End of Year Expiring Deals & How to Maximize
The end of year is rapidly approaching, which means there are a lot of killer deals that will soon expire. With only about 9 days left until we say goodbye to 2015, I thought I would recap some of the better expiring deals and how you can maximize them before it’s too late.
Special Note:Â I highly suggest using the Amex Offers at least a few days before 12/31. If the merchant doesn’t process your purchase until after the expiration, then you most likely won’t receive a credit. Some people who have waited until the last day have had issues with this in the past.
Discover Apple Pay Bonus Offer
Discover is paying a 10% bonus on up to $10K in spend when you use in Apple Pay in-store. This promotion excludes gift cards. If you have double cashback on your account the 10% will double to 20% at the end of your cashback year. Here are some ways to maximize the deal:
Purchase necessities in advance – My son needs a bus pass every month, but they aren’t activated until he uses them. Since Walgreens sells them with Apple Pay, we bought enough for the rest of the school year in advance to lock in the savings! We are doing the same thing with other necessities as well.
Reselling – Many aren’t comfortable with this, but it is an option. Look for stuff that would sell well outside of the holiday season.
Dollar General Amex Offer
The Offer:Â Receive a credit of $5 on a purchase of $25 or more. (Cannot be loaded anymore.)
How to maximize:Â Dollar General sells gift cards in $25 denominations, so this could be a good way to lock in a 20% discount. You can also sign-up for their DG Coupons service which sometimes has stackable savings.
Related: Dollar General – Which Gift Cards to Buy & How to Maximize
Newegg Amex Offer
The Offer: Receive a credit of $25 on a purchase of $200 or more. (Cannot be loaded anymore.)
How to Maximize: Newegg sells a ton of gift cards, but they also have decent priced merchandise sometimes. I have been doing a little reselling, but mostly I purchase $200 eBay gift cards when they are in stock. I can then roll those gift cards into other gift cards during their many sales. There are a ton of other gift cards though, so it doesn’t hurt to take a look.
Chase Freedom Visa Checkout Deal
The Offer: Use your Chase Freedom card with Visa Checkout to make a purchase of $15+ and receive a $15 credit.
How to Maximize: This one is simple. Find any store that takes Visa Checkout and pay with your Freedom. Do this before you forget. The easiest way to maximize would be to purchase a $15 gift card somewhere, which would net you a $15 credit.
Amazon Amex Offer
The Offer:Â Receive a credit of $15 on a purchase of $60 or more. (Cannot be loaded anymore.)
How to Maximize: I spend enough at Amazon throughout the year that I am purchasing Amazon gift cards and loading them to my account thus locking in a 25% discount. If you didn’t want to float that much money, you could find things to resell or even gift cards to resell, but that probably isn’t ideal.
Quick Tip: If you are purchasing gift cards on Amazon with this deal, then consider using your favorite blogger’s Amazon affiliate link. No portal will pay you for this purchase, so it doesn’t cost you anything. My link is to the right, however almost every blogger has one. The clicks definitely make a difference.
Walmart.com Amex Offer
The Offer:Â Receive a credit of $15 on a purchase of $35 or more. (Targeted)
How to Maximize: You can try to purchase eGift cards online, however it seems that Walmart is canceling a lot of those orders. If you want to try to get around this, you could purchase something and then return in-store without a receipt to get a store gift card. Not ideal, so I would definitely try to go the eGift card route first.
Toys ‘R Us Amex Offer
The Offer: Receive a credit of $5 on a purchase of $25 or more. (Can no longer be loaded.)
How to Maximize: This offer can be redeemed at either Babies ‘R Us or Toys ‘R Us. Similar to the Dollar General deal, you can purchase gift cards at 20% off. You may even be able to purchase small Toys ‘R Us gift cards and combine them into a larger TRU gift card which you can use for other things.
JC Penney Amex Offer
The Offer: Receive a credit of $10 on a purchase of $50 or more. (Can no longer be loaded.)
How to Maximize: As I wrote the other day, through 12/24 you can make this offer phenomenal, since you can stack it with an in-store promotion for a $25 off $25 coupon when you purchase $100 in gift cards. So if you redeem 2 Amex Offers, you can get $100 in store credit plus a $25 off $25 coupon for $80. Not bad.
Citigold Checking AAdvantage & ThankYou Offers
The Offer: Receive 50K ThankYou points or 50K AAdvantage miles after opening a Citigold account and completing the requirements.
My Take: Between my wife and I, this has turned out to be the single most lucrative deal of the year mileage wise. If you are slow to the game, see this group of posts for more information.
Staples Amex Offer
The Offer: Receive a credit of $20 on a purchase of $100 or more at Staples. (Can no longer be loaded.)
How to Maximize: If you aren’t going to buy merchandise, the best way to maximize this would be to purchase $200 Visa gift cards in-store and split the tender between two cards with the offer. This would net a $33.05 profit per $200 card purchased. You can do this online, however there is no split tender, so a $100 card nets a $13.05 profit that way.
Conclusion
Should you maximize each and every one of these offers? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strategically map out which ones mean the most to you. It is so easy to forget about deals until it is too late, so hopefully this has been a reminder of some of the better ones out there so you can save some money and earn some points!
There are even more offers expiring on 12/31 that I haven’t covered. You can see some of them on Deals Still Alive. Did I miss any big ones? What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
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I just tried buying $35 worth of tmobile e-refills from Walmart.com and it got cancelled. Any idea why Walmart is cancelling them?
They seem to be cancelling orders of eGift cards online. Frustrating.
Thanks so much for the summary. With the business of the holiday season I read many of the deals when they were posted but didn’t always have time to follow up. Went back today & used the Amazon deal I had added to my AmEx card a while back to buy a $60 gift card for later use ~ used your link affiliate link 🙂
[…] 10 Amazing Deals Expiring on 12/31 & How to Maximize Each One Before It’s Too Late – What you need to know about these deals that are expiring in the new year. […]
Amex/Airbnb?
in regards to the staples amex off what do you mean when you say “can not be loaded anymore”
thanks
Amex Offers have to be loaded or linked to a card. That offer has reached the limit and can no longer be loaded, but those who have it loaded can redeem before the end of the year.
[…] 10 Amazing Deals Expiring on 12/31 & How to Maximize Each One Before It’s Too Late. Not much I can add, it’s all here! […]
i still have some Amex Offer which is Best buy 199-25, I think. Odd for the 199 not 200
Yes! Good point. The Best Buy offer should have been on this list! Some stores carry $200 Visas as well.
@Carl – I hear you–a big shame! I took the approach to buy $35 in Walmart GCs to lock in future savings on something that I really can use and of good quality. Anyone know if one can use W GCs to buy other GCs they sell?
At least at my local WMs you can’t use a WM GC or even a credit card to buy GCs. Of course, YMMV.
I got the GCs because not everything at Walmart is crap. There are certain name-brand products (especially HBA) on which Walmart beats the prices of almost everyone. Also, many of their store-brand HBA are good. That said, I hate shopping there because of the confusing layout, clueless staff, and long checkout lines.
Just a follow up: currently Walmart has free shipping without a minimum order, so I can get the items I usually get at Walmart without having to set foot in the stinking place.
I buy online from Walmart. Pet food, cat litter, mustard, laundry detergent, potato chips, hair spray, TP – all can be delivered to my door for free and they sell name brands.
I used the 15 off 35 thing from Wal Mart and I would rather have paid full price with Amazon or anyone else for the crappy quality of claimed to be good stuff I got not to mention bad communication and slow shipping. Never again from Wal Mart even with Amex offers!!!
One thing to note about newegg for anyone not aware, you’re allowed to buy 1 gift card per 48 hours. This applies to your household and is not per person. So if you buy a $200 gift card right now you will need to wait exactly 48 hours from now before attempting a second order of $200 gift cards. Note, you can buy all of the ebay gift cards $5-$200 denomination per 48 hours as it’s per card/denomination.
I had a few orders cancelled in the beginning until I figured out what the issue was so hopefully that helps others too because it’s frustrating when you’re counting on the gift card to come through and you get the cancellation email.