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April 1st kicks off with a cruel joke from Chase. Many of the big bonus point offers in the Ultimate Rewards Mall have dropped precipitously. Below are some of my findings this morning when logged in with my old Ink Bold and my Sapphire Preferred (note that you may see different results with a Chase Freedom).
First, the good news:
- Office Depot: 10X Ink Bold; only 4X Sapphire Preferred
- Kohl’s: Still at 10X for both cards
- Nordstrom: 10X Sapphire Preferred (only for 3 days)
- Drugstore.com: 10X Sapphire Preferred; only 5X with Ink Bold
The exciting news here is the Office Depot 10X opportunity. Since the New Ink Bold offers 5X automatically when used in office supply stores, you will get a total of 15X when making Office Depot purchases with your Ink card through the UR mall! Last I checked, though, there were no merchant or bank gift cards available online (also the T&C says “not eligible on purchases of gift cards”). If they begin to offer free after rebate products, though, this could be a big win. It might even be worth filling out rebate cards for 15X!
And now the bad news (very bad):
- Staples: down to 2X (from 4X). Noooooooo!!!!! The perfect PPM may still be perfect, but for fewer points. And for those of you who have been buying gift cards with your Ink card for a total of 9X, the total is now down to 7X. Nooooooo!!!!
- Barnes & Noble: down to 2X (from 10X). No longer can you buy ultimate rewards points for less than a penny. Nooooooo!!!!
- Home Depot: down to 4X (from 10X).
- Magazines.com: down to 25X (from 40X).
- Sears: down to 4X (from 5X on the Ink).
- Lands End: down to 2X (from 5 or 6X)
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Yeah, who has 10% off Amazon gift cards! 🙂
They still have 10% off Amazon GCs.
Jeremy: Who has 10% off Amazon GCs?
I purchased Staples rebate software via MR with my Centurion, I’ll let all of you know if I get the points.
[…] Big (and mostly bad) changes to the Ultimate Rewards Mall […]
Looks like Dell.com went from 3x to 2x.
I meant the office depot site….sorry.
I have been surfing through the Home Depot site for any ideas of things I can buy and resell. Sadly, I am not finding anything. Looks like I will be going to Staples in person to buy the $200 gift cards as the extra points of paying the fee on each $100 no longer makes sense. To add insult to injury, I forgot to load up and the last time I bought the cards, forgot to link though the shopping portal. UGHHHHH!
Hey miler,
Note the comment about the Membership rewards portal for Staples above. Didn’t you say they are a bit deceiving as in reality, 1 of those points if from using your card, so it would really be 2X?
THEsocalledfan: Correct. For people with the Amex Platinum or Centurion cards, Staples is at 4X, which really means 3X bonus. For others Staples is probably at 3X through Membership Rewards, which really means 2X bonus. Plus, we don’t really know for sure that points will post through the membership rewards portal (I think they will, I just don’t have proof).
@The Deal Mommy? You can double dip with Groupon?? I am a big fan of groupon. If that can be done, it wold be sweet.
That’s very strange that 2 people have reported Staples at 3X with the Ink Old. I’ve checked twice with mine and it is definitely 2X for me.
I confirm UR mall for old Ink Bold is 3x. The new Bold is 2x. For those of you with both cards, you might want to create separate logins. I was originally annoyed that I had separate logins for each of my Sapphire, and 2 Bolds, but now it seems that has come in handy.
Tip: Offer Valid 3/25/2012 – 4/30/2012
Tweet #AmexStaples to get $10 back one time on your next purchase of $50 or more with your synced American Express® Card through 4/30/12. Quantities limited.
Freedom Card:
Kohls 10x
Staples 2x BAAAAAAD
Home Depot 4x
Barnes & Noble 2x
drugstore.com 10x
Office Depot 4x
OfficeMax 3x
Magazines.com 25x
Groupon 7x
Nordstrom 7x
For this old Ink Bold holder, Staples is 3X.
Sad to see home depot go down to 4x from 10x. I think I got a good share on that though! I seriously need to get an Ink Bold card for some of these other deals…
Things of note to me…
With Chase Sapphire:
Priceline went down to 1x from 2x
Travelocity thankfully is still at 2x
Sephora went down to 5x from 7x
Avis is still at 3x thankfully
not seeing anything I want going up. The Office depot i think is a GREAT thing for those who need office supplies like me.
Amex rewards mall is a pain compared to chase..