I received a new PayPal Prepaid MasterCard’s offer for Rite-aid. This is the first offer I got for a drugstore. I don’t usually go to Rite-Aid. So, I don’t know much about selection of gift cards, maximum cash back with a purchase, or if there is a self-checkout lane. Now that I got the offer, it’s a good time to check them all. Here is a description of Rite-aid offer. (If you don’t know about PayPal Prepaid MasterCard, please read this first.)

Earn 10% Cash Back on your Rite Aid or RiteAid.com purchase, with a $10.00 Cash Back maximum. Offer valid one time only. Offer expires 12/10/2015. Offer not valid on prescription purchases, tobacco, alcohol, lottery, gift cards, cigarettes, licenses, money orders, money transfers, prepaid cards, stamps, or other mail services.

It says, “offer not valid …. gift cards …. prepaid cards.” But, I doubt that they can tell if you buy gift cards or prepaid cards because transaction history shows the only amount, date, and place. Here is an example, a transaction at Walmart.

Most of the amount is cash back, but the history doesn’t show that. Besides, I have received the Kmart rewards in that way.

Here is my plan. First, find out how much I can get cash back at a register. I will make a small purchase with other debit cards. I have many reloadable prepaid cards to liquidate, WM money card, GoBank, Mango, etc. PIN pad shows how much you can ask for cash back. The largest amount a PIN pad shows, I will consider it as maximum amount although you may press “other” and ask for more. And then, pick a gift card and choose an amount that will be at least $100 when it is added maximum cash back.

In this way, I will be able to get more than 10% cash back deal! I hope things are going well.

Update 11/23/2015, my in-store purchase of third party gift card successfully reflected towards payback rewards!

They have a great selection of gift cards, department stores, gas, eBay, Target, etc. My first plan was to find out how much I can get cash back at the register by using the other debit card. But thanks to R’s comment, I assumed it was $40 and skipped this step. I picked up variable Target GC and asked to load $60. PIN pad showed $10, $20, and $40 for cash back, and I pressed $40.

I happened to know that they offered Plenti points for the purchase of some gift cards this week. If you consider earned Plenti points as a cashback or discount, you can make a profit by reselling. For example, GCs of Nike, Chili’s, and Carte&Barrel will do. I have earned $44 in Plenti points that can be redeemed for the future purchase at Macy’s, Rite Aid, Exxon, Mobile, etc. This is my first time to buy gift cards at Rite Aid. I didn’t know they offered such great deals. And I don’t know how often they do, but I should check their weekly ad from now on.

This is about my TERRIBLE experience with customer support of PayPal Prepaid MasterCard. I needed to contact them because some of my purchases didn’t reflect towards cashback rewards correctly. There were two offers involved with the problem.

First, it is Kmart. They offered 5% cash back, up to $10 for purchase at Kmart, in store only. The previous one was only a one-time deal, but the offer from last month allowed you to make multiple transactions. I made several transactions at Kmart that sums up more than $200. However, some transactions didn’t count for cash back, and the website didn’t show pending cash back. I sent a message to customer support through the website. Misunderstandings made me send extra&extra messages until I got them to understand the problem. Their responses were quick. I thought they were reliable at least at that time. It concluded that they asked me to wait for the next statement to close. Pending cash back rewards show up a few days after the transaction, but they are actually credited at the end of the following month. They wanted me to wait until then.

Time passed. With no surprise, missing cash back wasn’t credited to my account. So, I sent a message again.

I made three transactions at Kmart in September. Those transactions were made during cashback rewards promotion. One of the transactions reflected towards the promotion, and cash back for this transaction was posted my account at the end of this month. But other two transactions were not. Last month, I already noticed this and contacted to customer service. And I was told to wait until the end of the following month and contact you again if cash back was actually not credited. Now, I can see that cash back for two transactions didn’t credit to my account. Please check.

They always responded in time, which it is shown in their website (within 48 hours.) But, that’s all good thing about them. The first email says, “Congratulations, you earned the rewards, and they are successfully posted to your account.” I replied and specified the problem. The second email says the same thing. I gave up resolving via email and called the customer service. I called, but I couldn’t even get him to understand the problem. He just kept saying my account balance, and amount cash back posted, etc. He never tried to understand the problem. After around 10 minutes of talking, all of sudden, my call went back to answering machine (which I came from before reaching to rep, like press 1 for the balance, press 2 for…..) I proceeded and then reached to the next rep, but no luck. After speaking with the second rep for about 10 mins, it went back to the answering machine again. There was no resolution. I believe the second rep didn’t understand the problem, either.

There was the same problem for Sears cash back promotion. They offered 10% back for the purchase at Sears, up to $45. I bought two $200 Visa gift cards and one $40 Sears gift card. A cashier needed to separate the transaction for some reason. So, there were two transactions, $413.90 and $40. The first one ($413.90) was tracked, pending cash back ($41.39) showed up. But, the second one ($40) didn’t. I sent an email to customer service last month, and their answer was the same as one for Kmart. (The problems happened to my two different PP prepaid cards.)

I sent email, but the responses were similar. I didn’t bother to call again. It was very frustrating. What I didn’t receive was only $8.11. It seems I need to give up because the customer service is not helpful, or they are so stupid that they can’t do a very simple calculation.

While I was trying to resolve the problem, another Sears and Kmart offers showed up! These are very good offers, but I will have to avoid the same problem as I just experienced. As long as I redeemed an offer with a single transaction, I have never had the problem. And I found the pattern which transaction would be potentially the problem.

Kmart (5% Cash Back on all of your Kmart purchases until a $10.00 Cash Back maximum, EXP 9/20)

• 08/29 — $40.00 — $2 cash back posted
• 09/01 — $70.00 — $3.50 cash back posted
• 09/12 — $40.00 — No cash back
• 09/12 — $40.00 — No cash back

Sears (10% Cash Back on all of your Sears purchases until a $45.00 Cash Back maximum, EXP 9/20)

• 09/01 — $413.90 — $41.39 cash back posted
• 09/01 — $40.00 — No cash back posted

As you see, the first transactions of each month have no problem. If you make multiple transactions in the same month, second, third, and later transactions won’t be tracked for cash back rewards. I guess this is it. It was a technical problem. And, maybe it will happen if I make multiple transactions in a month. So this time, I will redeem the current offers with a single transaction.

One more thing

I had a discovery about cashback rewards. For the first time, I got cash back reward for the online purchase without click a link of PP Prepaid website. There is a clickable link for each offer. When you click, the following message pops up.

It says “may not”, not “will not.” So, with a hope of receiving both cash back from portal and PP prepaid, I clicked a link of shopping portal site instead. I have tried the same thing before for 1800flowers’ purchase. For that offer, it wasn’t successful. So, I didn’t expect much this time, but as long as they say “may not”, it’s worth a try for other stores’ offers. I tried this for the offer of 10% back Advance Auto Parts (up to $10). And this time, it was successful. Of course, they are not yet confirmed and possible to be canceled. But for now, there are pending cash back in PP Prepaid website, and I received an email from a shopping portal site.

Here are the details of the offers

Kmart – 10% Cash Back on all of your Kmart purchases until a $20.00 Cash Back maximum is reached, in-store only

Sears – 10% Cash Back on your Sears purchases until a $35.00 Cash Back maximum is reached, in-store and online

I have three cards, Kmart offers are available on all cards. Sears offer is available on my oldest card only. I wonder what is the requirement for receiving Sears offer. There are many other offers, Restaurants, Sports Authority, Auto Zone, Peapod by Stop & Shop, etc.

If you’d like to know other benefits of PayPal Prepaid MasterCard, click here.

Overview

There 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)

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.

I have PayPal Prepaid MasterCard for a year, but I have never earned cash back rewards. That’s because the offers I had received were not really good. (If you don’t know about PayPal Prepaid MasterCard, please click here to see details.)

Many of the offers I had received were the same as shopping portals offers. You need to click a link on the website to redeem the offer. Besides, you can find the better rates of cash back in other portal sites. A kind of offers I wanted was like Amex Offers. Amex Offers don’t provide a link. All you need to do is to add the offers to your card and use that card. You can click a link on any portal site you like or buy 3rd party gift cards in store. If you don’t know about PayPal Prepaid MasterCard, please click here to see details.

A week ago, I noticed this kind of offers had appeared in my account. They were for Sears and Kmart.

Sears
There are so many reasons to come back to Sears, including stocking up on the latest essentials for Summer including outdoor furniture, grills, major home appliances, and Summer fashions. Plus when you are a Shop Your Way(R)* member you always get more! It?s FREE and easy to join in-store or at shopyourway.com.

Earn 10% Cash Back on your Sears purchase, with a $20.00 Cash Back maximum! Payment must be made on or before offer expiration date. Offer valid one time only. If layaway** purchase, offer only valid on initial payment. Offer expires 7/5/2015.
*Members earn points on qualifying purchases, excluding sales taxes and other fees. Subject to full program terms available at shopyourway.com.
**Requires down and biweekly payments. All fees nonrefundable. Cancellation fees apply. No cancellation fee in Ohio. Not available at all Sears stores. Exclusions apply. See store for further details.

Kmart
Get more this Memorial Day at Kmart. We’ve got an amazing selection of patio furniture, grills and decor. Dress up with our summer apparel collections for the whole family. Don’t forget to check out our great array of footwear, too! And, Shop Your Way® members always get more. Join today, it’s free in-store or at shopyourway.com.

Visit Kmart online to find a location near you.

Earn 15% Cash Back on your Kmart purchase, with a $20.00 Cash Back maximum!Offer not valid online.Payment must be made on or before offer expiration date. Offer valid one time only. Offer expires 7/5/2015.

Both offers expires on July 5th. So, they must have been available in my account for a while. It’s just that I didn’t log in and check for a long time.

For Sears’ offer, it’s valid for both in-store and online purchase. 10% cash back, $20 max. So, they offer cash back for up to $200 purchase. The first thing I came up with is to buy $200 Visa gift card. Although $200VGC charge $6.95 as a purchase fee, I thought it was the easiest way to earn and deal with the item (liquidating $200VGC by using Amex Serve.) I went to the store and checked all GC racks. Then I couldn’t find $200VGCs or any other useful gift cards. So, I ended up with buying $200 MasterCard gift card.

Next, I went to Kmart. For Kmart offer, the terms clearly describe that it’s not valid for online purchase. 15% cash back, $20 max. So, you need to spend $134 or more to earn maximum cash back of $20. Kmart has a better selection of gift cards than Sears. On that day, I saw eBay gift cards at Kmart for the first time. I bought some eBay and gas gift cards.

A few days later, cash back appeared in my account. They will be credited on the end of the following month. Because of a miscalculation, I spent only $125 at Kmart, and I couldn’t earn maximum cash back of $20.

I have another PayPal Prepaid MasterCard. This account is six-month-old. There is Kmart offer as well. (but, there is no Sears.) I went Kmart yesterday and bought the same GCs (gas and eBay) and the same amount. This time, however, I asked a cashier to give me $10 cash back. The total is $135. $20/$135=0.1481, it’s almost 15% cash back deal. I did it yesterday. So, a earned reward hasn’t shown up in my account. But I think it will be no problem because I don’t see anything about what I did in the transaction history of PayPal Prepaid.

I learned that asking cash back at a cashier is useful when you want to adjust the total spending and maximize the rewards. I haven’t logged in my account for a few months. I might have missed good offers during that time. From now on, I will check the offers more often.

If you want to know the basics about the card, please click here.

You may already have a card, but you can open up to 3 accounts of PayPal Prepaid MasterCard. If you want to open 2nd and/or 3rd account, please sign up through my referral link to get $5 bonus.