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I recently logged in to my American Express account to check the offers and discovered one for $20 off of $20 spent at samsclub.com. Boom, free stuff! Wait, I’m not a Sams Club member… guess I can’t take advantage of this freebie. I decided to visit their website anyway to investigate. I discovered that not only could I purchase items, but I could actually do better than the free $20!
Turns out that Sams Club allows you to purchase online as a guest, even if you are not a member. They charge an extra 10% for non-members, but this actually became helpful (more on this later.) Simply create a guest account, and you will be able to add items to your cart and purchase them.
The next great discovery came at checkout. My wife and I both got the $20 off of $20 offer. She got the offer on her American Express Starwood Preferred Guest card, and mine was on my American Express Platinum card. Since we both had offers, I wanted to try to combine them for a larger purchase. Twenty bucks is nice, but with shipping considered, you can’t get much.
If you have access to multiple offers, you can use them for one purchase using the following strategy! At the checkout screen, you will be prompted to add a method of payment. Once you enter the card information, make sure NOT to check the box labeled “save this information for future purchases.” Repeat for the other card(s). Now, you should see each listed under payment options. To use these cards for payment, check the boxes next to the card names and enter the security codes. You should be given an option to split the payment between the cards. Now, enter $20 for the first card and the remaining balance on the other. Your cards will be charged separately, and you will receive a statement credit for $20 on EACH CARD! This will work for multiple cards, as long as each has at least $20 charged to it.
Now that you know the trick, what should you buy? Since this is a travel-focused site, I searched for luggage/backpacks. There are quite a few well-rated backpacks for $29.99, which happens to be the perfect price for this deal. Here’s how the price stacks up:
$3 non-Member fee is factored into the subtotal
Keep in mind, that we MUST spend at least $20 on each card to trigger the statement credit, so the 10% non-member fee actually helps us in this case. With this total, I split the price between our two cards as follows:
Viola! We get a new pack for our travels for a grand total of $1.29!! We chose to purchase a backpack, but any item listed for $29.99 should become almost free with this method. This mobile power bank is also a great travel option for this strategy! However, if you simply want to save $40 or more on any something you already planned to purchase, just use the same process at checkout. Some people are reporting that they purchased gift cards and received the credit, but YMMV. Before you make your purchase, be sure to activate your American Express offer and that you do not select the “pick up in store” option.
What will you buy with your free credits??
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Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Disclaimer: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
