Lain
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2014
I had no idea! I'm clearly not "hip" enough for this crowd.
Also, for the Safeway GCs, can I ask again what the deal is right now? And are both MC and Visa ok if I'm not trying to MS them? Oh, and do I still need to worry about MSRs there (with AMEX)?
Safeway is running a deal on Visa Gift Cards now until 8/3/19. This time it's fixed value $50 and $100 VGCs:
• Save $10 on 2x $50 VGC ($4.95 activation fee/each, $0.10 savings)
• Save $15 on 2x $100 VGC ($5.95 activation fee/each, $3.10 savings)
Add the Just4U coupons to your account(s) on the Safeway app. Limit 1 per account.
Sometimes it's the same deal on fixed value $50 and $100 MCGCs. Safeway seems be running these deals more frequently, about once a month and even sometimes concurrently. Last month, Safeway had a $10 off deal on $100+ VGCs that worked on variable load VGCs up to $500 ($5.95 activation fee, $4.05 savings).
As you can see, these deals are slight moneymakers. When paying with Amex cards, I always throw in random grocery items that I need to buy anyway so the transaction isn't a telltale $xxx.95 charge that's a giveaway to the RATs. I treat the savings on the VGC/MCGC like a coupon on my grocery.
The real boon comes with paying with a credit card that earns a high bonus at supermarkets, like the Amex Gold for 4x Membership Rewards Points, Amex Hilton Surpass for 6x Hilton Honors Points, or Amex Blue Cash Preferred for 6% cash back; another card that has supermarkets as its quarterly bonus category; or a card on which you're working on the MSR.
I think you mentioned you're working on your Amex Gold MSR? If you do both deals, your Gold would earn 4x MR on $396.80 (for $400 in VGCs) plus make that amount of a dent in your MSR. If DH or DD have Safeway accounts, you can add this deal to their accounts and type in their phone number at checkout to do it again. I wouldn't worry about buying prepaid or gift cards at Safeway to meet an Amex MSR. Safeway doesn't report L3 data to Amex. Add this deal with your regular grocery shopping if you want to obscure your purchase further. I've personally done it for several of my Amex MSRs. I've... catered many big dinners and company parties at Safeway on my Amex cards.
While you've made progress on your MSR and/or earned 4x MR (or whatever bonus multiplier), and can spend down the VGC/MCGC anytime without a deadline, the problem is liquidating these cards. Unless you have a way to MS, you're floating money in the VGC/MCGC. I mostly use the VGCs at Costco where I spend a hundred+ dollars per trip since Costco doesn't accept Amex, and get 4x MR on my Costco spend that way. I use the MCGCs to pay bills on Plastiq since they've been coding as debit with only a 1% fee, and since I bought the MCGC at 4x MR that still puts me ahead.
Since you'd be floating money in VGC/MCGC, be vigilant that your gift card's packaging hasn't been compromised. There have been increasing reports of gift card fraud tied to tampered packaging, i.e., scammers gain access to a gift card's numbers before it's sold and wait until they're activated to drain them remotely. I've previously written up some tips here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...t-page-for-addl-details.3729982/post-60519331
Just let me know if you have any more questions.
Then we'll set up the mortgage to come off that card every month.
I wanted to order a serve card and somehow ordered a blue one. So I also ordered a green one. Can I cancel the blue when it gets here, or do I just not activate it?
