Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
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:
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Five backs at CVS were always inconsistent to use. Some CVS’s allowed you to swipe multiple times to get to $500, handy for the $200 five backs ubiquitous at office stores. If you could get that to work that was perfect.
Worked fine for me. $500×2, bought 2 $500 visas, took 3 days for the extra $25×2 to show up.
The I went back and got a $50 ebay GC with the final $50. Waiting on my final $1.25×2 to show up now.
I did have to show my drivers license for the $1000 buy.
Bought Amazon gift cards from CVS using the 5% back in early Jan… never received rebate.
January 20th! As if the liberals needed another thing to blame on trump!
when your pal turns out to be adolf hitler or worse come back and say hi
nothing says loser like crying about your gal losing an election
[…] goes down another one, no more 5 Back giftcarding them at CVS. We’ll not blame The Points Guy for this one […]
People had no problem giving their driver license to be stored in the system at cvs? You have to give it everytime you bought more than $300 worth of vgc
People had no problem giving their driver license to be stored in the system at cvs? You have to give it everytime you bought more than $300 worth of vgc
[…] Simon Mall and some stores sell 5 Back Visa gift cards. These prepaid Visa cards offer 5% back at select merchants. Due to overwhelming popularity (my guess), CVS will be leaving this program as of January 20th and thus won’t be eligible for 5% back. This was a popular option for many, so make sure to use your 5 Back cards before its too late. HT: Frequent Miler […]
I think the obvious question is: Are there any other retailers remaining on the list that will allow you to convert your 5-Back the way CVS did? I see 2 strong candidates, but unsure if one carries a $500 VGC and unsure if the other will let you use the 5-Back to buy it…
Sub
I still have $1000 in them. Will CVS let me buy visa or mastercards with them and will I get the extra 5% ?
Something had to give, eventually. I was wondering when they would stop giving MSers $80.20 per visit.
[…] There were lots of reports that CVS will no longer be part of the 5-Back program starting January 20 as we wrote yesterday. This has now been confirmed in writing by Simom Mall customer service, as reported by Frequentmiler. […]
So would it be safe to assume that the participating merchant was responsible for the 5% back? If so, I get their reason for jumping ship on the program.
I think so. Why would Blackhawk want to pay cash back? From what kind of budget? Besides, if they did, they wouldn’t have preference of merchants, say CVS over Walgreens. This is the program that pretty much gives 5% back coupon to shops that want to increase number of sales and customers. Unfortunately, CVS didn’t think that “certain items” they sell will be used to take advantage of them. Either way, let’s blame the bloggers again : )