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UPDATE 12/15/2016: It appears that portals may no longer be working for gift card reloads.
The original version of this post described using the “Spend $50, Get $10” Sears Amex offer in-store, but the offer’s terms require using it online at Sears.com. This post has been updated accordingly.
Last week I detailed “Extreme Stacking the Sears Amex Offer“. Through a series of machinations, I showed how one might be able to use the “Spend $50, get $10” Amex Offer to clear over 60% off almost anything from Sears or Kmart. That’s pretty awesome, but I know that many readers aren’t prepared to go to those great lengths for a deal. And many others want nothing to do with buying stuff from Sears or Kmart.
Whichever camp you’re in, there are alternatives, but this approach is risky.
As long as you have several Amex cards at your disposal (no fee Bluebird and Serve cards count too!), you may be able to use this deal to get up to 30% off gift cards to Amazon, Uber, Shell, and more.
Amazingly, as I write this, I see that the Sears offer is still available. All you have to do is link your Amex cards to Twitter and then Tweet ” #AmexSears” to enroll. Ideally you would create a separate Twitter account for each Amex card (including Bluebird and Serve cards). If that’s too much trouble, you can register each of your Amex cards one by one as follows:
- Sync a card to Twitter (here)
- Register by tweeting the hashtag #AmexSears
- Un-sync your card here.
- Repeat steps 1-3 for each Amex card. You should change up your tweets slightly each time to avoid getting the message “Whoops! You already tweeted that!” Simply add different text to your tweet each time, but keep the hashtag the same. For example, you could tweet #AmexSears 1, then #AmexSears 2, etc.
For details about how to automatically enroll multiple cards in offers like these, please see: Complete Guide to Amex Offers.
Once you’ve enrolled, each Amex card will automatically get a one time $10 rebate when you spend $50 or more at Sears or Sears.com on or before December 31 2016.
Start with reloading a physical Sears gift card
To trigger the Amex offer, you need to spend $50 at Sears.com:
- Find the best current portal for Sears.com (here)
- Use your enrolled Amex cards to reload a Sears gift card $50 at a time
- Bring the gift card to Sears to try to buy a 3rd party gift card.
As reported in the previous post regarding this offer, I found that portals seem to work when reloading gift cards, but not when buying gift cards. Portal cash back rates sometimes jump to about 10% cash back for Sears, so this would theoretically make it possible to get a total of 30% off gift cards (20% from the Amex Offer + 10% from the portal).
UPDATE 12/15/2016: It appears that portals may no longer be working for gift card reloads.
The problem is that most Sears employees have been trained not to allow people to buy gift cards with gift cards. So, if you go this route, you might find yourself stuck with Sears gift cards that you don’t want. To make redeeming the gift cards easier, make sure to reload a physical gift card. When you buy things at Sears (including gift cards), you can pay without intervention from the cashier by swiping your physical gift card as long as your check-out total is less than $100.
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UPDATE 12/15/2016: It appears that portals may no longer be working for gift card reloads. I’ve added this note to the top of the post.
If I re-load a Sears physical GC, and then sell it to ABC/Raise etc via online (i.e. NOT mailing it in), is that physical GC then “dead”?
The reason I ask is because I kept an old physical GC from a long time ago (with a $0 balance on it) and I would like to use it for this current Amex offer. And once I’ve “sold” it online, will it still be able to be reloaded at some point in the future?
Its not dead, but someone else probably has the gift card number. It’s risky to use it. I wouldn’t do it.
Good point. Thanks for that!
[…] The Sears Amex Offer risky option: up to 30% off Amazon, Uber, Gas, and more – Juice up the Sears Amex Offer with a somewhat risky strategy. […]
Hi, do I have to use physical Sears GC or will Lands End work too? Do you know – are Lands End GC re-loadable?
You have to use Sears or Kmart gift cards. Lands End won’t work.
Thanks so much for that info, Greg! Appreciate your time, knowledge and help!
Did Giving Assistant track on the reload?
I’m sure it has in the past yes
Another reason buying Sears gc’s is risky:
http://www.aol.com/article/finance/2016/12/05/sears-is-on-the-brink-of-catastrophe-as-stores-closures-loom-and/21620815/
Until 6 or maybe 12 months ago I regularly bought $200 vgc’s with Sgc’s, earning some good fuel points in the process. Then my store stopped carrying the $200’s and buying the $100’s was much less appealing. Bought a few Shell cards to use up my last Sgc. Maybe I’ll pull the old trick out and give it another try, although my Sears has a pretty weak selection of 3rd party gc’s.
Greg, thanks for the great information! Curious, do you have Discover IT or IT miles card? I’m going to grab my first Discover card and debating. With my Freedom and other cards, I’m not sure I would maximize all of the 5% categories so considering the miles card for a good 3% card. DW
Yes I have both. I love the It card for its 5x categories and Discover Deals. I love the It Miles for its first year earnings + $30 per year in in-flight wifi (really can be used for ANY airline charges)
Now we just need a good cashback at Sears. The highest “mainstream” one right now seems to be UPromise, and that’s only 5%. I’ve had a UPromise account for years, but I don’t use it much. Is it pretty reliable for Sears? I’d much rather use something like topcashback or ebates, but they’re currently much lower. I’m kind of holding out for a cashback sale (or other Sears promo), to load my Sears card. BTW, how many times can I load a Sears card for $50 in a day before Sears cuts me off?
Yes uPromise is reliable, but Giving Assistant is too (7% at Sears). I’m going to go with Discover Deals at 5% in order to get the first year double.
I don’t know if Sears will ever cut you off but the verification steps may get more rigorous
Is Discover Deals reliable if you don’t pay with a Discover card?
In my experience it is, but reporting is terrible so it is very hard to track. You do need to have some charge on your Discover credit card for the cash back to post.
Same ask as iahphx 🙂
Giving Assistant has different cashback percentages on different product categories, 7% is only on “Fine Jewelry”. GC is of course 0%. How do you know how much GA will actually track the reloads as?
I did this with an e-GC a couple of days ago. Cashier had no idea how to work his register, but was eventually able to sell me a $50 Uber physical GC using my e-GC. First try!
Too complicated.
…way too much effort!!
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You can also use the 5 Back Visa GC to get 5% back at sears by purchasing Sears GC in-store and then use those Sears GC to try to buy third party GC at Sears. This stack would be great with the Giftcard mall promotion they had with their 5 back visa GC recently.
Or just use the 5 Back Visa to buy the third party gift cards at Sears in-store directly.
Can re-loaded Sears physical gift cards be sold to gift card selling websites i.e. ABCGiftCards, Raise etc?
Yes