TL;DR
TL;DR
- Buying BJ’s gift cards and merchant gift cards triggers the automatic Congrats email from Amex, as expected.
- Honorable mentions of gift card brands available: Disney, Southwest, iTunes, and many restaurants including Starbucks. Some report VGC in $100 and $200 denominations; my club didn’t have any of those.
- A filler is necessary for merchant gift card purchases since the merchant gift cards are slightly discounted (1-4%). Options include $10 Burger King card, $15 Starbucks, or any $25 card. You should also be able to buy small-dollar BJ’s gift cards as fillers.
- I had success making a split-tender transaction with two Amex cards and got two Congrats emails, as expected. You can probably split between more cards as well.
- Don’t use self-checkout for BJ’s gift card since those aren’t fixed-value and will require an attendant to come over. You may as well go to an ordinary cashier where you can split tender between a few cards.
- You can’t use the Amex Offer on BJ’s gas (according to Amex terms), but you can use BJ’s gift card on gas.
- You can get a free 3-month trial membership.
- Lots of pics at the end of this post.
Background
Original Post: Amex Offers: $25 Off $100 at BJ’s!
Amex released an offer to get $25 off a purchase of $100 or more at BJ’s Wholesale Club. The offer works in a physical club only, and the purchase must meet $100 in a single transaction.
And so I headed to my local BJ’s to become a member and buy some gift cards.
My Trip to BJ’s
First stop was the membership desk to become a member. I showed them the 3-month pass (details below), and was gladly given a trial membership which will expire the end of February (closer to 4 months).
Gift cards are found in two places: at most checkouts there is a small rack with a few options and then there’s a designated rack with gift cards. Pics of both below.
I selected two $50 Disney gift cards selling for $47.99. The 4% discount is nice, but it also means that two cards won’t meet the $100 purchase requirement. I threw in a $10 Burger King and my total for the $110 in gift cards was $105 and change.
As I’m checking myself out, the system gave me confusing messages about where to place the gift cards during checkout. It ended up locking up until an attendant came over. The attendant explained that light object like gift cards should not be placed on the belt; just hold them or put them on the solid-metal shelf under the payment terminal; don’t put them on the running rubber-belt. I followed that advice for another round of Disney/Burger, and all went well.
When I tried buying a $100 BJ’s gift card at the self-checkout, the attendant had to come over, swipe his badge, and input the dollar amount. The next time, I went to a regular cashier and requested $200 on the BJ’s gift card. The cashier was able to split the charge for me between two Amex cards without a hitch.
After doing five offers, I headed over the BJ’s gas station – incidentally the cheapest gas in my area – and paid for gas with a BJ’s gift card.
The gas attendant also mentioned to me (after the fact) that when you shop at BJ’s and subsequently fill up on gas, give in your BJ’s membership card for the attendant to scan and you’ll get five cents off per gallon. [This might be a temporary promo.]
Pics & List
All third-party gift cards are discounted between 1% and 4%.
Available cards: iTunes (many), Disney (many), Starbucks, Southwest, AMC, Fandango, Â Applebee’s, Outback, Google Play, Darden, Cheescake, Regal, Burger King, Red Lobster, MS Office, XBOX, Chili’s, Rita’s, On the Border, Subway, Domino’s, IHOP, Denny’s, Carrabba’s, Cracker, Lone Star, Bonefish, Chipotle, Spa, Texas, Hulu, Steam. I probably missed a few in this list.
Here’s what the gift card rack by the checkout looks like:
And here’s the full display of gift cards, all four sides:
Buying Membership
Membership at BJ’s costs $50.
Currently, there’s an offer on some Amex cards to get 3-months of free membership by saving a promo code. Use this link to get that offer. You can also use this link for 3-months free.
There’s also a great Groupon for BJ’s. Cost is $40 but you get $25 back as a BJ’s gift card. Use a portal as well.
Final Thoughts
This deal isn’t quite as good as the Sam’s Club offer since that one works on up to $1250 with a single card (albeit at a lower discount). But this offer is still excellent, especially for those who can do their regular shopping there. By purchasing BJ’s gift cards, you can lock in a 25% discount on future purchases as well.
From a resale standpoint, you can currently sell BJ’s gift cards for 80.5% to Saveya and 80% to ABCgiftcards. You can also sell Disney gift cards to ABCgiftcards for 80%. The latter is a bit better since those cards start off discounted 4%, but it does have the hassle of needing to find a $5 filler to bring you over $100.
Also note that you can get 5x at BJ’s with your Freedom card during Q4 2016, so if a charge which comes out to more than $100, you can put $100 on the Amex and the rest on Freedom.
Related: Amex Offers: My Trip to Sam’s Club
Not only my BJs have $200 gcs but activation fees are discounted too on them. I paid $5.49 activation fee.
Can the BJs gift cards work on BJs.com? I came across a FAQ where it is stated that BJs.com doesn’t accept their own gift cards!!
If that’s what it says there, then I assume it’s true.
In western New York, BJ’s Clubs now require you to be a member to buy gas. If you cannot scan a membership card, the pumps do not work. It did not used to be this way, but you paid a substantial penalty price if you were not a member. The change seemed to occur when they installed new pumps/payment terminals. The same is true for Sam’s Club. No membership, no gas.
Some states don’t allow gas stations to restrict purchases to members only, I think New Jersey is one of these but there are a few others as well.
Ah, didn’t realize it was state-dependent. I’ll cross that line out, thanks.
arrggggghgg – offer is done. I got it on three cards while at work. Came home to do the rest – where I have more browsers. BUT THE OFFER IS GONE. I haven’t been this pissed since the redbird died.
Usually there is also another rack with big pieces of cardboard that you give to the cashier to get the gift card. Those typically are discounted 15-20%, for example two $50 Papa John’s gc for $80. For whatever reason the selection in different clubs seems to vary. In the past they actually had discounted stamps but now the discount is almost nothing.
I’m loving your AMEX offers posts. I don’t need circles and arrows, but seeing it work in real life is great!
Thanks 🙂
Looks like you can get a free 90-day membership here: http://www.mybjswholesale.com/2016/09/free-bjs-trial-membership.html/
I haven’t tried it yet.
Oops. Just realized you already have it in the post.
oh, good – iTunes gift cards! i’ve been meaning to pay my taxes…
Haha, please no!
Did you check the registers for Visa GCs? Mine didn’t have them at the gift card kiosk, but they were at the checkout stands hanging between registers.
They weren’t at the display by the registers, unless there was another display I missed.