Dell savings and points. Hurry!

11

Dell is currently offering two stackable specials.  Thanks to reader Dee Tee for alerting me to this deal:

1. Buy $350 worth of gift cards for $300

This offer ends tomorrow.  Buy a $300 eGift card and get a $50 eGift card.  Note that the $50 card is only valid for 90 days, so do this only if you have a purchase in mind.

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2. Buy select PCs over $699 and get a $200 promo eGift card

You do need to provide evidence that you are a student or that you’re buying this for a student, but it appears to be very easy to do.

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Here are a couple of laptops that qualify and are only $700:

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3. Stack savings and points

Suppose you plan to buy a $700 laptop.  Here are some ways to increase saving and point earnings:

  • Buy two $300 eGift cards in order to get $700 worth of eGift cards. That alone will give you approximately 14% savings on a $700 laptop!
  • Pay for the two $300 Dell gift cards using Visa or Amex gift cards that you bought for extra points (see, for example, “One card to rule them all”, and “What’s my X?”).  Dell allows up to two credit cards for each purchase so you could use a $100 Visa gift card and a $200 Visa gift card or a prepaid Amex card, etc.  Assuming 5X earnings, you will receive 3500 Ultimate Rewards points.
  • Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall for all purchases.  You probably won’t earn points for buying the gift cards (although it can’t hurt to try), but you should earn points when using the gift cards.  The Terms & Conditions say “Eligible on the redemption, not purchase, of gift cards.”  Currently Dell Home is at 5X in the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  For the laptop purchase, you will earn $700 X 5 = 3500 Ultimate Rewards points.
  • If all goes well, you should then receive a $200 eGift card.  Remember to go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall again to use the gift card for whatever you want.  Assuming you make a $200 purchase, you can then expect 1000 Ultimate Rewards points.

4 Add it up

If you manage to buy a laptop for exactly $700 and then something else for exactly $200, here are your total costs and benefits:

  • Total cost: $600
  • Total merchandise value: $900
  • Total savings: 33.3%
  • Total Ultimate Rewards points: 8000 (worth over $100 according to the Fair Trading Price).

Will it work?

One question I have is whether you can really apply two regular eGift cards and two promotional eGift cards to the purchase of a $700 laptop.  The terms and conditions have this to say about using multiple promotional gift cards:

Using Multiple Cards

10. Dell will only accept a limited number of Cards per purchase. If you would like to use more than one Card, you can merge funds from multiple Cards onto one Card by calling Dell’s Customer Service department at 1-800-624-9897. Your Card can only be merged with other non-expiring Cards issued by Dell or through its retailers and affiliates. When you call you will be asked to fax photo copies of the Cards to verify possession. Gift cards that were not originally purchased but were distributed by Dell or its partners for free may not be merged with purchased Cards. Dell reserves the right to reject request for consolidation of any Cards at its own discretion for any reason.

Thanks Dell, but this doesn’t answer the question.  Specifically, how many is a “limited number of Cards per purchase”?  If anyone tries, please let us know!

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