Category: Gift Cards

As July closes, let’s chat about the current state of the bulk gift card markets in light of the effectively endless 4x promotions that Kroger’s run this summer. First, what’s been driving the markets?

Catalysts

The noteworthy events for bulk gift card reselling in the recent past are:

  • Bulk buyers overbought fuel points in July
  • Fuel points capacity for August is probably going to be muted by the July over-supply
  • BestBuy has started to run sales that resellers are interested in, reviving the market that’s been dead since January
  • Bulk buyers had shifted to selling Apple goods overseas
  • For most of Q1 and the start of Q2, Home Depot had the most buyer demand
  • Many gift card resellers still have 6x or 11x capacity from AmEx 99 employee offers and can thus make lower card and fuel points rates profitable

Where We Are

Based on that, you can probably guess where the markets have gone, but let’s write it out for posterity (or something):

  • Fuel points rates have dropped between 25% and 33% this month
  • BestBuy rates have been slowly climbing from approximately 92% to 94%
  • Apple rates have been holding at between 93% and 94%
  • Home Depot rates have fallen to around 92%

Other standbys like Marshalls, Nike, Foot Locker, and Neiman Marcus rates have stayed relatively constant, I think because buyers tend to focus less on these brands.

The Future

In Q3 of last year, BestBuy rates crept up to 97% for bulk resale which made most Kroger 4x events quite profitable. Assuming BestBuy starts discounting its inventory for back-to-school sales, or because there may be a recession, I expect rates to climb to the same ball-park as they did last year. When that happens, shifting buyer interest will cause HomeDepot and Apple rates to creep up even higher too.

Finally, big earnings from AmEx 99 employee card offers will largely be exhausted, which will remove many buyers from the market and probably also push up rates.

Crystal Ball: Efficacy

How likely are my predictions to come true? That’s a great question, I’m so glad you asked. Based on my past performance and in the spirit of Brian Fantana, “50% of the time, I’m right every time”.

Pictured: My predictions workspace.

Before we jump in today: If you’re traveling through Amsterdam or London in the next three weeks or so, I’d suggest you call your airline and get rebooked on another route. With that out of the way, there are a few things to keep on your radar for the weekend:

  1. If you want to play with fire, Chase is offering a $600 sign-up bonus for opening a checking and savings account, depositing $15,000 for 90 days, and setting up direct deposit that’s bigger than an unspecified “micro-deposit” size (I’d set up at least $500 per month to be safe). The offer runs through October 19.

    To qualify, you can’t have had an existing checking and savings account for the last 90 days. I wouldn’t do this with P1, but maybe for P3, or for P2 if you keep their manufactured spend profile low.

  2. Southwest opened its schedule through March 8, 2023 yesterday, and currently we haven’t seen any schedule change sweeps past October 20 so you can still game the holiday season and potentially early spring break travel. (Thanks to Brian M via MEAB slack)
  3. Do this now: Register for double Hyatt points at MGM properties through October 15. (Thanks to FM)
  4. The Paceline credit card seems to be good for up to around $10,000 in cash back before a shutdown. I guessed initially that I’d be shutdown almost instantly if I got the card, but I think I was wrong and I’ll be grabbing it soon.
  5. Giant Eagle stores have 3x or 5x perks points for multiples of $50 of One4All gift cards through August 3, which makes this effectively a 6-10% or so rebate on gas depending on your car’s tank size. The best way to liquidate these until tomorrow is buying fee-free Mastercard gift cards at Staples. (Thanks to GC Galore)

A Heathrow spy’s photo studying Amsterdam’s solution to baggage handling labor shortages.

Have you ever heard the “orange you glad I didn’t say banana” knock-knock joke? Well, that, but Prime Day.

  1. Do this now: Register for Radisson’s double points promotion on two-night stays or longer through August 31.
  2. Simon’s volume gift card buying site is running a promotion for 72% off of purchasing fees through Friday with promo code JUL22SUPER72, which will be a total cost of somewhere around $3.60 to $4.25 for $1,000 Visa or Mastercard gift cards depending on how many you order.

    The usual warnings: American Express doesn’t award points on Simon purchases, and Simon gift cards are Metabanks so can be trickier to unload, but there are avenues online and in person.

  3. It’s been reported that Chase is offering $95 statement credits as a retention offer to some World of Hyatt credit card holders (they also occasionally offer $100-$200 statement credits for the Sapphire Reserve). If you have a Hyatt card, I’d call Chase and say “I’m thinking of closing this card, but before I make a decision, I’m wondering if there are any retention offers or statement credits available?”
  4. Meijer MPerks has $10 off of $150 in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday after clipping the offer in your account. Scale this one with multiple MPerks accounts, and rejoice that you can often avoid Metabanks at Meijer. (Thanks to GC Galore)

Have a nice Wednesday friends!

Amazon Prime day and all the articles about it summed up in a single picture.

  1. There’s a targeted 20% Membership Rewards transfer bonus to Etihad Guest. Sweet spots:

    – 50,000 points in Business or 62,500 points in First Class to and from Europe or Asia on AA
    – 30,000 – 50,000 points in Business class to and from South America on AA
    – Cheap economy redemptions to Europe, South America, or Asia on multiple airlines

    (Thanks to Parts_Unknown)

  2. The United mobile app on Android and iOS has targeted promotions for co-brand card holders. To find your offer, look for “Ready, set, choose your reward” in the app on the home screen, or try this link from TheSultan1. After completing $600 in spend on the card my reward is (choose one):

    – 2,000 bonus miles
    – $20 TravelBank Cash expiring 8/31/2023
    – 100 Premier qualifying points (PQP)

    Other higher and lower offers have been seen too. I picked 2,000 bonus miles, which makes the card earn 4.33x for $600 in spend.

  3. GC Galore reports that Sam’s Club gift card purchases are explicitly listed as eligible for earning cash-back until July 15, presumably due to Amazon Prime Day competition. Stack Sam’s gift card promotions with Albert debit card cash back boosts for an even better return.

    Just avoid the Sam’s pizza. But for real, avoid the pizza.

Call it a hunch, but I think Sam’s Club employees are confused about which ingredients are the pepperonis.

  1. American Express has another set of no-lifetime language (NLL) heightened offers available. To see if you’re targeted, login to AmEx and check the following links for two great no-annual fee cards:

    – Blue Business Plus 75,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 in spend in 12 months
    – Blue Business Cash $750 after $15,000 in spend in 12 months (discussed yesterday)

    Both of these have phone in employee card offers available, 5,000 Membership Rewards after $2,000 in spend on the Blue Business Plus and a $50 statement credit after $2,000 in spend on the Blue Business Cash. Both work for up to 99 employees, or 450,000 bonus points on the Plus or $4,500 in statement credits on the Cash.

  2. Check for email from Citi for targeted 5x on PayPal spend, up to $600 by September 30. This has been seen on:

    – Double Cash
    – Premier
    – Rewards+
    – AAdvatage

    Related to the above: PayPal raised its credit card fees for person-to-person payments to 2.99%, and stopped allowing friends and family payments from personal accounts to business accounts.

  3. Check this link for Barclays credit card targeted 5x spend bonuses on grocery, gas, and restaurant purchases up to $700 in spend through September 15. (Thanks to San_K)
  4. Staples has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards, limit five per transaction running from Sunday through the following Saturday. These are Metabank gift cards, and based on lots of prodding from reader Jim, I won’t say anything bad about Metabanks (today). (Thanks to DDG)
  5. Simon’s volume purchasing program has for 50% off of bulk Visa and Mastercard gift card purchases using promo code JUL22WKND50.

Jimmy’s dog helps us jump toward the weekend with a Delirium Tremens. #JimmyStyle

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?

I guess it’s patriotic to tie the number four into a post on the 4th? To be honest I wasn’t really listening during my Patriotic Blogging 101 course in college, so let’s just assume that I’m right and roll with it. I know I will.

  1. Visible has $45 in cash back (or 4,500 Membership Rewards) at Rakuten for the fourth of July holiday and it stacks nicely with a few other offers. We’ve seen better around black Friday, but if you need a burner phone number for shenanigans, this is a great deal for this time of year. You’ll get:

    – $50 Mastercard from Visible for porting in a number (like a $0.99 Boost number)
    – $45 cash back or 4,500 Membership Rewards via Rakuten

    And your cost will be:

    – $5 with a referral (with a current Chase or Bank of America offer for $20 off of $25) for the first month
    – $20 with Party Pay for the second month

    Of course, you can use the same tricks to upgrade an old or very old phone to a new Moto G Pure android for negative cost.

  2. There are targeted Chase offers for:

    – 15% back at United for airfare
    – 15% back at IHG and several Marriott brands

    The total cash back varies by account and can be as low as $10, or as high as $40.

  3. Check for a targeted spend offer from Barclays personal cards via email for 5x rewards at grocery, drugstores, and restaurants up to $700 in spend. (Thanks to DoC)
  4. Meijer has two Visa gift card deals, and one works even if you’re outside of Meijer land. Just be sure to scale with multiple MPerks accounts and use them all back-to-back as quickly as possible, like La Jolla, San Diego in 2012:

    – $5 off of $100 in Visa gift cards online, these are Metabank cards
    – $10 off of $150 in Visa gift cards in-store, these are either Sunrise or Metabank depending on which you pick (I’d definitely pick the former)

    (Thanks to Stephan at GC Galore)

Have a nice holiday!

Blowing up a Meijer terminal La Jolla style with hundreds of MPerks accounts. Go big or go home, amirite?

  1. Meijer has $50 off of a future purchase on a $500 third party gift card, limit one per MPerks account (or you can ration this down as $5 for every $50 in gift cards purchased). Noteworthy brand exclusions include Apple and Amazon, but BestBuy, Home Depot, and Nike are all included in the promotion.
  2. Staples has $200 Mastercard gift cards available for no-fee, limit five per transaction through Saturday. These are Metabank gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place. (Thanks to GC Galore)
  3. The Target $40 online + $40 in-store RedCard sign-up bonus is back. If you’re not sure why this is interesting, see Target RedCard Hacks.

    Current datapoints suggest between 7 and 14 days are required between churning these cards. (Thanks to sb18 via MEAB slack)

  4. Simon.com has 50% off of Visa and Mastercard gift card purchase fees with promo code JUN22HOT50. These are also Metabanks. Side note: if Metabanks were in a race with other gift cards, they’d come in third out of three in their age group.
  5. Reader/maestro Larry often says something like: “Never hold a deposit account at a bank that has credit cards that you care about.” Something innocuous on the deposit account side of the business involving know your customer regulations, loss prevention, or fraud concerns can often lead to eyes on your credit card portfolio, and eyes on your credit card portfolio are rarely a good thing.

    With the above in mind, I’d suggest giving a moment of thought to the following item that everyone seems to be talking about: The new American Express Business checking account that has a relatively measly 20,000 Membership Rewards sign-up bonus after a few hoops and allows Platinum card holders to cash-out Membership Rewards at one cent per point.

    You can probably guess that I don’t think you should go for it. American Express cards are too valuable to risk holding a deposit account with their banking division, and Platinum card holders (and others) can always cash-out at a penny per point even without this checking account.

Metabank gift cards are kind of a big deal, third place (out of three) in the 14-17 year old age division.