Part of my process for finding gift card deals is semi-frequently checking a few different locations that often have deals. These locations include Amex Offers, Bank Amerideals, ebay, the Safeway App, and the Fred Meyer (Kroger brand) App along with a bunch of blogs that post about deals. My most recent stop in my online Bank of America account resulted in two profitable opportunities via Bank Amerideals. While BoA’s credit card rebate offers trail far behind Amex in quality and quantity, they do still occasionally have some winners. For the next couple of weeks, Sears and Kmart are those winners, but they limit the maximum benefit pretty heavily, so don’t get too excited. On the other hand, if you can combine the deal with shopping portals it can become very worth your while.
Bank Amerideals are typically targeted and they don’t always match between accounts, so check your own account to see if you got the same one or something similar. Each of these caps the cash back rewards at $20, so any spending beyond $133.33 won’t get extra cash back. Last time I had this deal, I bought Shell gift cards inside Sears and then resold them for ~90% of their value. This made me a profit of $6.25 and 125 Alaska miles which is nice, but nothing special. I haven’t been to a Kmart in eons, but I imagine you would be able to find gift cards worth at least 85% of their value when resold if you want to generate a few extra miles. This probably isn’t your best option to maximize profit though!
Another option is to buy Visa gift cards if you have a way to unload them into cash. Purchasing a $200 one at sears for example will net the full $20 benefits which leaves over $10 in profit after the fees. I’m not sure if Kmart also sells prepaid cards, but that is an option there as well. We can still do better though.
A third option is to use your BoA card for regular spending at the store. While the Kmart one only works in store, the Sears deal can be used online which means you should be able to combine it with shopping portals. Double dipping by buying gift cards through a portal AND spending them through a portal is possible with Sears, so lucrative portal bonuses (there are a couple at the moment: Cashback Monitor – Sears) could reduce the price of your purchase significantly. If you can get the 10% bonus at Discover Deals to work with your BoA card and you are currently registered in the double cash back deal, we’re talking about a crazy amount of savings (or profit).
Let’s run the numbers:
- Purchase a $133.33 Sears gift card with your BoA card through the 10% Discover Deals portal.
- $20 back from the Bank Amerideal
- $26.66 back from the Discover Portal (10% doubled!)
- 133 Alaska Miles
- NOTE: You can simply sell the gift card to SaveYa right here for a ~$26 profit! Or…
- Purchase a $133.33 item from Sears using the gift card through the Discover portal
- $26.66 back from the Discover Portal (10% doubled again!)
- $1.33 back in Shop Your Way rewards if those have any value to you
- Realize you only paid $58.68 for a $133.33 item for savings of 56%
It’s hard to justify a trip simply for ~$7 in profit, but if you’re going to be shopping there anyway or are able to combine the deal with other offers, this Bank Amerideal can be quite lucrative. I’ll probably try for reselling a Sears gift card that I purchased through the Discover portal. There’s no guarantee it will pay out because I’m not using my Discover card, but the worst case scenario is breaking even on money and “profiting” 133 Alaska miles. All of this without having to drive somewhere which is always a plus.
Did you get targeted with the same offers? How do you plan to maximize it?
This is awesome except I’m not targeted for this BankAmeriDeals. So sad… It seems BankAmeriDeals are highly varied from account to account.
Yeah, I’ve noticed it varies very heavily by location and possibly spending habits. For example, I have a targeted offer for a local Burger joint that I visit for lunch semi-frequently. That offer wouldn’t make sense for anyone outside of Seattle.
I got 10% only 🙁
Still profitable, just not as much.
Do you plan to use it?
Not sure. I’ll probably use it if I need to make a purchase anyways. Thanks for making me check my account.
How do you earn Alaska miles with this deal?
The only credit cards I have through Bank of America are the Alaska Airlines cards, so whenever I use BankAmerideals, I get 1 Alaska mile per dollar spent.
Too bad, I didn’t get the offer this time
@Terry, it could be any credit card, but for Noah he has the Alaska Airlines card. Think of the Bank Amerideals as a roof and anything under it is eligible for the deal, but it’s a one time use.
My awesome ATT BankAmeriDeals actually worked! I payed two small amount of my ATT ($50 total) bills and got a $75 back. (It is supposed to be opening a new line + making two bill pays.) Eventually there is something good in BankAmeriDeals.