The 5 Back Visa Gift card can be purchased at Simon Mall, GiftCardMall.com, and a number of retail locations. These gift cards can be used as regular debit or credit gift cards anywhere that Visa is accepted. However, if they are used at selected merchants, 5% of the spend is automatically redeposited to the card. For example, if you spend $500 with a 5 Back Visa card at a participating merchant, $25 will be re-deposited to the card within a couple of days. I previously wrote about this card here: Five Back Visa Gift Card. A new way to earn 5X and save money?
The Simon Mall version of this card has different branding, but it works the same way.
One of the most lucrative uses of these cards has been to use them to buy certain items at CVS. Unfortunately, CVS is withdrawing from the program as of January 20th. Several blogs reported this in the past few days, but details were murky. A reader named Carol, who writes “Chicago on the Cheap” got the scoop directly from Simon Customer Service:
Thank you for contacting Simon Customer Service,
Yes, CVS will be exiting the 5% Back program. They will officially be off the program on Jan 20th.
Thank you,
Simon Customer Service
A full list of participating merchants can be found on the Simon website. Here are the current retail participants: