Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards
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Blackhawk used to be the vendor or Visa and Mastercard gift cards and sales of these cards, which were never eligible for grocery rewards. Now, Fast Card sells Visa Vanilla gift cards and all are eligible for rewards @ 1% face value, so this practically pays for the service fee, which is very nice. I practically have more grocery rewards than I know what to do with ;). I am shopping more at Safeway/Vons as a result. The only problem is that the Vanilla cards cannot be registered online, but they still have the same fraud protection as Blackhawk cards practically speaking.
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This happened before when they introduced new varieties of the GCs. Probably won’t last long until they are re-categorized.
Be very careful inspecting the Vanilla cards before purchase. I got scammed recently because a different barcode was slipped inside the package.
Also, Vanilla itself has cards issued by different banks. Some cards don’t work with all 3 tax payment processors.
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Thanks for the advice. I hope nothing changes to the reward points, but i am still ahead even without the points. So far the vanilla cards have been working on all the payment sites I’ve tried them on. I did have problems with an income or property tax payment site several years ago with a certain type of visa gift card (I don’t remember which). The new format won’t even allow zip code registration, so maybe this reduces the processing rejection rate. I do a balance check with each card immediately after purchase, and so far so good after purchasing a lot of these.
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I presume that you are talking about 4u Rewards. (So not including any credit card % back.) I’ve never spent enough to earn Rewards.
Is it 1 Reward point per $100 spent?
If you buy a $500 g.c. you’d get 5 Rewards for a $6.95 activation fee?
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@my4mainecoons said in Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards:
Is it 1 Reward point per $100 spent?
2 rewards per $100
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@c3 I’m getting 1 Vons reward dollar for each $100 spent. Vons has offered this for regular gift cards for years.
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@jbw said in Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards:
@c3 I’m getting 1 Vons reward dollar for each $100 spent. Vons has offered this for regular gift cards for years.
Hmmm. It has always been 2 for GC at Safeway as long as I can remember.
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With this change, it makes getting the Am Ex Blue Cash Preferred Card (6% cashback on grocery purchases with a $95 annual fee) kind of a waste of money (due to the annual fee) unless your household buys an awful lot of groceries.
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@mrvietnam said in Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards:
With this change, it makes getting the Am Ex Blue Cash Preferred Card (6% cashback on grocery purchases with a $95 annual fee) kind of a waste of money (due to the annual fee) unless your household buys an awful lot of groceries.
In the past I’ve downgraded from the Blue Cash Preferred card to the free version, which gives 3% on groceries. Then, after a year or so, they’ve offered me a free one-year upgrade to the Preferred card (plus bonus of $100 or more). I’ve done that and then downgraded again after the free period. I’m on at least my second round now. Just FYI.
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@mrvietnam said in Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards:
With this change, it makes getting the Am Ex Blue Cash Preferred Card (6% cashback on grocery purchases with a $95 annual fee) kind of a waste of money (due to the annual fee) unless your household buys an awful lot of groceries.
I don’t really understand what you’re saying. You would have purchased the GiftCardMall GCs, but not the Vanilla ones?
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@c3 said in Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards:
@mrvietnam said in Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards:
With this change, it makes getting the Am Ex Blue Cash Preferred Card (6% cashback on grocery purchases with a $95 annual fee) kind of a waste of money (due to the annual fee) unless your household buys an awful lot of groceries.
I don’t really understand what you’re saying. You would have purchased the GiftCardMall GCs, but not the Vanilla ones?
I used to max out the 6% cashback on grocery purchases by buying MM gift cards at Vons, but now since there will be no more of those deals going forward, what use is it getting the Blue Cash Preferred Card and paying the annual fee unless you buy a ton of groceries to max out the 6%?
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@mrvietnam said in Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards:
I used to max out the 6% cashback on grocery purchases by buying MM gift cards at Vons, but now since there will be no more of those deals going forward, what use is it getting the Blue Cash Preferred Card and paying the annual fee unless you buy a ton of groceries to max out the 6%?
MM gift card deals have been very scarce even before the switch. Using the prepaid cards for federal tax, at full price, is still better than paying directly with credit card.
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I stopped buying gc at Shaw’s when we could no longer roll them.
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I think I jinxed it. My latest Vanilla purchase did not receive the grocery rewards bonus. I guess it was good while it lasted.
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@jbw said in Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards:
I think I jinxed it. My latest Vanilla purchase did not receive the grocery rewards bonus. I guess it was good while it lasted.
My last purchase on 11/10 still worked – $500 variable Visa issued by Sutton.
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@c3 said in Safeway/Vons stores have changed gift card vendor and all gift card purchases eligible for rewards:
My last purchase on 11/10 still worked – $500 variable Visa issued by Sutton.
Confirmed today that the same type no longer works. I have no expectation, but I’ll try a different type next time.
