Two Grocery Store Visa Gift Card Deals
A couple of Visa gift card deals at various grocery stores have come across my screens today. One of them is a fantastic promotion and is incredibly useful. The other is an example of what you probably shouldn’t go out of your way for. Lets take a look.
The Good – Giant Stop & Shop 2X Fuel Points on Visa Gift Cards
From 6/26-7/16/15 Giant and Stop & Shop are offering 2X fuel rewards on the purchase of Visa gift cards. This means that the purchase of a $500 gift card will generate 1,000 fuel points or a total of $1 off per gallon for up to 35 gallons.
The gift cards sold by these stores are issued by Metabank and are easily loaded to Bluebird/Serve/REDcard. This means that this is a useful and profitable deal. Lets take a look at the math.
- Cost of Card: $5.95
- Value of Gas Discount: Up to $35
- Credit Card Rewards: $10.12 with 2% card or $25.30 with a 5% card.
- Potential Profit: $39.17 w/2% card or $54.35 w/5% card.
Note: You can actually use a total of 2,200 fuel points for $2.20 off per gallon.
A Gas Discount
Another way to look at this is a discount on gasoline. Lets say gas costs $3 a gallon and you get 35 gallons. Under normal circumstances you would pay $105. With the discount, you will pay $65.83 after rewards on a 2% card. That works out to be a 37.3% discount. The discount with a 5% card is 51.77%!
There is of course one giant caveat with this deal. Fuel points expire 30 days after they are received. Even with this restriction, you can achieve a great discount on gas for a total of 7 weeks since this promotion runs for 3 weeks and then the final points would be good for 30 days after that.
HT: Frequent Miler via BoonDR
The Not So Good – Albertson’s $10 Off $25
So there aren’t any Giant or Stop & Shops here in Nevada, but we do have Albertson’s and they are running a deal of their own. The deal goes something like this:
- Buy $100 or more in Visa gift card and receive $10 off your next shopping purchase of $25 or more.
- Deal runs from 6/26/15 through 7/16/2015
- 1 offer per transaction.
So I guess this is sort of an ok deal if you shop regularly at Albertson’s. It certainly is better than some of their previous deals where they limited the denominations to $25 and $50 cards. Still, I have partaken in some of these deals in the past at Albertson’s and the $10 off coupons are generally buggy and almost always require manager approval. (And forget about using more than 1 at a time!)
I don’t even need to break down the math on this one. The value of the deal is $10 if and only if you regularly shop at Albertson’s. I find their prices are often higher than other stores and that must be calculated in as well. Given most people have limited liquidation bandwidth, this is sort of a yawner.
An Interesting Coincidence?
Despite the fine print on the Albertson’s deal saying it isn’t sponsored by Metabank or Visa, I find it a strange coincidence that the dates for these deals are exactly the same. First off, normally deals like this don’t run for three weeks and secondly, Albertson’s deals run Wednesday to Tuesday but this promotion runs Friday to Thursday.
I only point this out because it is possible you may find similar deals at your local stores. It certainly is worth a look. I checked out Kroger (Smith’s) and Safeway (Von’s) and didn’t find any deals, but there are so many chains that it is possible more deals exist.
Conclusion
My goal here is to both share deals and educate. While I love me some Visa gift card deals, I really wish we had Giant or Stop & Shop stores here. Instead I am stuck with Albertson’s and their questionable deals. Still, some deals are better than none so I’m not complaining. Feel free to share any other Visa grocery stores deals you may have found!
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So does the $10 off of $25 work for the next subsequent gift card purchase? Or does it only work for a regular grocery purchase?
I can see this could be scaled by going on a busy day and rotating throughout different registers.
Groceries only. It won’t apply to gift cards and there are other exclusions like alcohol, etc.
The Stop and Shop deal has a one-car rule. Since there aren’t many vehicles with 35-gallon tanks (even the Hummer H2 only holds 32!), your calculation needs to take that into account. Also, in the NYC area, it’s not so easy to load Visa gift cards onto Bluebird or Redbird.
Almost all grocery stores have that one car rule, but it is rarely enforced. A lot of people also use gas cans. I cannot account for everyone’s situations, so as with any deal it is important to see how it will work for you. If you only get 20 gallons at a time, then make that calculation. If it is difficult to liquidate Visa cards then this may not be the right deal.
[…] Two Grocery Store Visa Gift Card Deals – 1 Great & 1 Not So Great […]
Between 6/26 and 7/16/2015 Shaws/Star Market on Cape Cod (and probably the rest of New England) is offering $10 off next grocery purchase when you buy $100 or more of new MetaBank Visa cards. One offer per transaction.
This is from today’s circular.
Safeway in Phoenix is doing the $10 off $25 when you buy at least $100 in Visa gc. However, two of the closest stores to me are out of $200 cards, and the promotion doesn’t apply to variable load cards. I also found it ironic that the promotion is to introduce their new-look cards, but all of the cards on the rack are old.
Better deal started today @ Giant Eagle in NE OH – buy $100 Visa GC and get a coupon for $10 off a $10 purchase until July 15. It’s good for MS or fuel discounts, but the coupons expire in 2 weeks and can only be used one at a time. Plus you always need a mgr override.
It will be a better deal for me starting July 1 with the Chase Freedom 5x bonus @ gas stations. I’ll use the Chase Freedom to buy Giant Eagle grocery gift cards @ Get Go, (the gas station partner for Giant Eagle), then use those GCs to buy the Visa GC @ Giant Eagle.
Shhhhhhhhhh!!!!
People will move to Pittsburgh NE Ohio and kill these deals!!
Lol.
Haven’t payed for gas in 2 years = my cost is negative on the $/gallon.
Shhhhhhhh!!!!
So I can use my credit card at albertsons to purchase the visa gift card to load my red card that I can use to pay my credit card bill?
Yes that should work.
I went to Safeway tonight, tried to buy a $500 card, and was informed it’s debit only for gift card purchases over $100. Not sure if it’s a store issue or broader since I don’t usually shop at Safeway. (This is in Colorado.)
With Safeway it is generally different store to store. Here in Vegas some stores require cash or debit and others are fine with credit cards.
Saw the 10 off 25 when I was in Vegas recently. Didn’t bother because you are right, it is not a good deal.
Safeway in Maryland started the buy $100 visa get the $10 off $25 deal today.
I am still trying to use up all the gas points from the 3x promo over fathers day. I am literally making friends at the pump when i type in one of my 3 giant account numbers
Locally, Shop ‘n Save (MO & IL) is still part of Supervalu, along with Save-A-Lot, which has become a franchise operation. Neither chain has a loyality program and in recent times, SnS has scaled back the catalina offers. Shop ‘n Save does have pumps at a few stores; but not quite like Kroger. Now Krogers is returning to the St. Louis area by opening Ruler grocery stores. Whether any market will be selling fuel is unknown; but I believe my Kroger card will be swiped at the register.
ALbertsons and Vons are same company- no deal at one and only on the other? Unusual
I don’t believe Safeway has been fully merged in with Albertson’s yet. At least here in Nevada they still have separate ads, promotions, etc.