Dollar Shave $22 Moneymaker with Swagbucks and Amex

For more Swagbucks deals click here. You can also read our full Swagbucks review here.

[Originally posted on 3/17. Repost and update on 3/21 since the offer got $2.25 better. (HT: Elias)

The Offer

Direct Link

Swagbucks is offering the following bonus for signing up to the Dollar Shave Club:

• 700 475 Swagbucks (worth $7.00) for the initial signup
• Another 1,500 Swagbucks (worth $15) after remaining a member for 2 months

 

There’s also a targeted Amex Offer at Dollar Shave which we’ve reported. There are two versions:

• Spend $10 or more at Dollar Shave and get $10 back as a statement credit
• Spend $10 or more at Dollar Shave and get 1,000 bonus Membership Rewards points

The Fine Print

Our Verdict

With the Amex Offer, you can get the Dollar Shave costs down to $0, which leaves the 2,200 1,975 from Swagbucks which are worth a minimum of $22 $19.75.  In the past, Swagbucks had a similar deal, but if you did that one you are not eligible to do this deal again (though you can still take advantage of the Amex Offer deal).

If you use the Acorns app, you can get an extra 10% (?) back on all your Dollar Shave purchases which will be $3 in our example below. (HT: AM) And if you’re a member of FoundersCard, you get free $18 there so this should stack.

Just bear in mind that some people have had problems either with the portal tracking or with Swagbucks deactivating their account for reasons which aren’t clear, so keep the risks in mind.

If you are signing up for a new Swagbucks account, I’d appreciate if you use my Swagbucks referral link. You’ll also get a $3 + 2 bonus at the end of the month if you earn 300 SB.

Step by Step

Here’s how I’ll go about doing this deal:

1) Go through Topcashback and buy a $10 Dollar Shave gift card with a registered Amex card; select ‘Other’ to get a $10 card (double check that the gift card amount is $10 before clicking Purchase; trust me on this one). Use Safari if Chrome is glitching out.

2) Repeat step #1 with a second Amex card; repeat step #1 with a third amex card

Do not create a Dollar Shave account yet. You’ll do that later.

I’ll now have $30 in Dollar Shave gift cards which I got free after Amex credit. Hopefully, I’ll also have $3.60 from the portal cash back, though based on the comments it’s more likely this won’t track.

4) Go through Swagbucks and signup with Dollar Shave for an initial $5 fee; during the signup, they’ll allow you to apply a gift card to pay, you won’t have to use a credit card at all. At this step you also create your Dollar Shave account. Make sure you use the same email that you use with Swagbucks; I forgot to do this, though it seems to have worked anyway.

5) After completing signup, go back to your Dollar Shave account and apply the other $20 in gift cards so that you won’t be hit with any fees for the next two months of service. You need to leave your Dollar Shave account open for two months to get the Swabucks.

After the initial $5 cost for the first month, the next two months cost are $9 each. Since you have a $30 account credit, that’ll more than cover the $5 + $9 + $9, plus some sales tax. (It’s possible that you can get away with paying just $5 + $9 and cancel before the third fee hits, but assuming you have three Amex cards you might as well be conservative and apply them all to avoid any doubt.)

At the end of the day, you’ll have some razors stuff + $6 left in Dollar Shave credit + the 2,200  1,975 Swagbucks.

6) Remember to cancel your Dollar Shave subscription (Link) during the third month if you decide you don’t want to use Dollar Shave anymore. Mark it down on your calendar. After the three months of fees, you can also downgrade the account to a cheaper package of less than $9 until you use up your Dollar Shave credit. If you have the Amex Offer on many cards, you can keep getting razors for free for quite some time.

The truth is that using our method here there isn’t any major need to cancel since you never gave them your credit card, only gift cards; when the gift cards get used up they’ll probably auto-cancel the subscription. That said, it’s probably worth cancelling the subscription for the avoidance of doubt.

Hat tip to reader daxihe