[12/14/15: We wrote a few updates on this offer, see Sears $20 Promo Coming Through – Much Better Than Expected!]
The Offer
Direct Link (scroll down, under ‘a few reasons to be jolly’)
Sears and Kmart are offering a holiday bonus for the purchase of Sears/Kmart gift cards. Valid until 12/25/15.
- Purchase $50 Sears gift card and get a free $10 Sears promo credit
- Purchase $100 Sears gift card and get a free $20 Sears promo credit
The terms don’t specify whether the gift card needs to be a physical gift card or an e-gift card; I’m pretty sure that both will work. (By default, the link brings you to the e-gift option.) Unclear if gift card reloads will work as well. The promo code doesn’t show up in your cart; it will just be sent out afterward via email within 10 days of purchase.
Sears gift cards never expire, and the promo card will be valid from 12/12/15 – 1/31/15.
The Fine Print
- Offer valid 12/6/2015 – 12/25/2015, online only.
- Promo card will be valid in-store or online 12/12/2015 – 1/31/2016.
- Limit (1) eAward card per transaction.
- Qualifying online purchases will automatically receive an eAward card via email within 7-10 days of purchase.
- $100/$50 thresholds must be met in a single transaction.
Limits
The big question here is whether you can get multiple $20 promo cards by buying $100 gift cards in separate transactions. The terms say, “Limit (1) eAward card per transaction.” I’m not sure if that is referring to the redemption of the eAward cards or the earning of the cards.
In any case, there is no explicit exclusion saying that you can only get this offer once total; hopefully there is no limit, and you can earn unlimited amounts of $20 eAward cards, one for each separate $100 gift card purchase.
Our Verdict
The deal is a good one on its own, but even better is that fact that Discover is now offering 5% back on Sears purchases, up to $1500, and many of us will get that doubled at year’s end to become 10%.
[Update] Important: The 5% will only work for e-gift card purchases or reloads purchases made at Sears.com. Physical gift card purchases made at Sears.com get processed through Kmart and won’t trigger the 5% bonus. For us, the e-gift card option is the sweet spot since it is eligible for the 5% Discover and it’s eligible for the $20 promo credit offer.
The Portal
Additionally, you can go through a shopping portal when purchasing the Sears gift cards. See all portal rates for Sears here.
Many shopping portals allow cashback on the purchase of Sears gift cards and e-gift cards while others exclude it. We rounded up the stated terms of the major portals here.
The best is Topcashback who explicitly includes gift cards, but Ebates and Shopathome should work okay as well. Currently, Topcashback is only offering 2% on gift cards, and I’d recommend using Ebates at 6% or Shopathome at 5%.
Note that not all the terms are necessarily enforced, and at least one recent report indicates that Cartera portals have been working in practice as well, although they officially exclude it. If you want to risk it, you can go through Splender for 7% or the Cartera mileage portal of your choice.
Also, note that the portal rates regularly go up for Sears. I’m optimistic about seeing 10% or possibly more within the next couple weeks, and probably some mileage bonus rates as well.
Final Haul
If all works out, you can buy $1500 in Sears gift cards in 15 separate transactions and pay for it with Discover. You’ll get back 10% from Discover and 6% with the portal. Plus the $20 promo card that amounts to a 16.6% discount. All told it would amount to 32.6% off the gift card.
And that’s before double-dipping when making the purchase. After double-dipping it can be close to 40% off by going through Splender!
[If you are new to Ebates, you’ll get another $10 for signing up and making a $25 purchase. Here is my Ebates referral link. Appreciate if you use it!]
HT: Slickdeals
