also receiving 5x UR points for the same purchase for using my Chase INK Cash card. But when the UR shop raised the Staples bonus to 8x points I tried several times since to buy GC and so far have not been credited by Chase for shopping through the portal. (Although I have still received the 5X points for using my INK card, which still makes it a worthwhile purchase.) I wonder if it had to do by with my increasing the size of the GC from $100 to $200. I also wonder if an actual human is examining these purchases or if the points are distributed electronically. I just made a purchase through the Chase Staples link for a $200 GC and an Amazon tablet. I am wondering if the entire purchase will earn me the 8x points or only the tablet.
Gift card purchases at Staples aren’t supposed to result in portal rewards but certain gift cards do anyway. Did you buy the same kind of gift card each time? If not, which ones did you buy? And were they by-mail or email? That makes a difference too.
[…] wrote about the varying results with gift card purchases to take advantage of Chase Offers (See: Chase Offers enforces gift card terms (sometimes). That prompted me to log into my account and see that there are a number of new Chase Offers out […]
Gift card purchases at Lowe’s and Whole Foods worked for me.
However, I’ve yet to see my 20% back from my purchase of actual merchandise at nordstrom.com.
Go figure.
I got 6X (1X pus addtional 5X promo) on walmart gift cards (had already got the 5X on 1500) buying Visa GC online using Chase Pay. Also got 10X buying gift cards (not Visa GC, they don’t sell in my area) in store at Best Buy using Chase Pay. Got 10 back on 50 at Lowes buying Amazon GC in store at Lowes for 2 Marriot cards.
Only Marriott and slate??? It works on business Marriott?
Yes. Works on business. However, you have to set up seaprate acounts for each Marriot card. Will only get I promo per account. I set up 2 accounts, one for each of my corporate cards (had one authorized user and one card for me). Promos worked on both cards.