Gasoline

Triple Rewards on 1800flowers Purchases through July 31st

Posted on June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 by admin

Fuel Reward Network has a promotion for purchases at 1800flowers.com. You can earn 10¢/gallon discount on every $50 spent. $50 isn’t a minimum requirement. An amount you spend is cumulative and recorded in your FRN account. Once the total reaches $50, they post the reward to your account.

10¢/gallon is worth up to $2. So, the reward is equivalent to 4% cash back. If you don’t know about FRN, please click here.

The greatest point of this promotion is that it is not a shopping portal deal, but MasterCard and Visa cards link deal. In other words, you can earn cash back or travel reward from shopping portal site and an FRN reward with a single transaction.

FRN online mall has 1800flowers, but you don’t have to use this portal. There are the better ones. The best rate is 15% from Discover Deals. When you purchase something at 1800flowers with a linked credit card, you will earn 15% cash back and 4%-equivalent in FRN Rewards.

So far, it’s only double. What is the third one to make sense of the title of this post? It’s Shop Your Way. SYW is also a partner with 1800flowers. You can link your MasterCard and Visa cards. When you use a linked card for a purchase, you will earn SYW rewards. SYW offers 20% back in SYW points. Fortunately, FRN and SYW partner program don’t affect each other. You can earn both card-link partner reward. So, it’s now triple.

Plus, you can earn 10% back in Celebration Reward (loyalty reward program of 1800flowers.) And there is your credit reward, too.

What’s more? You can earn all rewards above on a purchase of GCs. 4%+15%+20%+10%+1%=50% A half of expense will be back in a variety of rewards. Their GC can be sold for around 60% of face value to GC exchange sites. By rough estimate, 10% reward will be remain!!!

Amex Business GC Offer returned to Fuel Rewards Network Online Mall

Posted on June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 by admin

In 2014, there was the offer of FRN (Fuel Reward Network) 2X then reduced to 1X, then it disappeared. It came back for a while and then disappeared again. After that, there has been no offer for Amex GC purchase. I check the portal site recently, and I found the offer was back. It’s 1X, which is equivalent to 2% cash back.

As far as I can tell it’s been three weeks in FRN online mall, and may have been around for more than weeks. The offer can’t be found in “Gift Card” category, but there is in all store’s list or by typing “american….” in a search box. Last year, the offer was easily found in “Gift Card” category. Of course, you were able to found in all store’s list or by entering “american express gift card” in the search box, too. But, it’s easier to click “Gift Card” than to type the word in search box. I had been checking the site to see if the offer came back, but I checked only in “Gift Card” category. Weeks ago, I glanced all stores without any expectations and found the offer back although you can’t find in “Gift Card” category.

1X FRN reward is equivalent to 2% cash back. 1X means that you can earn 5¢/gallon discount on every $50 purchase through FRN online mall. FRN rewards can be redeemed at participating Shell gas stations, up to 20 gallons in single fill-up. 5¢ x 20 gallons = $1.00. $1.00 back on $50 spent. So it’s equivalent to 2% cash back.

Terms and conditions of this offer are the same as other online shopping portals, such as Befrugal and Topcashback. But it seems to be limited to Business Gift Cards. You can’t use promo codes. And the denomination more than $2000 are not eligible for the reward. When you buy the highest denomination, (it’s $2000) you will earn a $2.00/gallon discount.

Again, according to terms and conditions, only Business Gift Cards are eligible for the offer. Sometimes, Topcashback offers 2.25%, and Simply Best Coupons offer 2% cash back for Amex Business GC purchases. But they are usually a daily deal. FRN is continuously offering a 2%-cashback-equivalent deal.

If you want to know more details of Fuel Reward Network, please click here.

Until July 31st, FRN has a linked MasterCard or Visa card promotion. With some conditions, you may earn the reward virtually for free. If you are interested, please click here.

Stop&Shop Promo 2X Gas Reward for Visa GC purchases

Posted on March 22, 2015 by admin

Overview

This week (3/20-3/26), Stop and Shop supermarkets has a promotion of gas reward. You can earn 2X gas reward point on Visa gift card purchases.

Basic of Stop&Shop Gas Reward Program

Save 10 cents per gallon for every 100 points. You can earn 1 point for every dollar spent at Stop&Stop. Points will expire in 30 days. It’s redeemable at Shell gas station, up to $2.20/gal discount for a single fill-up (limited to 35 gallons.)

Details of the promo

S&S occasionally has a promotion on VGCs purchases. This time, it’s only 2X gas reward point. Last year, there was 5X and then 4X and then 3X. It’s getting lower and lower, but it’s still a good deal. You should look for $25-$500 variable VGCs and load max $500. A purchase fee of variable VGCs is $5.95. If you find a store that allows to pay with your reward credit cards, it’s much better. $500 VGC purchase gives you roughly 1000 pts (=$1/gal, up to $35 saving.)

Summary

S&S gas reward is more valuable than it used to be. That’s because gas prices recently got lowered. Regular Unleaded is around $2.49 in my neighborhood. So, maximum redemption ($2.20/gal) almost covers most of gas expense. If you have Amex Bluebird/Serve/REDcard, you can easily liquidate VGCs. I plan to buy 4 VGCs during this promotion. Please remember that points will expire in 30 days. So, consider how much gas you need for the next 30 days and don’t buy more VGCs than you need.

Promotions from Fuel Rewards Network thru 5/31

Posted on March 12, 2015March 13, 2015 by admin

Overview

New promotion from Fuel Rewards Network has started. Using linked your MasterCard debit or credit cards at participating sporting goods stores or home & garden stores earn 5¢/gal for every $100 spent. The promotion ends on May 31st.

How much is the reward worth?

You can redeem the reward for a single fill-up, up to 20 gallons. Thus, 5¢/gal can save up to $1.00. So, it’s like 1% cash back.

Participating stores

You can check participating stores in your area in FRN website. I checked my area and found Home Depot is a participating home&garden store, however, Lowe’s is not. As for sporting goods stores, Sports Authority and Modell’s are participating. And, there are many local stores on the map in either home&garden or sporting goods category.

Online purchases are also eligible as long as Merchant Category Code matches. MCC of MasterCard is mostly the same as the one of Visa. You can look up in Visa Supplier Locator.

How to link MasterCard

Go to fuelrewards.com and login to your account. Then click “my card” at the top right corner. Click “ADD CARD” in CREDIT AND DEBIT CARDS section. You can link up to 5 credit or debit cards. You can also link Visa and Amex cards, but purchases made with linked Visa or Amex cards are not eligible for this promotion.

How to find participating stores near you

Go to a page of a map by clicking “All Locations” in drop-down under shop & earn. Opt out Dining, Shell Fuel Rewards, and Fuel Stations. Participating stores are pinned on the map. Hover a cursor to see a name of a store. Click a pin to see the details of the store.

Compared to the previous promotions

A big disappointment is that a reward is only 5¢/gal for every $100 spent. The previous promo was 20¢/gal for every $100 spent at Toys R Us, Olive Garden, and JCPenny. Thanks to this promo, I got to know that Toys R Us are selling eBay gift cards. I bought many eBay GCs during this promotion and earned the reward.

There was another promotion at the same time. That was 5¢/gal for every $100 spent at electronics stores. I bought VisaGCs at Best Buy. VisaGCs charge $5.95 as a purchase fee, but it’s covered by credit card’s reward and Best Buy’s reward. These previous promotions worked great for me.

How to earn the reward efficiently

However, I can’t come up with ways to earn the rewards efficiently with the current promotion. I will check a selection of GCs at Home Depot. I might find a useful GC for me, as I found eBay GCs at Toys R Us with the previous promotion. That’s it. I won’t go crazy about this promotion.

Besides, gas prices dropped recently. In my area, regular is around $2.40. The price is good for Stop & Shop gas reward. S&S gas reward is much easier for me to earn than FRN reward. One of demerit of S&S gas reward is that redemption is limited to $2.20. However, now that the gas price is as close as $2.20, just earn an easy S&S reward. There is no reason to make an effort to earn FRN reward.

Summary

5¢/gal for every $100 spent at home&garden or sporting goods stores. 5¢/gal is equivalent to $1.00. It’s like 1% cash back. If you regularly purchase at participating stores, this promotions works positively for you. Otherwise, this promo is not worth very much.

How to Save Money on Gas with Fuel Rewards Network

Posted on January 22, 2015 by admin

Fuel Reward Network (FRN) is a reward program. It is redeemable at Shell only, but you can earn FRN rewards in lots of places and various ways. FRN rewards are given in the form of cents-per-gallon. You can redeem for up to 20 gallons at the pump. For example, $0.35 in FRN reward can save up to $7.00 (=0.35*20.) The rewards you earn in different times and places will be combined in your account, and then you can redeem all at once. If you have lots of rewards, let’s say $5.00, you can use it and get 20 gallons of gas for almost free. Due to some kind of rules, you can’t make it completely free. You still have to pay a few cents per gallon. It’s free to join.

Ways to Earn FRN Rewards

Shop Online – FRN has an online shopping portal. Shopping through the portal lets you earn the rewards. The rates of reward vary by merchants. Basic rate is 5¢/gal on every $50 purchase, and it’s described as “1X.” Since 5¢/gal is worth up to $1.00 (=$0.05*20), “1X” is equivalent to 2% cash back. There are over 700 merchants. You may find your favorite merchants. However, the rates of most merchants are not as good as other major shopping portals, such as Befrugal, TopCashback. For that reason, I don’t buy through the FRN portal now.

American Express Gift Card – Sometime in 2014, FRN portal offered 2X on American Express Gift Card purchase. It was the best rate of all back then. One day, the offer was downgraded from 2X to 1X, and after a little while, it disappeared. It came back once and disappeared again. At the time of writing this article, The best offer for AmEx GCs is 1.5% cash back from Befrugal. If FRN offer for AmEx GCs returns, and even if it is 1X, I will buy through FRN portal because the rate is slightly better.

Dine Out – Link your credit/debit cards to FRN account. When you pay with them at participate restaurants, you will earn 10¢/gal for every $50 you spend. You don’t have to spend more than $50 in a single transaction. FRN track your expense and accumulate. Once it reaches $50, they give you the reward. If you have a credit card that offer bonus cash back or point for an expense at restaurants, link and use it. You can earn not only FRN rewards but also bonus rewards from your credit card.

Grocery Stores & Other Participants – You can earn FRN reward with your everyday purchases at participating grocery stores and other participants. Basically, the offer for a grocery store is 5¢/gal for every $50 you spend. But some stores and participants offer the reward differently. So, you should check what stores is FRN participants in your area and how they give you rewards. Even if you don’t find any stores in your area, you still can earn the rewards in other ways.

Promotions – There are always some promotions to earn additional rewards. Those rules vary, but most of them are MasterCard offers. When you use linked MasterCard in-store or online where a promotion is ongoing, you will earn additional rewards. I like MasterCard promotions because you could earn multiple rewards in a single transaction. For example, the promotion, “Earn 20¢/gal for every $100 you spend at Toys R Us,” 20¢/gal is already a great deal. It’s like 4% cash back. And you will earn credit card’s rewards, too. On the top of that, if you shop online, you will also earn the reward from shopping portals. You don’t have to use FRN shopping portal. As I mentioned, FRN shopping portal’s rate isn’t great. Toysrus.com offers only 1X (=2% back.) If you shop through Upromise, you will earn 5% cash back. As long as you use linked MasterCard, you earn FRN rewards even when you shop through any shopping portals.

3¢ FRN Member Rewards

Even when there is no reward in your account, you will get 3¢/gal discount with the FRN card. If you have $0.01, $0.04/gal is available. If you have $0.02, $0.05/gal. If you have $0.03 or more, you will redeem the same amount you have. This offer plans to end in December, 2015.

Sign Up Bonus

Sign up through this link. You will earn 20¢/gal bonus after you first use an FRN card to fill up at Shell or earn the first FRN reward through the programs. Offer ends on March 1, 2015.

eBay Gift Card at Toys R Us

Posted on December 3, 2014December 3, 2014 by admin

There is a new Amex Offer “$5 back on $25 or more purchase at Toys R Us.” It’s in-store only. So, I went to the store with the hope that I’d be able to find amazon-kindle GCs. I had no luck with amazon-kindle GCs but found much better one there, eBay Gift Card.

I wonder how long they have been on the gift card rack at Toys R Us. I went other two stores and found there, too. The denomination is $25 and $50. There are also Shell, Sears, etc.

eBay GCs recently reappeared in retail stores. Toys R Us wasn’t in the list of retailers and is still not. It’s a proof that retailers on the list are not all the retailers that sell eBay GCs. From now on, I should check carefully what GCs each retailer has, especially retailers that credit cards offer bonus reward on purchases.

The purchase at Toys R Us is currently qualified for many bonus offers.

Amex Offer

There is another Amex Offer, “$15 back on $75 or more purchase at toysrus.com.” This offer is valid online only. They don’t sell third-party gift cards online but sell their own GCs. You can redeem the offer by purchasing Toys R Us GCs. They offer free shipping with purchases $49 or more. Reportedly, the store allows you to use GCs for the purchase of other GCs in store. I’ve got to go check for myself if my local stores allow this transaction.

Citi Dividend Q4 Rotating Category

Citi credit card, Dividend, offer 5% cash back in each quarter. 4th quarter is eligible for purchases at Best Buy, Department Stores, and Toy Stores. Its cash back is limited to $300 per year. I have earned around $250 so far. So, I can still earn around $50 this year by spending $1000 at Toys R Us.

Fuel Rewards Network MasterCard Promo

Through 03/01/2015, Fuel Rewards Network offers 20¢/gal discount on every $100 purchase at Toys R Us (equivalent to 4% cash back, see details here.) I bought one $100 Toys R Us GC last month and confirmed 20¢/gal reward in my FRN account. I clicked through a link of Upromise, which offer 5% cash back, and a pending cash back was posted (although the term says GC purchases are not eligible for cash back.) I used the GC for merchandise several days ago. Cashback hasn’t been seen in my account yet. I placed another GC order for an experiment of buying GCs by GC in store.

What Else

I said eBay GCs are much better than amazon-kindle GCs because they are more versatile and may be churn-able. You can use eBay GCs almost everything for items on eBay including GCs. There are a lot of auctions of Toys R Us GCs. You will probably get GCs at discounted prices. Then go to the store…..come back to the site…….go to the store…..

I believe physical GCs are better than print-outs because they draw less store clerk’s attention. I will redeem Amex Offer of Toys R Us online only by purchasing GCs. And the GC on the way through FRN promo will be the first GC for the experiment.

FRN New MasterCard Offers Best Buy, Toys R Us, JCPenney, etc

Posted on November 8, 2014November 8, 2014 by admin

FRN (Fuel Rewards Network) have started (2) new MasterCard offers.

If you don’t know FRN, please read “Ultimate Strategy of Fuel Rewards Network” and join. You will get a signup bonus (20¢/gal) and another 20¢/gal when you link your MasterCard.

MasterCard Winter Shopping – Earn 20¢/gal for every $100 you spend at Toys “R” Us, JCPenney and Olive Garden
MasterCard Electronics offer – Earn 5¢/gal for every $100 you spend on qualified electronics purchases (Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc.)

Both offers are eligible for purchases online and in store. You should use MasterCard credit or debit card that is linked to your FRN account. You don’t have to spend $100 or more at single transaction. An amount you spend accumulates. When a total spent exceeds $100, you will receive a reward. Eligible purchases should be made between November 3rd, 2014 and March 1, 2015.

MasterCard Electronics offer is easy to get. Go to Best Buy store and find Visa gift cards. They are variable GCs, $20-$200 and charge $5.95 purchase fee. However, Best Buy’s loyalty reward program (My Best Buy) give you back 2% in store credit. (see details here) As combined with credit card reward, a purchase fee is completely covered. Visa GCs can be used for BlueBird/Serve reloads at Walmart. So, you can earn 10¢/gal on each Visa GC purchase. The only drawback is you can’t use the store credit for a purchase of GCs. You will need to use it for some merchandise in the end.

There may be better ways from other stores. MasterCard Electronics offer is not limited on Best Buy purchases. Log in your FRN account and check all participating stores in your area.

Conversely, MasterCard Winter Shopping is limited on three stores, Toys R Us, JCPenney and Olive Garden. At this moment, I can’t come up with any strategic ways to earn rewards. But, 20¢/gal is very appealing. And I need it because AmEx GC offer has just disappeared from FRN Online Mall again.

When I browse info about the stores to find a way to earn a reward, I saw some interesting blog posts and forums about Toys R Us gift cards. They said, “You can buy other store’s gift cards, such as amazon GCs, with Toys R Us GCs in stores.” I don’t know what other gift cards they have. And the problem is that blog posts and forums are years old. I don’t know if this strategy works now.

I will need to find that out for myself. At first, I’m going to buy a $100 Toys R Us GC online. I’m pretty sure that it is eligible for FRN reward. During the previous MasterCard offer (Home Improvement Stores), I bought many gift cards at harborfreight.com, and the rewards were posted (cash back from ShopDiscover as well.) However, I’m not sure about cash back from shopping portal, though. Upromise offers 5% cash back which is the best right now. The blog post says he or she got cash back although its terms stated that a purchase of GCs was not eligible. But again, the post is years old. I will need to do it myself, anyway.

3X Gas Rewards on Visa Gift Card Purchase at Stop and Shop

Posted on October 19, 2014October 22, 2014 by admin

This week, 10/17 – 10/23, Stop and Shop supermarket has a promotion of Gas Rewards program. When you purchase Visa Gift Card, you will earn 3X points. You need to look for $20-500 variable gift cards. Unlike small denomination of GCs, the variable GCs are a little hard to be found. Even if they are not on a rack with all other gift cards, you should check on racks at cash registers, especially the racks between registers. People tend to overlook GCs there, and those GCs may be left for a long time.

I was lucky to find the variable GC on the gift card rack. There were several more GCs on the same rack. I tried to pay with my newest credit card, Citi Double Cash. Double Cash offers 2% cash back. Variable GCs charge $5.95 purchase fee, but cash back from credit card will be $10.12. The cash back will pay a purchase fee and leave a profit! However, transaction was declined. So I purchased with another credit card that offer 1% cash back.

It is still great deal. Cash back will be $5.05. So, I paid only 90¢ for $1.50/gal discount deal. Since you can redeem for up to 35 gallons of single fill-up, $1.50/gal discount is worth $52.50! Unfortunately, my car’s gas tank is small. It takes only 15 gallons. $1.50 x 15 = $22.50, it is still a good deal.

Citi Double cash was declined. It turned out to be a fraud alert. I received this email from Citi about ten minutes after swiping the card. I confirmed this transaction and clicked VALID. It won’t be declined in the future.

I don’t know how much I can earn through this offer because the ad doesn’t say about the limit. But I’m going to buy at least two more.

FRN Resumes 1X Rewards on American Express Gift Card

Posted on October 9, 2014October 9, 2014 by admin

Today, I found “American Express Gift Card” in Online Mall of Fuel Rewards Network (FRN). They stopped offering the deal last month along with other cash back portals like Befrugal and Topcashback. And these cash back portals and some others restarted the offer at the beginning of this month. FRN didn’t have an offer until yesterday, but they do today.

If you buy a $1000 AmEx GC, you will receive $1.00/gal discount which you can redeem at participating Shell gas stations, up to 20 gallons. Thus, FRN’s “1X rewards” is equivalent to 2% cash back. (click here to see more details of Fuel Rewards Network.)

Currently, the best rate of cash back portal is 1.5%. So, FRN is the best portal right now (at least for me and for those who drives a car.)

AmEx GC has a purchase fee; it is only $3.95 per card. You may find a promo code to waive the fee, but you’d better not use it because most likely you won’t receive a reward if you use it. (Neither will you when you purchase through other portals. see details here.)

I also found that Marriott Rewards offers 1 pt/$. I have never used this portal site. So, I don’t know how much its point is worth. And I don’t know if it is a good deal.

Anyway, these are all good signs. More and more portals resumed the American Express Gift Card offer. What’s next? Will they raise the rate of cash back or reward? Not long ago, the best offer was 4% cash back from Lucky Rewards and 2X rewards from FRN. I hope this rate will be back soon.

FRN Offer Equivalent to 4% Cash Back on AmEx GC

Posted on August 14, 2014 by admin

Fuel Rewards Network (FRN) currently offer a promotion. You can earn extra 5¢/gal discount for every $50 purchase made through FRN shopping portal. The promotion ends on Sep 14th. The portal regularly offers 5¢/gal for every $50 purchase, and now it’s double! 10¢/gal. Please note that the rewards won’t double on bonus reward. Some retailers originally offer 2x, 3x… reward, but you can’t earn 4x, 6x…. on this promotion. It is just that you can earn EXTRA 5¢/gal for every $50 purchase.

Deal is back now! If you buy a $500 American Express gift card, you earn $1/gal discount. In July, reward on AmEx GC purchases went down from 2x to 1x (10¢ to 5¢/gal). The same thing happened to all other shopping portals. As of Aug 13th, best portal and rate for AmEx GC is 2.7% cash back at Befrugal.com. FRN reward is redeemable up to 20 gallons. So, during this promotion, FRN reward for AmEx GC is equivalent to 4% cashback. It is currently the best rate of all portals.

After July, most portals stop paying cash back for AmEx GC purchase if you use any promo code. There is always a promo code available to waive $3.95 purchase fee. But if you use the code, there is no reward or cash back at all. I bought four AmEx GCs in July and used the promo code on every purchase. Several pending cash back appeared in my account of a portal site, but soon they got all cancelled. (click here to see details) So, never use any code otherwise you got no reward.

I purchased $2000 AmEx GC through FRN today, and it will give me $4/gal discount. From my experience, the reward will be posted and available in approximately 30 days. It’s too bad that I can’t confirm the reward during the promotion, but as long as you read the terms and conditions, and do nothing against them, and you will earn a reward.

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