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.)

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.

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.