Category: Gift Cards

  1. American Express is sending targeted upgrades from the Delta Business Platinum to the Delta Business Reserve with 50,000 bonus SkyMiles after $5,000 in spend. If you’re a Delta status junkie, the best play is to quickly spend through your two status boosts on the Business Platinum, upgrade, then spend through your four status boosts on the Business Reserve. Alternatively to offset the cost of the upgrade, you can sell the Reserve status boosts since they’re giftable. (Thanks to SideShowBob233)
  2. There’s a great sign-up bonus for $1,000 statement credit after $5,000 in spend on one of the more stupidly named credit cards on the market, the AmaZing Business Credit Card. It’s available to residents of Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, or Texas.

    I’ve applied for this card in the past and it’s nothing like what you’d normally expect. You’ll get a PDF application mailed to you after filling out the online one. You’ll request a specific credit limit, a banker will call you and talk about your business, and then you’ll need to email or fax in paperwork. It’s still worth the hassle for 20x though. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Meijer stores have a promotion for $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift card purchases through Saturday, limit one per account. Meijer sells both Metabank Pathward and Sunrise Visa gift cards, so choose wisely like this was a class final and your grade depended on it. (Thanks to GCG)
  4. Safeway, Albertsons, and Vons stores have a coupon for $10 off of groceries with the purchase of a $50 Lowe’s gift card (and some other lower resale value, stupider cards too). The $10 off expires in seven days but as long as you can use the coupon it’s a profitable play with Lowe’s cards selling at approximately 86% of face. You’ll also earn Just4U rewards which can be turned into Alaska miles, and of course grocery bonused credit card spend too.
  5. As of this writing, Dell is 15% or 15x on the Rakuten portal. Time to liquidate!

A Zion’s bank banker discusses the AmaZing Business Credit Card.

  1. Apparently everyone’s been in the know but me on the Bilt card’s unofficial sign-up bonus that’s been running for months: 5x for up to $12,500 in spend in the first five days after card activation for a total of 50,000 bonus points.

    The late news was enough to push me into an application after sitting on the side lines for years on this card. Application status, asked no one? Pending. (I wouldn’t be a blogger if I didn’t whine about trivial things occasionally right?)
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards running through Tuesday, May 16. They’ve also got a 4x promotion on Friday only for all purchases excluding gift cards, but historically they’re bad at these.

    Fuel points account shutdowns seem to follow a sinusoidal pattern, and right now we’re near the bottom for smaller sized fuel points accounts for unknown reasons. Run with it while you can.
  3. Southwest’s shopping portal has a few new spend bonuses for cumulative portal spend through May 12:

    – 500 bonus points after $50 in spend
    – 1,000 bonus points after $150 in spend

    Unfortunately giftcards.com remains absent from airline shopping portals. I need one of you to call the Cartera CEO, who wants to volunteer?
  4. MyGiftCardsPlus, or MGCP as the brevity inclined call it, has 10% back on up to $1,000 in Delta gift cards and 10% back on up to $500 in airbnb gift cards through “while supplies last”, which I assume means until this afternoon.

    Side note, MyGiftCardsPlus is linked to UPromise, and despite popular opinion to the contrary, UPromise can deposit earnings directly to your checking account without being enrolled in college or getting involved in a 529 or similar plan.

A shirt with a catchy slogan for the brevity inclined.

  1. Staples is having a fee free sale on $200 Visa gift cards running Sunday through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction. Don’t forget that the Mastercard version of this sale runs through tomorrow so you get exactly zero days off.

    These are Metabank Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place.
  2. Simon’s online volume site has 100% off of shipping and processing fees on $4,000 or more in cards per order through May 1 with promo code MAY23FLASH100. You’ll still pay purchase fees of $3.95 per card.

    Most of these are Metabank Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place.
  3. Delta has a rare shopping portal bonus for 500 bonus miles after $100 or more in cumulative spend through May 5. Dell or Saks are often good options in the absence of giftcards.com on airline shopping portals.
  4. A reminder: Kroger has a one day 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards running today only.

    A note: These one day sales seem to confuse Kroger IT, and there are indications that they continue to be confused. Always be probing.

Have a nice weekend!

A sample of what you might discover at Kroger.

  1. Kroger is having a 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards on Friday only. Brokers have already released capacity for the sale too.
  2. Meijer has 25,000 bonus points for a $250 third party gift card purchase through May 13, limit one per Meijer account, effectively a 10% rebate provided you can find something of $25 value at a quasi grocery-department store. Apple and Best Buy gift cards are your best option for resale rates.
  3. FM notes that you can now access Point.me lite through Bilt’s desktop website after logging in and clicking on the Transfer Partners tab. This lite version only searches Bilt’s partners which makes it useful but not a game-changer.
  4. JetBlue is launching JFK-AMS and BOS-AMS service in late summer, and they have great introductory premium cabin fares booked by today:

    – US originating round-trip flights: $479 economy, $1,899 Mint
    – AMS originating round-trip flights: $445 economy, $1,429 Mint

    If I were anywhere near the east coast I’d book two Europe trips with (1) an award ticket to Europe, (2) a paid JetBlue round-trip Mint ticket from AMS to the US and back, and (3) an award ticket home, but here we are.

Happy Wednesday!

If full point.me is was a New York steak, lite would be spam with weird stuff on top.

Introduction

My first report of Safeway’s new money order policy came from CharlesA on Tuesday of last week when he spotted the now infamous sign at a Safeway in Arizona, and quickly thereafter reports from other states confirmed the updated policy. The sign and its corresponding memo clearly came from the corporate level and it appears to be at the behest of Western Union (but my guess is that Western Union is a scapegoat, not the instigator.)

The Past

Here’s the thing, this has happened plenty of times before at plenty of chains, a few examples:

The Future

Every single one of those stores still sells money orders purchased with a gift card, and I sincerely believe the same thing will happen at Safeway because:

  • It’s not hard coded
  • Staff turns over
  • 8½ x 11″ sheets of paper wear out quickly
  • Other important policies will take precedence
  • Some employees just DGAF

Workarounds

Of course, always be probing. In the mean time though, you can still get purchases through with above board and/or ethically questionable techniques like:

  • Using a gift card inside of a mobile payment app
  • Using a real debit card when you’re asked to show a card
  • Sourcing gift cards that don’t look like gift cards
  • Playing games with mag-stripes
  • Buying non-obvious money order amounts so cashiers don’t check
    (maybe $496.40, then auto-draining the rest on left over valentine’s candy at the register?)

Good luck and happy Tuesday! (Thanks to Nathan for the linked policy photo)

Good (?) news: these things cost exactly $3.60 including tax.

  1. Lowe’s has a free $15 Lowe’s egift card with a $200 Visa gift card purchase in-store for purchases through Wednesday. The egift card redemption has a limit of two per email address, but it turns out that it’s possible to have more than one email address, or to make one email address look like more than one email address.

    These are Metabank Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place. (Up to $480 at a time should be ok in most channels.)
  2. Staples has fee free $200 Mastercards starting Sunday and running through Saturday of next week, limit eight per transaction.

    These are Metabank Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place. (Up to $480 at a time should be ok in most channels.)
  3. Kroger online is selling $100 gift cards with 5% off using promo code SPRING23 through May 2. This one is interesting because it’ll currently earn 4x fuel points which easily makes this a negative cost deal if you fill up your tank at a Kroger at least once.

    These are Metabank Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place. J/k, j/k, they’re actually US Bank cards and much easier to deal with. (Thanks to GCG)
  4. Citi has a card linked offer for $30 off of $150 or more at Hawaiian Airlines and it may appear on multiple cards. This one is exceptionally easy to game, trust me. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. United has wide open availability in business class on all of its flights using United’s miles or partner miles (except flights to Tokyo randomly) between March 14 and March 19, 2024 as of this writing. Book now, make sure the fare is refundable, think later. (Thanks to DansDeals)

United’s full calendar business class availability if it were a bicycle lane.

  1. Even though it started a few weeks ago, I think I only realized yesterday that we’ve apparently all agreed that there’s a new, fifth season of the year (“no-feepril”) in which office supply chains across the US take turns offering fee-free or below cost Visa or Mastercards every week throughout the season.

    Office Depot / OfficeMax drew the short straw this week and has a sale for $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. To maximize the deal:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Look for a Chase offer for 10% back at Office Depot / OfficeMax
    – Try for multiple transactions, back to back
    – Buy the grocery, fuel, or dining everywhere varieties for lower fees

    These are Pathward gift cards but there are still plenty of ways to liquidate them both online and in person. If you don’t have a few ways it’s time to get out there and look.
  2. A public link for the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card with a bonus of five free night certificates worth up to 50,000 points per night after $5,000 in spend in three months has surfaced. The card has an annual fee of $95, and is probably the best deal you’re going to find with Marriott. A few notes:

    – You’re still going to pay for parking and resort fees with these, because Marriott
    – If a property costs more than 50,000 points per night, you can use up to 15k award points too
    – The certificates expire after one year

    I’m famously a Marriott Bonvoy super-critic, but even I’d go for this offer if I was below 5/24.
  3. Finally, let me offer some unsolicited American Express advice for those of you with with big negative balances because reasons:

    Always keep your balances as close to $0 as possible at the end of every banking day to avoid financial reviews or problems with the risk department. This applies as equally to negative balances as it does to positive balances.

Good luck and happy Monday!

Obscure fact: Sometimes Bonvoy and Office Depot/OfficeMax team up. This is the result.

  1. SoFi has a $600 bonus for taking out a personal loan. You can pay these off quickly and if you’re swanky you can probably churn them too. Referrals are a thing with SoFi loans but the referral is split at $300 for the referrer and $300 for the referred (which may still be a good deal based on the 1099-MISC language in the bonus terms and conditions). (Thanks to DoC)
  2. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s Q2 promo, 2,000 bonus points per award stay through September 4. Do this later: Cry if your best option was a Best Western.
  3. Simon’s online bulk site has 35% off of Visa and Mastercard purchase fees with promo code APR23FLASH35 through April 16. Most of these are Pathward gift cards so have a liquidation plan in place before you go as big on these as the atmospheric rivers went on Northern California.
  4. FQF reminds us about how Just4U rewards from Albertsons/Safeway/Vons stores can be redeemed for Alaska Airlines miles when you set your preferred store location to one in Alaska.

A travel hacker preparing for going big on Pathward by going big on their lawn.