Target Circle Week runs from July 7 through July 13th this year. This periodic sale event frequently offers great deals on electronics, home goods, furniture, and clothing. Circle Week can offer some of the best pricing you’ll find on items that you’re shopping for anyway.
If you’re a frequent Target shopper, you might be signed up for Target Circle and you might have a Target Circle Card. But you likely could be earning even more rewards on your Target purchases. Here’s how to get the best deals, the most rewards, and more cash back from Target Circle Week.
Access the deals: Sign up for Target Circle
You’ll need to sign up for Target Circle if you want to get in on Target Circle Week deals. That’s because Target Circle Week deals are available only to Target Circle members. Fortunately, signing up for the loyalty program is free and easy. You can become a members for free at Target.com/circle.
When Target Circle Week deals go live, you’ll be able to find them here: https://www.target.com/circle/deals. Target Circle Week deals can also be found in Target’s mobile app.
Get rewards from Target: Target Circle Bonuses
Target has done away with its flat-rate 1% cash back rewards on almost every purchase. Instead, Target offers Target Circle members rewards bonuses on purchase of specific items. These offers are often targeted, meaning you’ll see them based on your spending patterns, demographics, geography, or other factors. You’ll see these offers throughout Target’s site and on Target’s mobile app. You must be logged in to see these offers.
When you activate a Target Circle Bonus, you’ll receive rewards in the app that you can use for future Target purchases.
Credit card rewards and benefits: Use the right credit card
If you’re a frequent Target shopper, you probably know that you can get a 5% discount on most things you buy with the Target Circle Card. But that’s not necessarily the best card to use for Target. Other cards can give you as much as 6% cash back. But for more expensive purchases like electronics and smaller appliances, you might prefer to use a credit card with an extended warranty benefit.
When to use a card with extended warranty: If you’re purchasing something that has a manufacturer’s warranty, it can make sense to forego some rewards to get an extra year or two of warranty protection from your credit card. As a rule of thumb, if an item has a manufacturer’s warranty and you would seek to get it replaced under warranty if it broke, you should usually put it on a card offering a warranty benefit. Purchases like home appliances, electronics, substantial furniture, and sporting goods are good candidates. The Chase Freedom Unlimited card is a great choice for a no annual fee card with an extended warranty benefit.
When to go for maximum cash back: Many items don’t carry a warranty of any kind. For these items, pick a card that gives you maximum cash back. Food, cosmetics, clothing, household consumables, home goods, storage containers, and medicine typically don’t have warranties. And a credit card that offers an extended warranty benefit won’t offer any warranty protection if the item you buy does not have a manufacturer’s warranty.
Check out our article on the best cards to use at Target to find the best card for Target Circle Week.
Use a cash back portal: Get 2% additional cash back
Using a cash back portal can earn you more on your Target purchase. In some cases, you can earn as much as 2.5% cash back. To use a cash back portal, you must click through a portal’s link, which will take you to Target’s website before making your purchase. The cash back site receives a commission and they’ll pass on a portion of that commission to you.
Cash back portals are simple to use, but be aware that many sites exclude many categories of Target purchases. At the time of publication, RetailMeNot offered 2% cash back on purchases at Target.com sitewide, with no category exclusions, and you could earn as much as $50 in cash back.
If you want to hunt down the best shopping portal offers, I like the website Cash Back Monitor. Cash Back Monitor is the best tool for searching what various portals are offering and it’s my first stop if I want to find the best portal offers.
Buy third-party gift cards online: 10%+ off Target gift cards
Buying Target gift cards from third-party sellers online can be a way to score a substantial discount on your Target purchase. You can usually find Target gift cards at a 3-4% discount, but some sellers offer discounts of 10% or more. Combine this with the cash back you’ll earn from using a credit card on your purchase and you can get a serious discount at Target.
Buying gift cards online from third-party shops comes with some risk. Most of the risk of buying third-party gift cards online comes from the fact that you don’t know who else has your gift card code. While many gift card sold on gift card marketplaces are just from people trying to unload unused gift cards, some cards are sold by scammers who will list the cards, collect the money from the sale, and drain your gift card immediately after you purchase them. I’ve never had this happen to me personally, but there is some measure of risk when buying gift cards online.
Whenever you buy a gift card online, be sure that the seller has a stated guarantee that the funds will be good for a certain number of days and always pay with a credit card. Don’t use cash, a check, a debit card, or a wire transfer to buy gift cards. And use the gift card as soon as possible. It’s usually best to purchase your gift cards shortly before you plan to make a purchase so that you can use them as quickly as possible.
I use Gift Card Wiki to find the best rates on gift cards from third party sellers.
Get the deals elsewhere: Price matches
Sometimes the best way to take advantage of a sale at Target is by buying an item elsewhere and requesting a price match. Many stores will match advertised prices at Target. If there’s a compelling reason to buy from another store, it can make sense to buy elsewhere and price match, rather than buying at Target directly.
When you price match Target’s sale price at another store, you might be able to take advantage of higher rates of cash back on your credit cards, a better in-store rewards program, a larger discount on third-party gift cards, or a more generous return policy. You might also be able to take advantage of merchant-linked offers like Amex Offers or BankAmeriDeals. Finally, another retailer may simply be more convenient.
Bottom Line: Stacking deals = massive discounts
You can easily save north of 15% on your Target purchases on top of the Target Circle deals. When you use the right credit cards, click through a cash back portal, and employ our other tricks to getting the most cash back at Target, the savings can really add up.
