BigHabitat
Level 2 Member
Sears has a lot of great portal bonuses. Its very common to see 10x or 10% portal bonuses. And of course gift cards are specifically included in most portal terms and conditions, and of course Discover is doubling cash back, so that 10% becomes 20% becomes 40%.
Unfortunately, Sears online store has been more or less gutted and they no longer have a lot of great things to resell. So the inevitable question comes up of what to buy. Now you could say that with a 40% potential return virtually everything should be a winner. But portal bonuses don’t always track, and of course who knows if Discover will actually pay out the cashback doubling next year or will try to weasel out of it Incomm style.
So what can you buy at Sears? Here’s a few ideas
- If you are a VIP and haven’t chosen your VIP quarterly benefit, start here. Yes, some of the better ones require you to be a gold or platinum VIP, but I had to tell you it’s like that everywhere in life.
They have added a lot of new benefits, now with 100% back in points on a Kitchenaid mixer, or 100% back on a grill, 75% back on a Samsung tablet, 75% back on an RCA TV, 75% off on Schwinn Bikes, or how about a watch? Hey, that one looks nicer than the one I choose a few quarters back!
- How about a Kitchenaid Mixer? Yeah, I know its not a tablet, and I sure as hell pray it is never returned. But this one at $199.99 goes for about $243 at Amazon. Now that is not exciting as a computer with that spread because at that price the Amazon fees on the mixer are $39, so its a loser after tax. But I layered on 10,000 in surprise points and had a $20 points coupon so will get $54 of Shop Your Way points back, plus hopefully 40% in portal cashback, so what the heck.
- Nutribullets. Let’s kick it Kohl’s style! Selling for $89.99 but with $20 back in points. Layer on another coupon if you have any to get some more points. Amazon price is $90 and FBA fees are fairly steep at $20, so again its the extra coupons and portal bonuses that might make it worthwhile.
- Belkin AC750 or Linksys e2500 routers. Slightly below Amazon’s price with $15 in points back from Sears, again apply any coupons if you have them.
Sears 5/21-5/22 Portal Bonus Black Hole
May 21 and 22 were a dark day for portal bonuses for purchases at Sears. Actually, I retract that (yes I could have just fixed before publishing, but this is more dramatic). July 4th was a dark day for portal bonuses, as Sears and Cartera decided to celebrate American independence by reversing points for Sears transactions that occurred on 5/21 and 5/22. I had a $1000 gift card purchase and a $200 merchandise purchase reversed from the Southwest portal.
And apparently it was spread across other portals as well, as other readers reported issues with the AA portal and likely others.
I’ve contacted customer support about the 9,600 points, send them the receipts, and received several messages back that they are investigating.
Were you caught in this black hole too? Please share your data points.
Staples Extends MOAPOCC for another day
What is MOAPOCC you ask? Why it’s the Mother Of All Percentage Off Computer Coupons ! The 20% off Windows 8 Computers coupon. Yes I had to come up with a name for it. Per naming convention, you need at least 20% off to get a Mother designation. Then the rest just sort of describes what it is.
Technically I think this is a different coupon code than yesterday’s deal, but just get it from the coupon page.
And while it’s been a little harder for Staples employees to say they don’t have any eligible computers since it applies to all but the HPs, the store I hit only had 1 eligible computer. I predict tomorrow Staples will offer free Windows 8 PCs for the day because there simply won’t be any nationwide
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