Sears Filing For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy – Use Your Points ASAP!

Update 10/15/18: It’s official, Sears is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. 142 stores will be closed before years end. If you still have Sears/Kmart SYWR points – use them!

WSJ is reporting that Sears is preparing to fill bankruptcy based on sources familiar with the matter. For more information regarding that, I’d recommend reading the WSJ article. This post is really just to remind all readers with any Shop Your Way Rewards points to use them ASAP. Unfortunately some people undoubtedly made purchases that were offering points over a schedule of 12 months, if Sears does file for bankruptcy they seem set to lose out. After Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy gift card holders were given a month or so to use their gift cards, it’s unclear how SYWR points will be handled if bankruptcy is filed.

The other question we don’t have any clarity on is what will happen to Citi Sears cardholders, Citi & Sears signed a new co-branded deal worth $425 million in only May of this year.

View Comments (77)

  • I'm actually giddy with excitement seeing Sears Holdings going into bankruptcy. If any company deserved to go out of business its Sears Holdings.....with its terrible customer service, terrible websites, terrible pricing structure, a terrible SYW program/website and terrible management. I'm not talking about poor or marginal....its terrible. Only 1 of 9 Sears Holding Stores are now open in my area. Staggering SYW free cash over 12 months knowing you are on the brink of bankruptcy is probably fraud. A Kodak moment. Feel bad for all those employees and retirees. I'm sure Eddie will make out just fine.

  • FWIW - All GC's have been pulled from shelves in my nearest KMart. When asked, the CS said suppliers took it back due to chapter 11 filing. There goes my WF propel points for the kmart offer.

    • Actually, try Lowe's -- or any other outlet selling Craftsman brand tools.... I gather too the lifetime warranty still will be honored.... and there's a separate Craftsman 800 # and warranty center as back-up.. Explanation: Stanley tools bought the venerable Craftsman brand from Sears....)

      • However, many Sears-Craftsman products do not yet, or may not ever, have any even remotely comparable replacement available in the Stanley-Craftsman product line.

      • "lol" -- One problem for the sooo easy snark is that the venerable Craftsman policy is one of the reasons Sears hung around so long. (and why Stanley tools forked over nearly a billion -- sic -- for the "worthless" brand -- and has a new "revamped" line appearing this year for Christmas....)

  • Congratulations to Eddie Lambert. Hope you enjoy your moment in the Sun in a picked over mall-anchor store, next to a pile of unsellable merchandise.

    • Sears Home Services is a part of Sears Holdings, so if they file for bankruptcy and you've already paid them in full for the warranty - I'd imagine you would be considered a creditor in the bankruptcy. If the warranty was sold by Square Trade or another third party provider, you'd be fine.

      • I don't think Sears would have anything to do with a modern company like SquareTrade. I'm sure he's talking about the Sears Protection Agreements that all the appliance salespeople there are forced to push. Those are entirely owned and serviced by Sears and its subsidiaries, AFAIK. The uncertain future of Sears for the past several years has thus discouraged many people from wanting to buy appliances from them, and appliances were the largest part of their stores' income, so it's been a big snowball-effect situation. Nobody knows yet what will happen and when. If they succeed at selling the Kenmore brand, the buyer may want to at least sustain the protection agreements on those appliances, to protect the reputation they'd be paying for.

    • There was already rumor of Amazon and Sears running a partnership on tires to go up against tirerack. Not sure that ever materialized.

  • A wishful thinking: maybe Sears would issue all the pending points at once and give us some time to use it.