Tomorrow only: meet minimum spend, get 22 points per dollar, elite status, and more

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There are many ways to take advantage of Sears’ 10 extra points per dollar, but you need to act fast!  This deal is for December 9th only.

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Tomorrow only, Sears will be offering 10 extra points per dollar for purchases made at the Ultimate Rewards Mall. To take advantage of this, you need a Chase credit card that gives access to the mall. The best option is the Chase SapphireSM Preferred Card because it will give you an annual 7% bonus on top of all rewards earned during the year. So tomorrow, with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you will earn 1 point per dollar in base earnings plus 10 extra points per dollar for going through the mall plus .77 points per dollar for the annual bonus (11 * 7%). There are so many ways to take advantage of this, I hardly know where to begin! Here are a few great opportunities:

Earn 22.47 points per dollar at Sears!

Sears is one of the few online merchants that will give you points for both buying gift cards and for using them. So, do the following “double dip” to get 22.47 points per dollar!

  1. Go to Sears.com to figure out what you want to buy and how much in total you will spend (including taxes and shipping). Clear out your shopping cart and close your browser.
  2. Go to the Ultimate Rewards Mall and find Sears. Click through to Sears to shop online.
  3. Using your Chase SapphireSM Preferred Card, buy e-gift cards for yourself in the amount that you plan to spend.
  4. Wait about an hour (in my experience) to receive the gift card via email.
  5. Go back to the Ultimate Rewards Mall and through to Sears again.
  6. Buy everything you want, and then use your gift cards to pay for those items.

With the process above, you will get 1 point per dollar for base spend + 10 points per dollar for buying gift cards + 10 points per dollar for using gift cards + 1.47 points per dollar for the annual bonus (21 * 7%), for a total of 22.47 points per dollar!

Other credit cards will work as well, but the total rewards may differ. With the Chase Ink BoldSM, for example, you won’t get an annual bonus so you will earn a total of 21 points per dollar (which is still terrific). If you use the Chase Freedom® card it is worth noting that department store purchases are granted 5 points per dollar this quarter (up to $1500 in purchases). This means that you could earn 25 points per dollar with the Chase Freedom card!

Meet minimum spend and double your signup bonus!

If you signed up for a credit card in order to get a signup bonus, consider buying gift cards to meet your minimum spend requirements. To see how versatile Sears’ gift cards can be, read “An Infinite Number of Uses for Sears Gift Cards“. So, if you’re struggling to meet minimum spend requirements on some credit cards and you can afford to stow your money away for a while in the form of gift cards, this could be a great opportunity.

For example, suppose you recently signed up for the The Chase Ink BoldSM. The signup bonus for this card gives you 50,000 valuable Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5000 in three months. One way to meet that minimum spend is to buy $5000 in Sears gift cards all at once. This would give you another 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points!

The amazing thing is that you can do this with any credit card, not just a Chase card! You do need a Chase card to get access to the Ultimate Rewards mall, but you can use any credit card to make purchases! I used this trick a few months ago, for example, to help meet minimum spend on my Starwood American Express card.

Note one risk: if for some reason your points don’t post, the use a non-Chase credit card may be a problem since the Chase representatives will not be able to look up your transaction.

Get elite status and other bonuses!

Many credit cards offer bonus points or even airline or hotel elite status for reaching certain high-spend thresholds within a calendar year. If you’re struggling to reach one of those thresholds, this might be the opportunity you’re looking for! As long as you have access to the Ultimate Rewards mall, you can use any credit card to make your purchases. So, on December 9th one option for you is to go through the mall to Sears.com and buy up a bunch of gift cards. Later you can worry about what to do with those cards. I’ll write posts in the future with suggestions. For now, one option is to upgrade and then sell them. Read Buy miles for 1.2 cents or less for details about how to do this.

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