How to Get the Most from Best Buy's Reward Zone Membership

I haven't paid full price for anything from Best Buy for at least a year now, and most importantly, new release games. I wanted to share with you how I pull it off, and how it works.



First of all, start with Best Buy's Reward Zone program. Basically, signing up for this program earns you a point for every dollar you spend at Best Buy. Earn 250 points, and you get a $5 gift certificate. You can get bigger certificates by saving up more points. 500 for a $10, 750 for $15, and so on. The key to my system is setting your reward zone certificate award level very high. I have mine set at 1000 points, or $20. This is because the system will automatically deduct the points when I have 1000, and issue me a $20 certificate. This process takes about 5 days from the time it deducts the points until you actually get to use the certificate, which is a pain. I don't know why, but that's the way it works. What I have found, however, is that if you have your points setting high, you can cash in your points yourself for a certificate of lower value, instantly.

So say I have my setting at 1000 points, and I have 789 points. If I click on 'request a certificate now' I can instantly print off a certificate for $15, instead of waiting until the system sees I have enough points for 1000, and takes the 5 days to actually issue me the certificate. This is key to my system, since whenever I buy anything, I always have a gift certificate in hand.

The next part of my system the Reward Zone Gamer's Club. This club gives you 500 points (or a $10 certificate) for every $150 you spend in games and game related accessories. In addition to that, they will run special deals where you get 500 points for buying new release games in the week they come out, or for pre-ordering them. Also, they have a special deals section where they have exclusive sales and coupons you can print out on older games. I got Blur for $10 this way, and getting $30 in gift certificates for buying Halo: Reach on the day it comes out.

Between the two, as long as you buy one new release game a month, you basically always have a gift certificate available for some amount of $10 or greater. The two points stack together, and once you get into a rhythm with it, you will always have discounts on new release games. The best part about all of this is, both the Reward Zone program, and the Gamer's Club, are free.