Gift card churning data collection thread

PedroNY, I don't know the answer, but it would be great to find out. Care to try it? Here's an easier approach to get the Walmart gift card:
1. Buy EBay gift cards at OfficeMax using either an Ink Bold for 5X points or an Amex business card for 5% back via OPEN Savings
2. Use EBay gift cards to buy $500 Walmart card. Usually goes for about $485. You'll also get 2% back in EBay bucks.

No points yet from buying Home Depot card through the UR mall. Did anyone else try it?

Also, if you're interested in buying gift cards for 6% cash back (at any grocery store), this seems to be a decent offer since you can earn cash back not just from signing up yourself, but also by referring friends. I received an alert that this was a new offer. I'm not sure how it differs from the old offer, but here you go:

Blue Cash Preferred(SM) Card from American Express
Marketing Bullets:

• Earn $150 cash back after spending $1,000 in eligible purchases in the first 3 months of Cardmembership
• 0% intro APR on purchases for 12 months, flexibility to pay over time
• Get 6% cash back at supermarkets, 3% cash back at gas stations and department stores, and 1% cash back on all other purchases
• NO spend minimum, NO enrollment, and NO rotating rewards categories
• Get a $75 Referral Bonus for each friend or family member who is approved for the Card
• The annual fee pays for itself. With 6% cash back at supermarkets, if you spend just $25 weekly at your supermarket, you can receive over $75 cash back from these purchases alone.

If you do want to signup, please consider going through the link on my Preparing for Miles page (near the bottom).

I have the Blue Cash Preferred... got it late last year before I discovered churning, Milepoint, and all associated with that. I do use it sometimes for groceries, though I'm also in the category where most of my spending goes towards new card minimums. I also have the Chase Freedom, though, and since groceries and gas aren't uncommon 5% categories there, I end up using the Amex less than expected. I like 5 UR points over 6% cashback, and definitely over 3% (which is the case for the current quarter). That said, I still fully expect to get back more than the $75 fee, and if I don't, it has a free version (3% groceries, 2% gas, I think) I can swap down to. My grocery store has a solid gift card selection, too, which helps.

Can you buy OfficeMax gift cards online to get 4 UR pts or 3 AA pts, get your 5% back with the Ink Bold/Amex Business, and then use the OfficeMax gift cards to buy Amazon/Ebay gift cards from OfficeMax?

I don't know if that would work, but it would be awesome if it did! My guess is that you won't be able to buy gift cards at OfficeMax using OfficeMax gift cards, but I've never tried it.

Did you notice that Groupon is back at UR @ 12 points?

Yep, great news! I wrote about its return here: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2012/02/02/groupon-is-back/

Really? I would think that would be fine - is that a general policy?

I can see them not allowing re-buying OfficeMax GCs, but for other stores?

Maybe as a fraud prevention method, I could see. You could launder a stolen credit card pretty effectively that way, I suppose.

I tried the Office Max gift card and it doesn't work. Per, Office Max, you can't buy a gift card (all gift cards at the store) with Office Max gift card. I did get the 5% back from Amex Open.

Thanks for the info! I'll update my Lab page since I get this question a lot

If I have a store gift card (for example, Lowes or Homedepot), can I use this gift card to purchase other gift cards (for example, regular Visa/MC/AMEX gift card or some restaurant's gift card)? I see that you can purchase Lowes gift card online (you can get cash back from Mr. rebates), so I was wondering if I can use Lowe's gift card to purchase gift cards.

I have never come across a store that will let you do that, but I've only tried at a few groceries that sell gift cards.

I haven't been able to buy visa/mc/amex gift cards using any merchant gift cards, but I have been able to buy merchant gift cards at Sears and kmart using Sears/Kmart gift cards. Also at Walgreens you can buy other merchant gift cards using Walgreens gift cards.

Has anyone had experience double dipping with Sally beauty supply in the UR mall?

A few days ago my wife booked a room using Priceline, and after the 10th or so time that I've reminded her that she missed out on points by not using the UR mall (to make it worse she used a non-rewards card instead of our sapphire prefferred), she made her first purchase through the UR mall today. After she looked around she saw that Sally's awards points on gift cards, her first question was, if I buy a gift card wait till it comes in and use it online, do I get the points twice? I was so proud....

Great story! No idea about Sally Beauty. Good luck.

I was just at a Lowes today and they have a sign posted located where they sell their gc's that states you cannot use Lowes gc to purchase other gc.

When the T & Cs say not eligible on gift cards, does it mean if you use a gift card to purchase, you don't get the points, or if you buy a gift card, you don't get points? I'm looking specifically at Lowe's.

I hate when they say that because there is no way to know! More often than not I think it means you don't get points for buying gift cards, but I don't know in this case.

I posted one more idea on another site:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mile...using-ink-card-tax-payments.html#post18407325

What do you think about buying visa card from staples through ur mall, then using this card to buy another visa card from staples through ur mall?

I've always wanted to do that, but the cost of the Visa is more than $100 and Staples won't let you apply two forms of payment to the one order so as far as I know it is impossible to actually do.

Buy some paper from Staples and apply staples rewards

I also noticed yesterday that Kmart sells prepaid visa cards with no fee. It says on a card its a promotion.

Just noticed on onevanilla website:
Upgrade
to MyVanilla Card -
COMING SOON!

Get a personalized card with unlimited reloads. Use it for direct deposit or at the ATM.

Yep, Im looking forward to learning about that one. There are also a couple of existing options that I'll write about soon

I am assuming Vanilla cards won't work at automated gas pumps where 5-digit zipcodes are required? Of course, I could always pay inside...