Shopping Portal

ShopDiscover Pays 10% Cash Back at Sears

shopdiscover 10 percent cash back at searsThere are so many changes recently that cause a slowdown on my manufactured spending or negative effect on my reselling business, but I noticed that some changes in Discover’s online shopping portal, ShopDiscover, that is good to (at least) me. It used be 5% cash back on purchases at Sears.com, but now it’s 10%. As you see in the picture on the right, it doesn’t look like seasonal, holiday, or temporary offer. It seems a new, regular, and permanent cash back rate (until they change the rates in the future.)

It is not only Sears, but also Kmart, Lands End, and probably more retailers. Since I don’t memorize all retailers’ cash back rate, I can’t tell all changes, but here are the retailers ShopDiscover now pays more:

  • Sears 5%10%
  • Kmart 5%10%
  • Lands End 5%10%
  • Macy’s 5%10%
  • Starbucks 5%10%
  • Moosejaw 10%15%

Other retailers I usually shop stay the same cash back rate. So, this change is very grateful to me. In order not to miss these changes, you should visit cash back comparing sites such as cashbackholic.com and cashbackmonitor.com.

To use ShopDiscover, you need to be a cardholder of one of Discover’s cards. I believe ShopDiscover is the best online shopping portal of all. No other portals could compete with various ways of ShopDisocver’s reward redemption. (for more details, read “King of Cash Back! “Discover it” Card Review.”)

 

New Amex Offer $10 back on $200+ AmEx GC

$10 credit on $200 amex gcThere is new Amex Offer through July 30, 2014. You will get one-time $10 statement credit when you spend the total of $200 or more on American Express Gift Card. The offer is available online only, www.americanexpress.com/gift-cards.

I have two American Express cards for Amex Offer. One is Blue Cash Preferred, and the other is Serve. However, you can’t use Serve for the purchase of AmEx GCs. They don’t accept Prepaid Cards as a payment.

Please don’t forget to click a link of shopping portal. As of July 1st 2014, the best rate is BeFrugal’s 3% cash back. Once the rate was down to 2.5%, but it slightly went back up.

Target Visa GC & ShopDiscover w/free shipping on $50+

free s&h on 50+I received an ad from Target. It seems that Target has new shipping policy, “free shipping on all orders of $50+.” I checked if this is eligible on the purchase of gift cards. I added $100 Target Visa Gift Card to a cart and chose credit card for the payment method. I made sure that it was free shipping. (Just a week ago, I did the same thing, and they charged $1.95 for shipping.)

Now that shipping cost is free, there is nothing for me to stop purchasing Target Visa GC. I used “Discover it” card, and most importantly I entered Target.com through ShopDiscover. I received thanks-for-your-order email, and there is no cancellation email (please read the posts: Target Visa Gift Card and ShopDiscover 1&2). The next day, I received an email from ShopDiscover. The card arrived a week later.

target visa gc w free s&h

It proved that Target kept cancelling my orders because I used Target GCs as a payment method. I don’t know why they accepted the first order (I used Target GCs for the purchase of Target Visa GC.) Anyway, I won’t do that again. It is not comfortable to receive an email of cancellation right after a check-out.

In this transaction:

  • I paid a purchase fee (-$6.00)
  • I earned 5% cash back from ShopDiscover (+$5.30)
  • I earned 1% cash back from Discover (+$1.06)
  • Total +$0.36 profit

This isn’t a lot, but I always redeem Discover’s reward for 20% discounted gift cards, so $6.36 will be worth $7.95 for me. I get $1.95 profit.

Target accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and PayPal. You can convert AmEx GCs into $100 Target Visa GCs for 70¢ per card. AmEx GCs have fewer features than Visa GCs. They don’t have PINs so you can’t get cash back at registers. Once you get Visa GCs, you can load BlueBird/Serve at Walmart and get cash back at registers depending on the stores. Visa GCs are easier to be converted into cash than AmEx GCs.

As I mentioned in the earlier posts, it is a great money maker when it is on 4th quarter of Discover’s promotion (rotating category: online shopping). And if ShopDiscover’s seasonal promotions give additional 5% cash back on purchases at Target.com, that would be so great. Because cash back from ShopDiscover is unlimited, while cash back from rotating categories are capped at $1500 of purchases. And if this happens in 4th quarter, you will get total 15% cash back!!! However, I’m not sure that the cash back rate of Target.com is raised up by 5% in the past. I have never paid attention to it. I will need to keep an eye on the cash back rate of Target.com.

Please note that it seems that Walmart kiosk no longer accepts Target Visa GCs for reloading BlueBird/Serve, read this post for the details.

Switching Chase ink from MasterCard to Visa for Visa SavingsEdge

I applied for Chase business credit card called “ink Cash” in June 2013. The card has MasterCard logo on it. Almost at the same time, Chase changed the version of ink credit card from MasterCard to Visa. If you applied for ink credit card after July 2013, your card is probably Visa version.

The best benefit of ink credit cards is that you can earn 5% cash back or 5x reward points on the purchase at office supply stores, such as Staples, Office Depot, and Office Max. And Staples is one of merchants for another cash back program called Visa SavingsEdge. You can get 1% cash back on purchases of $200 or more at Staples, both in store and online.

visa savingsedge staples offer

When you buy $200 Visa or MasterCard gift card at Staples with a Visa-version ink credit card, you will get 1% cash back in addition to 5% cash back or 5x reward points from Chase Ultimate Reward. This offer is available through 12/31/2014. I couldn’t get this offer because my ink credit card is MasterCard version. To get this offer, I considered applying another ink credit card so I would get a Visa-version ink. However, in the last six months, I applied many credit cards and wanted to recover my credit score. So, I headed to a Chase bank and asked if they could change my ink card from MasterCard to Visa without affecting my credit score.

After a bank teller had spoken on the phone with a credit company for a few minutes, the teller told me I could and would receive a new card (Visa-version) by mail in 7 to 10 business days. Ten days later, I received a new one. Before I received the new card, Chase had transferred my account, balance, etc to the new card, so I couldn’t use my old ink (MasterCard-version) for several days. If you switch your card from MasterCard to Visa, you should go shopping before asking Chase.

ink credit card from mastercard to visa

Card numbers are changed, and expiration date is one year extended. A color of ink Cash credit card is sliver. MasterCard logo on ink card was red and orange, while Visa’s is shiny silver. Now my ink Cash credit card looks very plain and dull.

Target Visa Gift Card and ShopDiscover 2/2

I have received the second email from ShopDiscover. Now for sure, cash back is available for the purchase of Target Visa GCs. I added one Target Visa GC and tried to check out with Discover it card. Then I knew I was completely unaware of shipping cost. It is eligible of free shipping  when you purchase with REDcard, and when checking out with Target GCs they didn’t charge shipping cost, either. Anyway, they charge $1.95 for shipping, if I buy (1) $100 Target Visa GC with Discover it card:

  • Pay a purchase fee (-$6.00)
  • Pay shipping cost (-$1.95)
  • 5% cash back from ShopDiscover ($5.30 <– $106 x 0.05 not applied for shipping)
  • 1% cash back from Discover ($1.08)
  • Total $1.57 loss

Shipping cost is the same, $1.95 if you order five gift cards. But still, the total of cash back doesn’t cover purchase fee and shipping cost. It is not worth a try. Now my choice is to give up or find a way to buy Target Visa GCs with Target GCs. Why did the first transaction go through? Why did the second and third attempts also go through, but cancel a minute later? The following I can come up with:

  • My account is blocked because of the first purchase made with Target GCs
  • The second purchase is too close from the day of the first one
  • I clicked ShopDiscover’s link

Maybe my account is blocked. I had the same experience on Sears purchases. I ordered and checked out something at Sears.com. They cancelled my orders right after sending thank-you-for-your-order emails. My Sears account was blocked becasue I used SYW Max program, which is free shipping on almost all items for $79 a year, for my eBay business. I dropshipped tons of items to customers on eBay for more than 6 months. Sears detected and blocked my account.

But. what I bought at Target.com is only $100 gift card. I don’t think it is a big problem. The first purchase is 2 weeks ago. Again, it is only one $100 gift card I bought. The details on the page of  Target Visa GC says “Limit on number of cards purchased.” It can’t be you can buy only one gift card a month.

The emails telling me that the order was cancelled is exactly one minute after a check-out. It seems to be automated. They don’t want to give cash back on the purchase of gift cards, so maybe they set to cancel the orders checked out through ShopDiscover. This may be the cause of cancellation. To find the answer, I made another attempt. I clicked a link on Coupay.com and checked out (1) $100 Target Visa GC with Target GCs.

It wouldn’t go through. Just like previous two orders, I received a confirmation email and then cancellation email. This time, however, things got worse. The refund are almost instanly come back to my gift cards on previous orders, but it didn’t on this order. What’s more, I couldn’t see the balance of gift cards, either. There was an error message when I tried to check the balance of gift cards.

The next day, it was available to get access to the balance of gift cards and I confirmed money was refunded. The series of incident scares me. I will no longer try to buy Visa GCs with Target GCs. The reason of cancellations hasn’t been clear yet, but I don’t want to risk losing money of Target GCs.

What I got from the experience is ShopDiscover will probably pay out  on the purchase of Target Visa GCs. You can make profit when ShopDiscover has a promotion. During the promotion, some retailers cash back rate are added up by 5%.  I’m not sure if there is a promotion that cash back rate of Target.com goes up to 10%. So, I will need to check every time ShopDiscover has a promotion. And using 4th quarter of Discover it card promotion, 5% cash back on all online shopping, will also make profit. (This promotion is limited on the total purchase of $1500, so it is better to use it for somewhere else, though)

Updated in June, 2014, Target introduced new shipping policy. All orders of $50 or more are eligible free shipping. With this new offer, I finally purchased Target Visa Gift Card with a credit card.

American Express Gift Card Portal Rate Down

After the end of promotion for Father’s Day (there was a code to waive a purchase fee through June 16th 2014), a rate of online shopping portal for American Express Gift Card is down on most portals. The highest rate had been 4% cash back from Lucky Rewards, and the rate is now significantly lowered to 1%. Fuel Rewards Network had been 2x, which was equivalent to 4% cash back, and it is now 1x (equivalent to 2%).

2.5 percent cash back on the purchase of amex gcAs of June 20th, the best rate is 2.5% cash back from BeFrugal.com. Until better rates become available, I will keep using BeFrugal for the purchase of AmEx GCs. BeFrugal online portal is very reliable. I had been using for other retailers, and it seems I will use for AmEx GCs for a while. I even respect for their showing cash back terms of each retailers very clearly. None of other portals bother to describe terms and conditions as detailed as BeFrugal does.

To compare the rates of cash back or travel point, you can use these sites

http://www.cashbackmonitor.com/

http://www.cashbackholic.com/

How you use these sites is the same, type a name of retainers and click search and they show lists of available portals and rates. It is better to check on both sites. Because rates are constantly changing, and sometimes they can’t keep up with changes. They may show different rates, miss some portals, etc. In fact, as of today, I can’t find Befrugal on cashbackholic.com when I searched the rate for AmEx GC. On the other hand, you don’t see ShopDiscover on cashbackmonitor.com on the default search result.

I hope the rate will go back to 4% or better soon.

Target Visa Gift Card and ShopDiscover 1/2

I found that you could buy Target Visa GC with Target GC, but it seems it wouldn’t go through anymore. I succeeded for the first attempt. And 3 weeks later I tried to purchase (4) $100 Target Visa GCs. Checking out was done smoothly, and I received “Thank you for your order” email. However, in just one minute, I was received another email telling me the order was cancelled. The email doesn’t say what exactly the problem. The first thing I came up with is the payment method I took. The description of Target Visa GC at Target.com says:

target visa gift card details

I thought using Target GC was the problem, but it might be that I ordered too many cards. So, hours later, I made another order of (1) $100 Target Visa GC. And this time, too. The order was cancelled a minute after I was received thank-you-for-your-order email. I got disappointed. This strategy won’t work, and I should spend all Target GCs (which I bought from gift card exchange sites) for merchandises.

But, the next day, an email I received from ShopDiscover brightens me. Although I clicked through a link at ShopDiscover, I didn’t expect cash back from them. That’s because the first successful order was made through Coupay.com, and I didn’t receive cash back from them. I clicked the link of ShopDiscover just in case.

target visa gift card through shopdiscover

ShopDiscover’s cash back bonus for Target is 5%. For the order of (4) $100 Target Visa GCs, I could have gotten $21.20 as the email says. And if Target accepts credit card for the purchase of Target Visa GCs, you will receive 1% (or more, depending on credit cards) cash back. For example, when I buy (1) $100 Target Visa GC with Discover it (which gives 1% cash back on all your spending):

  • Pay a purchase fee (-$6.00)
  • 5% cash Back from ShopDiscover (+$5.30)
  • 1% cash back from Discover (+$1.06)
  • It is slight, but there is a profit, $0.36!

Visa GCs can be used as a debit card. Depending on stores, you can get cash back at the register. You can load your Bluebird or Serve at Walmart. They are easy to convert into cash. The point is you don’t lose money in this transaction. You can use this strategy as one of your manufactured spending. Compared with buying Visa GCs at Staples, it is a worse deal, but it is always better to have many options for your manufactured spending.

So far, I have received only one email from ShopDiscover. For the second order (1x $100 Visa GC), I haven’t received. It will probably be sent tomorrow. This strategy is mostly relied on Cash Back Bonus from ShopDiscover, so I want to make sure of it. And then, I will make another order with a credit card.

King of Cash Back! “Discover it” Card Review

“Discover it” is a credit card which I earn cash back the most every month among all credit cards I have. I think that this is the best card for those who shop online a lot. Discover’s online mall, ShopDiscover has over 200 retailers. This number is much fewer than other online portals such as Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi Shopping Center, but ShopDiscover covers most of major retailers. I can find almost all retailers I usually shop in ShopDiscover. Although it has fewer retailers, some retailers can find ONLY in ShopDiscover, like Moosejaw.com, Harborfreight.com. Shopping through ShopDiscover gives you at least 5% cash back. As compared ShopDiscover’s cash back bonus of my favorite retailers with other online portals, I found some of them are the same, but most of them are better.

It is my first credit card which offers the reward (cash back). When I just received the card, I was so happy about 5% cash back on rotating category and 1% on everything else. And it is a shame that I didn’t know about online portals and hadn’t used it for first 4 months although I made many online purchases. I have missed so much cash back during that time. So, for those who don’t know about online portals, here is a walk-through of ShopDiscover.

Please note that ShopDiscover became Discover Deals on January 8th, 2015. Click here to see details.

Login and click “See Retailers”

enter shopdiscover

Either type a name of retailer or choose in a drop-down list

search a retainer at shopdiscover

Click “Start Shopping” and complete a check-out

start shopping thru shopdiscover

 

Mostly in a few days, you will receive an email look like the below

shopdiscover confirmation emal

Sometimes, ShopDiscover page looks like this

shopdiscover additional bonus

The seasonal or occasional bonus offer. Not all but many retailers offer additional 5% cash back. Here is an example, Macy’s.com’s page.

mothers day bonus shopdiscover

You will see this type of bonus very often throughout a year! While 5% cash back on rotating category are capped $1500 on the purchase each quarter, cash back earned through ShopDiscover is NO LIMIT! The more you buy, the more you earn!

Please note that ShopDiscover became Discover Deals on January 8th, 2015. Click here to see details.

There is another point I like “Discover it” card the best. That is its great redemption options. Here is a list of options.

  • Statement Credit
  • Direct Deposit
  • Partner Gift Cards
  • Discover Gift Cards
  • Charitable Donation
  • Pay with Cashback Bonus

redeem cashback for partners gift cardsBasically, one reward dollar= one USD. However, when you redeem for partner gift cards, one reward dollar can be worth more than one USD or even doubles. Partner gift cards (over 150 retailers’) are ALL on sale. You can get $50 Macy’s gift card for $45 reward dollar (10% discount), $25 Lands End gift card for $20 (20% discount), most gift cards in travel and vacation category are more than 50% off!

pay with cashback bonusNever choose “Pay with Cashback Bonus”. This feature, which is also found in Ultimate Reward, lets you redeem your reward dollar directly at amazon.com. If you do so, you can’t get any cash back through the transaction at amazon. If you redeem for statement credit, or direct deposit and then make a purchase at amazon.com with Discover card, you will get 1% cash back. So, don’t use this feature unless you need it for some reasons.

Like Chase Freedom and Citi Dividend, “Discover it” offer 5% cash back on rotating category. Discover’s Q4 is very unique and useful. This offer is capped $1500 on purchases each quarter. If you want some ideas to get  a full cash back ($300 a year) from Rotating Category.

Overall, “Discover It” is the best cash back credit card for those who shop online. Any other online portals don’t offer as good rewards as ShopDiscover. And you can’t see so many gift cards with discount to redeem.  That is all about King of Cash Back “Discover it” and why I like it the best.