5x on Ebay Dying or Dead?
Over the past couple of months I have written quite a lot about gift card deals on eBay through both Paypal Digital Gifts and GiftCardMall. For some reason many of these purchases have been earning 5x Ultimate Rewards points with the Chase Ink. (See: Get 5x at eBay All Day!)
A few weeks ago I started to hear about some issues with purchases. Many people reported that purchases through GiftCardMall were no longer earning 5x and then during the last sale a few days ago people started reporting that purchases were showing as cash advances.
The Data
Within the past few days I have made purchases through both Paypal Digital Gifts and GiftCardMall on eBay. Here is what is happening:
As you can see, the purchase from GiftCardMall for $24 is coded as “Finance & Other” while the Paypal Digital Gifts purchase is coded as “Utilities”. Now lets look at how these purchases are earning points.
As expected based on the previous results, the GiftCardMall transaction coded as a purchase and not a cash advance, but only earned 1x. On the flip side, the Paypal Digital Gifts transaction earned the full 5x just like before.
Cash Advance Fees
Several commenters said their purchase the other day through GiftCardMall would not go through since they had their cash advance limits set to $0. As I have shown, I was not charged a cash advance fee on my purchase, although it only earned 1x. With that said, at least one commenter has said he was charged a cash advance fee, so keep that in mind when making future purchases from GiftCardMall.
Conclusion
It is sad that GiftCardMall purchases are no longer earning 5x Ultimate Rewards points, but at least we know Paypal Digital Gifts purchases are for the time being. With all of the cash advance issues, I will be steering clear of GiftCardMall eBay purchases.
My new plan is to purchase eBay gift cards through Paypal Digital Gifts that can then be used to buy discounted gift cards during sales from GiftCardMall! A bit more complicated but 5x is 5x!
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As an alternative I have been using GYFT.com and purchasing ebay GCs there resulting in 5X ink chase points. I bought $75 amazon GC from GYFT.com as of April 14th and it posted with 5X points. You do have to pay GYFT.com using your paypal account which has your ink chase CC linked to it. The charges will appear as “PAYPAL *GYFT”. They do seel variety of GCs including ebay GCs. There is no maximum amount although any large GC purchase of $500 or more is subject to 24 hrs approval. The codes was delivered instantly in your GYFT.com account and you go to your wallet to reveal the code.
Also, you get guaranteed 1% CB from ebates.com. TCB has higher CB but does not give any CB on ebay GC purchases. This has been my experience. If anyone has positive experience with TCB giving higher CB then I would like to know.
Enjoy !!
very interesting.
which merchant category does chase.com show for Gyft please?
thanks!
One the chase online account activity page the charges show as Utilities. On the UR page it shows as earning 1X followed by bonus 4X for a total of 5X. GYFT sells variety of GCs so I have been using them for 5X points whenever possible including ebay GC, papajohns, panera bread, etc. Enjoy!
Shawn, where do you get those 2 pics in the Chase login? Are you looking at the ordinary account activity tab or someplace else? (By me, in the “activity” tab, it doesn’t look like either of those 2 views; looks somewhat similar to the second view.)
The first pic is from the account activity. The second set with the points is under Account Activity when you go to the Ultimate Rewards site.
@milestomemories
what about non-gift card ebay & paypal purchases please? do any earn 5X?
thanks
No the 5x only seems to be on purchases of gift cards through Paypal Digital Gifts as of now. With that said, you could buy eBay gift cards and earn 5x and then use those gift cards to purchase anything on eBay.
so you could first buy PP GCs @5X with ink, then use the GCs to make purchases via PP? wonder if this would work for ebay fees.
thanks
Not sure about eBay fees, but it should work on any merchandise.
thanks.
unfortunately the max PP DGC is $100.
Yes, but you can buy multiples. For example, for a $270 purchase a couple of weeks ago I bought 3 x $100 eBay gift cards and then used the $30 balance later as a payment on one of these gift card deals.