Last Week to Sign up for Chase Freedom Q2 5% Categories

You have until June 14th (Friday) to sign up for 5% cashback on Quarter 2 (April-June).

Activate 5% Categories Here

When you sign up, you will get 5% cashback retroactive to the beginning of April on Restaurants, Movie Theaters and Lowe's up to $1,500 in purchases.

Not sure if you signed up?  Check here

Starting June 15th, you will be able to activate 5% for Quarter 3 Categories, which include Gas, Kohl's and Theme Parks.   There will be a separate post about that.

Related
Save 15% off every Lowe's purchase until the end of June with your Chase Freedom or Discover it Cards - I have needed to spend a lot money at Lowe's and I will probably get over 10,000 points for it just from this quarter.  80,000 miles is a free roundtrip to Israel so that's not too shabby!  I hope to show the full calculations later.

Lowe's Triple Dip - 15% Cashback

Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

About 10 days ago, I posted about saving 10% off Lowe's Purchases.  I want to confirm that it is possible to get 15% off every Lowe's purchase until the end of June using the Chase Freedom or Discover it cards!

I'm not going to repeat everything here, but here is the basic idea:

• Buy physical gift cards at Lowes.com after starting your shopping at either the Chase Ultimate Rewards shopping portal or the Shop Discover shopping portal.  Buy in increments that are less than you expect to spend.  For example, I am probably going to spend $400 at Lowe's when I move.  I will buy a $300 gift card and 4 $25 gift cards so that it isn't all on one card. 
• Both cards have Lowe's among their 5% quarterly categories and both give another 5% for starting at their shopping portal for a total of 10%
• It takes about a week for the gift cards to come for free or you could get them rushed for $4.95
• Do not buy eGift cards as though are processed by a different company and won't come back as a Lowe's purchase
• Once you have your gift card, go back to the shopping portal and pay with your gift card.  As long as what you are buying is slightly more than the balance of your gift cards, use the appropriate credit card to pay the rest of the balance, you will get the extra 5% on the entire balance, not just the portion you paid for with the credit card!

I bought something for $10, put $2 on gift cards, the rest on my Chase Freedom and I got 50 points, not 40 points!

If you are moving, like me, make sure to sign up for a 10% moving coupon on up to $5,000 in purchases.

If you want to see similar experiments, check out the Frequent Miler Labs where he tests many theories to see what does and what doesn't work.  The one I posted about today, I have tried and confirmed myself.

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.

Lowe's $10 off a $50 Purchase

Lowe's $10 off a $50 in store purchase.

Brita Slim Pitcher - 6 Cents After Rebate

Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

The Brita Slim Pitcher costs $10.37 from Lowe's after tax if you are willing to pick it up from the store.

Buy it through Ebates and you get 2.5% off.  If you assume that get at least 1% back from every credit card purchase (you should be doing better than that - see the related links at the end), the final price comes to $10.06.

Don't have Ebates?  You can sign up for free and you get a $10 gift card to Target, Barnes and Noble, Home Depot or Magazines.com after your first $25 purchase. 

After the $10 rebate, which means that you will pay a final price of 6 cents!

I don't have a link to it because it has been removed but I saved a copy so you can email me and I will gladly send you a PDF of the rebate to you.

If you have a Discover it™, you can get 5% off purchases from Lowe's through discover.com so you end up making a few cents on the deal!

At this price, even if you already have a Brita pitcher buy another one for Pesach!

Related Links
Rewards from Discover are worth more
Best Credit Cards

Credit Cards for Individual Retailers

For the best credit cards, click Here


When I walk into a store, unlike most people, I always look into their credit card.  Their cards are almost never the best for regular usage, but you can get some real savings in their store.

Also, if you don't have a credit history, they are usually a good way to start building your credit because it is easier to get a store credit card than a bank credit card.

Another great thing, is that many of these card will give you free coupons and gift cards just for being a member

Here is a list of my favorite store credit cards.  As always, these cards have no annual fee:

Target Red Card- 5% back on every purchase, plus free shipping from target.com, plus get an additional 5% off any pharmacy items from Target.
        - If you enroll in their Taking Charge of Education program, a school of your choice will get 1% of your purchase (you don't lose anything).  Please pick Jewish Heritage Day School, our local day school, if you don't care who gets it.

Banana Republic - 15% off your first purchase.  5% back on every purchase towards a Gap Inc. store (banana, gap, old navy etc.)  - plus get a $15 gift card for your birthday every year and $40 after first purchase not at Banana Republic.  Plus, you can get up to 2,000 bonus point ($20) for signing up for paperless statements, emails, voice mails, atheleta news.
    -You get $60 back right away, in addition to all other savings!

Brooks Brothers - 15% off your first purchase.  4% back at Brooks Brothers- plus get another $20 gift card for your birthday every year.
          -At this point, I pretty much go to Brooks Brothers once a year, buy 5 pairs of socks and spend     $1-$2.  I'm never sure what emotions I am feeling as I walk out.

Toys R Us/Babies R Us - 10% off your first purchase.  4% back on every purchase + you can get another 1% with the keyring rewards card.

Lowe's - 5% off purchases at Lowe's

As always, if you have any cards that you like, please let us all know which card you like and why.