[MI, IL, IN, OH, KY only] Meijer.com Manufactured Spending Opportunity

According to this post on FlyerTalk, the grocery store Meijer [store locator] is now stocking both $200 Visa & American Express pre-paid cards with a fee of $6.95. This is interesting because Meijer registers are not hard coded to disallow their own gift cards to be used to purchase Visa/American Express gift cards. Obviously your mileage may vary when you try to do this, as it depends on the cashier if they’ll allow it. Fortunately Meijer has self check out lanes, which means you can do the transaction yourself.

meijer giftcards

Meijer also gives you a discount on their gift cards if you buy in bulk. This discount is up to 4% (up to 3% if using a credit card to purchase them). When you make a purchase online from Meijer.com it should also code as a grocery store purchase meaning you can earn up to 6% cash back by using a rewards earning credit card that has a high category bonus for grocery stores.

You might also be able to get additional cash back by using a cash back portal. You used to be able to get 10% cash back through ShopDiscover but they no longer offer this. According to FrequentMiler Labatory you needed to have non-gift card items in your cart to get cash back on the whole order. I haven’t heard of the majority of the cash back portals that offer something for Meijer, so use at your own risk. The ones I have heard of I’ve put at the top:

Here’s how to maximize your profits

  1. Purchase Meijer gift cards from Meijer.com, you can get up to a 3% discount
  2. Use a rewards portal if possible
  3. Use a rewards earning credit card (e.g American Express Blue Cash Preferred which is up to 6%)
  4. Go into Meijer and purchase $200 Visa gift cards (these are easier to unload than American Express gift cards), these have a $6.95 fee
  5. Unload your Visa gift cards with one of the many different methods (e.g Amazon Payments, Evolve Money, Serve/Bluebird etc).

The fees on the gift cards are basically 3.5%. This means you should make 4.5% + shopping portal bonus if you use a 6% cash back card. I personally don’t live in a state with any Meijer stores so I won’t be able to take advantage of this offer. If you do decide to take advantage of this offer here is some advice.

  1. Check to see if stores near you stock Visa/AmEx gift cards
  2. Start small to ensure registers aren’t hard coded
  3. Have multiple ways of unloading your gift cards in the event that one of them fails

This method has a lot of risk involved. You don’t want to be stuck with a heap of Meijer gift cards you can’t unload so do this at your own risk. You can find out more ways to unload gift cards by reading through our manufactured spending archives.

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Xinyang Li
Xinyang Li (@guest_1086099)
November 6, 2020 13:55

I was directed to this old posting by Google. Do we have any updates for Meijer? Thanks.

Adam W
Adam W (@guest_15316)
June 22, 2014 15:29

Barclay’s Arrival+ coded Meijer as “GROCERY STORES, SUPERMARKETS” on 6/14/2014
American Express (Delta Platinum) as “MERCHANDISE & SUPPLIES – GROCERIES” on 6/20/2014
Chase Sapphire Preferred doesn’t indicate the coding that I was able to see online.

Note, these purchases were actually groceries or health/beauty – not gift cards, but I wouldn’t expect them to be different.

MI churner
MI churner (@guest_13210)
June 12, 2014 08:38

There is a lot that is not mentioned in this article and by the person who is posting on FT.

There are many places for this to end badly.

1)Meijer bulk card department will call you and question why you need the cards and make you email a copy of a bank statement or other info for PATRIOT Act reporting.

2)Meijer also keeps tabs on how these cards are used for new purchasers. I was called after using some in this fashion and questioned why I was buying gift cards in large amounts when my stated use eas for family.

3)I know of others who have been asked to provude tax documents after a few orders.

4)Meijer uscans are not all they are cracked up to be. They rarely register that you placed a gift card in the bag, so you need to hit “I do not want to bag this item”. After a few times of doing that you lock the machine up and a peeved cashier needs to come over and override the system.

5)Cashiers can see your transaction in real time from their station. I’ve had them come over mid transaction and shut me down. Very awkward.

6) Good luck getting your portal to track and good luck getting it to post as grocery. It showed up as business/marketing on my Amex blue cash and I only got the 1%.

You are much better off just using 5% card at GGD.

Devon
Devon (@guest_13173)
June 11, 2014 23:17

Where have you bought gift cards at self checkout that don’t require a cashier to come over? I’ve tried Krogers, Walmarts, and Meijers with no success at multiple locations of each. Would love to know a workaround. It always hangs when I scan them. I guess it does help they walk away before I pay but still can be quite a process.