Do you love getting rewards for shopping?
The Shop Your Way Rewards program allows you to do just that, but there is so much more to the program than some measly points on each purchase. So fasten your safety belts and keep your hands inside the compartment, because once you learn how to maximize your points it’s a wild money saving ride.
Understanding Shop Your Way Rewards
On its face the Shop Your Way (SYW) program is pretty simple. You make purchases at any of the stores that are part of the Sears Holding Corporation and receive 1% cash back in the form of points.
The points stay on your account until you decide to use them. The varying stores can look up your account using your phone number and they can apply your points to any purchase. This includes sale items and clearance.
Ways to earn
- Shopping – the most obvious, but you need to know which store give and accept the points. The stores include: Sears, KMart, Lands’ End, MyGofer, Sears Auto Centers, Sears Grand, Sears Hardware, Sears Home Appliance Showroom, Sears Home Services, Sears Hometown Stores, and Sears Outlet.
- Online Portal – ShopYourWay.com is actually an online portal where you can purchase items. This gives you extra points if you click through there.
- Link Your Credit Card – Just like using the online portal, if you link your credit card to your Shop Your Way account you can get points by shopping at participating partners. You can see the whole list on the SYW website but the amusing partners to me were: Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy. This means you can shop at KMart and sears competitors and then go use the rewards.
Membership Levels
There are three main categories of Membership in the SYW program:
- Base Member – You get this level just for signing up to the program. You get your 1% and pretty much nothing else.
- Bonus Member – Fill out your information and include your cell phone number and email address and you move up to a bonus member. Bonus members get surprise points offers and bonus points offers (covered below). You want these so fill out the info.
- VIP Member – There are actually three levels of VIP status that are based on your spending for the year. You reach silver level when you spend $2500, Gold when you spend $5000, and Platinum when you hit $10000 of spending. I have yet to hit any of these levels and still get amazing deals at all the stores. if you do a lot of shopping then the perks of these membership levels are worth going for, but I wouldn’t overspend just to reach the VIP level. You can see all the extra perks of being a VIP HERE. The one really cool one is they give you coupons for $4.99 oil changes.
Bonus Points
Bonus points are offers that come to your email that have very specific parameters. They usually come as a result of signing up for something new at one of the many stores in Sears Holdings (SHLD).
Surprise Points
Surprise points are magical points that just appear in your SWY account. You have to be signed up as a Bonus Member to get them and they are why it is completely worth it to give Shop Your Way your email. 99% of the time these points can only be used at the main line Sears and KMart stores. They can frequently be used with clearance and sale items and are a great way to boost your savings. My most recent one was $10 off a $20 purchase and that worked on sale and clearance items.
Multiple surprise points offers do not typically work together and you have to guess which offer will trigger first. In my experience usually the best offer does trigger but you should pay attention. The surprise points do work with your normal rewards points.
You should get an email for your surprise points but they frequently get sent to junk. The best way to check is to log into your account and go to the surprise points section. I do this about once a week.
Shop Your Way MAX
This is a free shipping program similar to Amazon Prime. It is $39 a year and gives you free two day shipping. On top of that you get double base points (2% back instead of 1%) and $3 in point every month to use during the first two weeks. You can check it out and get a free 90-Day trial before making the purchase.
SIGN UP HERE for the Shop Your Way Rewards Program
Hacks to the System
There are several things you need to know to maximize your points. By doing these you will have a better chance to roll over points from one purchase to the next.
- Never Use Points to Pay the Whole Bill – I know this seems crazy coming from a guy nicknamed The Saving Freak, but you should never pay your whole bill with your Shop Your Way points. This is because if you do the system will not reward you with points on the current purchase.
- Gift Cards – Shop Your Way attaches to a credit card. Link your SYW account to a rewards credit card. Now when you buy a gift card do it from a partner store like Target (who has a ton of different gift cards you can purchase). So now, instead of getting just the rewards credit card cash back, we also get an additional 1% in SYW rewards. If you do this at Macy’s you can get both SYW and Plenti points
- Shop For Small Stuff – If you need something small stop in at KMart instead of the other big boxes. This is because each shopping trip is an extra chance to get surprise points. There is almost no difference in price on most items. Last time I stopped at KMart I got $7 off Men’s clothing.
Triple Dip Your Rewards at KMart
That’s right I said triple dip. Here is the real kicker with KMart, they are a part of three different rewards programs. Since this article is a review of Shop Your Way Rewards, that is the obvious one. What is amazing is that KMart also participates in the Plenti Points program from American Express, and the Fuel Rewards Network. Whenever you purchase anything from the grocery section of your KMart store you should get rewards from all three of these programs.
I will be the first to tell you that getting Fuel Rewards and Plenti hooked up to your Shop Your Way account is a real pain in the backside. It has taken me more than five tries on each one to get it right, but once you have it all synced up you get a magical mix of three rewards programs at once. Throw in a cash back credit card that specializes on Groceries and you could be getting as much as 8% cash back.
How I use Shop Your Way Points
I like to roll my points. That means I wait for the right bonus offer to come around where I can use my points to make a purchase that generates more SYW rewards points. If you partner that philosophy with the three hacks above you can really maximize your savings. To give you an example. I just used my surprise points and rewards points to purchase two pairs of jeans for my four year old for $4.50. I then received my $7 off Men’s clothing coupon and a couple of other offers that didn’t apply to me.
Overall Shop Your Way Rewards has become one of my favorite programs and has saved my family a ton of money on purchases for stuff we really need.
ChrisInSD says
Would be good to mention here that an issue for SYW points is they expire in 1 year from the date earned–continued earning/redeeming activity does to spare them from the axe like with airline miles. So you can’t save up these points to buy a new appliance package or a set of tires, for example. This can be a turn off to some shoppers.
Would note that SYW point seem to only work at Sears-owned vendors. So for example, even though Sears has a great “marketplace” shopping experience on their website, you cannot redeem your SYW points for purchases from these merchants. I think with Amazon, you can use your Amazon credit card rewards points for use for all Amazon and Amazon marketplace merchant purchases.
Also, SYW has a rewards credit card which can also boost earnings and provide additional SYW offers to devotees of this program.
I like SYW and am a big fan of Kenmore products, but this program requires a lot more attention than others.
Pitfalls include:
*Bonus points expire frequently (like in 7-14 days).
*If you return things purchased with points they will refund the points first, then the cash. Example: You spend $150 on two $75 items and paid $75 with SYW points and $75 with your credit card. You return one of the items. They will refund your points and no cash. If those points were bonus points, or over 12 mos old, then they will refund you EXPIRED points, aka NOTHING.
*If you attempt to redeem above a certain amount of your SYW points in store you need to have a PIN number to enter into the register, which most people don’t know, defeating your attempt to use the points.
SYW may appear generous, but is designed with so much fine print, clawbacks, and generally unfair terms it easily trips up people that are not detailed. This is clearly BY DESIGN to limit the cost of the program to Sears.
Rob says
As someone who used to work at Sears, ChrisInSD’s comment does not surprise me.
I’m curious: if one gets the Sears MasterCard (which now seems to be emblazoned with the ShopYourWay logo), do they still offer the targeted 10% back offers? It seems these used to be received in Citi ThankYou points – is that still the case, or (if the offers are still even a thing on newer accounts) does it give the 10% back in ShopYourWay points?
From what I can tell, SYW points seem pretty restrictive, and unless you monitor it seems pretty difficult to keep the return rate maximized and also get good value out of the points.
Chuck says
Shop your way is a great program. It does require attention, but for one who is a a diehard, craftsman, kenmore and overall sears fan, it goes way beyond my expectations. There are always tools or smaller items I can basically get for free to keep my points from expiring. I haven’t shopped at Amazon for over 10 years and can’t stand their tactics.
Sears has been great for me in the customer service area and I would really be bummed out to see them disappear.
To get the best deal, you must do some research into the suppliers for Sears. They have some great products and great service (as long as you read the fine print and act in a friendly manner.)