New promotion on PayPal Extras MasterCard, it’s “earn $10 statement credit for $50 or more purchase, maximum $30 statement credit.”

So, you need to make three transactions of at least $50 to earn the statement credit. There is no restriction, such as “PayPal transactions are excluded.” So, eBay, online, in-store purchases, all transactions will be eligible for this promotion.

It has to be activated by click a link in an email as usual.

You should activate and make eligible purchases by 08/31/2015.

I’d like to spend the exact amount of $50 to optimize this offer. So, probably I will buy gift cards. I am thinking which one to buy. It’s better to buy gift cards that you can’t usually get much discount, such as gas cards, Walmart, Best Buy, Costco, etc…

Costco doesn’t accept MasterCard credit cards in-store but does accept online. If I make online purchases of three $50 Costco gift cards and then use them in-store, it’s like 20% discount on the next $150 purchase at Costco.

Since I still have time to redeem, I will try to come up with a new approach to take advantage of this offer.

Overview

You can earn $15 e-gift card of your choice when you spend $50 or more with PayPal Extras MasterCard between May 1st and May 31st.

Available e-gift cards

There are five store’s e-gift cards available to choose. Since the email I receive has only three images of gift cards, I almost overlooked. There are Amazon and Omaha Steaks, too.

• Best Buy
• Amazon
• Lowe’s
• Omaha Steaks
• AMC

Activation Required

As usual, you will need to activate the offer by clicking a link in the email, prior to purchase.

Father’s Day Promo? What happened to Mother’s Day?

As you see in the email, it seems like a Father’s Day promotion, which is coming more than a month later. What happened to Mother’s Day, which is coming in a week. Why did they skip? Or maybe I didn’t receive a targeted offer.

Summary

It’s easy and a great deal. All you need to spend $50 or more in a single transaction. There is no requirement of stores, categories, whatsoever. Don’t forget to activate the offer by clicking a link in the email.

Overview

New offer from PayPal Credit Services (PayPal Extras MasterCard) is available. You can earn a $10 statement credit for making PPEMC your preferred way to pay with PayPal by March 27th, 2015.

Just “Preferred.”

Even after you make PPEMC your preferred way, you can still choose other payment methods. I purchase AmEx gift cards regularly. And every time I receive them, the first thing to do is register and add to my PayPal account, so I can spend down for eBay purchases, shipping for items I sold on eBay, and other PayPal transactions.

How to change a preferred way

Log in to your PayPal account and go to PPEMC summary page. Click “Update account preferences.” Then click “change” under Checkout Preference, and you can choose between PPEMC and “balance, bank, or card.” Click “save changes” and then it’s all done. However, in order to qualify for this offer, I think it’s better to click a link in the email. After clicking a link, you will see a PayPal login page. After typing a password, you will see this page (image below.)

What if it’s already been a preferred way?

Actually, my preferred way had been PPEMC. Even so, I clicked a link in the email and then showed the same page. I clicked three times after that, and it still took me to the same page. So, it probably doesn’t matter which your preferred way was. But you need to click a link in the email to qualify for this offer.

Summary

Offers of statement credit are better than ones with extra reward points. That’s because PPEMC reward points are limited to 50000 pts per year. Just clicking a link and earning $10 is nice and easy. And remember, usually, PayPal doesn’t send a confirmation email. So, you will need to check the statement to see if the credit will be posted.

In March, PayPal Extras MasterCard has another special offer. It’s $20 back in statement credit when you spend $50 or more with PayPal Extras MasterCard by March 16th, 2015. Limit one statement credit per card.

It doesn’t say that transactions through PayPal are excluded. So, eBay purchase must be eligible.

But first, you will need to activate the offer by clicking a link in the email.

PP Extras offers these types of special offers at random. Unlike Amex Offers, a period for offers is short. And, you don’t know if you redeemed the offer correctly until you actually receive the credit or extra reward points, which takes one statement cycle or two. (They don’t send a confirmation email when you use the card.)

Last year, I had many special offers and redeemed them. However, because I didn’t keep a record of them, I am not sure if I received all the credit or reward. So, this year, I decided to keep it here, on this blog.

Several days ago, I received two statement credits for other offers. One is for this offer, and the other is for the offer from last year. I checked my emails, but they didn’t send any emails to notify me of having posted the statement credit. So, it’s important to keep a record in case you don’t receive the reward.

What’s better than Amex Offer

Rate – On average, the rate of reward of PayPal’s offers are better than Amex Offers. For example, the offer I just received is $20 back for $50 spent. It’s 40% back!

Easy to redeem – PayPal’s offers don’t specify stores to purchase. It has only minimum spend requirement. Please note that some offers exclude purchases through PayPal. But either way, it’s easier to redeem than Amex Offers.

What’s worse than Amex Offer

Numbers of offers – PayPal’s offers are much, much less than Amex Offers.

A period for offers – On average, it’s much shorter than Amex Offers. And, the only way to know new offers is to read emails. If you missed them, it’s more likely to lose opportunities to redeem the offers (because of a shorter periods of time.)

No confirmation emails – Both PayPal’s and Amex Offers need to active by clicking a link before you use the cards. After that, you don’t receive any emails from PayPal about that offer. Amex sends you a confirmation email right after you use the card. (If a reward of PayPal’s offer is an e-gift card, they send you email a few months later.)

Summary

Since PP Extras‘ offers don’t specify stores to make a purchase, anyone can redeem for sure. It’s important to check emails periodically in order not to miss the opportunity.

I received an email of PayPal Extras MasterCard promotion. Between 2/6 and 2/21, you can earn 5X reward points for every 1 dollar you spend in a selected category. You need to choose one of 3 the following categories. (if you don’t know about PayPal Extras MasterCard, click here to see details.)

• Travel (Hotels, Airlines, Rental Cars)
• Shopping (Department Stores, Home Improvement)
• Entertainment (Movie Theaters, Amusement Parks)

You have to use PP Extras credit card directly. Even if you buy something online at department store, when you check out through PayPal, the transaction is not qualified for 5X reward.

Here is a screenshot of the email.

There are the terms at the bottom of the email, but they don’t have many details such as an example of stores, exclusions, etc. At least, I’m sure that Sears is Department Store, and they have $200 Visa or MasterCard gift cards. I purchased some Visa gift cards with Chase freedom in the 4th quarter of 2014 to earn 5x UR points. Now, you can do it the same with PP Extras MC.

However, I’m not as appreciated for this promo as the ones that offer statement credit. That’s because the total points you can earn are limited to 50,000 a year. Unless your anniversary month is close, and you haven’t earned many points yet, you don’t have to lose $6.95 of a purchase fee for each Visa/MasterCard GCs.

My PP Extras MC’s anniversary month is April, and I will be able to earn around 5000 points by April. So, I don’t have to rush. I may be going to buy HFT GCs online. HFT is a home improvement store, and shopping portals pay cash back on their GC purchases.