Should be easy math question but I don't know how to do it.
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I should know how to do this but I don’t.
I purchased $400 in prepaid visa gift cards at Staples. Rebate covers the activation fee. Earning 5% back on my Chase Ink credit card, $20.
I’m going to use the $400 visa to buy $400 in Best Buy gift cards at Rite Aid this week. Earn 1600 PP ($16) for $100 in BB gc. So 16% bonus.
I’m going to buy $400 in Mobil gas gc at Best Buy.
What is my discount on gas? Is it 21%?
Am I getting a $100 gas gc for $79?Then if gas is $2.50/gallon, how much am I effectively paying per gallon? $1.975?
I earn 1% back in Plenti points or other bonuses when I buy gas which is trivial but it works out to a few cents less per tank.
thanks.
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Well I believe that you are getting 9% or $2.275 agallon you earn $20.00 +$16.00=$36.00 and that is 9% of $400.00
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@bigbadandmean Its $16 per $100 and $5 per $100. So why not 21%?
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You are right I only did the $16.00 for $100 not $64.00 for $400.00 so $84.00 savings in $400 comes to 21%
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@bigbadandmean Thanks for confirming my math.
Next question… alternative is to buy money orders with the prepaid cards and deposit them in my checking account. Then buy Best Buy gc using my usual credit card.In comparison, I’d pay 0.035% (70¢) to convert each prepaid to money order.
I’d be charging the BB gc on a cc that only gives me 1% back.
Not to mention time to go to Walmart where I only go to buy m.o.
Thinking I should stick to using the prepaids at RA instead of my cc.
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If you have a 5% card for use at office supply stores, why don’t you have a 2% card for non-category spend?
Also, are you 100% sure you can use a Best Buy gift card to buy a different gift card. Nearly every time I’ve tried something like that with a store gift card, they tell me I can’t buy another gift card.
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@meed18 said in Should be easy math question but I don't know how to do it.:
If you have a 5% card for use at office supply stores, why don’t you have a 2% card for non-category spend?
Also, are you 100% sure you can use a Best Buy gift card to buy a different gift card. Nearly every time I’ve tried something like that with a store gift card, they tell me I can’t buy another gift card.
I think Best Buy is one of the few remaining exceptions: I recently used a $50 Best Buy GC to purchase a $50 Whole Foods GC in store.
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@fivetalents said in Should be easy math question but I don't know how to do it.:
@meed18 said in Should be easy math question but I don't know how to do it.:
If you have a 5% card for use at office supply stores, why don’t you have a 2% card for non-category spend?
Also, are you 100% sure you can use a Best Buy gift card to buy a different gift card. Nearly every time I’ve tried something like that with a store gift card, they tell me I can’t buy another gift card.
I think Best Buy is one of the few remaining exceptions: I recently used a $50 Best Buy GC to purchase a $50 Whole Foods GC in store.
Interesting. I wonder why that is?
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I found out we can use the BBY points/certificates to buy 3rd party GCs. I used a certificate for a small appliance on sale and there was $14.xx remaining so I got a $15 Papa John’s GC to use up all the points and paid some cents after the certificate.
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@meed18 Unless things have changed recently you can buy 3rd party gc at BB using BB gc and nobody blinks an eye.
I get 2% on gas on Amex but not sure going that route saves me more than its worth to have to go to WM to cash out the prepaids.
Other times I’ve paid for the BB gc at Rite Aid using 1% cc then gone to BB and bought gas gc.
In the past when I bought them the discount/PP offer at RA was 20%. Now its only 16%.I don’t pay attention to the cc% for gas because usually I’m paying with a gc that I got at more than 10% discount vs. only 2% on cc.
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@fivetalents said in Should be easy math question but I don't know how to do it.:
@meed18 said in Should be easy math question but I don't know how to do it.:
If you have a 5% card for use at office supply stores, why don’t you have a 2% card for non-category spend?
Also, are you 100% sure you can use a Best Buy gift card to buy a different gift card. Nearly every time I’ve tried something like that with a store gift card, they tell me I can’t buy another gift card.
I think Best Buy is one of the few remaining exceptions: I recently used a $50 Best Buy GC to purchase a $50 Whole Foods GC in store.
Sears/Kmart is another one. I’ve purchased Staples, Amazon, Panera, Shell, etc at KM using Sears gift cards.
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@my4mainecoons Pleasantly surprised when I went to BB to buy gas gc today. In the past they only had Mobil. Today they also had Shell in $25 and $50’s. I bought a combination of Shell & Exxon Mobil cards because I get 5¢/gallon discount at the pump from their Gas Rewards program. I think that’s another 2% if the price per gallon is the same as at Exxon Mobil.
