Allen Edmonds Gift Cards and AMEX Offers for You - $10 per AMEX Card - Pajama Money

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HT - TZ via email


One of the new American Express Offers for You is for Allen Edmonds.  The offer is $50 off a $200 purchase and expires on 9/20.  Your first inclination for an AmEx offers for you is whether you can use the savings and if not, it should be whether you can sell a gift card for profit.

My Gift Card Haul and Loving SaveYa

Recently, eBay has had some great gift card deals.  See here and here.  Here is a recap of what I was able to buy with 2 paypal accounts (mine and my wife's).   These deals are especially great for meeting credit card minimums.

Finding and Using Discounted Gift Cards Online

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Discover it®


I think that buying discounted merchant gift cards online is one of the easiest and best ways to save money online.


Here is my preferred method for finding the most appropriate gift cards for your purchase and how to maximize your savings.  If anyone has any other method that is easier or saves more money please leave a comment.


The most important website to go to is giftcardgranny.com.  Gift Card Granny aggregates available gift cards from many different sites so that you don't have to check every site every time.  Here are my tips:


Let's taken an example, let's say you are planning on buying this chair at Staples which costs $99.

• First, find out exactly how much it will cost including tax.  Add it to your shopping card to find the final price.  As you see, with tax it costs $108.74

• Now, go to giftcardgranny.com and type in Staples and then click on "Buy"

• One of the main sellers of gift cards will be from Ebay.  They will usually also have the highest discount.  Go to the filters on the side and uncheck them.  This is from an auction so you have no idea what they will end up selling for.   The discount isn't real yet and will just confuse you.

• I usually will uncheck the filter for "physical gift cards".  I usually want to buy it as soon as possible so I don't want to wait for the gift card to come in the mail.  eGift cards usually arrive in your inbox the same day.  You can do whatever you want.

• Look for a gift card that is as close to, but slightly less than, the final price of your item.  Do this by clicking on "Card Value" to filter based on card value.

• In our case, the best deal is for a gift card for $106.22 that costs $100.59 for a discount of 5.3% from Gift Card Zen

• You have now saved 5.3% but you aren't done yet.  Go to cashbackholic.com and type in "staples" to find the best online shopping portal.  In this case, it is Shop Discover if you pay with a Discover it® card will get you another 5% cashback.  
• Since you bought a card that is slightly less than the item you will have to put a smal sum on your credit card.  You will still get the 5% cashback on your entire purchase for a total of 10.3%.  In addition, you will get your regular cashback for buying the gift card so add another 1-2% for that.

Shoprite - Buy $50 Gift Card $10 Gift Card Free

Buy $50 of Gift Cards at Shoprite between now and 5/25, you will get a $10 off your next order.

Promotion works for the following gift cards:

• Best Buy
• AMC
• Aeropostale
• Gap
• Forever 21
• Express
• Spa Finder
• Shell
• Itunes
• JC Penny
• PACSUN

Also, if you buy $50 of General Mills products, you can get a $50 Gas gift card to BP, Shell, Gulf or Hess.  Same dates and rules

10%+ Cashback at Lowe's with Discover it and Chase Freedom

Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

Update: 5/13/2013 - Here is my email confirmation from Chase stating I will get an additional 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points for buying a $200 Lowe's physical gift card online.  In addition, I will still get 1,000 points for spending $200 in Lowe's during Quarter 2

I am selling my home this spring so there have been a lot of trips to Lowe's this year and this info has come in quite handy.  Even when we paid someone to redo our kitchen floor, I made sure to buy the materials myself for the extra cashback, which was not insignificant.

Discover it and Chase Freedom credit cards have rotating 5% cashback categories that include something with Home Improvement from now until the end of June.

Leveraging the Deal

If you are paying full price at Lowe's you are either too lazy, which I respect, or you don't know how to leverage it properly.  It's the same for both the Freedom and Discover it.  I can't promise I know all the tricks, but here is what I've got:

This is helpful even if you want to shop in the store and not online!

• 5% - DISCOVER IT™ is offering 5% cashback at all home improvement stores.  
• 10%- Start shopping at Shop Discover where you will get an additional 5% cashback on top of the 5% for a total of 10%.  You can stop here or:
• Buy a physical gift card and have it shipped to you for free.
• Don't buy an eGift card from Lowe's or because they use another company to process it and you won't get as much cashback as you should.
• Give yourself at least a week for delivery.  You can get next day shipping for $5
• 15%? - Once you have your gift card, go back to the Discover it shopping portal and buy what you want online.  Pay for it with your gift card and you may get another 5% back.
• It is far more likely to work if you are paying for some of the transaction with your Discover it card.  Buy many gift cards in small denominations to leverage as much as possible.  I do not guarantee this part.
• The stores needs to be coded as either a home supply retail store, lumber/building materia store, paint/wallpaper store, hardware sore or lawn and garden to qualify for the original 5%.  Lowe's, Home Depot, Shermin Williams Paints etc

Chase Freedom - The same steps as Discover it except start your shopping from Chase's shopping portal.  Freedom is only 5% back at Lowe's, not at any other home improvement store.

It says that cashback is not eligible on gift card purchases.  This is correct for egift cards, but physical gift cards come up as a regular lowes.com purchase so you will get the extra cashback.

Other Hints

If you are moving, like me, you are also eligible for a mover's 10% off coupon.  It takes 3-7 business days for the coupon to come, but it does eventually come.  Also, you can go to the post office to get a mail forwarding package.  Many times they come with a 10% Lowe's coupon, but not always.

Lowe's and Home Depot usually accept each other's coupons so keep that in mind.

Lowe's used to have a 20 minute guarantee   If you ordered online and they didn't have it ready or call you within 20 minutes to say it won't be ready, you were eligible for a $20 gift card.  I can't find anything about it online so it may have been stopped.  If they are 20 minutes late, ask them about it.  It can't hurt to try.

American Express Prepaid Card - $10 Free!

Order a new American Express Prepaid Card and load $50 at the time you buy it and get a $10 AMEX gift card for free.
Order an American Express Prepaid Card, Load $50 or More at the Time of Order, and Receive a Complimentary $10 Gift Card. Offer Expires 7/31/12.
Just click on the banner below or the link above (it will take you to the promotion page)

 



Terms and Conditions:
(1) Offer expires on July 31, 2012. To receive a $10 American Express® Gift Card (“Gift Card”), you must load $50 or more at the time you order an American Express Prepaid Card (“Card”). Card orders must be received by 11:59 PM ET July 31, 2012. Limit of one $10 Gift Card per new Card User named on a Card. Offer valid for all new Card orders with a single $50 load, including additional/supplemental accounts associated with an existing Card purchaser’s account. Card must be active when offer is fulfilled. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Limit one (1) offer per Card. After qualifying for this offer, please allow 6 weeks for the $10 Gift Card to be mailed to the Card purchaser

Based on the Terms and Conditions, there doesn't seem to be a limit on the number of cards you can order as long as they have different names on them, but I cannot confirm.


You can make an ATM withdrawal once a month of up to $400 for free so don't actually have to spend any money as long as you do the withdrawal after you get your gift card.


You can find ATMs without withdrawal fees here


You need to be 13 years old to get a card.

The deal ends at the end of July.



It takes about 6 week for the $10 gift card to come in the mail.

Chase Freedom 5% at Grocery Stores Until the End of June

Chase Freedom
Starting today, you can get 5% Cashback on $1,500 on your grocery purchases (and anything at the grocery store - more about that soon) until the end of June.

Activation
Remember to activate your card here to get your 5%

Uses
If you aren't able to spend $500 a month at the grocery store for three months, you can buy anything you want that they sell at the grocery store and still get your 5%.  This means that you can buy gift cards to finish off the $1,500.  If you buy grocery store gift cards, you can effectively get 5% back in other months until your run out of your gift cards.  You can also buy Amazon, Itunes, Bed Bath and Beyond or any other gift cards they sell at your grocery store and get 5% back on these purchases to.

Chase Exclusives
Get a 10% bonuson your cashback. With Chase Exclusives, if you have a Chase Checking Account, they will add 10% to your cashback and another 10 cents to every purchase, no matter how large. You can have a Checking account for free if you have direct deposit of $500, $1,500 in the checking account (average daily balance for the month) or $5,000 in any Chase account.

Here is an example.  If you spend $1, you will get one cent for your regular 1% back and you will get an additional 10 cents (11% back).  If you spend $10, you will get your regular one cent, your regular 10 cents and then an additional cent for your 10% bonus, for a total of 12 cents back (1.2%).  If you spend 8 cents, you will still get your 10 cents back for a net gain!  Buy a few Jellybeans from the grocery store for under ten cents and you just made a few cents and you have yourself some jellybeans.  I know, what can be better!


Don't Have a Chase Freedom?
Don't have a Chase Freedom, sign up here and get $100 cashback when you spend $500 or more in the first 3 months.  The Freedom is a great card to have anyways.

Amazon Kindle at Walmart Stores - $79 + $30 Walmart Gift Card

Amazon Kindle at Walmart Stores - $79 + $30 Walmart Gift Card

This is only valid in stores only so I can't send you a direct link.
update: You can see the ad from Walmart's website here, but you still can only buy it in the store.  In order to see the ad you need to put in your store (I used 14221, which is my local zip code) because this considered a local ad

Here is a discussion about it on fatwallet forums and here is a scanned picture of the ad.

If you want one, go to walmart fast because people are buying them out.

The Kindle is normally $79 from Amazon, true story.

Chase Freedom and Discover Credit Cards – 5% cash-back at Amazon, Gas and Movies

Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

Related Links

Best Credit Cards

Discover Gift Cards

Credit Card Sign Up Offers

From now until the end of March, you will get 5% cash-back on purchases from Amazon, Gas and Movies with your Chase Freedom Credit Card.

You will get the same 5% cash-back from Gas on your Discover Credit Card, but not from Amazon unless you signed up via your email  

You only get 5% on up to $1,500 for each card so you can only get up to $75 cash-back on each card.

I like to use the Discover for the 5% categories before the Chase Freedom because you can get an extra 22.5% bonus for redeeming your cash-back via gift cards, which will effectively turn your 5% into 6.225% – link needed

Remember to activate your 5% categories every quarter.

Chase Freedom Activation

Discover Activation

Get $100 for signing up for Chase Freedom

    - You need to spend $500 in the first 3 months

Discover it™

Discover Credit Card Cash-Back– Redeem Your Money for Gift Cards

Related Links

Best Credit Cards

Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses

If you redeem your rewards from a Discover Credit Card for gift cards instead of cash, you can get an extra 25% on your rewards.

You can “buy” many gift cards that are worth $25 for $20 of rewards.  If you use your Discover Card for 5% cash-back categories, this means that you are effectively getting 6.25% cash-back instead of 5% for those categories.

Examples of gift cards are Bed Bath and Beyond, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap, The Children's Place, Brooks Brothers, DSW, Eddie Bauer, Lands End, LL Bean, Motherhood Maternity and many more.

If you are renting a car, you can get gift cards from Enterprise and National Rent a Car or buying from Brookstone they will give you an extra $10 instead of $5, which makes your purchases worth 7.5% instead of 5%!

Beware of Free Gift Cards - Many are Scams

I just saw this ad for a Free $500 gift card from IKEA for answering a survey.  If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is.

One of the best ways to find out if something is real or not is google it.  For instance, before I did anything with this survey I googled ""$500 IKEA gift card scam" and I got this link.  Just because you don't see something on google doesn't mean it isn't a scam but it often will verify it for you.