Update 6/27/20: Rakuten is offering $45 cash back for first time subscribers. They are offering 15 bottles for $90 plus tax. Going through Rakuten has triggered the amex e-mail for at least one reader (sent via e-mail on 6/26). That means you’d get 15 bottles for ~$25. Hat tip to reader Michael B. Update: Others are saying that this is NOT triggering the e-mail.
The Offer
No direct link, check your AmEx Offers to find this deal
- Get a $20 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to make a single purchase of $20 or more online at wineinsiders.com by 10/31/2020. Limit of 3 statement credits (total of $60).
The Fine Print
- Offer valid for purchases made online at wineinsiders.com only.
- Excludes voucher purchases, taxes and shipping costs and promotional offers through www.wineinsiders.com/promos/ , www.wineinsiders.com/promotion/ , www.wineinsiders.com/collections/ , and www.wineinsiders.com/vouchers.
- Excludes Refer A Friend promo codes at Checkout.
- Offer not available for delivery to AK, AL, AR, DE, HI, KY, MS, RI, SD and UT. See merchant website for additional terms and shipping policy.
- Must be 21 years or older to purchase and to consume alcohol, please drink responsibly.
Our Verdict
We wrote a few weeks back about stacking deals with Wine Insiders. Looks like this offer has fine print to try disallowing stacks (it’s possible they changed the coding for payments that have promo codes attached). Ordinary promo codes should still work, I think (?), since it only excludes offers which use a dedicated site. You can also go through Topcashback and get $4 back per order (other options here).
I haven’t analyzed well if there are any free/good deals to be had here, hopefully a wine expert will help us out in the comments. There is a minimum 3 bottles to checkout, plus, there’s usually a shipping charge, so you can’t get a free bottle or anything like that, but there might be deal scenarios that make sense.
Hat tip to reader Mawn and Dennis
FYI tomorrow (8/26) Wine Insiders is having a Summer Clearance sale on wines for $6.49. If you’re on their email list there’s a link to the sale today. Six wines $6.49 with free shipping minus $20 AMEX credit comes out to $3.16 per bottle. Only a little more than two buck chuck but delivered. Edited to add: I used the link in today’s email and received the Great News! You just used your Amex Offer email.
Like some others, I used a promo code on the order and it showed up as “Wine Insiders Promo Offer” without triggering a credit. I messaged Amex and they offered $5. That plus the promo discount was ~$20 anyways, so I’m whole from that standpoint.
The promo was advertised on the main page of the site, not one of the pages specifically excluded in the terms, so this feels a little scammy on WI’s end.
Anyone have any experience buying one of the cheap wines plus shipping and then receiving the credit from AMEX? (as the offer excludes taxes and shipping which they usually don’t do in their offers)
As a follow up, I did call AMEX after my $20 credit for buying Wine Insiders “sale” wine didn’t post (it seems like only non-sale wine will trigger the credit, which is both silly and not what the terms of the offer actually say). The rep manually credited me the 20 bucks. That said, I was using a Platinum card and have been an AMEX cardholder for decades, so YMMV. But definitely worth a call if you’ve already ordered and didn’t get your credit. Personally, I would not place a new order hoping to get the credit because it’s not worth the hassle/risk.
Oops. My order coded as Wine Insiders Promo because I used a code and thus no Amex Credit. I should’ve read closer.
How did folks upload/customize their profile pictures next to the user name>
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/how-to-get-an-image-next-to-your-comment-on-doctor-of-credit/
I don’t think the Rakuten combines. The subscription page URL is the following:
https://wineinsiders.com/promos/WIS-QRTLY12WS
which clearly is under “promos”
Serious wine geek here. Most / all of the stuff on that site is junk. The price which looks cheap is actually expensive for what they are selling. They take bulk/tank wine, bottle it with their own ‘brand’, and sell it with discounts to make it look like a bargain. If you want to get a deal, and buy wine online, take a look at the wine.com site, get stewardship, and start prowling for promo codes. They have lots of legit $6-10 wines net that are real estate wines. There is a good thread on wineberzerkers website called online coupon codes to look at if you need a start.
Wineinsiders is basically selling low end sausage byproduct from slaughterhouse leftovers and trimmings, calling it ‘meat’, and baiting people with ‘discounts’. There are a lot of sites like that though.
I know everyone here wants to get good value, but remember that price isn’t the only component of value!
How much would you value their $10-14 bottle wines? Should they really be valued at $4-7 bucks per bottle?
I signed up for the subscription but it’s coded as Wine Insiders Promo and no Amex Credit.
So I got an email for this a few days ago, then when I clicked on it it signed me up for some amex offer called goldbelly. No clue what that is. Chat rep had no idea how to fix. Suggestions?
I purchased the subscription via rakuten about 3 weeks ago. The $45 cash back tracked, but the charge showed up as ‘Wine insiders Promo’ on my amex statement, no $20 amex credit was applied.
i also got this yesterday with a non-subscription purchase. I’ll wait a few weeks but it’s worth following up with amex via chat if your credit hasn’t posted – it might work out.
Thanks I haven’t tried contacting Amex but it might be worth a try
Did you contact Amex? Same charge showed up for me just now
did you tt amex and try to get the credit?