Update 10/24/18: Starting November 2018 they are adding a maximum of $25 a month. Hat tip to reader Spoon.
We often post about ways of increasing your Kroger-chain fuel points balances, including the recent 4x fuel points on gift cards.
Interestingly, Â aside from the value of these points for getting discounted gas, there’s an entirely separate benefit which comes with fuel points.
- Each 100 fuel points you have gets you $1 free of cell phone credit in Kroger’s phone service which uses the Sprint network.
- Importantly, you are not using up any fuel points by getting the phone credits. This is just an added, free benefit of fuel points.
The only catch is that you have to sign up for an initial $10 no-contract plan to activate the Kroger phone service. Assuming you have a Sprint device, your entire cost will be just $10 to get it up and running and then you’ll be able to rack up free cell phone credits with your fuel points.
Link to Kroger mobile services
The terms say clearly that purchasing gift cards at the standard 2x rate or at a promotional 4x rate will work to rack up cell phone credits.
It doesn’t sound like the cellphone credits expire, which means you can rack up phone credits during 4x gift cards offers and potentially get free cell phone service the entire year. Or you can buy gift cards at any time of year and get 2x fuel points.
Let’s calculate a scenario of getting free cell phone service the entire year:
- Suppose a phone bill of $50 per month, or $600 per year
- We’ll need 60,000 fuel points annually to get $600 in credits
- $15,000 in gift cards purchased at the bonus 4x rate or $30,000 in gift cards purchased at the regular 2x rate will get you free cell service for the year
Of course, if you shop in Kroger regularly you’ll have some fuel points from ordinary shopping (1 point-per-dollar) and you won’t need the full $15k/$30k in gift cards to get free phone service.
HT: Reddit
They unveiled new plans today. Don’t be fooled and upgrade. The new plans do not get credit via rewards. This may actually mean it’s impossible for new users to get the rewards now even if you’re content with the $25 tier.
This is actually a huge devaluation. You previously could earn up to $400 per month with anything over $400 being lost off the account(they literally take it off forever). Practically speaking the most expensive plan is $75 plus any international calls. Now you can only earn $25 per month which only covers a very bad plan with 250 mb data and 250 minutes. I’ll still keep a few of my phones plans and downgrade them but i am not paying extra for more data for my primary line. I did top up all my plans to $250 each so that at least I can get he $50 plans for another 10 months before switching.
Any cheap device recommendations?
So 15K a year of MSing = not only profit from the MS but also free cell phone service and fuel points? Wow!
I can’t believe I didn’t know this a missed out on several years of free phone service based on this year’s shopping. I’m not a fan of Sprint but a free alternate phone for Samsung Pay could be great!!!
So if I sign up for the $10 plan but don’t earn enough fuel points each month do I just pay the difference?
Yes.
IMO, the better non-spend Kroger gas goodie is the “Tell Us How We are Doing” survey. Limit one each 7 days. Get 50 fuel points for each survey. That could be about 200 fuel points if you shop on a regular grocery shopping day. Buy a few Cokes or regular household grocery shopping. Survey pays the same.
Yes, these surveys are great. To go thru them faster select only 1 section of the store you shopped at, otherwise they’ll ask you the same batch of questions for every section you said you visited. Takes under a minute especially with browser field auto-fill enabled.
Also the checkers at your local stores get little stars on their name tags when someone fills them out and it looks good on their records. So if you love your friendly Kroger staff (along with the Fuel Points), it is easily worth the time.
Just got a text message: they are nerfing this big time. As of Nov 2018 you can only earn $25 a month. That’s not even enough to cover the 500MB tier.
Ah, bummer.
Can you take a screenshot of the message and send it to [email protected]?
I mean if you really want I can, but the terms on the website have already been updated: “A maximum of $25.00 in Wireless Rewards credits can be earned in a calendar month.”
Ah thanks
My take on the deal as of 2017: Probably not worthwhile unless you really want another line and are going to be buying $10k+ giftcards at Kroger over the year (at 4x).
All Krogers in my area no longer sell iWireless phones in stores, only cards for the phone plan. As a result, you may not be able to pick up a cheap iwireless phone like you used to for $10 (maybe try Ebay?). There is a limited selection of top-of-the-line iWireless devices, like the iPhone 7 or Google Pixel on the iwireless site, sold for top dollar prices. It limits the appeal the deal significantly- this is not a drop $20 and milk free service plan.
The iWireless plans are also significantly more expensive than any other plans at pretty much any level, including Tracfone and Net10 (also sold at Kroger). The $10 plan is only 100 minutes and 50 MB of data- I guess OK if you want another phone to text on or get A call or two on, but not for much else. You have to pay a full $50 to get to a decent phone plan of unlimited calls and texts and 2GB of data. You’d pay only $35/month for that on Verizon. Even if you went through Sprint directly you’d could get 3GB for just $30/month. Point is then, that getting $50 off of the phone service in points really isn’t worth $50.
Basically I wouldn’t get a plan like this unless I (1) was fully ready to commit to buying giftcards or other fuelpoints generating activities that substantially exceeded whatever my phone service would cost and (2) either had access to a really cheap iwireless phone or was really ready to commit to buying a fancy smartphone at full price for iwireless to be a substitute for my provider.
Edit: I just noticed there’s a 50% bonus if you have a 1-2-3 REWARDS® Visa® Card or 1-2-3 REWARDS® Visa® Prepaid Debit Card setup for autobilling. So this means you’d get $60 in service for every $1000 spent on 4X giftcards.
Additionally, it appears that any Sprint phone in good standing can be switched to an iwireless plan. This dramatically expands phone options.
I am a little concerned by the discontinuation of iwireless phones at Kroger. I wonder if the service might disappear entirely in a few years.
Is this only when paying with the card or merely having the card? I understand fuel points count toward paying a bill. If I have enough fuel points, I get the bonus merely for having the card? Or, do I have to put some amount of money on the card?
Any reason this wouldn’t work to have a spare phone for Apple Pay or Samsung Pay deals? Krogerwireless has a Samsung for $69 and an iPhone for $209. I have an LG as my main phone that I don’t want to part with, but since I always have tons of Kroger fuel points, might make a good way of maximizing them and being able to take advantage of those other pay options I have missed out on. Any problem with using Samsung Pay or Apple Pay on a prepaid device?
You can use Apple/Samsung Pay with a prepaid plan.