Update 6/20/25: Nick stopped by his local Hannaford this week and found that it was stocking Gift of College cards as well, which will be great news for folks in upstate New York and Vermont.
Hannaford is owned by the same company as Stop and Shop, so it seems like only a matter of time before the cards are at Food Lion as well.
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Earlier this week, a Frequent Miler Insiders member shared that Gift of College Gift Cards are now available in-store at Stop & Stop, a grocery chain with locations throughout the Northeast. The company that owns Stop & Shop also owns Giant and Food Lion, so there could be a chance that they’re eventually rolled out there as well.
These are variable load, $25-$500 cards and could be a very attractive option for those who are looking to fund college savings with a credit card. (h/t: Steven C)
The Deal
- $25-$500 Gift of College cards can now be purchased in-store at Stop & Shop.
Quick Thoughts
For years, Gift of College have been a very popular vehicle for those looking to load a college savings account, but the $500 versions have become harder to find in many areas of the country. Stop & Shop has an expansive footprint in the Northeast and NY-metro area, so there will undoubtedly be many interested folks out there.
Options to buy online have come and gone, but usually the ecards can only be loaded with up to $200 and the purchase fees make them unattractive for most points hounds. Being able to buy them at Stop & Shop is good news for those who can take advantage.
There are frequent Stop & Shop promotions on Citi Merchant Offers and SimplyMiles, so make sure to check those before heading out to the store.
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I saw $100 denominations of Gift of College physical cards at Target in early November 2025
No luck in New Jersey have tried multiple locations.
Just here to confirm I went by 3 S&S locations yesterday in Essex county and none of them had GOC gift cards . I bought a few back in July so I know each of these locations had them.
I spoke to customer service at S&S today and they said they don’t sell them anymore.
I went to Stop and Shop today and they have all been pulled. I am going to try another one but very disappointed as this was a huge game changer for me.
Stopped by another S&S in NJ and no GoC gift cards. The placard is there but it’s been covered with variable load VGC. Lots of missing GCs so I wonder if something is up overall.
Still no GoC at Stop and Shop in NJ. Checked multiple stores.
Found it when I was visiting Long Island. You have to go to customer service to checkout. USBank declined my transaction for fraud and locked my card, had to spend 20 min on the phone to get my card unlocked. USB knew it was a gift card.
US Bank is very trigger happy when it comes to GC purchases, I’d avoid buying GCs with their cards unless you absolutely don’t care if they shut you down.
[…] Gift of College Cards now sold at Stop & Shop (Hannaford too) by FM. […]
I can confirm goc gift cards available at stop and shop. At least at my local NJ stop and shop
May I know the zip code?
[…] Gift of College cards are now sold at both Stop & Shop and Hannaford. Obviously this is useful if for college tuition expenses, but there are nuggets to be found in old school blogs too. […]
Went to my local stop shop in North NJ. Still cannot find out. Hopefully soon.
If anybody has a tip for Illinois residents please chime in 🙂
Nothing in OR. Gift of college hates the PNW
Has anyone seen these in MA yet? Ran through a few Stop and Shops and none had them in stock.
Not in the Greater Boston area stores (yet?).
Seen them today in central MA, they were not there last week.
Shame that MA only allows 2k to be offset against taxes, unlike NY which allows 10k
Haven’t seen any yet in Greater Boston, but the Cumberland Farms I checked still has them.
The only Cumby’s in greater Boston that I’ve been to (Brighton) hasn’t had them for weeks.
Went on a Hannaford’s run today. The Hannaford’s near Lowell on the MA side of the border didn’t have any. All of the ones on the NH side of the border had plenty. So wonder if there’s something about MA that’s keeping them out of the Stop and Shop/Hannaford stores.
Cumby’s in MA got a new version of the GoC cards in stock that are MA-branded. Unfortunately, their registers don’t work with the new cards, and so they serve an error message. It’s been a couple of weeks across multiple stores and haven’t been fixed yet.
6.95 fee?
$5.95 fee and you can load $25-$500 to it.
Thanks!
Spotted at my local store (also in CT). Didn’t try to buy as I didn’t have my Amex gold on me, but this is a major upgrade over my monthly drive to Cumby’s.
Worked like a charm on consumer gold. Thank you FF team!
Now the question is which 3-4x grocery card I can do this on in size without risk of an account review. I’d love to put 2.5-5k a month on these–would that be an issue at amex?
For cumbys runs, I used to rotate biz gold, Hawaiian, Alaska, Wyndham.
How have you been doing it and has it been an issue?