Month: November 2014

FRN New MasterCard Offers Best Buy, Toys R Us, JCPenney, etc

Posted on November 8, 2014November 8, 2014 by admin

FRN (Fuel Rewards Network) have started (2) new MasterCard offers.

If you don’t know FRN, please read “Ultimate Strategy of Fuel Rewards Network” and join. You will get a signup bonus (20¢/gal) and another 20¢/gal when you link your MasterCard.

MasterCard Winter Shopping – Earn 20¢/gal for every $100 you spend at Toys “R” Us, JCPenney and Olive Garden
MasterCard Electronics offer – Earn 5¢/gal for every $100 you spend on qualified electronics purchases (Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc.)

Both offers are eligible for purchases online and in store. You should use MasterCard credit or debit card that is linked to your FRN account. You don’t have to spend $100 or more at single transaction. An amount you spend accumulates. When a total spent exceeds $100, you will receive a reward. Eligible purchases should be made between November 3rd, 2014 and March 1, 2015.

MasterCard Electronics offer is easy to get. Go to Best Buy store and find Visa gift cards. They are variable GCs, $20-$200 and charge $5.95 purchase fee. However, Best Buy’s loyalty reward program (My Best Buy) give you back 2% in store credit. (see details here) As combined with credit card reward, a purchase fee is completely covered. Visa GCs can be used for BlueBird/Serve reloads at Walmart. So, you can earn 10¢/gal on each Visa GC purchase. The only drawback is you can’t use the store credit for a purchase of GCs. You will need to use it for some merchandise in the end.

There may be better ways from other stores. MasterCard Electronics offer is not limited on Best Buy purchases. Log in your FRN account and check all participating stores in your area.

Conversely, MasterCard Winter Shopping is limited on three stores, Toys R Us, JCPenney and Olive Garden. At this moment, I can’t come up with any strategic ways to earn rewards. But, 20¢/gal is very appealing. And I need it because AmEx GC offer has just disappeared from FRN Online Mall again.

When I browse info about the stores to find a way to earn a reward, I saw some interesting blog posts and forums about Toys R Us gift cards. They said, “You can buy other store’s gift cards, such as amazon GCs, with Toys R Us GCs in stores.” I don’t know what other gift cards they have. And the problem is that blog posts and forums are years old. I don’t know if this strategy works now.

I will need to find that out for myself. At first, I’m going to buy a $100 Toys R Us GC online. I’m pretty sure that it is eligible for FRN reward. During the previous MasterCard offer (Home Improvement Stores), I bought many gift cards at harborfreight.com, and the rewards were posted (cash back from ShopDiscover as well.) However, I’m not sure about cash back from shopping portal, though. Upromise offers 5% cash back which is the best right now. The blog post says he or she got cash back although its terms stated that a purchase of GCs was not eligible. But again, the post is years old. I will need to do it myself, anyway.

Visa Holiday Gift Card available online now at Target

Posted on November 7, 2014November 7, 2014 by admin

I have been checking the site since I spotted new Visa gift cards at Target.com. Until last night, there had been the listings with no details. And they were out of stock. And last night, it appeared to be available. To know if it was in stock, I simply clicked an add-to-cart button. The card was added in the shopping cart. It means that Visa Holiday GCs have started being for sale. I went back to the page and checked the details of the card with hope that there were some promotions. But, still nothing (no description at all.)

I went back to the shopping cart to remove the GC, but I found something very strange in the cart.

subtotal: $100
estimated shipping: Free
tax: not yet calculated
your total: $100

Where is a $6 purchase fee? Will I get Visa GCs with $0 purchase fee? Is this a part of the promotion or just an error?

I proceeded to checkout. The final page (one click away from completing an order) showed the same. The total was $100. I added another one ($50 Holiday GC) and completed an order.

It could be just an error. I thought Target would cancel the order. However, I received an email of the shipping confirmation. The cards are on the way!

And I check the site tonight. Target charges a purchase fee now. I don’t know whether it was a mistake or promotion, but I don’t care. I do care that I should have bought more GCs last night.

GCs from Target can’t be use for Walmart swipe reload (to BlueBird/Serve). But Family Dollar accepts these GCs.

eBay Deals 6% off eBay Gift Code

Posted on November 4, 2014November 4, 2014 by admin

Last week, it was 15% off Sears gift cards (it ended.) Starting today, eBay offers 6% off eBay gift code. The deal is only for the denomination of $100 gift code. There are no terms and conditions in the listing. But when I entered more than 2 in the box of quantity, the message showed up. “Purchases are limited to 1 per buyer.”

I’d better not use another eBay account to buy more GCs. That may probably be against their policy, and they would cancel all orders just like it happened to me two weeks ago.

So, I purchased one code with one of my eBay account. The delivery was fast. Within 15 minutes, I received an email with the gift code in my PayPal registered email address.

You can buy eBay GCs with eBay GCs. If you want a physical card, you can buy it later.

Hurry! I guess the deal won’t last so long. The rate of discount is a far less than Sears GCs, but eBay GCs are much more versatile and valuable. As you can see, it says, “Almost Gone.”

Target REDCard Secret

Posted on November 3, 2014July 12, 2015 by admin

Background

My cell phone is Boost Mobile. It is a prepaid phone. You can pay a monthly fee by credit or debit cards online or buying Reboost card (prepaid card) and then adding money to your account online. Paying a monthly fee or purchasing a Reboost card are subject to sale tax. To save money, I was paying a monthly fee in the following methods:

Paying with Chase Ink Cash credit card directly at boostmobile.com – 5% cash back from credit card
Purchasing the total $200 or more Reboost with Chase Ink Cash at Staples – 5% cash back + 1% statement credit from VisaSavingEdge
Purchasing Reboost with REDcard at Target – 5% discount
Purchasing Reboost with Target Gift Cards at Target – No discount when purchase. But I got Target GCs with discount (6-7%)

All these transactions incur a sale tax. Sale tax where I live (Queens, NY) is 8.875%, and some part of North Bergen, NJ is only 3.5%. So, every time I visit there, I buy several Reboost cards at Staples or Target. In store only, there is no listing at Staples.com. As for Target.com, there have been a listing, but never been available to purchase (see details here.)

And now I found that Reboost card (email delivery) was available online. I’d like to conduct an experiment for which I have longed.

Experiment: Get 5% REDcard discount WITHOUT using REDcard

Target offers 5% REDcard discount almost all items including gift cards. Except for Visa or Target GCs, you can get 5% discount on the purchase of GCs. Online, create your account and enter your REDcard info and you will see 5% discount automatically applied when you add items to the cart. In billing section, when you choose other credit cards, 5% discount disappears. However, when you choose Target Giftcard or PayPal, 5% discount stays.

Let’s continue with PayPal. 5% discount ($1 in this experiment) is described as “Promotion on Boost Mobile Prepa…” in PayPal website. But the discount disappeared when I returned to Target.com.

Next, I tried to choose Target GCs. But, first I needed to clear up PayPal payment information by logging out and in again. After adding an item to the cart, I also needed to choose REDcard and click “save&continue” to make 5% discount reappear. Then I chose Target GCs, and 5% discount stayed until the final page. I checked out and received Boost Mobile redemption code within an hour.

Everything was fine. The amount deducted from Target GC had 5% discount. I successfully entered the code and added money to my Boost Mobile account. Target GC I used for this purchase, I bought it with about 7% discount. So, this transaction is about 12% off deals!

12%!?…. Wait a minute. It is not only 12%. It’s more because there was no tax. When I buy Reboost cards in stores, stores charge a sale tax. When I pay online directly with credit card, Boost Mobile charges a sale tax. So, there is extra 8.875% discount in this transaction.

I tried to do the same thing on purchase of Target MasterCard GC, but it didn’t go through. Target doesn’t allow to use GCs for the purchase of MasterCard GCs and Visa GCs. I could check out but received an email of cancelation minutes later.

Since Target MasterCard GCs appeared online, Target still offers 5% REDcard discount on the purchase of Target MasterCard GCs. Purchase fee of $100 GC is $6, and the discount is $5.30. If there is a way to compensate the loss ($0.70), it will be a way of manufactured spending to consider.

So far, I haven’t found a cash back portal that pays on the purchase of gift cards at Target.com.

New Gift Cards available online at Target

Posted on November 2, 2014November 27, 2014 by admin

When I was browsing gift cards at Target.com, I found some new gift cards.

Visa Gift Card

There are two new ones. They are both named Holiday Gift Card. The denomination of GCs are $50 ($5 fee) and $100 ($6 fee). When I found them, they had been already out of stock. It may be just that the GCs hasn’t started being sold yet.

They have the same name, but the designs are very different.

For now, I don’t see any promotion on these GC’s sales. (like they offered $5 Target GC on Visa Entertainment Gift Card – $100 + $6 Fee in September.) They don’t even have details or descriptions on the pages.

I used to buy Visa GCs from Target.com and stopped buying last month. That’s because Target.com is no longer a partner of ShopDiscover. ShopDiscover used to offer 5% cash back on purchases at Target.com. They paid on the purchase of gift cards except for Target GCs.

I usually redeem Discover’s reward for 20% discounted GCs (Staples, Gap, etc.) So, 5% cash back is worth 6.25% to me. It means that Discover reward covers a $6 fee of Visa GC (and even gives me a little profit.) And I can earn a reward from credit cards used for the purchase of Visa GC. That was a perfect manufacture spending.

However, now that Target is not a partner of ShopDiscover, there is no meaning to buy Visa GCs at Target.com. I can’t find other portals that offer 5% or more on gift card purchases.

Unless there is a promotion like Visa Entertainment GCs, I won’t buy them. I will check the site periodically. If there is a promotion, I’ll buy.

Boost Mobile Prepaid Card (email delivery)

There have been Boost Mobile Prepaid Card (physical card) on their website, but you couldn’t buy online. They say, “not sold online” “in store only” and “find in a store.” But today, for the first time, I saw the word “online only” “email delivery.” I tried to purchase, but the following message appeared “Due to technical issues, you cannot add this item to your cart. Please try again later”

Like Visa Holiday GCs, probably they haven’t started out for sale yet. Once it is available, I will buy it and do an experiment. If everything goes well, I will get it at least 10% discount on any gift card purchases at Target.com. (except for Visa and Target GCs)

Ways to Save Money when Shopping

Money Saving Strategies