Yesterday I declared that I was pulling the plug on the Home Depot double dip experiment. In that post I wrote that a few people who tried buying Home Depot gift cards through the Ultimate Rewards Mall failed to get any points. Worse, when they used the gift cards through the Ultimate Rewards Mall they didn’t get any points that way either.
Interestingly, several people wrote in the comments that they did get points for using gift cards, but they had paid at least part of the total with a credit card. So, it looks like it may be possible to double dip by buying discounted gift cards (find them at GiftCardGranny.com) and then using them through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, as long as the gift cards don’t cover the whole purchase. Personally I think I’d rather just shop directly for 10X than chance not getting points at all.
Another mistake I made was when I declared that yesterday was likely the last day for 10 points per dollar at Home Depot. Somehow I thought that yesterday was the last day of March. Mrs. Miler has since corrected me, so I’m now under the impression that today is the last day of March. Please correct me if I’m wrong about that. Anyway, based on my new perspective of the Gregorian calendar, I now think that today may be the last day for 10X at Home Depot.
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[…] gift cards did results in points as long as part of the payment was made with a credit card. See “Is the Home Depot double dip alive?” for […]
Positive update to report here:
For my HD purchase dated 3/21/2012 paid entirely with Gift Cards as noted in comment#3 above, the UR mall points have posted now on 5/22/2012.
For last 1 month, I had requested points via Secure Message several times and denied repeatedly, for the reason that purchases must be paid on Chase card. When I pointed out the 3/19 and 3/25 transactions which did receive points, I was told that was in error and as a courtesy those erroneously received points will not be taken away. I had all but given up.
I do have more HD transactions in last days of March, all paid via AmEx and hoping those points will show up automatically also in a few days.
I called Chase about missing awards and the woman I spoke with said specifically that you only get points if you pay with your Chase card, otherwise they have no way to know about the transaction. I told her that is not how all of the other e-malls work and that transactions are sent over still no matter what kind of payment, and Chase still received a commission from homedepot when I made my purchases regardless of how I paid. In the end she checked with others and stuck to her story that I would not get any miles, so she was very generous and gave me a credit of 5k and my wife’s Chase Freedom a credit of 7.5k to try to make up for it (max courtesy points allowed for each card). Total spent was $1700 so this is pretty disappointing to still loose 5k points in the end.
What makes no sense though is that the Staples purchases I made for Free After Rebate items were not on a Chase card (used Virgin Air Amex) and credit for those showed up in the Ultimate Rewards Mall Activity screen within a week. Something still isn’t adding up…. maybe eventually the HD purchases will show up?!?
Curtis: Thanks for the follow up information. I’d recommend that you keep calling until you either 1) get a Chase rep who understands that you really do deserve the points; or 2) you get enough courtesy points to make up for it.
Well, my experiment has not turned out well (yet?). Bought HD gift card from cardpool for 7% off. Got 2% through TopCashBack. Used it to pay about 90% of my HD.com purchase through Chase UR Mall. I have not gotten any rewards on my Chase account yet.
Another HD purchase that I did not use a gift card appeared on my Chase rewards account within days. I am afraid your (FrequentMiler) response on my previous comment on a different thread appears to be correct. No reward points for purchases involved gift card payments.
avp: Thanks for the info. Sorry to hear you didn’t get points though!
As i posted before, I have spent over $1500 at home depot through the Ultimate Rewards mall on our bathroom rennovation by buying gift cards at Kroger with Amex Blue Preferred for 6% back and 4x’s fuel points and then using them through through the mall. I haven’t seen any points hit yet, but I fully intend to receive the points as there isn’t anything in the terms saying that you cannot use a gift card. It is a bit concerning that we don’t have any of them showing up as activity yet though… I tried to pay with Chase Sapphire for a small amount on the transactions, however if your gift card can cover the whole amount, it will do this automatically and not give you the option to put part on credit card. I intend to use this in my defense if they say that part had to be on a chase card eventually.
I did not get any points using 100%GC (yet) this month. All purchases via UR mall using Sapphire Preferred card.
3/19/2012 paid using AmEx,received 10x pts on 3/23/2012
3/21/2012 paid using HD GC, no earning in UR mall yet
3/25/2012 paid using AmEx, received 10x pts on 3/28/2012
Items were shipped from HD in same sequence as the orders place.
Kroozer: Thanks for the great info!
Global traveler: Sorry to hear that. As I reported, though, you wouldn’t get points for buying HD gift cards anyway.
Last night and today I cannot buy HD gc in denomination of $500.00 and send via email. Any suggestion?
I got 10x using 100% gc at hd