Maximizing the Home Chef Amex Offer for Free Food, Points, and Cash
I recently described my strategy for the first wave of 2021 Amex credits and offers. Probably the trickiest one I’ve pursued so far is with Home Chef. Full disclosure: without the Amex offer, my wife and I would have zero interest in a meal kit service. Even with the Amex offer, I wasn’t looking to pursue potentially free food with Home Chef. But with another stacking opportunity and favorable math, doing so was a no-brainer. Here’s how I took maximum advantage of the Home Chef Amex Offer, and you can, too!
Diving into the Stack
The stack I used for free food, points, and cash involved a few key areas, which I’ll dive into separately:
- Amex Offer: $50 of a $50 delivery, up to 3 times.
- Home Chef Signup Offer: 2,000 Amex Membership Rewards points per delivery, up to 4 deliveries.
- Optimizing Delivery Size: The final part of making this deal free (or a moneymaker).
Amex Offer
This is probably the easiest part of the whole process. Ensure to activate your personal Platinum card’s Amex Offer in-app or online prior to doing anything else. This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to forget amidst all of the other Amex distractions.
Home Chef Signup
Several portals exist where you can stack additional rewards along with the Amex Offer, including Rakuten, Chase, and a variety of airline portals. Coincidentally, I recently received a targeted offer via snail mail for 6k Southwest Rapid Rewards points. As we are fans of cashing out via the Schwab Platinum Amex, the 2k Membership Rewards points per delivery was the clear winner for us.
Offers are always changing, so be sure to check out Cashbackmonitor for the best deal before choosing. It looks like Swagbucks is currently the best on Cashbackmonitor at $35. Here’s the offer for 2k Membership Rewards per delivery if you are interested in that, instead.
Home Chef and Amex don’t make it easy, though. In order to successfully link your Membership Rewards number with Home Chef, use the Firefox browser. My earlier attempts to link via Chrome and Edge errored out. Adding to the frustration is Home Chef’s seemingly backwards website (by design). You need to provide your email address prior to seeing pricing. Likewise, you have to enter your credit card information and authorize your first transaction (essentially, paying blindly) prior to selecting your meal options. Originally prior to signing up, I wasn’t aware of the meal options, but I recently learned Home Chef does publish the menu for the coming weeks.
Optimizing Delivery and Selecting Meals
In order to take fullest advantage of this offer stack, we wanted our individual delivery total to reach at least $50, but stay as close to that number as possible. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t find any combination where the order totaled exactly $50. The closest version I found that met our needs was three meals for two people which came out to $60.93. And costs can get way out of hand depending on the types meals you select. Consumers like us are automatically out at least $10.93 per delivery even with the Amex Offer. Therefore, ensure to stack with your preferred portal (or this Membership Rewards offer) to soften the blow of any out-of-pocket costs.
Home Chef Amex Offer – The Final Math
Let’s go over the math to determine my exact haul for three Home Chef deliveries.
- Membership Rewards Points Earned (per delivery): 2,061
- Value via Platinum Schwab Amex cashout: $25.76
- Out-of-Pocket Cost (per order): $60.93 – $50 = $10.93
- Net Cash Rewards per Delivery: $14.83
- Total Net Cash Rewards for 3 Deliveries: $44.49, OR
- Total Membership Rewards Points and Out-of-Pocket Costs:
- 6,183 points and $32.79
By maximizing this Home Chef Amex Offer, a Platinum cardholder can obtain nine meals for two and just over 6k Membership Rewards points for $32.79. Not bad. Alternatively, cashout fans like me are essentially paid $44.49 to have nine meals for two delivered. That works out even better for us! Our rewards are doubled again, since my wife also holds a Schwab Platinum Amex account. Of course, you can also opt to include grocery savings, since you won’t need to buy items to cover (at least) nine meals.
The Amex Offer triggered the $50 credit about two days after my statement closing. The first 2k bonus points showed up in my Membership Rewards account just after our first delivery shipped.
Oh Yeah, Let’s Not Forget the Food…
We received our first delivery last week, and we’ve enjoyed two different meals so far. We were pleasantly surprised by the food quality and portion sizes. The helpings were so large, we only ate half of the portions; there were plenty of leftovers for another meal. While we were satisfied with the quality, it’s not a product we would pay full price for, ever. But that definitely depends on one’s style and habits. We prefer to either cook at home or order takeout; this “in between” version with Home Chef isn’t our bag.
Home Chef Amex Offer – Conclusion
All in, my wife and I are covering 18 meals with Home Chef, and we are obtaining about $89 in net cash rewards during the process. We’ll take it. The Home Chef website was the most painful part of the process, but it was definitely worth what we received in return. And for many of you out there who are probably curious about Home Chef, anyway, taking advantage of this stack is even more of a no-brainer. Are you pursuing the Home Chef Amex Offer? Why or why not?
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Did you have to sign up using your american express login information?
Thanks for this write-up! I decided to go with the 2K membership points.
I also got the error that I should be using Chrome or MS Explorer (?!?!?!) and knew to go straight to Firefox.
Fred Meyer (Kroger) used to have these meals in store, the prep kind, and I’d grab one if they were on special. They were perfect for bachelor-type meals but pricey for what they really are, especially if you know how to cook.
Michele,
I’ve also seen these meals at Kroger but have given them minimal attention. Taking this current online experience into account, I shall continue to do so!
I wasn’t sure if i should take advantage of this deal since i mostly cook my own meals or order takeout as well. This article helped me jump in the pool…. for a month or two.
Anthony,
Sounds good! I’m glad this helped out. But don’t forget to cancel!
Home Chef has an intentionally obtuse website that advantages them as the seller and disadvantages you as the customer. When I signed up, before I had even chosen a single meal, it had already billed my credit card – and it billed me $35, even though I had chosen new meals within 10 minutes of signing up that put my first delivery (2 weeks out) at about $60. What they did, though, was first bill the $35 and then another roughly $35 for a total of about $70, or $10 higher than the receipt said. With two $35 charges, I was already $70 down and eligible for no Amex reimbursements. I complained about the charge being broken up into two bills and $10 too high, and they took $10 off my next delivery, which very nearly put the next one below $50 ($50.52!), which would have just been the icing on the cake. Nothing about the Home Chef system is very transparent or clear, and I absolutely will dump it as soon as I get through two additional $50 charges.
Steve,
I’m sorry this happened to you, but thanks for sharing with all of us! I, too, will be done with them after these three deliveries…
When I checked out the site they had a $80 off ($20 off for the first 4 deliveries). 2 people @ 4 meals a week + shipping is less than $10 for the first 3 deliveries taking this and the Amex offer into account
Marc,
That’s great, but I recall that only one offer was allowed per account when I signed up. Definitely go after the offer that’s best for you, though!
Why do you earn so many membership rewards points for each delivery?
Jed,
Because that is what Home Chef and Amex are offering. Check out the link in the Home Chef Signup section for more info.
You can see the menu for the next 4-5 weeks worth of meals at
https://www.homechef.com/our-menu
before signing up/paying
Parts Unknown,
Thanks for pointing this out! I’ve updated the article.