Maximizing the Apple Pay Promo without Gift Cards

As you all know by now, Discover has made it clear that they intend to enforce the new rule of not paying out for gift card purchases made under the Apple Pay promo, albeit with some slight leeway.

Let’s try to find alternative ways to maximize this offer as well as we can without gift cards.

Option #1 – Buy Gift Cards

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found here

Okay, we’re trying to write about not buying gift cards. But my point is that Discover doesn’t actually know if you bought a gift card or not. It seems they are just flagging high dollar purchases (or possibly repeat purchases). You may want to try sticking in some small gift cards here and there as you shop.

Option #2 – Go Shopping

Here is a list of places that accept Apple Pay, but those are not all the options.

We mentioned that Best Buy now accepts Apple Pay as well (although not all cashiers aren’t yet aware of this, we’re teaching them slowly, one-by-one!) and it’s not showing clearly on the main Apple page. There are many other stores as well which accept Apple Pay. Even your local supermarket, such as Shoprite, may accept it. Or a small restaurant may surprisingly be NFC-enabled. There is mention on Reddit of some 7-Eleven stores and some Texaco and Chevron’s accepting NFC payments.

In short, look out for the NFC payment signs anywhere and everywhere you go shopping. Typically, any NFC-enabled register will work for Apple Pay, it doesn’t have to say ‘Apple Pay’ specifically.

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Here are a few apps which can help you find which stores are NFC-enabled.

Also, keep in mind that Discover has department stores and clothing stores as part of the Q4 5% category bonus. See if you can find a store which qualifies and also accepts Apple Pay. We’ve written previously some possible opportunities: Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Aerostaple, American Eagle Outfitters, Express, Foot Locker, Footaddiction, Nike & Sports Authority.

Option #3 – Buy Electronics

If you have any new electronics to buy or that you think you’ll need soon, consider purchasing them in a Best Buy store or in an Apple store to take advantage of this deal. Typically, this isn’t a good idea since you’ll be losing out on the portal, but at 10-20% back it could be worthwhile. Remember, Best Buy and Staples do price matching and you should be able to get a competitive price from them that way.

Personally, I have a $349 Mac warranty on the to-do list. Hopefully, I’ll pass by an Apple store and be able to get 20% off that charge by paying with Apple Pay.

Option #4 – Cellphone Bill

T-Mobile is on the list of stores that accept Apple Pay and presumably you can pay your post-paid or prepaid cellular bill in store with Apple Pay. Most cellular providers allow you to overpay your bill online; if they’ll let you do that in-store then you can pay out your cell bill for the next while and lock in the 10-20% discount with Apple Pay.

[Just keep in mind that if you have a post-paid plan,  there is a different deal available currently of $10 off $75 with an Amex Offer. That offer just gets you ~13% off, but it’s easier as it can be done online and it doesn’t require fighting with Discover over it. Overall many may prefer it.]

Another interesting thing that occurred to me is to purchase phone refill cards to pay for your prepaid cellular bill. These can be purchased in Walgreens, Best Buy and many other NFC-enabled stores. Just be careful to verify that they’ll work for your plan. (They usually work for prepaid plans, not postpaid, and they may not work for all plans.)

The big question here is whether phone refills will classify as a gift card. I tried pushing Discover’s media team on Twitter for an answer, but they wouldn’t budge from their ‘call in’ attitude and thus we don’t have any public statement on this.

I think if you pushed hard enough you can get this one to work since buying a phone refill is more like paying up your prepaid phone bill to Walgreens who forwards it to your cellular carrier, similar to paying your cell bill directly to your carrier. But there’s no guarantee Discover will honor it.

If this works, it would mean that anyone with almost any prepaid plan can prepay out the next year’s worth (or whatever) of their cell bill and lock in the Apple Pay discount.

Option #5 – Reselling Merchandise

Many are looking into reselling merchandise to max out on the $10k with Apple Pay. Staples and Best Buy are favorites there. Keep out an eye for the Black Friday deals as well.

Note that you’ll still have to submit receipts for these since Discover is denying most large purchases, but they should come through with a claim.

Option #6 – eBay $5 Promo

You can resell using the eBay $5 promo if you were targeted for it. Yeah, I know, this is reselling again, but it’s really an awesome offer and warrants separate mention.

The eBay seller fees are usually 10% (for ordinary sellers); using this targeted offer there is a max fee of just $5.

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We mentioned this offer quickly in a roundup post some time ago. At the time, we were still hoping/assuming that Apple Pay would work with gift cards and reselling wasn’t a pressing agenda for anyone. If you are considering jumping into reselling to maximize the Discover promo, this eBay offer is really an awesome deal.

You could potentially go to an Apple store and buy up iPads or iWatches or iPhones and resell them on eBay for the amount you paid, without paying much in fees at all. Let’s say you buy something for $500 and sell it on eBay for the same.

  • Pay $5 to eBay, or 1%
  • Pay 2.9% to Paypal
  • Spend $5-$10 in shipping, or 1-2%
  • Total fees: 5-6%
  • Update: I completely forgot about sales tax (which most states have) and will make a significant hit to your bottom line

If you get 22% back from Discover and take a 5% hit on the sale, you’re still up 17%. And the beauty of this idea is that you can do many thousands of dollars in one trip to an Apple store; no dealing with buying one $300 iPad at a time from Staples. Not all items, of course, will sell on eBay for the same amount you paid in an Apple Store, but you may be able to find some items that do.

It’s important to stress that there are risks here and it’s probably not worth it for someone who doesn’t have experience with reselling, but for some this can be an option. I’m not sure I’ll use this eBay offer for the Apple Pay deal since I don’t have enough experience with it, but I do intend to make use of the eBay offer for some gift card sales and to get rid of a few things that I’ve been meaning to get rid of for a while. Empty out your closets, folks!

Any other good ideas to maximize the Apple Pay promo? Hit the comments!

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gary
gary (@guest_205597)
December 4, 2015 11:27

I just received an email about a purchase I made in October, it was over $500 they said they would give a one time courtesy credit. There was one big issue. I did not buy any gift cards it was a purchase for a computer.

It looks like discover may not have a way of identifying what was actually purchased which may be why they asked others for receipts when they sent emails saying they would not get the credit. They may be using algorithms and then sending these emails. My biggest issue is that they waited 7 weeks before sending me the email. If they send one saying they will not pay and ask for a receipt on another legitimate purchase. I may not have a receipt to send. depends on their thresholds. If they ask for receipt of my trader joe purchase of $93 7 weeks after, I’m not going to have a receipt.

HaleyB
HaleyB (@guest_197460)
November 16, 2015 12:07

Two words: Price Protection.

Now more words 😉

I just bought 9k of iPads and a few other Black Friday items that look to be good sellers (camelX3 and fbatoolkit are good tools to check). I confirmed by secure message that Price Protection claims will not 100% cancel the Apple Pay payout. I can resell everything at a small profit after price protection (including tax paid in cost) so the 22% is all profit.

Discover may (I’m assuming will) adjust the rewards when they adjust the price so I have another 2k or so to spend. I’m in Austin and we were a test area for nfc payments so I’d have to search to find a place that didn’t accept Apple Pay. My Kohls takes it, not sure how widespread that is. Macy’s. HEB a local grocery store. Anthropology takes it and counts as a 5% location (one of my favorite overpriced stores).

Anthony
Anthony (@guest_197478)
November 16, 2015 12:56

Where did you buy the Apple products?

What’s the best way to see which are going to be good resell items?

Thanks!

anisap
anisap (@guest_196968)
November 14, 2015 22:06

Does anyone know how we can alternatively use Apple Pay to pay at AT&T at stores as Discover is declined apple pay transaction done at AT&T Stores. I have to pay off both my iphone.

anisap
anisap (@guest_196946)
November 14, 2015 20:42

Discover declined AT&T in-store transaction done via apple pay (when I called Discover they told they have encryption issue with AT&T). Do we have any alternative way to pay off iPhone charges instead of paying monthly phone rental for 2 3 years.

Calvin
Calvin (@guest_196922)
November 14, 2015 19:47

Does anyone know if eBay issues 1099-MISC if you sell over a certain annual limit on eBay? If so, federal taxes would really kill the eBay resell angle

M. Smith
M. Smith (@guest_196806)
November 14, 2015 10:05

So, like other timid folks, I was holding out until we knew what would happen to gift cards. Well, now that we know, what’s the chance of still doing one big, say ~$1000, gift card purchase today and getting the “one time courtesy credit” at this point?

Dealchaser
Dealchaser (@guest_196810)
November 14, 2015 10:26

I’d say zilch. It’s not that they’ve granted everyone’s first gc purchase; afaik it’s only the ones before the gc exclusion was added.

Dealchaser
Dealchaser (@guest_197270)
November 15, 2015 21:35

I may have been too hasty…I’m catching up on last week’s data points on Reddit and it looks like some people are reporting getting the courtesy credit as late as Oct. 1. No idea if you’d still have a chance.

tingyu66
tingyu66 (@guest_196284)
November 12, 2015 15:51

Thx, Chuck, really helpful. I just wonder can I use apple pay to purchase NORDSTROM gc in walgreen to get a 10% or 20% off NS purchases?

Dan
Dan (@guest_202644)
November 26, 2015 17:46

But buying a merchant gift card directly from a merchant is ok (i.e. Idea #1)?

I’d like to stock up on gift cards to trader joes and sprouts, but not sure if I should take the chance on only earning 2%.

Dan
Dan (@guest_196113)
November 11, 2015 23:38

Given discover’s shady behavior in this whole situation, I have no issue buying large amounts of electronic in late december, and returning at a later date. Max out your credit limit, and return.

Anthony
Anthony (@guest_196210)
November 12, 2015 09:46

How would this work? Wouldn’t they claw back the cashback once the credit goes back on your card when you return the items?

bryan
bryan (@guest_195986)
November 11, 2015 14:16

Hey I have a question for everyone who’s doing this for resale. Is there something you can do to avoid paying sales tax? I’d rather not resell for MSRP on eBay and take the hit for 8% or so tax on the original purchase. I’m in California by the way.

Can you bring a state resale certificate to Staples, Best Buy, or the Apple Store and not pay sales tax? Can you just pay it and get refunded for it later when you sell the item and charge tax for it? And what about sales to other states?

Sorry for the noob question.

K. Patel
K. Patel (@guest_196088)
November 11, 2015 20:51

Anyone living in Delaware, Montana, Oregon, and New Hampshire? They don’t have to worry about Sales Tax. Even who are living very near to these states borders can cross over for high amount purchases.

Charuhans
Charuhans (@guest_196268)
November 12, 2015 14:50

The moment you show the resale certificate you are declaring that you are a reseller. We know what Staples thinks of resellers. You will be banned from making any purchases. Many stores are catching up with this and make resellers very unwelcome. So be careful if you intend to be in the reselling business for beyond the Discover deal.

JBrooks
JBrooks (@guest_195974)
November 11, 2015 13:41

As far as buying electronics go, Best Buy has been my go to location since this deal started. I took advantage in October and got myself a new camera and lens, apple TV, and printer which got me 1% + 10% back through Apple Pay (+another 11% in a year), and then charged $1 to my best buy card which gave me another 10% in best buy rewards certificates which i’ll use on black friday.

You can still get 5% back this month on a purchases, and if you don’t have a best buy credit card to take advantage of, you can still take advantage of black friday deals right now (for yourself or to resell) using discovers price match guarantee.

good luck!

Ricardo
Ricardo (@guest_196141)
November 12, 2015 02:32

Can you explain more on how this works with best buy credit card? Will you get full credit if you only put $1 on card and pay the rest with apple pay? Just got the best buy credit card last week to buy a TV and will be picking it up Saturday and they are running promotion on getting 10% back in points on first purchase. Really want to get the most out of this purchase and know how to do it right.