The Offer
- Sam’s Club is offering a bonus $5 Sam’s Club gift card if you purchase a $100 or $200 Mastercard gift card.
The Fine Print
- Online only offer
- Free shipping (not available for Alaska or Hawaii)
Our Verdict
Same deal was available back in September. Might be useful for those that haven’t maxed out their 5% category on the Chase Freedom or Discover it (Sam’s Club an option & doubled for some). $5 bonus gift card covers most of the fees on these cards.
Hat tip to reader JASON
all this hassle for only 5$?
Exactly… Not trying this again myself.
What a mess this offer turned out to be. One MC of the three I had ordered, took almost a month to arrive. Their customer phone line is useless, I once wasted over 30 minutes waiting for a human to answer. Two $5 GC’s did not arrive at all. I had to open several tickets with sam’s club online and they finally sent me 2 electronic gift cards that my local club was unable to redeem because those gift cards required some “activation”, contrary to whatever cashier’s instructions said, and the manager could not activate them. I finally got a store credit, but it was barely worth my time.
I had a similar experience last time this was posted. The $25 in Sam’s Club gift cards that they mailed require online activation. Sam’s Club emailed an invalid activation link so I could not activate them. I called and thought it would be an easy fix and they would activate them right away. Ended up taking hours with multiple phone calls, emails and a BBB complaint to get them activated.
Can sams gift cards be used to purchase visa aND Mc gift cards in sams?
I have a question about the 5 back card that a lot of people got orders through for. Why use them to get MO at WM? Isnt it better to buy Vanilla VGC @ CVS to get $25 back and then use the vanilla VGC at USPS?
Everyone was going 5 back -> MO @ WM. You are leaving money on the table. Correct?
My local CVS required ID to match the credit card as payment. They do not accept a payment card without a name on it.
Yes, you’re right.I got only one 5 back $500 from GCM(another 2 $500 orders got cancelled).However, I did not see 5 back in nearby stores, maybe they have not updated their gift card stands yet. Definitely I will do the way you said. Any DP how much CB from CVS? since 5 back terms say “up to 5% cashback”
I think 5 back means 5% of purchase price back. In effect 5% discount for anything you buy.
I am not aware if there are different discounts per retailer. Someone else can chime in?
You are correct, the CVS route is the better way to go. I guess some people didn’t want the extra hassle of the extra step? But I’m with you, CVS is relatively painless and there is money here.
I did that, got 5 back card, went to cvs, got the one vanilla visa card. But it has been a pain in the arse to dispose this vanilla visa card.
Went to WM, and this kept ringing as credit instead of debit, so could not purchase MO at WM with the Vanilla card bought from CVS.
Any idea how to do it WM so it counts/shows up as debit and not credit card?
And doing this at PO would be same right, will show as credit instead of debit.
Almost ready to tear this Vanilla card up (In frustration).
Someone save me….
Vanilla only works at the post office…hasn’t worked at Walmart in years
Also it has to be a Banc Corp vanilla to work at the USPS – Meabank ones do not…most of them are Banc corp though
*metabank
I see many people mention buying MO at the PO. I would think that government officials more than anyone would require that the name on the debit card matches your license. Is that not the case? From reading many blogs it seems that people have more trouble at Wally than the PO which is a little surprising.
When is the CVS 5 back valid through till?
How long is the CVS 5 back offer valid through till? I also luckily have a Simon mall nearby I could take advantage of.
Can you buy MO with the MC GC?
Yazing and GivingAssistant give 7%, but I doubt it works for giftcard purchases. My previous purchase in Yazing report shows cashback but haven’t received it yet.
My math below:
5% x 2 in first year
$100 card: $1500/105.38= 14.23 cards to max out the 5% this quarter. $1500 x 10%=$150. Fee=5.38*14=$75.32. I will get: 14x$5+$150+$100 x 14 – $75.32= $1544.68
$200 card: $1500/206.48= 7.26 cards to max out the 5% this quarter. $1500 x 10% = $150.
Fee=6.48*7=$45.36. I will get: 7x$5+$150+$200 x 7-$45.36= $1539.64.
$5 difference! lol
Giving Assistant confirms 4% indeed for purchase of giftcards on Sam’s Club. Transaction recorded on 12/20. Got to wait 3 months for payment to be received by paypal.
Compare to OfficeMax/Office Depot deal this week.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/officedepotmax-15-off-purchase-300-visa-gift-cards-store/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#The_Offer
Some of the Sam’s clubs sell $500 vanilla mastercard gift card, which I think is better than this offer. I used my discover it card to purchased 2 $500, and went to the nearby office depot to buy vgc ($15 off $300 vgc), then went to walmart to buy MO.
What a pain to activate all those $5 gift cards. I bought 10 last time and it took me four phone calls, and an escalated support ticket, and then 15 or so minutes reading each card number to activate. Add in the trouble of paying with 10 gift cards. Never again!
You are lucky enough. I got two $5 sam’s gift cards last time, made two sam’s club visits, called customer services 3 times, never activated. Sam’s kept sending me activation codes through email, and both the activation codes are invalid.Waste a lot of time, I give up.
Yes!! You kept getting the repeat shipping/activation emails that never worked? My first card was for $4.77 and never worked, and then I kept getting those emails and nothing ever showed up. Called customer service and escalated it but then they never got back in touch like they promised.
Not touching this again…
Oh, you are lucky, I purchased mine in late Sept where they had this promo. It’s been almost 3 months now and I just called and the lady said I should have the cards activated within 48 hours. The problem is that I placed three orders for a total of 9 $200 cards and I have no way telling which card belonging to which order. I don’t know why it becomes an issue or a must-know in order to activate. Anyway, I can only wait.
You are so lucky. Last time I only bought one, and you know what, I only received the $5 walmart card, had to spend over 30 mins and two phones calls to get the whole order cancelled and refunded.
Pretty sure these are good at USPS correct?