The Offer
- Purchase a $100 American Express gift card and receive a Catalina coupon for $10 off your next purchase of $10 or more (note: in the past they’ve been known to change the promotion half way through and the coupon changes from $10 off $10+ to $10 off $25+
The Fine Print
- Valid until September 9th, 2014
- Requires manual override to use the coupon
- No data points on whether a $200 gift card will print two coupons or not
- Fees are $5.95 per $100 card & $6.95 per $200 (people have reported difficulty finding $200 GCs)
- Variable reload cards will not trigger the coupon
- 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
Our Verdict
I don’t think I’m going to bother with this promotion, it’s more difficult to unload American Express gift cards than Visa/Mastercard and the fact that manual override is needed means it’ll be difficult to use the coupon to purchase more gift cards. Here’s a look at how much profit could be made though.
- Use a credit card that earns at a high rate at grocery stores, the highest earns 6% cash back
- Purchase $100 gift card (-$5.95 in fees +$6 in cash back)
- Receive $10 off $10 coupon (+$10)
In total you’d be making $10.05 per purchase. This would obviously be much higher if you were able to find $200 gift cards and it printed out two coupons ($25.467 profit, you’d also make $15.467 if only one printed out but you purchased a $200 gift card).
If I am able to find some $200 American Express gift cards or if manual override isn’t needed then I’ll probably be making a lot of use out of this promotion, otherwise I’ll likely just do it once or twice when near a Vons. It’s also worth noting that I wasn’t able to find mention of this offer in the weekly ad, although their are reports on Flyertalk & Slickdeals of people receiving this offer.
Hat tip to prsf of slickdeals
