Today through Saturday, March 18th, Safeway in Northern California (perhaps all Safeway locations?) and Albertsons have a $10 discount on $100 Visa Gift Cards. Note that you will first need to save the offer to your Just 4 U loyalty account before making your purchase.
These deals are best maximized by using a card that offers a bonus on grocery store spend. For example, the Amex Everyday Preferred earns 3x at grocery stores on the first $6,000 in grocery spend annually. If you use the card 30 or more times in a month, you will earn a 50% bonus for a total of 4.5x at the grocery store. I believe that Safeway sells $500 Five Back Visa gift cards. I do not live near Safeway, so I’m hoping readers can confirm. If that is correct and you purchase with an Everyday Preferred, the math would look something like this:
$505.95 ($500 gift card + activation fee)
– $10 (coupon off of $100 or more)
$495.95 total cost for $500 Visa gift card + 2,232 Membership Rewards points earned
Update: Thanks to reader Ken for letting me know that Safeway no longer sells the $500 Five Back Visa gift cards.
As Greg has shown, those who hold the Everyday Preferred and Business Platinum may soon be able to get 2.17 cents per point in value in some circumstances. That would make the rewards earned worth up to 9.765% back (4.5 points per dollar x 2.17 cents per point) towards paid flights on your selected airline or business or first class on any airline. Furthermore, if you can purchase a Five Back Visa and using it entirely at one of the merchants that earn 5% back, you would earn another 5% back.
That could be a great deal for what seems on the surface to be an average grocery store promotion. If you live in an area with one of these stores, it’s worth stopping by to take advantage of this deal by Saturday.
Safeway also has a couple of other gift-card related deals as well, so check your account for other coupons.
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I was surprised to find $500 visas and mcgc’s at my local Randall’s in n Houston Texas. I hadn’t seen them for over a year. They are metabank so really easy to liquidate to mo’s at walls.
Better still, when I paid (in my case with with amex obc, the receipt said i also received 490 fuel points. (1,000 fuel points gets you $1 off per gallon of gas. ) . That’s not happened in 2 years with Gc purchases.
Shame
[…] Hat tip to Frequent Miler […]
So this works at Acme too, right?
[…] HT: Frequent Miler […]
I saw $500 loads in my Safeway here in Oregon
I’m in Hawaii and it’s showing up. Of course, my store only has the $50 denomination, so it’s only breaking even.
Been buying all day in Denver
Shows up on my Just For U account for SoCal Von’s.
This showed up in the Seattle area in my Safeway Just For U account.
They don’t have 500 dollar Visa cards any more. Been about a year. So math not nearly as good.
Not true… select stores have the variable load $500 (non Five Back). Shop around. You might get lucky.
I am I SF Bay Area and have not seen 500 variable loads for 16 months.
Must be a regional thing. I used to do 20,000 a month in Visa and MasterCard MSing at Safeway every month. Have the old Blue AMEX.
5 Percent cash back on these cards was easy money. Now at my local safeways they only allow 200 dollars in gift card purchases by credit card at one time and carry no 500 variable loads, period. Oh well, all things must pass. Hardly worth using the old blue any more because of the initial yearly 6500 in spend each year upon which I only receive 0.5pc. I used to get about 1000 per month statement credit, now down to 50 or so. Impossible to replace that.
Not impossible. CVS OneVanilla VGCs -> USPS MOs.
The cvs stores in east bay do not take credit cards to by Visa or MasterCard gift cards any more. The post offices here do not accept gift cards even if they are pin coded debit cards, as payment for money orders.
Are you in California, radster?
The Bay Area is tough to MS in by all accounts.
However, 90 miles NE from there (some) things still work. 🙂
[…] Free money & rewards at Safeway & Albertsons with $10 off on Visa gift cards: I’m hoping readers can help point out the best gift cards to buy this week. If I’m not mistaken, Safeway may sell Five Back Visa gift cards in large denominations. Paired with the right grocery card, this can make for a nice return this week. […]
is this only available in N. California?