Spend $20 at Gap, Old Navy, Sears, or Kmart and Receive a $20 Gift Card

Note: This is only for new Plink.com registrations.

Last month I posted for the first time about a loyalty rewards website called Plink.com. For those who are not aware, Plink allows you to earn rewards while making IN STORE purchases at various merchants (primarily restaurants and retail). Depending on the dollar value of the purchase, you’ll earn a certain number of “Plink” points which can be cashed out for a variety of gift cards (i.e., Amazon.com, Zappos, Walmart, etc.). It is a similar concept to the Airline/Hotel Dining Rewards program where you connect your credit card to the program and then earn points when using your registered credit card.

Currently, there are two different promotions going on, although you can only sign up for one, where new Plink members who spend $20 or more at the Gap, Old Navy, Sears, or Kmart will earn 2,000 Plink points, which you can cash out for a $20 gift card. So if you shop often at one of the gift card redemption merchants, you can think of this as $20 in free stuff at one of these four stores! Or, if you were going to shop at one of these stores anyways by the end date, you can think of this as $20 free at one of the redemption merchants!

How this works:

1. Sign up for Plink:
   
1. Sign up here for the $20 Gap or Old Navy promotion (expires 5/26/13)
2. Sign up here for the Sears or Kmart promotion (expires 5/19/13)
2. Link your credit card to your Plink account – I know many do not trust this concept so the choice is yours
3. Add the merchant you’ll be shopping at to your Plink Wallet account (if you sign up for the Gap/Old Navy promo add both Gap and Old Navy to your Plink account – or the one you’ll be shopping at; if you sign up for the Sears/Kmart promo add both Sears and Kmart to your Plink account – again, or the one you’ll be shopping at)
4. Shop IN STORE at the Gap, Old Navy, Sears, or Kmart (depending on the promo you signed up for) by the expiration date (5/26 for Gap/Old Navy or 5/19 for Sears/Kmart) and spend $20 or more in a single transaction on your registered credit card

In my experience the points have taken about a week to post, and they all did post – no follow up was needed! At this point you can cash out those points for a $20 gift card for the following: iTunes, Tango card (which can then be redeemed at many merchants such as: Target, Home Depot, Pottery Barn and REI, etc.), Amazon.com, Walmart, Kohl’s, Barnes & Nobles, Overstock.com, and Zappos. I personally have cashed out thus far at Amazon.com and it has been an extremely easy process. The certificate took about a day to be emailed to my account.

There is an option to cash out on airline miles, but as the CMO of Plink wrote in the comments section of my prior post, it a horrible redemption value. Here are the redemption values for miles/points

• 1000 Plink Points = 240 airline miles/loyalty program points
• 2500 Plink Points = 600 airline miles/loyalty points
• 5000 Plink Points = 1200 airline miles/loyalty points
• 10,000 Plink Points = 2400 airline miles/loyalty points

So the 2,000 points will get you 480 miles. Most would say that 480 miles is worth about $9.60, but it really depends on how you redeem. Unless you are able to get 5 cents per mile out of your airline redemption, I’d absolutely go with the gift card redemption!

Also, I was able to create another account using a different email address (for another family member) and link it up to one of my credit cards even though it has the same billing address. The only thing is that you cannot use two of the same banks – for example, you cannot use two Chase cards.

Let me know if you have any questions! I personally like the Plink concept and love that I can now get points for my in-store purchases.

Note: The Plink link listed is a special referral link. Make sure when registering the promotion you desire is marketing on the sign up page. Personal referral links and just going to Plink.com will not register you in the specific promotion.