Buying a laptop: How to maximize savings and rewards

To the point What strategies should you adopt to save money and make the most of your laptop purchase? Let's see how credit cards and other tricks can help you.

Save on total cost Wait for annual promotional periods Student discounts and Apple Trade In American Express online offers Buy refurbished items or open boxes

Earn lots of points Buy gift cards at the grocery store Use an online rewards portal Unlock a welcome bonus

Insurance and extended warranty Bottom Line

Laptops have become essential tools for professionals and students alike. Since this is a major expense, here are our tips for saving money on this purchase and earning maximum reward points!

Buy a laptop - Save on total cost

Wait for annual promotional periods

Annual promotional periods are an ideal time to make significant savings on your laptop purchase. These periods include :

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November;
The Boxing Day on December 26;
Back-to-schoolin August and September;
Amazon‘s Prime Days in July and October.

Don’t forget to look out for promotions at these key times to maximize your savings. What’s more, most companies offer flash sales throughout the year. Stay tuned!

Student discounts and Apple Trade In

Apple offers student discounts and a program called Trade In. Students, teachers and employees can benefit from educational prices on the purchase of a new MacBook or iPad. What’s more, Apple offers the possibility of exchanging your old device for a discount on a new one, or having it recycled free of charge.

Visit educational discounts vary according to the product selected. For example, the discount is $150 for MacBook Air computers and between $200 and $400 for MacBook Pros.
The program Trade In program lets you save on the purchase of a new Apple device by exchanging an eligible old one.

We recommend that you regularly check the offers available on the Apple website, especially during the back-to-school period when additional offers are often available. For example, the back-to-school promotion in 2023 was a rebate of up to $200 in Apple gift cards.

American Express online offers

If you’re an American Express cardholder, check the online offers available to you regularly. In the past, statement credits were offered for purchases on Dell and Lenovo websites.

Buy refurbished items or open boxes

Another economical strategy is to buy refurbished items or open boxes. Often these products are almost new, having been returned by customers for various reasons. These items are inspected and tested by the manufacturer or seller for resale at a reduced price.

Refurbished items are products that have been returned to the manufacturer for various reasons. They undergo a rigorous testing and repair process before being released for sale.
Opened boxes are items that have been opened or returned by customers, but have been checked to ensure they are still in perfect working order.

Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart offer a wide range of refurbished laptops and open boxes. On Amazon, these items are identified as Warehouse Deals or Amazon Renewed. They are often in perfect condition, with only a few cosmetic defects on the box.

You can also find offers on sites like eBay and Computers Canada. However, be sure to check the manufacturer’s warranty conditions for these items.

Apple also sells refurbished items before a one-year warranty.

Buy a laptop - Earn lots of points

Buy gift cards at the grocery store

To earn extra points with the purchase of a laptop, use the gift card strategy at the grocery or convenience store. You can find the following gift cards :

Walmart at Couche-Tard;
Apple at Metro, IGA, Maxi, Super C, Adonis;
Amazon at Metro, IGA, Maxi, Couche-Tard, Super C, Adonis;
Best Buy at IGA, Maxi;
Staples at Maxi.

By purchasing your laptop with gift cards, you waive the purchase insurance and extended warranty provided by some credit cards. However, the manufacturer’s warranty remains valid.

You can earn 5x points on your purchase with the

Under normal circumstances, these “other” expenses would only earn one point per dollar spent.

With the American Express Business Edge^MD Card, purchases at electronics stores earn 3 Membership Rewards points per dollar, or 10 Membership Rewards points per dollar during the current welcome offer.

Use an online rewards portal

By registering on these platforms, you can earn money in the form of cashback or points when you make online purchases on partner sites, including stores from Apple, Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, etc. Popular portals include :

Aeroplan eStore to earn Aeroplan Points
Scene+ Rakuten to collect Scene+ points
AIR MILES Shop to collect AIR MILES
Rakuten to earn cash back
Shop for Miles to collect Flying Blue miles

Be on the lookout for promotions, too, as cash or points multipliers are common throughout the year.

Unlock a welcome bonus

The best way to make the purchase of a laptop profitable is to use this significant expense to reach the minimum spend required on a new credit card to unlock a welcome bonus.

These bonuses are often very generous for new customers, but require minimum spending of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Buying an expensive laptop can help you reach this threshold more easily.

Here are a few examples of cards that offer excellent welcome bonuses:

Finally, it is possible to combine these three strategies and make a “triple dip“. For example, you could :

Purchase Amazon gift cards at IGA with the Scotiabank Gold American Express^® Card to earn 6 Scene+ points per dollar;
Reach the $1,000 minimum spend and collect 20,000 Scene+ points and
Order via Scene+ Rakuten to receive points equivalent to 1% of the purchase.

A $1,000 purchase could earn you 27,000 Scene+ points in one go – a 27% return! (since 27,000 Scene+ points are worth $270)

Buying a laptop - Insurance and extended warranty

Most credit card mobile device insurances exclude laptops from the scope of coverage. However, these same credit cards offer purchase insurance and extended warranties.

Purchase insurance: The device is covered for theft, damage and loss for 90 days following purchase.
Extended warranty: The manufacturer’s warranty is extended for a fixed period, often for an additional year or two.

In general, the entire purchase must be charged to the card for protection to apply. In some cases, insurance may apply when part of the purchase is charged to the card.

If you want to use the gift card strategy, be sure to read the details of the insurance policy. Using gift cards often cancels the purchase insurance and extended warranty offered by your credit card.

If you’re buying a refurbished item, be sure to also check whether this type of item is excluded from the insurance policy.

Here are some examples of good credit cards that offer insurance on purchases:

Bottom Line

Before buying a new computer, take the time to look for the best deals, and wait for strategic times like back-to-school or Black Friday to take advantage of discounts.

Take advantage of this purchase to unlock the welcome bonus of a new credit card, and check if your valuable device is covered in any way by your card before signing up for the manufacturer’s extended warranty.