Month: September 2015

PayPal Prepaid Payback Rewards for Sears and Kmart

Overview

paypal prepaid mastercard new designThere are very useful rewards offers available on my two PayPal Prepaid MasterCard. They are for Kmart and Sears. In July, there were offers for the same stores, but this time, a little different. The offers in July were one-time deals. If you spent a little and earned a little cash back, the offer had finished. But this time, you can make many small purchases and earn cashback until the maximum amount of cashback reaches or the offer expires. If you want to know the basic of PayPal Prepaid MasterCard, click here.

Details of the offers

Kmart

Earn 5% Cash Back on all of your Kmart purchases until a $10.00 Cash Back maximum is reached! Offer not valid online. Offer expires 9/20/2015. Payment must be made on or before offer expiration date

It’s worse than the offer in July. It was 15% cash back and $20 maximum. However, this time, you can make as many small purchases as you like, and they are all eligible for the reward until a total amount of reward reaches $10. You can take an advantage of this. Since PayPal Prepaid is a debit card, you can get cash back at a register. When you buy an inexpensive item, get the maximum amount of cash back, and repeat, you will be able to earn $10 rewards for purchasing multiple inexpensive items. In theory, the rate of cash back could be an infinity. If your local Kmart store has self-checkout lanes, it will be easy and comfortable to do. My local Kmart doesn’t have one. So, I will buy some gas gift cards and ask cash back to a cashier. The rate of cashback will be approximately 10%.

Sears

Earn 10% Cash Back on all of your Sears purchases until a $45.00 Cash Back maximum is reached! Payment must be made on or before offer expiration date. If layaway** purchase, offer only valid on initial payment. Offer expires 9/20/2015.

It’s better than the offer in July. 10% is the same as the previous one, but the maximum amount of reward is more than twice, $45! (it was $20) Unlike Kmart, Sears always treats any debit cards as a credit card. I have never entered a PIN at Sears. Thus, I believe that you can’t get cash back at a register. Since 10% cash back is good, I already redeemed the offer by purchasing two $200 Visa gift cards and one $50 gas card. I spent $463.90 and earned $45 rewards. $400 (two $200VGC) will be back to my pocket via Amex Serve. So, I bought $50 gas card for $18.90. ($463.90-$400-$45)

paypal prepaid payback rewards

What triggers Payback Rewards?

I don’t know exactly. All I can tell is that I have been using two cards in the same way (at the same stores like Walmart, CVS, and grocery stores.) A newer card that I applied this January has never shown a reward for Sears. An older card that I applied only three months earlier than the second one shows both Sears and Kmart offers. Maybe next time, I will get an offer for Sears on the second card, too. Both cards have been receiving a lot of offers, but many of them are useless. They are for restaurants or stores that their gift cards are available from resellers with more discount than Payback Rewards offers. I hope I will receive more offers for stores that sell other stores’ gift cards.

And, I guess categories of stores you use the card have nothing (or not much) to do with offers you receive. That’s because I received Sports Authority’s offer although I have never used the card at sporting goods stores, Auto Zone’s offer without using the card at auto parts stores. Another reason is that my Bank of America credit card (BackAmeri Deals) offered Sports Authority, Kmart, and Auto Zone at almost the same time.

Limit three cards per person

I already have two cards and opened 5% APY savings accounts on both cards. Now that my second account got full (deposited $5000, the balance exceeding $5000 will be 0.5% APY), it’s time to apply third card. If you apply one, please click this link to get $5 bonus. (Referral Code: 1156551218)

If you want to know the basic of PayPal Prepaid MasterCard, click here.