The Offer
- Publix has a coupon to save $10 when you purchase $150 or more of Mastercard gift cards
The Fine Print
- Product may not be available in all states.
- One offer per transaction.
- Coupon cannot be used towards the purchase of a gift card.
Our Verdict
I think the deal is to get $10 off your shopping when you buy $150 or more of Mastercard gift cards (update: readers in the comments understand differently that it’s straight $10 off the gift card purchase). Stopandshop, Meijer, and Giant Eagle are also running similar kinds of deals on Visa gift cards.
Use a card that earns a high rate at grocery stores or use Apple Pay with Chase or Amex if you were targeted for those offers to get a bonus.
Hat tip to reader Tallybuilder
Is there an activation fee? For example, when you buy this same card at Kroger, you pay a $4.99 activation fee, reducing your $10 coupon savings to $5.
Just a comment on these MCGC… Why does the site used to check the balance suck so bad? 75% of the time I try to log in to view the balance or register the card it doesnt work. Have to call phone. Is this just my experience?
This deal is back again.
I can’t seem to find it. Do you see it here? https://www.publix.com/savings/coupons/digital-coupons#!/
This really is back now. Shows up on the link you posted above. Expires 4/28.
Used app, clipped coupon, also didnt work for me. Made purchase at CS desk and they just took it off immediately. $146.95 out the door on CF. Boom! Now to hit them 9 more times before the coupon expires.
Like a lot of others in this thread, the coupon did not work for me. I bought a $200 MCGC and some groceries for $11. I input my phone number and the coupon did not apply. Customer Service seemed clueless so I just had them delete the gift card purchase, so I was just left with paying for the chicken wings .
Has anyone had this work for them?
Never worked. I went to 5 different stores, each one took it off manually.
In the FWIW: I think this is all wrong. The actual deal is $10 off $50 in Visa (NOT MC) gift card purchases. It’s a coupon in the circular. Cashiers can scan it from their binders, and will, if you ask nice. I bought $100 worth of groceries today, and at the end of the transaction, added two $50 GC. I got $10 off immediately, but paid $4.95 per card as activation. (So, yield a little over 5% plus the additional points on the Amex Everyday, worth an additional +/- 2%.) I just double checked the receipt (which Publix now sends to your email!) and all this information is accurate. Now, MAYBE there’s also a MC promo with Publix, but I didn’t see it anywhere.
Yes, this is a different deal. It is a digital coupon, not the same as the Visa deal (buy $50 worth of groceries and save $10 off VGC of $50 or more) that they have in the circulars from time to time . Also, did you get $10 off each VGC or $10 off in total?
$10 on each VGC.
TL/DR: Had trouble getting the digital coupon to automatically apply. If it happens to you, see customer service & they’ll help you out.
Full version: Gave this a whirl. Bought a $200 MCGC by itself (i.e. no additional groceries), entered the phone number connected to my account for digital coupons, and the $10 didn’t come off. I regularly use digital coupons at Publix and even set up my account to take advantage of the new feature that emails your receipts instead of printing them in store, so I’m familiar with the process; it wasn’t user error.
Not wanting to push it given the “coupon cannot be used towards the purchase of a gift card” language, I went to another Publix just down the street and tried it again, but this time purchasing ~$14 worth of groceries along with the MCGC. Still didn’t work.
Immediately went to customer service, showed them the coupon clipped in my Publix app plus the emailed receipt, and they issued a $10 refund to the card I used to pay.
Not really wanting to take a loss on what I was expecting to be profitable MS, I went back to the first Publix store, explained the whole situation, and asked if they’d be willing to take $3.90 off just to offset the remainder of the fees from both MCGC purchases. Dude says it was no problem and processed the full $10 as a refund.
I had the exact same experience. Manager gave me $10 cash refund after I showed him the coupon on my phone.
Do you know if the coupon can be used more than once? Would like to pick up a few of these.
I think it’s likely able to be used multiple times, but I don’t know for sure, since technically my coupon was not redeemed with either transaction (customer service just issued a refund after the fact) and is still active.
In past experience with other digital coupons, it’s been hit or miss. Whenever you use a coupon successfully, it will go from “Clipped” to “Redeemed” — which are different tabs on the app and online — so you can only use any digital coupon once per transaction. However, once “Redeemed,” some coupons have disappeared for good, while others have reappeared in the digital coupons section and could be “re-clipped,” meaning that you could use the coupon over and over again until it expires.
Since the terms of this coupon state “one offer per TRANSACTION,” not “one offer per CUSTOMER,” I think that likely means it can be used multiple times, but can’t say for sure.
Similar experience last night. Multiple challenges proves this will be too difficult to scale meaningfully. Tried the self-checkout to avoid detection, as I had multiple gebits I was trying to purchase under multiple dummy loyalty accounts in the event the coupon capped out at 1 per loyalty account. Upon gebit scan, kiosk hard stops awaiting kiosk employee monitor to take action. After clearing that gate, I entered loyalty number on pinpad which caused transaction to spin endlessly on loyalty account server side. Pushed the Pay Now button to move beyond the now-frozen loyalty number validation process. When transaction subtotalled, the $10 coupon had not been taken off.. Kiosk cashier chased down a supervisor who confirmed the clipped coupon on my Publicks iphone app, then manually took $10 off.. $10 deducted, but net of “$0.78” sales tax which supervisor would not remove. Will try again today at a live checkout lane to compare the process. Am hoping that the loyalty account validation problem was due to the accounts being only a couple of hours old. Also wondering if Publicks fat-fingered the coupon effective start date in the POS system.
Cashout via MO on-premise was quite convenient, however.
Thanks! I’ll give it a try Sunday, my Publix account was just set up yesterday.
Wife just tried at diff store in regular check out line. “what, do you think we are Kroger? We don’t have a loyalty program”.
Thank you for sharing
what is the fee for $200 MGC? Thanks.
6.95
I have done this twice at two separate stores, it does not work. Had to show the CSR the app. Both times I paid at customer service to avoid holding up the line and because I figured they’d have a better handle on this stuff. Almost too much of a hassle the 2nd time, They kept telling me to put in my phone number again, then a supervisor tried to do it with their phone, then after what felt like an eternity (probably 5 minutes) they manually put the code in.
My local Publix doesn’t use Apple Pay. Not sure if any of them do, but I’ve never seen them work. Reminder that there currently is an offer for 5x on Citi Prestige for supermarkets, gas and drugstores that expires 3/31 (targeted), or wait until 4/1/18 to use Chase Freedom 5x on supermarkets.
And Discover It starts 5% at grocery stores on 4/1.
Just note that the Mastercards have a much higher rate of being hacked than the visa cards.
creating custom PIN immediately upon purchase dramatically reduces the risk
So the general understanding is that you need to purchase $10+ of actual groceries in addition to the MCGC in order for the coupon to work? Do I have that correct?
That’s not what it says on the coupon. It’s says purchase $150 Mastercard gift card and save $10. This deal is not like the regular gas card deals they do.
That’s what’s I thought at first, but what is meant by “coupon cannot be used towards the purchase of a gift card”?
Taking a guess at this… you cannot use a competitors coupon towards the gift card purchase.
Or a Publix coupon for that matter
Ahh, gotcha. That makes a lot of sense. I hadn’t thought of “coupon” meaning “a coupon separate from this one.” Appreciate the replies from you and Duke I.
There’s a separate print coupon for Visa cards with the usual language.