The Offer
Direct link to offer (select gift cards to get it to appear)
- Save $5.00 on MASTERCARD® or VISA® Gift Cards when you buy ONE (1) $50 MASTERCARD® or VISA® gift card
The Fine Print
- Offer excludes MasterCard® and/or Visa® $25, $100 and Variable Load Gift Cards.
- While supplies last.
- No rain checks.
- Limit one coupon per transaction per day.
- The Gift Cards are issued by U.S. Bank National Association pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. or MasterCard® International Incorporated. MasterCard and the MasterCard Brand Mark are registered trademarks of MasterCard International Incorporated. Product and offer may not be available in all states.
- Limit of one coupon per household.
- Digital coupons and paper coupons may not be combined on the purchase of a single item.
Our Verdict
Shame that it’s only available on the $50 gift cards and not higher denomination (have to see if that is actually hardcoded, I suspect it is though). Make sure to use a credit card that earns at a high rate on grocery store purchases if you’re going for this deal. You can also get 4x fuel points on all gift card purchases currently.
Got the $50 card on the tenth, was told today by CSR that it is back on my card as of now. I haven’t been able to get it to come up on the website but neither does the 4x show up but it’s on the card. I will try it tomorrow.
FWIW, I used the deal earlier today (5 hours ago or so).
For whatever reason, the Coupon still shows up under “My Coupons” on the app, so it looks like I could use it again.
With that said, I probably won’t, but we’ll see.
FYI. the fee is $4.95.
For whatever reason, no tax is charged, so it is $54.95 – $5.00 = $49.95.
Save 5 cents.
Plus 200 fuel points, which for me is 20 cents off per gallon = $2 off my full tank when I fill up (I realize you can do up to 35 gallons, but my car has a ~12 gallon tank and the most I can usually end up filling is 10-11).
Alright, so after checking to see if it is under “My Coupons” on the website it then promptly disappeared from the app as well.
Guess there is just a lag after you use it of >5 hours before it disappears (at least on the app).
Sales tax is never charged on gift cards, as they’re not actual products, just stored value to be used later.
Thanks
$0.05 + cashback + $0.20 / gal is decent enough, I suppose. I’ll probably add one during my next Kroger run.
Kroger Fuel Points are only valid for a calendar month. So be careful about backing up the truck !!
With a $4.95 fee, might as well get any GC you like regardless of offer.
See reports of fraud issues on US Bank cards recently
One data point here of this NOT working for $100 Visa gift cards at Fry’s, so it looks to be hardcoded for the 50s as advertised.
As UPS Guy pointed out, there’s currently 4X fuel points. I’m willing to pay the fees for the $100 cards to get the fuel points on the same account. 5x$100 in VGC costs ~$15 after 3% cash back and, at 4X points, saves me $70 at the pump.
The Krogers in my area all limit the discount to $1/gallon so I did this $50 fee free, and two $100 and paid the fee, so I ended up with 1000 points. Have two efficient cars so that’s enough to get me 50% off gas for next month.
If i buy at Kroger Giftcards worth $1500 with Chase Freedom, and get 4x points, meaning i will get 6000 Fuel Points…right?
How valuable are these 6000 FP and how can i best use them? Can someone explain this Novice (Me) please?
Some, like myself, use the max (35 gallons) by bringing gas cans to max the 1000 points = $1.00 off a gallon per fill up. The only problem with 6000 fuel points is they’ll expire at the end of May (April’s points) if you don’t use them all.
Kroger doesn’t give fuel point rewards for variable value gift cards (ie $20-500 ones). The highest fixed value they carry is $100.
That said, buying 5x$100 gift cards with your Freedom card will cost you $529.75 with card fees. With 4x fuel points, you’ll have 2120 fuel points and 2650 UR points. 1000 fuel points will save you $1/gal (up to 35 gallons). Take gas cans or multiple cars if you can’t use 35 gal at once. Your 2650 UR are worth $26.50 to $50 depending on how you use them.
Spread your $1500 out over the quarter because earned fuel points expire at the end of the following month (ie points earned in Apr/May/Jun expire end of May/Jun/Jul).
Also note, you have to add the 4X coupon to your Kroger online account before purchasing gift cards. Current 4X promotion ends 18 April.
As Wyle mentions, variable load GC do not earn fuel points.
It’s a much better idea to just hit the $500s. Total fee is $17.85 + liquidation costs and liquidation is way easier.
15 x $100s is going to cost you $89.25 + liquidation costs, which will be much higher and a huge PITA. (You can liquidate 2x $500 for $0.70; you can only liquidate 4x $100 for $0.70 at a time.) It’s absolutely not worth the hassle to get max value out of the fuel points.
(Another consideration is that if the price of gas drops after you use your fuel points and you could’ve filled up then — say, because you’re using gas cans or some such to max the 35 gallons — your savings is decreased. Instead of $1.00 off / gal it might be $0.90 / gallon.)
Check tommorrow, the coupon might return if you used it today
I was hoping – but no such luck. Still – I’ll check again later in the day.
Where can these Kroger VGC/Master cards be used?
MO AT WM Or PO?
Both
Just as a DP, and to save folks time getting rejected so many times like I did: I’ve had 2 recently be rejected at 3+ PO and 1 WM. Finally unloaded one of these at a different brand of Kroger in my area. This was the dark grey US Bank variable load Visa kind. Real pretty as a debit card. I started trying the cards with a backup card (Vanilla/Gobank etc) ready to switch to when it didn’t work. I called in and everything and they said they saw nothing wrong with my cards- money there and no flags on the pin or anything.
What’s the fee on the $50 card?
forgot but its like $6.95 or whatever.
4.95 plus there’s a coupon for 4x fuel points
An all around great deal 😎! Added to the purchase another $50 in other gift cards, since $100 GC purchase at Ralph’s gives 40 cents off a gallon on next fill up. Used CHASE freedom for 5% back. Spent $99.95, got 499 UR, 200 regular fuel points + 40 cents/gal off next purchase. Suh-weet!
So, my ability to read English has cut out on me. Does this mean that I can do one transaction a day during the duration? Also what are the odds that they’ll recognize two customer accounts in one household as one household? This stacks pretty nicely when you use Chase Freedom and get 4x Fuel rewards!
My hope is that we can do this twice each day till the 15th.
It’s loaded to your Kroger card, removed after use. So once per Kroger card.
I see you’re right – because its no longer in my wife’s account – but help me understand what:
“Limit one coupon per transaction per day.” in the T&C is referring to. Its not important – but what the heck? (Oh and thanks Peter!)
yea i mean at $50 denom who cares man. maybe it loads back up every day? i wouldnt even bother. even if you said well I get 6x groceries and i use VG to buy other things, well, i avoid that because GC get drained. I aint holding that crap longer than a day. I drain it ASAP and I dont like $50 GC denoms. you just cant scale vs $500 or OD/DM or Simon.
The thing is, this also triggers 4x fuel points, which make this a money maker (200 fuel points x 35 gal = $7 savings alone)
“I care mahn.” Randy asks a decent, appropriate question and you pound him with a knowing, condescending snark. (as you’re often prone to do)
It really would matter if we could get more than one of these discounts per account for the week. Even with the hassle of using/draining vgc’s, It’s considerably more than free money, when we figure in the 4x fuel (and cell) benefits.
Randy’s fair question deserves an answer. (from Kroger) Again, why is the “one coupon transaction per day” in there, if you can only use it once for the week?
ps, and no, this isn’t about 500 style scaling. (You can get $500 vgc’s at Kroger, but it won’t count towards the 4x realm…. Ok, so that’s not YOUR thing, but permit those of us for whom it does matter to ask fair questions.)