American Express is currently running a Sync Offer which gives cardholders a one time $15 rebate on a $75 or larger purchase at Home Depot (see this Quick Deal for more info). You must first enroll your Amex card(s) to qualify. One way to get a lot out of promotions like these is to enroll multiple Amex cards (see “Maximizing Amex Sync offers. Part 1: sync multiple cards”). You can enroll primary Amex cards, authorized user cards, Amex Serve prepaid cards, and even Amex Serve subaccounts.
To save 20% on all of your Home Depot purchases, enroll a bunch of Amex cards in this promotion and then head over to Home Depot to buy Home Depot gift cards. Ask to pay $75 at a time, and each time swipe a different enrolled Amex card. Each of your card accounts should then receive $15 back automatically from American Express. Once you have the Home Depot gift cards in hand, you can save even more by using coupons and/or by shopping online through a portal.
If you don’t have any purchases to make at Home Depot, you can still do well by going to Home Depot and buying gift cards to other merchants. A helpful reader sent me photos of his local Home Depot gift card rack, and I took some of my own, then I used those photos to create the table below. The table shows all of the gift cards (that I could make out in the photos) available at Home Depot.
Yes, Home Depot has some attractive money-like products such as REloadit cards, but they do not accept credit cards for those purchases. I tried all of the variable load options, but all were coded in the register as cash-only. Fixed value Visa, MasterCard, and Amex cards are fair game though. The table below includes a column showing whether or not I think that Home Depot accepts credit cards for each gift card. I haven’t tried all possible combinations so at this point this is just my best guess. Please let me know if I got any of the details wrong.
Gift Cards by Type | Pay w/ Credit Card? |
Entertainment and books | |
AMC Theatres | Y |
Fandango | Y |
iTunes | Y |
Ultimate Game Card | Y |
Amex/MasterCard/Visa/Reloads | |
American Express gift card ($25, $100) | Y |
MasterCard ($25, $50, $100) | Y |
MasterCard $120 4 pack | Y |
GreenDot Cash Reload | N |
GreenDot Prepaid MasterCard | N |
GreenDot Prepaid Visa | N |
PayPal reloadable MasterCard | N |
PayPower Visa Prepaid Card | N |
REloadit card | N |
Visa ($25, $50, $100) | Y |
Visa $75 3 pack | Y |
Phone | |
AT&T Go | Y |
Net10 | Y |
payLo | Y |
T-Mobile | Y |
Tracfone | Y |
Virgin Mobile | Y |
Restaurant | |
Applebees | Y |
Buffalo Wild Wings | Y |
Burger King | Y |
Cheesecake Factory | Y |
Chili’s | Y |
Cold Stone Creamery | Y |
Cracker Barrel | Y |
IHop | Y |
Little Ceasars | Y |
Longhorn Steakhouse | Y |
Macaroni Grill | Y |
Maggiano’s | Y |
Noah’s | Y |
Olive Garden | Y |
On the Border | Y |
Outback Steakhouse | Y |
Panda Express | Y |
Panera | Y |
PF Changs | Y |
Red Lobster | Y |
Red Robin | Y |
Ruby Tuesday | Y |
Starbucks | Y |
Steak N Shake | Y |
Subway | Y |
TGI Fridays | Y |
Store / Gas | |
BP | Y |
Shell | Y |
The Home Depot | Y |