Search Results for: kroger fuel points

Introduction

We’ve followed the saga of the quick fall from grace in the Kroger fuel points markets approximately monthly since this summer, and we seem to have reached a steady state for operations:

Kroger is getting very good at shutting down reseller’s fuel accounts quickly.

Practically speaking this means that big end-users (fuel points buyers) are exiting the market and gift card and fuel points buyers are pulling back.

Theories

First, here’s the data that we’ve seen that’ll help draw conclusions:

  • Account locks happen rapidly when loading unrelated fuel points accounts back-to-back
  • Account locks happen in the middle of redemption
  • There was temporary glitch that allowed for massive overdrawing of fuel points accounts that lasted several weeks, and a few end-users took accounts extremely negative
  • We’ve seen multiple reports of continued overdrawn accounts since the glitch, but in small balances unlike what had happened in the past

With that in mind, what caused Kroger’s systems to go from effectively zero policing to massive shutdowns? Only the folks at Kroger HQ in Cincinnati know for sure, but there are a few possibilities:

  • Significant money was taken from Kroger’s balance sheet during the redemption glitch, so putting an end to reselling became a significant business decision and staff was allocated specifically to monitor and lock accounts
  • Kroger may have implemented facial recognition technology as an anti-reseller technique
  • Kroger may be successfully fingerprinting reseller’s electronics devices and shutting down accounts associated with those devices

Reactions

We’ve seen varying reactions from the community to the increased account shutdown activity:

  • Gift card and fuel point resale rates have rocketed above 100%
  • Many end-users can’t logistically work under the current constraints and have exited
  • Some fuel points brokers have instituted same day redemption policies and have indemnified buyers from loss within a certain timeframe
  • Many gift card and fuel points resellers have stopped buying all together

The Future

My crystal ball isn’t any better than average, but I think that as the fuel points resale market dwindles in efficacy, rates for bulk third party gift cards which are normally partially subsidized with fuel points will climb, buyers will continue to pull-back, and potentially new workarounds will emerge; frankly that was an easy prediction though because all of those things have already started to happen.

Special thanks to Eugene, DCB, and several other anonymous brokers for providing background information and consulting for this article. Good luck out there!

The glitch made gas so cheap that end-users could afford to use it to water their cement.

[For those of you outside of Kroger land, general principles about tackling problems may still be applicable.]

We’ve talked about the strange state of Kroger Fuel points several times this year, but there are new developments that warrant yet another one of these posts. Unfortunately things aren’t great and nearly every heavy-hitter manufactured spender that was utilizing fuel points in their strategies has had accounts irrevocably locked and lost at least a little money as a result. The updates:

  • Kroger now seems to have a dedicated team seeking fuel points abuse
  • Kroger is reaching out to some heavy hitters by email, asking them to explain the account
  • Accounts are being locked in near real time while loading, and it seems to be triggered by back-to-back purchases
  • Kroger is finding ways to correlate accounts, apparently even by the purchasing credit card
  • Kroger has shutdown an account mid-redemption

So, if you still want to play the game, you need to stay under the radar. That means:

  • Get a new IP address before creating or accessing an account (some ideas here)
  • Use a new incognito window when creating or accessing an account
  • Use a new credit card number when buying (AU and employee cards can help)
  • If you do back to back transactions, use multiple cards and Kroger accounts
  • Load fuel points at a drip over several days
  • Redeem fuel points back-to-back, as quickly as possible if outside of your own geography, or as a slow drip if within your own geography

The window is very much closing on this one, stay safe!

The Kroger fuel points marketplace.

Kroger fuel points are an integral part of the bulk gift card reselling market, perhaps more-so in 2022 than any other year. They’ve boosted that bulk market even further by running nearly non-stop 4x fuel points promotions on third party gift cards, including one that started on Wednesday and runs through Tuesday, September 20.

As we discussed in August though, something is rotten in the state of Denmark Kroger: The company is actively targeting suspected fuel points resellers and has seemingly shut down more accounts in the last couple of months than in the entire prior history of the program. It’s gotten so bad that I know of a single individual that had fuel points accounts worth over $10,000 frozen without recourse.

Without further ado, here’s a Q&A session that I held with my alter-ego to address questions that have been swirling around various groups and chat forums:

Q: What’s the trigger for an account that’s shutdown?
A: Datapoints are literally all over the place, and as of now we don’t really have a great idea.

Q: What does a shutdown look like?
A: At the pump when trying to redeem points, you see the message: “Invalid Loyalty ID”

Q: Can my fuel points account be unfrozen?
A: So far, I’ve not heard of a single success story or workaround

Q: How widespread is the shutdown risk?
A: It seems to be a minority of fuel points reseller accounts that are affected, but there’s a big “but”

Q: What’s the big “but”?
A: I’m so glad you asked. Even though it’s a minority of accounts that are shutdown, when a one of reseller’s accounts is shutdown, often so are a bunch of other accounts held by the same reseller

Q: How can I protect myself going forward?
A: I’d say three things:

Q: Should I cut the fuel points game out?
A: I don’t think so, just be careful and follow my usual manufactured spend advice: never have more outstanding than you’re willing to lose if everything goes wrong

Have a nice weekend friends!

Just be careful, and you too can still be the Kroger fuel points GOAT.

Introduction

A conversation I overheard yesterday at a local coffee shop:

– No-one: …
– Absolutely no-one: …
– Kroger: Hey I’ve got a fresh idea, how about 4x fuel points gift cards this weekend?
– Third party gift sellers: [facepalm]

In a move that could only surprise someone with advanced dementia, Kroger is indeed having another 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards between Friday and Sunday. In case you’re keeping track, we’ve had fewer than a dozen days since June without a 4x fuel points sale, and as a result the gift card resale market is depressed, like Tony Soprano season 2 depressed.

A Rocky Year

Fuel points either partially or completely offset the loss taken from selling bulk gift cards and are therefore a huge part of the bulk gift card market toolkit. In prior years Kroger fuel points were the easiest grocery point to deal with by far. But this year, Kroger has started to throw wrenches into the works:

It looks as though Kroger isn’t happy with its fuel points program and is actively taking steps to change how it works. In the meantime, bulk buyers and bulk sellers are being cautious and volume has plummeted, presumably until the dust as settled and we have a better idea about what’s working and what’s not.

What Seems Safe?

So far I haven’t heard any reports of accounts with fewer than 20,000 fuel points being targeted, so 20,000 may be a soft capacity on accounts for the near-term future. It also seems likely that account age is part of Kroger’s silent blocking algorithm, so your long-term personal account is probably safe.

Here’s the bright-side I guess: Buying an Amazon gift card at Kroger will definitely earn you a few fuel points for your own use, and that discount beats fake discount Amazon gift cards sold directly by Amazon.

Happy selling!

Misunderstanding how Kroger fuel points work.

Fuel points have become a big part of the manufactured spend landscape because they’re really valuable and as fuel prices go up, the market for them goes up too. Kinda like the ocean went up (in flames) this weekend. Oh, too soon?

Now, a software bug at Kroger means that since Wednesday, gift card purchases are earning 6x instead of the expected 4x promotional rate and as a result, the fuel points chatter in various MS groups has blown through the roof. Kroger appears to be trying to fix it — multiple times for multiple hours on Friday and Saturday only 2x, or sometimes 0x, was awarded at the register. So far though no permanent change has emerged.

There’s a further rub too, on Friday reports started coming in that say Kroger is shutting down accounts that generated huge fuel point balances, and it seems to be triggered by calling them which puts eyes on your account.

Side note: a hack that some take advantage of but I never felt comfortable with is that you can call Kroger, let the automated system know you’re missing fuel points, and as long as you tell it that 2,000 fuel points or fewer are missing, it would auto add them to your account… until last Thursday that is. Now reportedly the system transfers you to an agent after you tell it about missing points, and likely that puts eyes on your account.

Where am I going with all of this rambling? Now is a good time to earn fuel points, but keep your balances reasonable and keep eyes off of your account when you game the system. That last bit is good advice in general.

The boat in the upper left is the Kroger IT Department trying to put out the fuel points fire
  1. Bank of America’s +2x or +2% More Rewards Day on all spend up to $2,500 per card promotion, colloquially known by no-one but me as BankAmeriDay, is today and no registration is required. May the fraud alert gods tilt in your favor.
  2. Giftcards.com has 5% off of $100 Visa Virtual gift cards with promo code EARLYJOY. This pairs nicely with the major airline portal’s spend bonuses, the best of which (United) earns +4.16x on $1,200 spend in addition to +2x base earning and credit card spend earning.
  3. American Express offers has a $100 statement credit with $500+ at Best Western hotels in the US and Canada through January 1, 2025. Please don’t use this one for realsies if you’re in a medium or large-sized city; I guarantee that the Best Western isn’t the best option for a stay. (Thanks to Ok-Anywhere6998)
  4. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion running through Tuesday on One4All and Choice gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards.

    The fuel points market remains unseasonably strong because: (1) Pepper has flooded the market so there are fewer buyers at Kroger, and (2) lots of Kroger stores have put all high-value third party gift cards behind the customer service counter. One of those things will probably change soon.

BankAmeriGuy makes his fifth blog appearance for BankAmeriDay.

On any given week in a WhatsApp group, Telegram forum, slack channel, or some other medium at least twice I see the question: “What are the buying limits for [bulk third party gift card brand] at Kroger?”. When there’s a 4x, 6x, or 8x fuel points sale the question also multiplies by the same amount.

For my own internet sanity I compiled everything we know about Kroger third party gift card limits:

General Limits

Kroger and Kroger affiliates can sell up to $1,999.99 in gift cards at regular registers or at self check-out. Most stores don’t need cashier intervention at self check-out for big purchases, but there are a couple of Kroger chains that need a cashier override for $500.01 or higher in purchases, whether or not gift cards are included.

If you move from regular registers to customer service counters, you can buy up to $10,000 – $18,000 worth of third party gift cards in a single transaction, depending on region. Some regions have a register enforced limit of $12,000 to $18,000 per-hour, per-store too.

Brand Specific Limits

Several brands have specific limits in addition to the above:

  • BestBuy: $1,000 per 10 minutes, store-wide
  • Apple: $500 per transaction

Unfortunately, taking these cards to a customer service desk doesn’t remove the limits. It is possible to bypass the BestBuy limit if your store sells the right type of Happy cards though, because Happy cards don’t have specific limits and some of them can be swapped to BestBuy at home after purchase.

Missing Fuel Points

There’s another type of limit that hits third party gift card resellers, and I think it’s an artifact of bad IT rather than an intentional limit: The same Kroger account won’t earn fuel points on back-to-back transactions in the same 60 seconds for the same dollar amount. So, if you’re wanting to run 20 Apple card purchases back-to-back, either wait a full 60 seconds between transactions or add a random, small value item in with each purchase.

Swipe Limits

Kroger stores are limited to six transactions with the same card per rolling 24 hours. Bypassing this with an American Express card is easy with authorized user or employee cards because each gets their own number, but bypassing on most other issuer’s networks is harder because those cards typically have the same number as the primary account.

Friction

The above limits are actually documented in the customer service operations manual at Kroger, but that doesn’t mean that employees don’t also try and make up their own rules (like peanut butter should be on sushi) or ignore the written limits. When that happens you’ve got plenty of options but typically building a rapport and trying again will make for a good long term option. Be in this for the long haul.

Happy Tuesday!

Didn’t believe peanut butter sushi was a thing did you?

Kroger has been running a 4x fuel points promotion on Happy branded gift cards since about a week and a half ago, and mid-last week a promotion for 2x fuel points on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays showed up too. To everyone’s surprise:

  • The 4x and 2x coupons stacked to earn a total of 5x on Happy gift cards
  • Variable Visa and Mastercard gift cards earned 1x
  • Money order purchases earned 1x

The 2x coupons aren’t new, they show up every couple of months and have standard language that excludes earning on gift cards and money orders (amongst other things). Typically that language is enforced, but obviously not always. There’s another piece of good news too: the current 2x coupon is running through January 30. That means you’ve probably got another Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for shenanigans assuming no one fixes it.

Lessons learned:

  • Always clip all coupons related to grocery points
  • Always enter your rewards ID at checkout even if you wouldn’t normally earn points
  • Pay close attention to the rewards earned on your receipt to spot anomalies

Finally, remember that this sort of thing isn’t just a Kroger phenomenon; it happens at other chains too (and there are gems to be found out there right now).

Clearly some of you have more fuel points than you know how to use.