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Two cautionary tales in one week…and it’s only Wednesday, geez!
Let this serve as a lesson that to be successful in this hobby you have to detail oriented.
WHAT WAS I THINKING!?
I like to think of myself as ‘extremely thorough and detail oriented’ in life, particularly when it comes to financial matters (my wife just said from the other room “the key word: THINK”) 🤣
Over the past year, I’ve written several times about Amex and Chase Offers. If you’re not familiar with these offers, they are an opportunity to earn additional points or receive statement credits for purchases that you have made with specific retailers. Ultimately, it’s a great opportunity to save on purchases you were were going to make anyway.
Amex has had these offers for a long time but last year Chase jumped into the game too.
Initially, Chase directed these offers to clients that had personal cards (not business cards). However, over the past year, Chase has ramped up in the variety of offers and has extended the program to their business cards.
For example…
SAVE 10% BACK LOWE’S
With this Chase Offer, you can earn 10% back on your Lowe’s purchase (with a maximum of $13.00 back). In other words, the offer tops out with a purchase of $130.
As you can see, the terms also state:
Offer valid one time only. Offer expires 11/19/2020. Payment must be made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on third-party delivery services. Payment must be made on or before offer expiration date.
I had some planned purchases and Lowe’s happens to carry the items that I need, so this was great timing. I went to Lowe’s and made my purchase.
Generally, when you make the purchase and a Chase offer (or Amex offer) is redeemed, you will receive an email immediately. This time, however, I did not receive an email.
Again, I think of myself as detail-oriented so I thought I may not have met the terms and conditions with the purchase but was confused why I did not.
When I arrived home, I logged into my Chase account to read the T&C’s again only to notice that I had READ the offer but had not ADDED the offer to my specific card.
I quickly added the offer to my card and hoped that when the pending purchase posted to my account, the offer would be activated.
24 hours later, that’s exactly what happened…
Although it says “the statement credit will be applied to your account in 7-14 business days,” it posted the next day.
FINAL STAMP
Ultimately, saving 10% is nice but not life altering. I was disappointed that I had not been as thorough as I usually am.
I learned that you can apparently add the Chase offer after making your purchase, but I would not recommend it. Fortunately, it worked it out.
Let this serve as a lesson…add your offers before you make the purchase!
Do you take note of your Chase Offers (or Amex offers) before making purchases?
1TattedPassport 