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A Newbie's Guide to At Home, Lifestyle Rewards and Galleria - The Memberworks Gift Card Programs

First Posted: June 19, 2006
Last Updated: July 21, 2006

By Fiyaz Keshwani

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Part 1: At Home (http://www.myathome.ca)

Considered the best program to join, At Home offers the largest selection of gift cards to choose from and the highest limit between the three programs. The gift cards you can currently buy are:

Best Buy (Never Expire)
Blockbuster (Expire after 24 months)
Bombay Company
Canadian Tire (Expire after 24 months)
Crabtree & Evelyn
Designer Depot (Expire after 24 months of non-use)
*French* Designer Depot (Expire after 24 months of non-use)
*French* Home Outfitters (Expire after 24 months of non-use)
*French* The Bay (Expire after 24 months of non-use)
*French* Zellers (Expire after 24 months of non-use)
Fruits & Passions
Futureshop (Never Expire)
Home Depot (Never Expire)
Home Hardware ($1/month fee after 24 months of non-use)
Home Outfitters (Expire after 24 months of non-use)
HomeSense (Never Expire)
Linens N Things (Never Expire)
Petro Canada (Expire after 24 months)
Pier 1 Imports
Sears (Expire after 24 months)
Staples (Expire after 24 months of non-use)
The Bay (Expire after 24 months of non-use)
The Brick (Expire after 18 months of non-use)
The Sony Store
Toys R Us ($2/month fee after 24 months of non-use)
Winners (Never Expire)
Zellers (Expire after 24 months of non use)

Please note that The Bay, Zellers, Home Outfitters, and Designer Depot are all owned by HBC. Thus, you can use any of the cards at any of the stores. For example, you can take your Zellers gift card and use it at The Bay. The same is true for Winners & HomeSense. Also note “French” HBC cards may or may not be available to you depending on the rep you get and are no different than the “English” ones. Lastly, while the expiry dates of the gift cards have been given above, it’s a good idea to consult the back of the gift cards when they arrive to be safe.

Limit

All the cards listed above are limited to $500 (20 x $25) per membership year with the exception of Blockbuster, which is $200. What does this mean? You can only order $500 worth of gift cards for each of the above retailers per membership year.

How to join

Sounds great eh? Well the moment you have been waiting for is here - How you join:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to recent changes in the At Home program Petro Canada, Home Depot and Canadian Tire may not be offered for all signup methods. Currently only with the credit card sign up methods are you guaranteed all three cards.

Method 1 – Via MBNA

If you have an MBNA MasterCard, call 1-800-870-3675 and tell them you would like to join At Home. They will sign you up, but this will take a few weeks to process and there is a flat fee of $139.95 per year charged upfront. Because of the time it takes, and the fact you are charged the entire years fee up front this method is not recommended.

Method 2 – Via Vistaprint

Disable all popup blockers and cookie blockers! This is Very Important!

Now follow this link.

Once there, proceed to order anything from Vistaprint. Once you have completed your order you should receive a popup that looks like this:

Click to enlarge.

Fill out the info, and hit Yes. You should then see a page with your membership ID number. Write this number down you will need it to access the website. Your first month is free (or $1.00), after that there is a $12.95 monthly fee. Congratulations, you can now log in or phone to order gift cards.

Note that your membership year is 365 days from the date printed on your membership card that you will receive in your membership package, and each membership month is 30 days starting from the date again printed on your membership card. You will be charged the membership fee at the beginning of every membership month.

As well, it will take up to a month for you to receive your membership package; however, with your membership number you can begin ordering gift cards right away. Within your membership package will be a card that you must fill in and mail back in order to receive the survey for the free Canadian Tire card you were offered. Send that card off right away and you will receive a survey to fill out and send back. Fill out the survey and send it back and then finally you will receive your Canadian Tire gift card for $25. It takes about 3 months to do all this and get your free $25 gift card for signing up.

Method 3 – Indirect

Sign up for LifeStyle Rewards or Galleria using one of the starred methods in Part 2 and 3 of the guide (Coming Soon). After you finish signing up, you will be promoted to sign up for At Home. This method is recommended for those wanting to sign up for both programs with a minimal upfront cost, and don’t mind the slightly higher fee that results ($17.95 vs. $12.95 a month using Method 1).

Method 4 – Capital One

In most cases you will have to wait for a telemarketer from Capital One to call you and offer you the chance to sign up for At Home, but if you call Capital One up directly at 1-800-387-1616 and get a knowledgeable rep you might be able to sign up without having to rely on a telemarketer to call you. With this sign up method a monthly fee of $12.95/month applies.

Next we take a look at ordering the gift cards and rebates that are available.

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