Update 9/24/26: Reminder to use this up before end of quarter; might need a few days for item to ship. See below for ideas of cheap items to buy. There’s also an increase portal rate from United and Alaska portals now.
American Express added $300 in annual Lululemon credits to their consumer Platinum card with a new $75 credit available each calendar quarter (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sept, Oct-Dec).
Caveats
- Enroll: Be sure to enroll in the Lululemon credit before using. Just enroll the first time when you get the card and that enrollment lasts forever on that card.
- Payment: Apple Pay in-store is fine. Readers report that online Paypal payments have been working to trigger the credit as well.
- Timing: Be sure to do any online purchases a few days in advance of the end of the quarter in case the item doesn’t ship right away or the charge doesn’t complete right away. Please comment below if you have success with an online order on the last day or two. Store purchases should be fine until the last day of the quarter.
- Only works in U.S., not international stores.
- The credit works on the Lululemon website and at Lululemon stores. Does not work at Lululemon Outlets.
AmEx has a tracker for the Lululemon credit, along all the other benefit trackers there. You can find it in the online login or the AmEx app. You’ll typically see the spend show up in the tracker a couple of days before the actual statement credit posts to your account.
Stack Opportunities
- Portal: When shopping online, go through an online shopping portal. Compare rates here. Historically, Rakuten seems to bump up their rate to 10x every few weeks, and occasionally even to 12x or 15x.
- Amex/Chase Offers: There are often Amex Offers or Chase Offers for Lululemon. Even if you don’t get the AmEx Offer deal on the Platinum card itself, it still should be possible to go into a Lululemon store and ask them to split the purchases between cards. E.g. if you’re spending $200, put $75 on the Platinum card and the other $125 on a card with an Amex/Chase Offer.
- First-time coupon: You can get 15% off your first online order of full-priced items when you sign up for Lululemon emails. (Exclusions include: We Made Too Much, Accessories and Gift Cards.) If you don’t see the pop-up, go incognito and it should pop up.
- Deals: Check this DoC tag #lululemon to see if there are any relevant deals. There are also often deals on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and likely other times, so keep an eye out.
- Gift cards: The terms exclude gift cards from earning the $75 credit. In practice, buying a physical Lululemon gift card in-store has been working to trigger the $75 credit. There’s always a chance that, at some point, they’ll recode their store checkout so that gift cards are excluded, but for now it works. Since March 2026, many stores will tell you that you can only buy a gift card in denominations of $50 each, so you’ll have to buy two $50s to use up the $75 credit, if you want to go that route. In August 2026 they added terms that “you may not use multiple forms of payment to purchase a Gift Card” which precludes buying a $150 gift card split between two AmEx cards. It might depend on cashier enforcement, but it’s in writing now that you can only use one credit card to pay.
- Cashing Out: You can try cashing out the $75 credit by purchasing a Lululemon gift card and then reselling it – here is an old/dated guide I once wrote on selling gift cards. Or you can try buying actual clothing and reselling them on eBay. Or finding a friend who uses Lululemon clothing and work something out with them.
- Return stacking: Another option might be to buy a $75 item one quarter and then go back in-store within 30 days to return the item for a store credit. This can help you ‘roll’ multiple $75 credits into a single item. I’m not an expert on how Lululemon processes returns, but hopefully there’s a way to ask them for a store credit instead of a card refund.
- Splitting payment: if you have multiple Platinum cards, go in-store and the cashier should be able to split the item between two cards.
- It’s also possible to split the charge online by using Paypal – HOWEVER, we don’t yet know if Paypal purchases work to trigger this credit
(probably not).Update: readers report having success getting two credits by splitting payment via Paypal.
- It’s also possible to split the charge online by using Paypal – HOWEVER, we don’t yet know if Paypal purchases work to trigger this credit
- Cheap items: If you want something completely free, search a specific category and sort by price. Here is a sample link of a specific category showing the low-cost items on top. Here’s a link to low-cost accessory items; some people talk about their Everywhere Belt Bag as a popular item (currently $24). There’s also a backpack currently $49. (Here is a website dedicated to tracking items close to $75 for the AmEx credit.) You can do a bunch of small purchases and get reimbursed until you finish the $75; no need to spend it all in one purchase.
- Double-dipping: When you signup for the Platinum card, you can usually get five $75 credits within the first year. For example, if you apply during November, you’ll get the Q4 credit of that year and then the the Q1-Q4 credits of the following year. If you really hone in on timing, it’s possible to get six $75 credits by applying in the middle of the final month of the quarter (March, June, September, or December), and then keeping the card for a few weeks after the annual fee posts. People often like applying in December to try triple-dipping on the various annual credits that align with the calendar year, and doing so can work to squeeze in one more $75 Lululemon credit as well. (Even if you cancel the card before the charge posts completely you are likely to still get the $75 credit.)
- Military, First-Responder: Lululemon offers 15% off for military (active, reservist, veteran, retired), including spouses and dependents from the same household. Also for First Responders (firefighters, law enforcement, search and rescue, EMT’s, medical doctors, licensed nurses). Apparently it’s sometimes 25%.
- Fitness professionals: Fitness instructors, trainers, gym owners, athletes, coaches, and staff may also qualify for Lululemon’s ‘Sweat Collective’ program, which gives 25% off full-priced items for personal use.
- Let us know what we’re missing.
You can track the progress of your Lululemon spend by going to the dedicated tracker in the Amex app or website. (If you return something, some report that the tracker updates to show that you have more spend credit available.)
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Just take the item in to be hemmed. It’s literally that simple.
Once again, for all (in-store) return, no matter if it’s a gift or not, Lululemon can issue refund as a gift card. Per their refund policy, “ Refunds will be issued via the Payment Method of your Order or on a lululemon Gift Card.”. Go to a store, grab something around $75, check out and return later. Easy as that. Upon return, cashier will give you a physical gift card, which you can add to your account right away, so you don’t even need to keep the card.
You don’t need a gift receipt. For any in-store return, Lululemon supports refunding into a gift card. Their refund policy : “Refunds will be issued via the Payment Method of your Order or on a lululemon Gift Card.”
and hawing!
Don’t buy it then. Personally I like their products
Forgot to add — when I’m hunting something near $75 with sizes actually in stock, I’ve been using https://mylulu.fyi so I don’t have to dig through the whole catalog. Helped me grab a mid-$70s piece before the Sep 30 cutoff.
DP: enrolled, bought online ~$78 of stuff I’d already been eyeing (not GC). Tracker updated in a couple days, credit posted after. With Q3 ending Sep 30 I’m not waiting on gift cards given the recent store/denomination mess — just grabbing one wearable item and calling it done.
This seems like a good come up, might just try it myself
LL is so incredibly overpriced…it’s insane. I buy a yoga mat holder bag that is 73.xx and then save it to return for a gift card. Really this is one of the fairly worthless perks of the card. I suppose one could sell the gift cards.
Paxton investigation which means it’s BS
FWIW, it seems the $50 is official policy listed on their site now too https://shop.lululemon.com/help/legal/terms-of-use#:~:text=Physical%20Gift%20Cards%20purchased%20in%2DStore%20can%20be%20purchased%20in%20increments%20of%20$50%20up%20to%20$1%2C000.%C2%A0
The $50 requirement is definitely in full force. Bought $100 because it had to be in $50 increments. Cashier did point out that I could split payment on $150 across two cards, effectively doing $75 on each.
I had the same experience in Boise today. They would only sell GC in $50 increments. This is the first time I’ve run into this issue. We’ll see if the policy sticks.
Yesterday, I attempted to purchase a $75 gift card like I normally do each quarter at the store in Northpark Mall in Dallas, Texas. Was told I had to buy either a $50 card or $100 card and it had to be in $50 increments. Since my wife and I both have Amex Platinum cards I bought a $150 gift card using each Amex Platinum to pay $75. The male clerk appeared a bit dumbfounded because he did not assume we had two separate cards.
was posting/asking on reddit, but apparently even for deal seekers there this is a condesend-able question: wanted to buy something; it’s aprox $90, I thinking of buying a $15 gift card online ie get a deeper discount for the difference and pay the remaining $75 on the amex plat. Any better ways to reduce induced spend?
$50 increment rule in place at: 5th Ave / 48th St NYC on 5/6 Santa Monica 3rd Street Los Angeles CA on 5/21
Portland, OR only allowed $50 increments.
New $50 GC denomination rule was in effect on 5/3/26 at the Orlando Disney Springs location. $75 GC purchase refused.
New GC rules in force at Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara, California as well. Must buy a GC whose value is a multiple of 50. No split payments with multiple AMEX cc’s allowed.
The lululemon in downtown Brooklyn has implemented the $50 increment rule on gift cards as of 4/23/26. I tried to buy a $50 gift card and the employee told me they’d made this change about 10 days ago.
Lululemon at the American Dream Mall in New Jersey is enforcing the increments of $50 rule. Tried to purchase a $75 gc but was denied.
Purchased $75 gift card in person on 4/10 and got credited on 4/12 so still works in Bay Area.
I tried to by a $300 gift card and split 4 ways ($75 each) but was denied. They said I could only do in increments of $50 and no spliting payment. She said they had an update late week for this policy.
Successful $75 GC purchase at STL MO location on 4/3. Clerk asked if AmEx but I lied & said no, then used my Plat via apple pay. Credit received three days later.
Just added $75 to an existing gc, and purchase a separate $150 gc split onto 2 cards.
Hey Doc, based on the datapoints I’ve collected on reddit and other places, it seems like so far only the below 5 stores are forcing users to buy gcs in increments of $50, I think it’s good to call that out: Santana row San Jose CA. Brookfield Place Mall NYC. 59th street store NYC. Stanford Shopping Center Palo Alto, CA Columbus Circle NYC
I had no trouble buying a $75 GC in store today.
I think they only sell variables. Whatever individual stores are doing does not appear to be a corporate policy (yet). Got one today for 75 with no problem at a mall store in socal.
If anything, they’re gaining from it. Amex is probably subsidizing some of it and some people are buying gift cards, a portion that probably won’t fully be used.
Why would they (Lululemon) be losing anything? If you buy a gift card, they already have your money.