[Expired] Safeway: Save $10 on $100+ Visa Giftcard [Vons, Randall’s, Albertsons, Tom Thumb, Acme, Jewel, Shaw’s]

The Offer

Direct Link to offer (login required)

Check your Safeway Just4U for a digital coupon to get:

  • $10 off when you buy $100 in 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

  • One time use
  • Valid through 11/9/19

Our Verdict

Remember to save the offer first to your card before use. You won’t get fuel points on Visa/MC gift cards. Make sure to use a card that earns at a high rate on grocery store purchases. This version of the offer does work on the variable cards.

Hat tip to reader Celia

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lilurbanachiever
lilurbanachiever (@guest_835027)
November 4, 2019 15:48

I had an “interesting” experience today: at my usual Vons the variable VGC was not loaded (“unable to process”), but my Amex was charged for the full amount. They manually refunded the cost of my transaction to the same Amex card. I do hope that the refund posts smoothly. That was the first time this happened to me. Looks like the issues with Metabank are starting to pile up.

lilurbanachiever
lilurbanachiever (@guest_835191)
November 4, 2019 17:40

Looks like this is related to some Amex-related issues happening today.

Superman
Superman (@guest_834520)
November 3, 2019 10:08

This offer can no longer be added.

Bob
Bob (@guest_834384)
November 2, 2019 17:25

I got 500 vgc and added into Venmo. However, when I try to transfer to my friend, it always returns “Transaction Declined”… Is this method dead? Is there other way to cash it out?

AKJohnny
AKJohnny (@guest_832427)
October 29, 2019 20:39

found and added this coupon… will used 4% back on my BOA card… thanks for this!!

Yanjie
Yanjie (@guest_832867)
October 30, 2019 15:02

Which BOA card? BOA cash rewards card maximum is 3.5%, isn’t it?

Celia
Celia (@guest_833137)
October 30, 2019 23:50

They might be referring to getting double cash back this quarter that’s available to some people so 2% grocery is 4%.

Tim
Tim (@guest_831428)
October 27, 2019 22:16

I want to share my experience with the variable MC giftcards from Safeway. About 2 weeks ago, I bought 2 x $500 MC GCs and was able to liquidate them by buying 2x $500 MOs in one transaction at Harris Teeter without any issues. Each MO had a fee of $0.99 which I paid with cash.

This past Monday I bought two more MC GCs and on Thursday tried to unload them at a different Harris Teeter, but their POS declined the first MC GC that I swiped without any reason other than the message “Unathorized” on the card reader. I thought maybe this HT POS was programmed differently so I ended up using my personal debit card and the transaction went through. However, when I checked the bank statement of the decline MC GC, I found out its available is $0.00. I called MC customer service and they also noticed the transaction was made at the 2nd HT and the balance is 0. The rep told me to check with HT to make sure they didn’t charge more than the actual cost. On Friday evening, I went back to HT and was told they did NOT overcharged.

Today (Sunday) I went back to first HT where I had success liquidating the 2nd MC GC that I bought on Monday. To my surprise, their POS also declined it. This time I decided to cancel the whole transaction. Went home and checked the balance. The available balance is also 0. What?

I’m short of $1k now and hoping the money will return. Anyone had the same issue? If so, was the money eventually credited back to your cards? What actions did you take to get the money back? Thanks.

J Ro
J Ro (@guest_831472)
October 28, 2019 00:58

I’ve had this happen A LONG TIME AGO (2016) and it came back after a few days with no intervention from store or gc. Good luck.

Mufmuf
Mufmuf (@guest_831485)
October 28, 2019 01:42

It happened to me on 10/27 Sat when I tried to use three MCGCs in three failed transactions at Kroger. I thought I needed a pin to set up i/o using the last 4 but I could not even check the balance on one of the cards. It turned out one card out of three did not get the fund back after the voided transaction.

Called the Master Card CS and was told to wait for 24 hours. Waited for one day but the card still showed $0 balance today.

I also went back to Kroger but was told there is nothing available for a voided transaction.

I went ahead and talked to the dispute department with Master Card. Requested to start a dispute process and I should be receiving paperwork to file within 24 hours.

Will wait for a week to see if I get the money back to my card but if not, will definitely file a dispute.

Yu
Yu (@guest_832874)
October 30, 2019 15:21

Did you buy MO or use the MCGC to purchase regular items?

D.T
D.T (@guest_831504)
October 28, 2019 03:53

I’ve heard a long time ago that the Metabank version is not working the same as the UsBank version. I personally do not have any experience but here’s my observation:
MC GC by Metabank always gets processed CREDIT at some merchants (McDonald, Dollar Tree, Walmart) without anyway to intervene first hand! There’s a possibility that your MCGC previous time was a USBank? and this time might be a Metabank?
Also the POs hard coded for these prepaid cards sometimes.

Philip
Philip (@guest_831562)
October 28, 2019 09:54

Sorry that your cards were compromised. The same thing happened to me over the summer when Safeway had $10 off variable VGC’s. I went ahead and called Blackhawk Network to file a claim. The whole claims process looks like this:
1. First level of reps will take down some basic info and escalates your case to the claims department
2. The claims department reviews your case and will reach out to you via email asking you to send in the following: a standard form they provide, front and back picture of the gift card, picture of your receipt, picture of the transaction from your credit card company
3. The claims department reviews the items you sent in and gets back to you in about 30-45 days. If successful, they will send you an email saying that the case is resolved and a new gift card is going to come to you via snail mail
4. A new gift card arrives in the mail about 30-45 days later
The whole process takes about 90 days. Hope this helps

Jay
Jay (@guest_831718)
October 28, 2019 15:44

While I think above is good info, I would maybe first read the newest comments here https://www.doctorofcredit.com/staples-no-purchase-fee-on-200-mastercard-gift-cards-10-20-10-26/#comment-831692 and on reddit.

Seems like its a more general problem atm and might fix itself by eventually crediting back the amount to your card.

Hope you get it sorted out 🙂

BVA
BVA (@guest_831392)
October 27, 2019 19:12

I read somewhere that MO at Kroger is dead? Is it so? In past when I have used these deals I have got MOs at Kroger, so want to be sure before going for them.

Ricky
Ricky (@guest_831398)
October 27, 2019 19:24

I just got a MO at kroger using MCGC so it is definitely not dead systemwide. Some local stores might be dead but that is always YMMV.

777
777 (@guest_831408)
October 27, 2019 20:35

Its dead and im out of $1000 as money didnt return to mcgc. Careful, now dealing with a nightmare.

168
168 (@guest_831444)
October 27, 2019 23:03

Same here. mcgc transaction was not approved but money was taken out of the mcgc which showed in the transaction at Kroger last week.

Eric
Eric (@guest_832253)
October 29, 2019 15:26

If the MCGC transaction was not approved, then the funds would not have been withdrawn from your card. It might take some time for them to refund the funds back onto the card. Have you contacted the MCGC customer service to confirm that there is no recourse to get back the funds?

I know places like WM when a transaction has failed or the MO machine didn’t print out the MO they should have provided you cash since the funds would be withdrawn from your account.

168
168 (@guest_833719)
November 1, 2019 00:13

Still $0 in my mcgc cards since 10/22. Filed dispute with Meta on 10/29.

Ben Thomson
Ben Thomson (@guest_831618)
October 28, 2019 11:52

Any more data points? I think the last MO I got at City Market (kroger) was this past Friday, and everything went fine with two $200 visa gift cards from the OM deal.

Bill
Bill (@guest_831388)
October 27, 2019 18:57

Safeway still works for Amex purchases of VGCs, correct? They don’t send L3 data to Amex, do they?

Ken
Ken (@guest_831391)
October 27, 2019 19:11

Correct. I just hit the 6K limit on my BCP last month and am seeing a pending cashback in my account.

Millennial Outrage
Millennial Outrage (@guest_831410)
October 27, 2019 20:44

Safeway 100% sends L3 detail to Visa, so would assume it’s the same for Amex. I’ve never had an issue with earning points for non-SUB spend on the Gold or BCP, but wouldn’t risk it for SUB.

86
86 (@guest_831416)
October 27, 2019 21:15

How do you know Safeway sends L3 data on personal Visa cards to Visa, not just from the enterprise and government Visa card purchases that require L3 data from merchants?

Amex is both the network and the issuing bank so they could do that for consumer cards more easily, but do they?

Millennial Outrage
Millennial Outrage (@guest_831559)
October 28, 2019 09:48
  86

https://www.visa.com/supplierlocator-app/app/#/home/supplier-locator

Also, just because we can’t see L3 data in our online banking portal doesn’t mean they aren’t capturing it. My guess is Safeway pays lower interchange fees in exchange for providing this level of detail. Alternatively firms like Kroger have decided the lower fees aren’t worth the value of the data they would be providing Visa and AmEx.

86
86 (@guest_831981)
October 28, 2019 22:47

Ah, so you assumed that’s the case for personal cards. I see. What you are saying is 100% true for government and corporate credit cards from what I’ve read. But consumer cards have stronger regulations and privacy expectations, for good reason. So I’m not sure there is any evidence that they necessarily pass along line item detail like govt/corp cards do, which absolutely require L3 data. Every time I’ve asked my banks about it, they say they have no way of knowing what I bought with my personal cards, even when that merchant sends them L3 data for govt/corp cards.

Bill
Bill (@guest_832112)
October 29, 2019 10:00

From what I’ve read elsewhere, the risk is that your bonus would be clawed back later IF you met the MSR for SUB buying GCs, however, I’m working on Delta and HHonors MSR and AMEX doesn’t/Can’t claw back on partner points, do they? Once its in my DL account, Amex can’t send negative points. I’ve only seen DPs where MR points got clawed back. I’m guessing it could happen with cash back cards as well, but not Airline points.

86
86 (@guest_832371)
October 29, 2019 19:17

If the terms for the bonus exclude gift card purchases and/or the terms for their rewards in general exclude gift card purchases, they’re adhering to their terms and you aren’t, so it’s within their right if they clawback. Having said that, it’s not always easy for them to know, which is why you get speculation about whether they receive L3 data for personal card transactions, etc.

86
86 (@guest_833648)
October 31, 2019 20:40

“AMEX doesn’t/Can’t claw back on partner points, do they?” Not if you spend them quickly enough, but they can always close all your accounts.

Metric
Metric (@guest_832339)
October 29, 2019 18:27

what is sub and non sub?

86
86 (@guest_832362)
October 29, 2019 19:07

Sign Up Bonus

alex
alex (@guest_831375)
October 27, 2019 18:07

Make sure it appare the zip code you are visit, otherwise would not work

Pat
Pat (@guest_831385)
October 27, 2019 18:43

Do you know how this applies to ACME? I have no Safeway near me, but can’t search for ACME on the offer page.

Celia
Celia (@guest_831405)
October 27, 2019 19:48

Download the ACME Just4U app, you should be able to find it there if its available. I dont have one near me, only Jewel so i have to use their app.

MisterBill
MisterBill (@guest_833128)
October 30, 2019 23:35

Definitely available on Acme. Logon to their site (no need to install the app if you don’t want to) and go to Just4U and click on “Gift cards” on the left menu.

If you sign up for a new account, you might also want to check “Personalized Deals” because you may get some $1 off any item category coupons (you need to unclick Gift Cards before doing this).

Celia
Celia (@guest_831360)
October 27, 2019 17:12

Worked on variable this morning.

Yanjie
Yanjie (@guest_831373)
October 27, 2019 17:51

Confirmed working on variables.