Potential Mega Deal

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Is Kohls the next best double dip opportunity?

Some strange things are afoot in the Ultimate Rewards Mall – specifically with regards to Kohls:

Strange Thing #1: Extra 10 Points per $ on Nov 21

As reported by Mommy Points, several stores in Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Mall will be offering increased bonus points on specific dates. These include Groupon, the Apple Store, Best Buy, Target, Overstock.com, and Kohls.

a screenshot of a website

The strange thing is that Kohls reports that you can earn 10 points per $ on November 21st. That’s weird because Kohls has offered that same deal since August, when I first started shopping in the Ultimate Rewards Mall. It makes me wonder: Is this a mistake? Did someone at Kohls say to the Ultimate Rewards people something like “yes we’ll go along with the promotion and give an extra 10 points per dollar”? Maybe they meant they would bump up the rewards to 20 points? I’d recommend checking the mall on November 21 to see what’s up.

Strange Thing #2: Gift card purchases are allowed… or not?

If you log into the Ultimate Rewards mall and click on “Buy Gift Cards”, then sort by “Highest Earn Rate”, you will find Kohls near the top:

a screenshot of a gift card

That’s great right? But then click on Kohls, and click to view the terms and conditions, and you will see that supposedly, purchases of physical or eGift cards are not eligible! So who’s right here?

a close-up of a card

Potential Deal

I bought a $50 Kohls gift card last week to test whether or not gift card purchases will work. The points haven’t posted yet, but If/when they do, I’ll update this blog. So, here’s the potential deal: if gift card purchases do work out, then it seems likely that Kohls will be a great “double dip” opportunity the way Sears was when it offered 10 points per $. The trick would be to go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to buy gift cards for the amount you want to spend at Kohls, and then go through the mall again to make your purchases using the gift cards you bought. With this approach, you will get 20 points per dollar from the Ultimate Rewards Mall and 1 more point per dollar from your credit card.

Potential Mega Deal

What if on Nov 21st they offer not just 10 points per dollar, but 20? And what-if the gift card double-dip idea works out? Wow, that would mean you could get 41 points per dollar! Ultimate Rewards points can be converted directly to cash, so this would be, at minimum, 41% off everything they sell including discounted and clearance items. Many people value Ultimate Rewards points much higher than 1 cent each though. You could easily make the argument that each Ultimate Rewards point is worth 2 cents. If so, you would be looking at more than 80% rebate off everything.

Personally, I’m going to see what happens with the gift card purchase experiment and then I’ll wait until November 21 to see what happens in the Ultimate Rewards mall. I don’t think it’s terribly likely, but if the points per $ does go up to 20 I’m going to fill my e-shopping cart to the limit! If this happens, you can bet that Warm the Children and other charities that accept new clothing will be getting huge donations from me!

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