30% off one TV Season at Google Play (exp 12/2/15)

The Google Play store has a new promotion, you can get 30% off the current price of a single TV season. To do that, you must go to the TV/Movies section of their website or using the Google Play app, locate this offer, and manually opt-in. You will see a menu like this:

googleplay_30off_tv_season

After you click Continue, the offer is added to your account, and if you look at the “My Account” page with a web browser, this offer shows under the “Rewards” section. It expires by 12/2/15.

googleplay_30off_tv_season2

You can decide on which purchase to apply when you make a purchase. However (there’s always a however it seems), it looks like prices went up for single TV seasons. For example, the full season 1 of the brand new TV series “The Expanse” (pilot episode is FREE) increased from $20 to $25. Using this promotion drops it to $17.50. So it’s still less, but not as big of a discount 🙂

Nov 15-21: 20% back in Plenti points on $25 Google Play or $50 Best Buy Gift Cards

If you are a member of the Rite Aid Plenti Rewards program (see our introductory post on it), for the week of November 15-21 in 2015, at Rite Aid brick and mortar stores, you can get 20% back in Plenti points when you purchase a $25 Google Play Gift Card (you get 500 Plenti points; limit 2) or a $50 Best Buy Gift Card (you get 1000 Plenti points; limit 2). Only the specific amounts mentioned in their weekly circular ad are eligible for this promotion.

This is great either way, Google Play rarely gets discounted, unlike iTunes that can easily be found 20% to 25% off. And the Best Buy offer is pretty good as well.

The easiest way to redeem these Plenti points after they post to your account is towards future Rite Aid purchases or fill up your car at a participating Mobil-Exxon gas station.

Oct 4-10: Buy $25 Google Play Gift Card, Get 500 Plenti Points

Google Play gift cards get nowhere near the discounts the iTunes Gift Cards get. So it’s a bit of a mini-event when there is a discount on the Play cards. One of the most consistent places to find a good deal is Rite Aid in combination with the Plenti rewards. This promotion returns every few weeks, so it can keep you stocked up on a regular basis.

The offer is as before, you buy a $25 Google Play Gift card, and receive 500 Plenti points. One point is the equivalent of one penny when redeemed, so 500 points is $5. Effectively a 20% off discount, assuming you can naturally spend the Plenti points at Rite Aid or other participating providers (if all else fails, you can use your Plenti points to pay for gas at Mobil-Exxon gas stations).

This offer is limit two for the week, so if you want to max-out, you pay and get $50 in Google Play credit, and have 1000 Plenti points for future use. That’s $10 to spend in the future at RiteAid or other participating providers.

Aug 30 – Sept 5: earn 20% Plenti points on $25 Google Play Gift Card

iTunes gift cards are discounted left and right (which is interesting considering Apple’s crazy profit margins), while Google Play gift cards rarely get discounts. But it appears Google is slowly but steadily “discovering” the magic of discounting. So for the week of August 30 to September 5 in 2015, at Rite Aid stores, if you purchase a $25 Google Play Gift Card, you will receive 500 Plenti points. These have a redemption value towards a future purchase of $5. So it is essentially a 20% off. This is a limit two offer for the week.

If you are not part of the Plenti program, it is free to sign-up in-store or online. I have a write-up of my sign-up experience (I was part of the RiteAid Wellness Rewards before).

TIP #1: if you are not a frequent Rite Aid shopper, there’s another easy way to redeem all your Plenti points: you can use them to pay for gas at Exxon-Mobil gas stations. Just slide your Plenti cards before you slide your credit card and follow the prompts at the pump’s display.

TIP #2: if you are a cordcutter, the Google Play gift cards are a good way to buy Season Passes of TV shows with this extra discount factored in. You can use these cards on anything digital at Google Play. However, Google Play gift cards cannot be used to purchase physical goods (hardware, phones, tablets, etc) or subscriptions.

Google Play: Free Country Sampler (also $2 Gravity by Big & Rich)

It is country music time at the Google Play promotions. For a limited time only (these typically last a week but they don’t give exact expiration dates most of the time), you can get the 10-track “Play: Country Hits” mp3-album for FREE. This was just released yesterday. In parallel, for $2, you can get Big & Rich’s 2014 mp3-album “Gravity” (11 tracks, 40~ min play time). Enjoy 🙂 Keep in mind, these are limited time offers!

Aug 2-8: Earn 500 Plenti points with $25 Google Play Gift Card [essentially 20% off!]

Unlike iTunes Gift Cards, so far, Google Play gift cards are rarely discounted (which is quite the contrast considering Apple vs Google practices, but that’s another story for another day). Which brings us to this offer for Rite Aid Plenti rewards members. For the week of August 2-8 in 2015, at their brick and mortar stores, you earn 500 Plenti points if you purchase a $25 Google Play Gift Card. Since 500 Plenti points translate to $5 in future reward redemptions, if you shop at Rite Aid (or other Plenti places) often, this is essentially a 20% off discount. This is a limit two promotion for the week.

You can use the Google Play gift card to buy almost everything at Google Play (music, apps, ebooks, movies, TV shows) but you cannot use it to purchase hardware or subscriptions (eg their All Access Music service) – they have to be paid with “real money”.

PS #1: they also have the same promotion for Aeropostale, American Eagle and Hollister gift cards.

PS #2: if you don’t have a Plenti rewards account, it’s free and simple to sign-up. You can even convert your existing Wellness+ account, which sort of hangs around but only applies to RiteAid house brand products. We have a detailed post on signing up for Plenti.

PayPal Offer: free 2-month Google Play Music trial

PayPal has another online promotion, you see this when you try to login or logout from their site (and it could also be shown at other places). If you use PayPal as your payment method, you can get a two month free trial of the Google Play All Access music subscription service. After the free trial ends, your Paypal account will be billed monthly unless you cancel the free trial.

googleplay_music_freetrial_with_paypal

Big Game Sale at Google Play (ends 7/27/15)

If you want to score some popular Android games for less, there is a big sale good until 7/27/15 at Google Play. The amounts are fairly small, so you may want to buy a gift card or prefill your account with store credit if you don’t want your credit card blasted with multiple $0.60 transactions (if you go on an app shopping spree).

The list includes Monument Valley (99c), Game Of Thrones (Telltale, 60c), Room Two (69c), NBA Jam, Need for Speed, Grand Theft Auto, the all important Goat Simulator, and more. A total of 23 games are part of the sale. You can buy as many as you like.

Lucky promotion: $10 off future purchase with $50+ in Gift Cards (Xbox, iTunes, GPlay)

This is a YMMV promotion, but if you use the self-checkout machine at Lucky’s stores, it may spit out a promotional offer after you complete the transaction. The offer says that if you purchase $50 or more in any combination of iTunes or Google Play or xBox gift cards, their checkout register will spit out a coupon for $10 off your next purchase. You will pay full price for the gift cards. The discount will be on the next purchase after that. Limit two per customer. I haven’t done this promotion (yet at least), so I can’t tell you exactly how it works. If you are a regular Lucky’s shopper, this is effectively a 20% off on the gift cards, assuming you were going to spend that future money on future purchases anyway (eg you regularly buy groceries there).

July 12-18: earn 250 Plenti points with $25+ Google Play gift card

iTunes cards have been easy to get at a discount for many years, but only recently Google finally decided to play the discounting game for their Google Play cards. If you have a Plenti rewards account (or sign up for one), during the week of July 12-18 in 2015, at Rite Aid brick and mortar stores, you can earn 250 Plenti points (= $2.50 in rewards money) when you buy a $25 (or higher) Google Play gift card. This is effectively a 10% off discount, assuming you can spend the 250 Plenti points later on. Limit two offers per card during this promotional period.

Plenti Rewards: Get 10% (or 20%) Points on $50 Google Play Gift Card

If you are part of the Plenti Rewards program and are looking for a Google Play Gift Card at a better price, head on over to Rite Aid this week (ends Saturday 6/13/15). If you buy a $50 Google Play Gift Card, you will earn 500 Plenti points (that’s at least $5 in redeemable rewards in the future). This is a limit two promotion. This alone is a 10% off discount. Unlike iTunes, Google Play gift cards are rarely discounted, so this on its own is great.

But wait, there’s more! One of the Plenti RiteAid offers gets you 500 bonus points if you make a purchase of $25 or more in a single transaction. This is a one time use promotion. I don’t recall if you have to manually activate it or it is an “automatic offer”, so check your Plenti account to be certain before buying it. This promotion only works once per account during this promotional period (ends by 10/4/15).

TIP: while visiting your local RiteAid store, they have some other good non-Plenti deals: a 4pk of Nature Valley oats bars for $1 (two packs of two), and the various items inside the RiteAid mini dollar store!

Free from Google Play: Gravity (HD movie) and Steve Aoki album

Google Play is back with another round of freebies. First up, Steve Aoki’s mp3-album “Neon Future” is free for a limited time. It has a total of 12 tracks with a 49 minute run time.

Next up, a movie, and a big and recent one! Gravity in HD! That’s the one with Sandra Bullock. For this one, you may have to follow the link from your Google Play e-mail to get it for free, because if you visit the movie’s Google Play page directly it shows a $10 price. If you have a Google Play account, it means you also have an email associated with it. So check there and look for the Google Play email announcing this offer. You must grab it before 1/30/15, but don’t wait until the last minute, sometimes these things end earlier.

[DEAD] Free mp3-album: “Frozen” soundtrack on Google Play

This limited time offer expired…
[Read more…]

[DEAD] Free MP3 albums from Google Play: Lorde and GotG Mix Tape

This particular offer expired, but stay tuned to the weekly Google Play emails, they usually include one mp3-album either for free or for $1 or $2…
[Read more…]