The Stop&Shop/Giant free gas deal is back and better than last time!
The Offer
Direct Link (Stop&Shop, page 6, not yet showing) Direct Link (Giant, not yet showing)
- Purchase Visa gift cards from Stop & Shop and receive triple gas points. (The circular pictured below if from Stop&Shop, but I’m sure Giant will have the same promo.)
Visa gift cards usually don’t earn gas points at all. Occasionally, they’ll run a promo offering points on them and even bonusing the purchase with extra points. This time it’s triple points on Visa gift card purchases.
As an example, if you buy a $500 Visa gift card, you’ll get 1500 points, worth $1.50 off each gallon of gas up to 35 gallons or a $52.50 value.
The Fine Print
- Offer valid from 6/5/15 – 6/11/15.
- Must use Stop&Shop/Giant rewards card in order to get the points (and to redeem them as well).
Our Verdict
This is an awesome promo which comes a few times per year. It’s particularly useful since buying Visa gift cards at supermarkets can really be a profitable venture in any event, by using a card that earns bonus points at supermarkets, such as Amex Blue Cash, Amex Everyday and so many more. See Best Credit Card For Grocery Store Purchases.
Last time they had the deal was in March and they only offered 2x fuel points, which I predicted would be the wave of the future. To our good fortune, my prediction was wrong and they’re offering 3x fuel points this time around. That really makes it much easier to maximize.
You can only do one $500 card per transaction without needing an override. (Asking to split each card into a separate transaction works.) If you’re doing higher than $2,000, you need to do it at customer service. Max $5000 per day. They usually copy down your driver’s license number on large gift card purchases.
Deal Scenarios
Basic Details: Every 100 points gets you 10¢ off per gallon at Shell, up to 35 gallons. If you have 1000 points, you’ll get $1 off. If you have 2200 points, you’ll get $2.20 off per gallon.
- Max discount in some areas is $2.20. In other areas there is no max.
- You have 30 days to use the points. (My personal experience was that they gave me closer to 40 days, but the Terms insist that it’s exactly 30 days from the date of the supermarket purchase.)
- Points must be used nearby your store location – they can’t be used at a Shell far away from home.
- See this post and the FAQ for more details. Some of the details vary by area and store.
Since gas prices currently hover around $2.90 per gallon, your gas will be $.70 (or free in some areas).
(Pro tip: use a Shell gift card and you’ll usually get the cash price. Those who are good at math will realize why this is especially worthwhile when using fuel points.)
Sample Scenarios
- If you think you’ll need only 1 fill-up during the month, buy one $500 gift card and get $1.50 off per gallon. Or buy two $500 gift cards and get $2.20 off the fill-up.
- If you think you’ll need 2 fill-ups during the month, buy three $500 Visa gift cards for a total of 4500 points and you’ll get $2.20 off both fill-ups.
- If you think you’ll need 3 fill-ups during the month, buy five $500 gift cards for 7500 points and you’ll get $2.20 off the 3 fill-ups.
- Etc.
This is really a good time to pull out those grocery-bonus credit cards and put them to work. It could also make sense to do one gift card run at the beginning of the week and a second run at the end of the week to lengthen the life of the points. Some stores can run out of gift cards though so keep that in mind.
HT: mistercheap on Fatwallet
Related: Master List Of Gas Station Rewards Programs
Filled up my 1st tank today. I loaded $2K using Barclay Aviator which gives a 50% bonus until the end of June. The Brother gas attendant couldn’t believe the cost after using points was .055 cents. Shell gas price is high but I’m not complaining. I only used 16 1/2 gal. so the attendant asked me if he could top off his tank and pay me the difference. I said sure so I made a new friend. It cost me $9.00 and him $7.00. In N.J. I guess the limit is $2.20 off. I had no problem loading the variable $25 – $500 Visa GC’s to REDbird @ target. I just used the last 4 digits of the card for the pin. Bought another $2K tonight @ S&S and have a total of 9800 points after using 2200 today. Plan on bringing relatives w/ me next fill up so we can max the 35 gal. limit. Everything working out w/o a hitch.
Can one load Target’s RedBird card with the VISA gift cards that are purchased?
Yes, that should work. That’s what I plan on doing (WM or Target).
I don’t live near a giant or stop n shop do all of them have $500 visa and master card gift cards?
From what I’ve seen, yes. There are variable load Metabank-issued $25-500 from what I’ve seen. I did not see any standalone $500 Metabank-issued VGCs.
I fill up twice a week. $5K in GC’s should work for me. Never done the S&S point deal yet but this will save me $300 – $400 in the next month I figure. Stopped in the Franklin Park, NJ store today and there were 50+ GC’s.
For those of us in Charlottesville, Virginia, for some reason our Giant here is specifically excluded from the promotion!
Q can I earn gas rewards points in all Giant stores?
A Gas Rewards points can be earned in all stores except Charlottesville, Virginia by using your Giant card.
Anybody know why?
Chuck, is the below link the thread you are talking about? I read the Wiki and it doesn’t explain anything specific about why MasterCard gc are harder to load than Visa. Are they implying that MC defaults to credit for some reason? Also, they say that Vanilla Visa cards gets rejected over $50 at Walmart. Couldn’t someone just load $50 4 separate times from a $200 Vanilla Visa?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending/1455542-pin-available-now-visa-mc-prepaid-debit-cards-276.html
Amex cards are hard to load, not MC. Amex doesn’t have a pin. MasterCards are slightly more annoying because the pin is hidden on another piece of paper, but they seem to load about the same.
David, what about the Vanilla Visa? Why can’t people just load $50 at a time at Walmart so it doesn’t get rejected?
Yeah, you can do Vanilla $49.99 at a time reportedly.
MC default as credit so you have to be quick to hit the “change payment” button. It’s not always so easy.
Do I hit “change payment” right after sliding the card?
When it pops up on the screen.
If I am planning to purchase two – $500 gift cards and need to fill up more than twice in the month, is it more economical to purchase each gift card on a different stop and shop card. This way I save 52.00 on each order (104)
All the gas points are combined in one Stop&Shop account. You could probably use two separate S&S cards though, even in the same store.
They combine accounts with the same address and last name, according to the S&S website.
Interesting
Confirmed in the Stop and Shops in CT.
Not West Coasters chains 🙁
No crying allowed. You have plenty of West coast-only deals with all the Albertsons subsidiaries (Safeway, Vons, etc), Kroger, Smart and Final, Orchard Supply, and many others.
What are the fees on the $500 Visa gift cards at S&S? Are these easily reloadable onto Redbird? If not, can I liquidate them in another way like Metabank Visas (MOs)?
I believe the fee is $6.95. As for loading them onto Redbird, YMMV. It seems to depend on the store and the cashier or CS rep. According to some, they’re not supposed to load gift cards, but it’s not coded into the system.
Just reporting back in. The process went very smoothly. Just so everyone knows, they need a manager’s key to override any GC purchase over $500 and you can buy up to $2000 in a day. However, they take down your information if you buy $2000. They merely checked that my ID matched my CC for $1500.
Gift card load was the quickest I’ve ever had. The cashiers at my Target don’t even know you can load RB at the registers, they think it must be done at the CS desk. I walked the employee through it for the first time today and loaded 2 $500 GCs and then went to CS and loaded one more, so as to not overload the employee.
If I purchase 2 $500 GC for $2.20 off, but I only need 20 gallons to fill up, can I use the same points to get another 15 gallons at a later date (as its $2.20 off each gallon up to 35 gallons)? Or do I forfeit those additional gallons and would need another $1000 in GCs?
Forfeit.
bring 2 cars at one time 🙂
Will they let you do this? I’m seriously considering this to fill up my wife’s and my cars at the same time.
I have done it. It might look cheap but hey you are saving $$.
Find a smaller Shell station with a kid working the register and they won’t hassle you.
At mine there’s always one pump out of order, so I park there and wife parks on the other side. If they fuss, I’ll just say it was out of order and I didn’t feel like moving my car.
Get a Hummer H2. It has a 32 gallon tank. Then siphon the gas into your Prius.