The Offer
- Receive a coupon for $15 off your next purchase of $15 or more at Safeway when you purchase two $100 fixed value Mastercard gift cards
The Fine Print
- $100 Mastercards cost $5.95 each
- Mastercard gift cards are issued by U.S Bank
- Coupon will expire two weeks from the date of purchasing the two $100 gift cards
- It’s not possible to earn fuel points on gift card purchases
- Not all locations will accept credit card payment for gift card purchases
- If your coupon does not print automatically, then please request it here
- Not all stores will be participating, check your weekly ad
- Deal valid until June 2nd, 2015 (started on May 20th)
Our Verdict
Let’s see if this deal makes sense, we will assume that you’re earning 5% cash back on grocery store purchases in this example and also assume that $15 off $15 is good as cash (this will obviously vary depending on your specific circumstances).
- Purchase two $100 gift cards and pay $5.95 in activation fees per card (-$11.9)
- Put $211.9 purchase on 5% cash back card (+$10.595)
- Receive $15 off $15 coupon (+$15)
In total you’ll profit $13.695 per $200 in gift cards you need to unload. If we purchased a $500 gift card with $6.95 fee we’d make $7.22 per $200 in gift cards, this is basically an extra $5 profit per $200 in gift cards but you need to worry about unloading $100 gift cards rather than $500 gift cards and also using the $15 off $15 coupon. Really up to you if these deals are worth it or not.
Sometimes it’s possible to purchase the variable load cards or $200 gift cards and the coupon still prints (the best is when multiples print) but as far as I know nobody has tried this with this code as of yet.
Hat tip to brentkucera on slickdeals
i thought we can earn gas points for fixed MC and Visa gift cards?
Assuming a 5% CB card and that your ability to unload these GCs is FINITE…
For the same $1,000 in RedCard debit card loading:
Two $500 GCs from CVS = 5% of $1009.90 – $9.90 = $40.595
Ten $100 GCs from Safeway = 5% of $1059.50 – $59.90 = -$6.525
TOTAL difference = $47.12
So you’re “paying” $47.12 for $75 in Safeway coupons (that presumably expire and may not stack, necessitating five separate transactions to buy overpriced goods). So it’s like a 37% discount.
I guess if your ability to unload is infinite, you could conceptualize this differently… but how much fun is unloading $100 GCs vs. $500 GCs anyway?