Deal has expired, view Safeway deals here.
The Offer
Direct Link to offer (login required)
Check your Safeway Just4U for a digital coupon to get:
- $15 off when you buy two $100 Visa gift cards.
- $10 off when you buy two $50 Visa gift cards.
The Safeway deals are usually at Von’s, Albertson’s, Randall’s, Tom Thumb, Acme, Shaw’s, and Jewel too.
The Fine Print
- Expires 6/30/18
- Must load coupon by 6/23/18 (see this comment)
- Limit one per transaction
Our Verdict
It’s interesting that last week’s deal showed “limit 1” and this week’s shows “limit 1 per transaction”. Did they just mis-write it or does it actually work more than once? We’ll have to wait on data points as to whether the coupon disappears after first use.
Another big question mark here is whether it’ll work on variable-load cards like last week’s deal did. Due to the fees, a lot of people find these deals more worthwhile as a way to manufacture grocery spend, with the coupon more than offsetting the fees.
Reader Marcopolo notes that the Acme ad clearly exclude variable cards. Their ad also shows it as limit 1 per customers. So maybe all stores will be the same with the variable exclusion and with being limited to one per customer.
Use a card that earns at a high rate on grocery store purchases. Keep in mind the Discover it and Chase Freedom cards both earn 5% this quarter.
Hat tip to reader bax
Update: this comment indicates variables will not work and this comment says it’s limited to single use.
My Safeway in Washington DC told me debit only for buying these gift cards; cashier thought it was dumb and didn’t understand the policy but said they’d received a memo.
There’s one store in my area with the same policy: cash only. Just one store, though. They said last year there were problems with VGC fraud there. I hope fraudsters don’t cause Safeway to change the policy company-wide.
I added the offer to my account last week. I checked my account now, and they disappeared. Am I the only one?
Mine is still there.
Hey Yu,
Safeway app does weird stuff to me. I had offers of spend $10 on meats, get $3 off. Unfortunately, I don’t see that offer any more on the app and I know it’s not expired yet and I didn’t screenshot it. But I went to the store and had to wing it and make my meat purchases and it did get the $3 off.
But it’s also weird because I made $1.99 Sun Chips and baked Lay’s chips, but Sun chips Harvest came out $2.49. I was too tired to argue with them so I let it go. Most of the time, I have to show them in person the app of my offers so they can do a price adjustment on the spot if there’s some error.
Does anyone know if this counts towards the minimum spending for amex cards? I just want to be sure.
No.
“The following eligible purchases do NOT count towards the Threshold Amount: fees or interest charges; purchases of travelers checks; purchases or reloading of prepaid cards; purchases of gift cards; person-to-person payments; or purchases of other cash equivalents.”
Thank you. I’m aware of that term but not sure if they actually collect the level 3 data of purchasing VGC at grocery stores. But I guess it isn’t worth the risk.
Even without receiving the detailed data of the transaction from the merchant, it’s within their power to call the company and ask what specifically was purchased if they suspect something and want proof. So yes, probably not worth the risk.
will it work if you purchase 2*100 and 2*50 vgc in the same transaction? will you get both coupon applied?
Yes. I’ve done so many times.
It should. It has in the past.
Did not work for me without head cashier intervention. Added both the $15 and $10 offers to my Safeway club card 20 minutes before transaction. Purchased 2 x Visa gift cards and asked cashier for $100 each, total amount came to ~$215 (including my bananas and potato chips). Head cashier familiar with offer and manually provided discount. Afterwards checked and promo was still on card. Come’on Safeway, I did this right. Charged on Discover for 5% cashback.
“20 minutes before transaction” — that’s the cause of your problem.
“asked cashier for $100 each”, this offer only works on fixed value, not variable visas.
It may vary from store to store. It worked for me when I added the $15 off coupon via the Safeway mobile app 5 minutes or so before checkout. How did I know? I added it while waiting in a short line for checkout.
Not quite.
Over the weekend at checkout the Mrs liked the price of my ice cream – free and decided to pick one up. The time between adding it to her club card and checkout was about 90 seconds. Success on ice cream. I just returned from another Safeway store and the $10 off >= $150 Mastercard gift card worked. They did not have any fixed amounts > $100 so I had no choice…but no prob at the register unlike the VISA GC. Suppose it’s all about flexibility in the reading & interpretation of the offer.
What is the best way to convert these $100 gift cards to money orders?
I’d buy WM VGCs. You could pay using up to 5 (prepaid VGC/MGC, debit, or credit) cards, but you’d ended up $1-4 less profitable.
Are you saying if I use these Safeway cards to purchase Walmart gift cards, I will be then be able to use Walmart gift cards to purchase money orders? What are the associated fees with these transactions?
Yes. A WM VGC has $4.95 activation fee. If your WM allowed 4 debit cards to pay for a MO, then it’d be more lucrative to just use the bought Safeway GCs to buy a MO.
Doc Doc Doc!!!!!
Bought several visa gift card and got the offer applied but later found out visa gift card is not usable at plastiq anymore.
Not Doc’s problem when the news about Plastic not taking visas anymore were posted to dozens of blogs.
nah I don’t think he’s blaming doc, prolly just letting doc know.
Thank you so much jc
I was in a rush, so I didn’t explain clearly. I was trying to get doc’s attention because in doc’s last post about plastiq and visa, Doc said visa gift card was still usable at plastiq.
I would never blame doc. Doc is the best. I have benefited so much from Doc. I dont read any blog but doc
Interesting, if unique, DP: Attempted 2x$100 on variable VGC’s, with the coupons added to my account. The discount did not immediately apply, so the teller manually entered $15 off, for a total price of $196. The coupons are still on my account, so I’ll be going back later on a different teller. Will rinse and repeat if that teller does the same.
This leads me to believe that variable gift cards are excluded for me, since entering my account # did not automatically apply the offer. Interested to see if when I finally redeem the offer it will discount both cards, as some are reporting.
Just out of curiosity, if you’re doing variables, why did you still only load 100 on ’em?
This deal would only be worth it if you get 15 off on 500 or 2x 500, or 30 off of 2×100. Otherwise, it’s just too much work for any self-respecting MS professional.
All things else being equal, I absolutely would – I assumed the discount would only apply if the variables were loaded to $100 exactly, and not more, which is what I initially requested.
Once the teller manually entered the discount and I realized it wouldn’t burn my one-time coupon, I figured I would just take the ~$9 in EV and hit this offer again next time I’m at Safeway.
The teller might be willing to apply the discount manually if s/he believes that the discount did not apply automatically due a system glitch. The offer clearly states the amount to which it applies. I don’t understand how one could make the argument of a “system glitch” with the teller if loading an amount different than the offer.
You come from the assumption that everyone knows exactly what they’re doing and what the terms are. Which is often not the case at all.
Well I’m sure he knows the math. He probably just testing the theory of variable vs fixed.
Just bought 2x $100 fixed Visa cards at Jewel near Chicago — only took $15 off once
105.95 x 2 = 211.90 – 15 = 196.90 paid with Chase Freedom
Jewel Osco is MyMixx, not just for U, so, I guess they do things differently.
The offer will disappear after use. So typo only. But, when it first came out yesterday, there’s a bug, at least on 100 one, that system will actually deduct 2x -15 on one transaction.