\"Quantcast\"/

Be Like Chasing The Points – The How To Find A Deal Guide




Today, I am going to teach you how I test for gift card churning scenarios, my bread and butter to manufactured spending techniques. I like this method the most because I don’t have to interact with too many people. I’ve done this so many times that I never wrote it down until this post.

If you review all of my gift card churning posts all of the testing had to answer the following questions:

  • Do gift card purchases award points?
  • Does redeeming gift cards award points?
  • Does the vendor have first time use coupons?
  • Do coupons work on gift cards?
  • Did you try buying the stores’ own gift cards?
  • Did you try buying other vendors gift cards?
  • Can you buy gift cards with gift cards?
  • Does the gift card have a high resale value?

 

Always keep in mind that just because one mall doesn’t award points, does not mean all malls do not award points. It can be generalized that if several points or miles malls are operated by a single company like Cartera, then the points/miles will not post.

Some of the questions above are self explanatory, but I will answer some explicitly.

  • Can you buy gift cards with gift cards?
  • Does the gift card have a high resale value?
    • This one is to keep the value in mind from GiftCardGranny to play around with the numbers to see if buying the points are worth the time and investment
  • Did you try buying the stores’ own gift cards?
  • Did you try buying other vendors gift cards?
    • These two questions go together. For example, Meijer sells gift cards to other vendors and their own store’s. If you purchase just a Meijer gift card you will not earn points. If you buy other vendors you earn points from the mall.
    • Also keep in mind that sometimes malls will award points for the entire transaction if you have a gift card and some product

 

I no longer test this question:

 

If this is something that interests you, here is a link of a simple spreadsheet on Google Documents for you to save and record your findings.

3 comments… add one
  • I don’t see the problem with using first use coupons, as long as you just use them the once.

    Reply
    • I should clarify – first use coupons, if I’m a new customer I will do, but not as a repeat use to see if it’ll work or not

      Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.