Update 8/1/25: Fuel retailer gift cards have now been excluded from earning bonus fuel points during their promotional 4x offers. That’s in addition to Amazon which was excluded last year. (ht MEAB)
Original Post 3/20/24:
Kroger now excludes Amazon gift card purchases from earning 4x fuel points on their fuel points coupon deals.
Amazon is a big loss for those in Kroger-land. I’m not sure if they are now excluded from earning the regular 2x earn on gift card purchases, or Amazon gift cards are only excluded from the higher 4x coupon earn rate; they still earn the regular 2x earn rate.
Effective March 20, 2024, Amazon Gift Cards will only receive 2X Fuel Points.
Hat tip to reader Fred
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
NOOOO to what???
The headline, which doesn’t spell out that it’s just excluded from the 4x, or the details below, which spell out it’s excluded from the 4x.
So if you scan both barcodes, you should still get 2x on those.
And that’s nothing new for Amazon; it’s been that way for many, many months. They only just added fuel cards to the 2x limit that Amazon has had for a while now.
Perhaps the headline above should modified to add either “4x” or “Bonus” in front of “Grocery Points”?
And if you feel that’s too long, why word is a “Grocery Points” when in the article itself it’s always called “Fuel Points”.
Because the way headline reads right now implies that you get no fuel points, but you still actually get 2x (at least if you scan both barcodes), just not the 4x that most other gift cards get.
Kroger will not give any points for an Amazon gift card. I found this out today.
I am finding that to be the case at Harris Teeter as well now, unfortunately. Was still getting a base of 2x Fuel Points for Amazon at least as recently as Sept 2024, but this week I bought an Amazon $25 for the 200 bonus FPs (coupon), but got 0 base FPs from it. Was expecting to get 50 (or at least 25) from it.
Actually, I got 2x Fuel Points again with Amazon GC recently. So it’s maybe a little confusing / YMMV.
Were you scanning both the barcodes? While it’s never been explained publicly, when I had trouble getting points for one gift card a month or two ago, I was told by an agent that you do need to scan both barcodes to be able to more reliably get points for gift cards.
I got x2 points for Amazon GC in Jul 2025
Did you scan BOTH barcodes? On a gift card that I should have received 200 bonus points and didn’t, when I inquired about that with a sales person, they said that I need to scan both barcodes, not just the long one that’s needed for activation, to be sure that I get points.
So while scanning only the longer of the barcodes may SOMETIMES work, SOMETIMES it doesn’t, but that can lead to you to false impressions about WHY it didn’t work, if you’re not aware that you need to scan BOTH barcodes to help ensure earning points.
I found this on the Kroger web site. It says if you do pickup with an Amazon card and activate it at Home, you get 4X fuel points. Anyone know if this is still working?
From web @ https://www.kroger.com/p/amazon-25-500-gift-card-activate-and-add-value-after-checkout/0000000816061?fulfillment=PICKUP&storecode=&cid=cid%3Dshp_bin_shopl&msclkid=72f88ba9681717e8edfbedb01da3b3e2&gclid=72f88ba9681717e8edfbedb01da3b3e2&gclsrc=3p.ds
Product Details
For those in panic mode, while this is not good news, 2x points still provides decent value for Amazon. Assuming you can maximize 35 gallons per fill-up, you use a method of payment providing a minimum of 5% cashback, and assuming for conservatism Kroger gas is 20 cents higher (YMMV of course) than an alternative gas station, 2x fuel points is only 5.6% more expensive than 4x fuel points. It still represents, for me, a 10.6% discount (only 5.6% based on other 5% cashback payment methods for Amazon gift cards direct at other stores) on all Amazon purchases. This beats the Amazon credit card as well.
Can you use Target gift cards at Target to buy other gift cards?
No. Nice try though.
Does anyone know if DraftKings giftcard earns 4x fuel points?? I don’t want to buy target giftcard because I am boycotting target for the outrageous groceries price. They are literally selling 2lb apples for 10 dollars
@jasontx Must be a weird Target, 2 lbs of organic good & gather are 3.19 for me. Highest price I could find was organic honey crisp for 5.29. Outskirts of Chicago.
Target is starting to be lower priced for a lot more things I buy, even over Walmart. I compare shop most items between Target/walmart/walgreens/amazon/local grocery and Target wins out more than half the time.
yea i couldn’t believe it. The target at Memorial Mall in Houston, 2lb honeycrisp apples fpr $9.99. I figured prices in wealthy neighborhood are always more expensive. Panera “ValueDuet” is $8.99 at Tomball and Cypress and $6.99 in Houston (that’s 30% greedflation right there). I started going to poor neighborhoods to shop. But the issue is the quality of the people in the poor neighborhoods..i don’t understand why anyone would throw trash everywhere. But that’s the reality of it.
From my experience, Walmart and Sams Club have the best prices. Costco was selling 12 rolls paper towel for $29.99 and Sams is selling it for $16. Nothing beats Sams. But then you go to the parking lot at Sams and Walmart, you get turned off by it because of the beat-up cars and people
Organic Honeycrisp Apples – 2lb Bag – Good & Gather™
$5.39($0.17/ounce)
at Houston Memorial
I agree on the Panera thing though but it’s not as extreme, 7.99 vs 6.99 (used to be 6.99 vs 5.99 a few months back), in my area. But it’s not the wealthy versus poor but more the traffic at the particular stores.
i don’t hate target but several months ago i was at the target where i live and they were selling 2lb apples for $9.99 (should have taken a picture).. It seems like Target has lowered their prices recently but I refused to shop there anymore.
Take another example, Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel Face Moisturizer with Hyaluronic Acid, 50 ml (1.7 oz), Amazon is selling for $14.85 without discount. Target is selling for $19.99. They are currently running a promotion with 20% off, which is $15.19. I have realized the discount coupon on Target is just a pure waste of time. I could get better price at Walmart and Sams or even Amazon/Whole Fooods without the coupon.
Yet Walmart sells that for 22.97 and get $5 Walmart Cash (harder to use than 20% off). Not the first item I’ve compared. Target has started to consistently beat Walmart prices on a lot of items IMHO.
Comparing prices makes the most sense of course. I swore off Amazon for a time and then went back when it was cheaper. Seems you’ve discounted Target as a whole, that’s all.
$1500 gift card for $48 rewards. That’s really low. At Kroger I can always get $30 rewards from $250 gift card – $1 off 30 gallons of gas.
Hmm, this changes my math. I was getting disappointed with Amazon anyway. I’ll have to switch to Target gift cards.
and/or $100 Visa and Mastercard if you have Amex Blue Cash Preferred. 6% nearly offsets the fee. It’s my next best play for gas. – Yeah – Target is great too – but I’ll bet its the next to go.
With $500 VGCs banned and now this, looks like it’s game over. Thank the greedy people who were farming and reselling fuel points.
This is a bummer but I switched to Jewel (Albertsons) once I realized that they do rewards that take money off your grocery bill instead of having to fill up your gas tank really full to maximize it. I bought $1500 in gift cards a few weeks ago and just “redeemed” the rewards to my account – 2x $20 off $20 grocery orders and 1x $8 off $8 reward. All stackable and automatically get used at register when you enter your phone number. So I paid $1500 for gift cards and I got $48 in free groceries to use over the next two months. Not to shabby and don’t have to worry about having an empty tank or two at the right time.
Guess what chain Kroger is tryna buy 🙄
Holding that much money in gift cards for a single retailer to get 48/1500 = 3% cash back is a bit risky.
What makes you think they are “holding” the cards for long, or that they are for only one (or for that matter, any) retailer?