Author: admin

Fee or Error? Being Charged $3.95 on Every Walmart Swipe Reload

Posted on June 19, 2014June 19, 2014 by admin

On June 15th, 2014, I reloaded my Serve with 3 Visa gift cards at Walmart. I have been doing many times, and it seemed there was no problem to complete 3 reloads. The receipts show the exact amount I loaded. At a glance of them, I couldn’t see any problem, but when I logged in Serve account and saw the transaction history, I noticed there was something wrong. The amount of each reload is $3.95 less. I checked the receipts carefully. Although the amount of the debit load is correct, the beginning balance and the ending balance don’t match each other. The beginning balance on all three receipts is somehow $3.95 less.

As soon as I got home, I searched on the internet. Instantly, it was a hit. There were many people experiencing the same problem. Something in common was that they happened recently and only to Serve, not BlueBird. In terms of time and place, it probably happened at random.

Someone’s post on flyertalk forum says “It was probably a glitch only affecting on Serve. Wait for the next few days to see if it is just a glitch or a new policy.” I was convinced by this post, and I just waited.

I have been waiting for a few days, but there is no change in my Serve account. I went back to the forum and continued to read pages. On page 5, I found the resolution. I should have read this page on the first day. It had been already resolved 4 days before.

There is a link in the forum and visited blog post. As it says, I called the number on the back of the card and spoke to an account manager. In a few minutes, $3.95 x 3 was credited to my Serve account. It shows up as Good Faith Credit.

If you recently reload your Serve at Walmart, you should double check if there is a hidden deduction of $3.95 for each reload.

Target Visa Gift Card and ShopDiscover 1/2

Posted on June 18, 2014July 28, 2014 by admin

I found that you could buy Target Visa GC with Target GC, but it seems it wouldn’t go through anymore. I succeeded for the first attempt. And 3 weeks later I tried to purchase (4) $100 Target Visa GCs. Checking out was done smoothly, and I received “Thank you for your order” email. However, in just one minute, I was received another email telling me the order was cancelled. The email doesn’t say what exactly the problem. The first thing I came up with is the payment method I took. The description of Target Visa GC at Target.com says:

I thought using Target GC was the problem, but it might be that I ordered too many cards. So, hours later, I made another order of (1) $100 Target Visa GC. And this time, too. The order was cancelled a minute after I was received thank-you-for-your-order email. I got disappointed. This strategy won’t work, and I should spend all Target GCs (which I bought from gift card exchange sites) for merchandises.

But, the next day, an email I received from ShopDiscover brightens me. Although I clicked through a link at ShopDiscover, I didn’t expect cash back from them. That’s because the first successful order was made through Coupay.com, and I didn’t receive cash back from them. I clicked the link of ShopDiscover just in case.

ShopDiscover’s cash back bonus for Target is 5%. For the order of (4) $100 Target Visa GCs, I could have gotten $21.20 as the email says. And if Target accepts credit card for the purchase of Target Visa GCs, you will receive 1% (or more, depending on credit cards) cash back. For example, when I buy (1) $100 Target Visa GC with Discover it (which gives 1% cash back on all your spending):

Pay a purchase fee (-$6.00)
5% cash Back from ShopDiscover (+$5.30)
1% cash back from Discover (+$1.06)
It is slight, but there is a profit, $0.36!

Visa GCs can be used as a debit card. Depending on stores, ~~you can get cash back at the register~~. ~~You can load your Bluebird or Serve at Walmart~~. They are easy to convert into cash. The point is you don’t lose money in this transaction. You can use this strategy as one of your manufactured spending. Compared with buying Visa GCs at Staples, it is a worse deal, but it is always better to have many options for your manufactured spending.

So far, I have received only one email from ShopDiscover. For the second order (1x $100 Visa GC), I haven’t received. It will probably be sent tomorrow. This strategy is mostly relied on Cash Back Bonus from ShopDiscover, so I want to make sure of it. And then, I will make another order with a credit card.

Why do gift cards on ebay sell for more than face value

Posted on June 13, 2014June 13, 2014 by admin

Sometimes, gift cards on eBay are sold at prices more than their face values. You may be wondering why it happens. I am, too. I went online to research and saw lots of discussion in many forums. From them, I learned cash back or promotion can explain some of them. And today, I experienced that myself. I bid at eBay auction and won. The price is more than face value of the gift card, 104.44%. Here is a detail.

The item was $500 Target gift card. It was auction style listing and ending in a few hours when I saw it. Before logging in eBay, I received an email from eBay that notified me about eBay Bucks promotion. It was:

Earn 10% eBay Bucks on every qualifying single item of $250 or more on June 4th to June 5th

I received an email 3 hours before the promotion started. I have seen the same type of eBay Bucks promotions throughout the year (sometimes 4%, qualifying on $50 or more purchases, etc.), but they appear at random. So, you need to keep an eye on your emails.

$250 is not cheap (at least, for me). You shouldn’t buy something expensive just to meet requirements for 10% eBay Bucks. But if you choose gift cards for stores that you regularly shop, it will be fine. So I chose Target gift card and bid at the auction. I won the auction for $522.22, which was my max bid. I will get $52.22 in eBay Bucks. Considering this, I got $500 Target gift card for $470. It is exactly 6% off. According to data at GiftCardGranny.com, 6% discount is more than the average for Target gift cards and 5% REDcard discount as well. It won’t take a month for me to spend $500 at Target, but I can even boost up spending by using this strategy (of course, without frittering away).

6% discount is not only the bargain I got from the transaction. That is because I earned 0.5% cash back ($2.61) from BigCrumbs.com. And I paid with American Express gift card linked to my PayPal account. When I purchased AmEx GC, I earned 4% equivalent reward ($20.88) from Fuel Rewards Network.

This is why I spent more money for a gift card which has less value. However, the money I paid is only 104.44% of actual value of the gift card. I still cannot understand why some gift cards or reload packs are sold at 150% to 200% price. In the forums, people are saying that it’s fraudulent, money laundering, or stupidity. But I feel that there must be a secret, and I hope I will figure it out someday.

Earn 3X Gas Rewards on GC purchases at Stop and Shop

Posted on June 8, 2014June 8, 2014 by admin

6/6/2014 thru 6/16/2014, you can earn 3x gas rewards when you purchase any gift card at Stop & Shop. I was lucky enough the store has $20-$500 Visa gift cards. I knew the store had lots of gift cards including Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, but I have never seen $20-$500 gift cards. There is a bunch of them now. It seems the store have just restocked them. Without thinking, I picked up and took it to the cashier. I had it loaded $500, and a fee is just $5.95. That is only 1.19%.

I used American Express Blue Cash Preferred so I will get 6% cash back ($30.36) in addition to 3x gas rewards (1500 pts = $1.50/gal).

I don’t know full potential of Visa GC, but at least I know that you can load American Express Serve at Walmart and withdraw money to your bank account. There is no fee in this process. It is just you need a trip to Walmart, and it takes up to 5 days to withdraw money to your bank account.

On the other day, I tried to get cash back with Visa GC (issued by the same bank, MetaBank) at the register of Target, but it couldn’t succeed. A PIN pad said, “Access denied, contact issuer”. At that time, I used $100 Visa GC (issued by the same bank, MetaBank), and tried to get $40 cash back. What if I choose a smaller amount of cash back? What about other stores. I will have to find out.

Of course, you can use the gift card normally, at grocery stores, gas stations, online purchases, etc. After you add the GC to your PayPal account, you can spend it on eBay purchases, too.

You don’t have to buy Visa gift cards. Any gift cards except Stop & Shop gift cards are eligible for 3x gas rewards. I chose $500 Visa gift card because:

A purchase fee is the lowest against a face value of gift card
I can use anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted
There is a way to turn it into cash
It may be possible to get cash back at the register
I can buy gift cards at Stop & Shop or elsewhere again

If I buy an amazon gift card with the Visa GC, there is no credit card cash back. However, since there is no purchase fee on amazon gift cards, you can buy $500 amazon gift card with $500 Visa gift card. And I will get another 1500 pts! This is just one example, but starting with $500 Visa GC, you will be able to choose a lot of options and earn a lot of gas rewards as well!

Target Visa Gift Card Tips and Tricks

Posted on June 6, 2014July 7, 2014 by admin

Target sells gift cards online. They sell not only their own GC, but also other store’s GC and Visa GC. I added Visa GC to the cart and choose Target REDcard as a payment method to see if REDcard-5%-discount would apply on the purchase. The result was NO. The discount DOES apply on other store’s GCs, but NOT on Visa or Target GCs. When I was doing this research, I noticed that I might be able to choose Target GC as payment for the purchase of GCs. I could check the box next to Target GC, and there was no error message so far. But I didn’t have any Target GC so I couldn’t go further at that moment.

Soon, I went to GiftCardGranny.com and searched for Target GC. I found many 4% to 5% off gift cards. I bought 2 e-gift cards at Raise.com and immediately tried to use it.

It was successful!

I was able to buy a Visa GC with Target GCs.

At Target.com, the highest denomination of Visa GC is $100, and it charges $6 fee. Although I used Target GCs I got only 4.5% off, I didn’t lose money in overall transactions. Because:

I bought $106 Target GC for $101.23 (+$4.77)
Befrugal.com gives 1% cash back on purchases at Raise.com (+$1.01)
1% cash back from credit card (+$1.01)

Total $6.79 covers a purchase fee of Visa GC!

This isn’t the only discovery about Target Visa GC. The GC arrived a week later. On the same day, I went to Costco and see if I could get cash back at the register. I bought two $25 Costco Cash Cards. I swiped the GC and enter the PIN. And then a button that said, “20” appeared on a touch panel of card reader. I press the button and a cashier gave $20 in cash.

Although the description on the small paper card inside the package of the GC (“When swiping the card, always select credit, not debit, since there is no PIN”), a card reader wouldn’t let me choose between credit or debit. It just prompted me to enter a PIN. Whatever the 4-digit numbers you enter for the first time will be the PIN of your Target Visa GC. If you forget the PIN, go to mybalancenow.com. You can reset, and 4-digit numbers you will enter next time will be a new PIN. All these information can be found in the website. You can also check the balance, view transaction history, and assign the zip code in this website.

I bought $200 Visa GC at Staples.com in the same way. It is still on the way. When I receive it, I will try to get cash back at the register. And I will order another Target Visa GC and try to get cash back at different stores. I will need lots of Target and Staples GCs!

Updated July 7th 2014, cash back with purchase won’t be successful. I don’t know if it is not accepted anywhere, but at least not at Costco, where it used to be accepted.

Amex Sync Offers June 2014

Posted on June 4, 2014June 20, 2014 by admin

New Amex Sync Offers are available now. Don’t miss any of these great offers. Here are the offers I personally think it is useful.

Dunkin’ Donuts – Spend $5 or more, get $5 statement credit, thru 6/30/2014
Home Depot – Spend $75 or more , get $15 statement credit, thru 6/30/2014
BP – Spend $30 or more at the pump, get $5 statement credit, thru 6/30/2014
Exxon/Mobil – Spend $30 or more at the pump, get $5 statement credit, thru 7/31/2014

All of them are one-time deal. There are many other offers, but personally I’m not interested. I checked all offers and synced ones above yesterday. And I used one of them today.

Gift cards come in handy when you get this kind of offer, especially when you don’t really want any merchandise at the store. I can use the exact minimum amount that needs to be qualified. In this transaction, I get two 20% off gift cards, which I will certainly use later.

Surprise! In less than 5 minutes, I received an email that I was able to make sure the offer had been successfully redeemed. This is something totally different than cash back from online portals, which may keep you worrying about it for a few days or even weeks.

I used “Serve” for the purchase. Serve is a great tool to meet credit card minimum requirement, achieve sign-up bonus, earn cash back or mileage points etc. However, because of monthly limits of withdrawal, money in the account eventually adds up more and more if you don’t use the card for shopping. Amex offers let you spend money in the account effectively and wisely.

Earn $30 through PayPal Credit Card Promotion

Posted on June 3, 2014June 3, 2014 by admin

I received an email about Father’s Day Promotion by PayPal Extras MasterCard. According to the email, you will get $10 statement credit for every eBay purchases of $50 or more made with PayPal Extras MasterCard between June 2nd and 15th in 2014, a maximum of $30 in statement credit. It doesn’t say anything about eligible or non-eligible items, so it seems any purchase on eBay will be qualified. Currently, I bid at many auctions of gift cards, but I’m not sure if I will win and spend $50 or more on eBay by June 15th. So, I bought one $50 eBay gift card for now, and maybe two more later if I don’t win any actions.

Make sure to activate offer prior to purchases.

This is an easy $30 statement credit earning!!!

Target REDcard 5% Discount on Gift Cards

Posted on June 2, 2014June 20, 2014 by admin

I love Target. They sell everything. Since they start selling groceries, Target has been my favorite store I visit most frequently. I have REDcard which give you 5% discount on almost everything. Here is the list of items that 5% discount DOESN”T apply:

Prescriptions, Target Clinic services and Target Optical eye exams
Target gift cards and prepaid cards
Previous purchases
Target credit account payments, Target Debit Card cash back and cash advances on the Target Visa Credit Card
Target Commercial Interiors purchases
Gift wrap and shipping and handling charges on Target.com purchases
Where otherwise prohibited by law

From the list, I can clearly see that you can’t get 5% off on Target gift cards purchase, but what about other gift cards? What includes in “prepaid cards”? I had bought Boost Mobile’s refill cards and verified that 5% discount was applied on the purchases. I am not interested in other gift cards such as Starbucks, restaurant’s, and iTunes because you can easily find these gift cards with more than 5% discount on eBay. But, what about Visa and American Express gift cards?. Will I get 5% discount on these gift cards, too?

To check this out, I went online and added them to a cart, and chose REDcard as a payment method. As you see in the picture, REDcard discount doesn’t apply on Target or Visa gift card. .

discount on gift cards

And a purchase fee of Visa gift cards are expensive. $100 charges $6 purchase fee, and $100 is the highest denomination. Only Visa gift cards are available online. So, I went to the store to check the fee of American Express gift cards, but they are all the same. Here is a fee table of Visa and American Express gift cards being sold at Target

$100 Visa/Amex – $6 fee (6%)
$50 Visa/Amex – $5 fee (10%)
$25 Visa/Amex – $4 fee (16%)

Probably, all Visa and American Express gift cards being sold at Target charge at least 6% purchase fee. And also you can’t find any other bank gift cards at Target.

Here is a list of the other gift cards you can find at Target:

AT&T Go Phone
Apple ITunes
Bass Pro Shops
Boost Mobile
Xbox live
Chipotle
Dominos
T-Mobile Prepaid
Nook
Microsoft Office
Tracfone
Nintendo Eshop
Wendy’s
Texas Roadhouse
Southwest Airlines
Sonic
Spotify
Skype
Google Play
Facebook
Harley Davidson
Einstein Brothers Bagels
Fandango
Logans Roadhouse
Burger King
Spa Week
Pandora
Hulu
Groupon
Starbucks
Subway
BenihanaApplebees
Olive Garden
Red Lobster
Buffalo Wild Wings
Coldstone Creamery
Chilis
Red Robin
Ruby Tuesdays
Darden Restaurants
IHOP
Cracker Barrel
AMC theatres
Chic-Fil-A
PF Changs
Disney
Rhapsody
Verizon Wireless prepaid

This is not really a great selection, but keep in mind that Target has these gift cards, and you can buy with REDcard at 5% off price.

While I was poking around a shopping cart at Target.com, another question came up. Can I purchase Visa or other gift cards with Target gift cards? When entering billing information, all payment methods are choose-able. At that time, I didn’t have any Target gift cards. So, all I could do was check the box, and there was no error message so far. I really need to make sure of this. I will update a result in blog “Target Visa Gift Card Tips and Tricks“

Comparison of Gas Rewards Programs 3/3

Posted on May 25, 2014August 14, 2014 by admin

Stop & Shop Gas Rewards vs Fuel Rewards Network

Although both programs let you redeem the reward at Shell gas stations, the reward’s points can’t be combined or redeemed together. Let’s see what is the difference between these two programs.

Stop & Shop Gas Rewards (S&S) needs to earn at least 100 points to redeem 10¢/gal discount, while FRN needs none. Even when you don’t have any reward in FRN account, you can always get 3¢/gal
S&S can save up to $2.20 per gallon per transaction, while FRN has no limit. (Actually, you need to pay at least .019 to .109 cents per gallon)
S&S reward can be redeemed up to 35 gallons, while FRN can up to 20 gallons
S&S reward can earn at Stop & Shop only, while FRN can earn at participating supermarkets, restaurants, bars and clubs, on convenience store purchase or auto service at Shell gas station, and a shopping through Online Shopping Mall

Conclusion

Both programs are great. I found it very easy to earn S&S reward. But there is only one problem with this program. That is “It has a limit, $2.20 per gallon Max per transaction.” Even if you have lots of points, you can’t redeem more than 2200 point. For FRN, you can lower the price to almost $0/gal.

Even if you use the most effective way to earn FRN rewards that fits your regular spending, it is probably not enough to make the price down to $0.01/gal. In the FRN website, you can see at least five FRN members paid $0.01/gal every day. If you want to become one of those, you’ll have to work at it. If you are interested in $0.01/gal, read blog “Ultimate Strategy of Fuel Rewards Network 1/2“.

Ultimate Strategy of Fuel Rewards Network 1/2

Posted on May 24, 2014December 26, 2014 by admin

I believe the best way to save gas money is use Fuel Rewards Network (FRN). FRN is a reward program for Shell gas station. It is free to join. Sign up and request a membership card. You will need the card to redeem rewards, but you don’t need it to earn the rewards. Start earning today! There are two reasons this program is so great. One is there are many ways to earn the rewards, and the other is you can redeem as much reward as a price of gas. (it’s possible to pay only $0.01/gal.) Here are all the ways to earn FRN reward.

Linking your participating grocery store card and make a purchase (Participating grocery stores are not around the area I live. If they are in your neighborhood, you can get a steady flow of FRN reward on every day purchase)
Shopping at Shell convenience store, get a car wash or auto service at Shell (Buying bonus items in Shell store give you extra reward)
Purchasing Quaker State or Pennzoil motor oil (Find a special code under the caps)
Linking your MasterCard and use at restaurants (Choose a credit card which offer the best reward on the purchase at restaurants. You will earn both FRN and credit card’s reward)
Referring FRN to your friends (Send e-mails with a referral link to your friends. When your friends join FRN, you will earn 5¢/gal discount)
Other limited time offers
Shopping at FRN Online Mall

When I became a member and found the Online Mall in FRN, I got excited. The Online Mall is similar to credit cards’ such as ShopDiscover and Ultimate Rewards. I’m receiving lots of Cash Back from them on online purchases. I thought it was good opportunity to add another type of Online Mall for gas money. However, soon after I compared FRN Online Mall with ShopDiscover, I got disappointed. Because ShopDiscover’s reward would be better than FRN for all online retailers I usually shop. I might as well forget about FRN and keep using ShopDiscover.

I couldn’t give up though, because $0.01/gal is so appealing. I looked for another way, then I found “~~2X Rewards at American Express Gift Cards~~“. In FRN Online Mall, every $50 purchase gives you 5¢/gal discount. For example, if you buy $500 AmEx gift card:

The reward is 5¢ x $500/$50 x 2(Bonus)=$1/gal
Since you can redeem the reward up to 20 gallons per transaction, the reward is worth $1×20=$20
Amex charge $3.95 as purchase fee and $8.95 for shipping cost, total fee is $12.90
$20-$12.90=$7.10 You even made a profit so far (plus, you may get cash back from credit card)

You now have $500 gift card which can be used anywhere it accepts American Express. You may buy groceries at a supermarket or wholesale items at Costco. But, let’s get more reward out of this gift card.

Buy Gift Card by Gift Card

Go back to FRN Online Mall and buy store’s gift cards with AmEx gift card and then make a purchase with store’s gift cards. As long as online store accepts AmEx, you can buy stores gift cards with AmEx gift card. It depends on stores that a purchase of gift cards or a purchase with store’s gift card is eligible for FRN reward. If both transactions are eligible for the reward, you will get another 5¢x$500/$50+5¢x$500/$50=$1/gal discount. (If the store gives bonus, $1/gal will be multiplied.) Great! you will have to spend $500 anyway, but you will get at least $2/gal discount.

This is a strategy for those who already have a plan to buy something online. You earn the reward on the purchase of AmEx gift card, and turn AmEx gift card into store’s gift cards, but you will have to make a final purchase at the stores with store’s gift cards. What I do (as an eBay and amazon seller) is buy items with store’s gift cards, and then sell items on eBay and amazon. I set the prices by adding only selling fee and shipping cost to the price I paid to the stores. I don’t make a profit from the sales, but the reward stays! For some items, I buy only on sale. For some items, use coupons, that helps me compete with other sellers. And not only FRN reward, but I also earn the reward of store’s loyalty programs, which will be also your profit!

Is there a way to only earn rewards without such a work as selling on eBay and amazon? See the details in the next article “Ultimate Strategy of Fuel Rewards Network 2/2”

Note you need to avoid using Discover cards to purchase AmEx gift cards. Discover treats the transactions as Cash Advance and charges a fee. As long as I know, Chase and Amex cards are safe to use for the purchase of Amex gift cards.

Ways to Save Money when Shopping

Money Saving Strategies