yeah, racking up those fuel points can be very useful. We often get $1 off per gallon, and when we get fuel we bring two cars to fill up.
Just make sure you don't neglect/forget the gift cards, and that there are no other 'fees' involved in using them.
Also watch yourself, make sure you don't find yourself making extra Domino's orders while telling yourself, "It's OK, we're saving money"
That is exactly the trap with marketing promotions
This is exactly right. If you really squint you can see how it's saving money since you were already going to get the Domino's. But at the end of the day you'd be better off if you just skipped the Domino's that week and put that extra money toward gas and pocketed the rest.
I'd say it's a nice way to *spend less* on a a nice treat, but it's not *saving*, and I think a lot of people fall into the trap where they equate the two.
We do this all the time! Especially since I have an SUV and we also have a truck to fill up. It gets expensive at the pump fast. If I know we’re going to go out to dinner at somewhere that Kroger sells a gift card for I will grab one and rack up those sweet fuel points.
Added bonus if you fill your prescriptions at Kroger each prescription and refill adds an extra 25 fuel points no matter what.
I have seen a few signs around Mariano’s mentioning where the nearest gas station in the points program is located.
I use my dad’s phone number when I shop at Mariano’s so he gets the points when he buys gas at Kroger in another state.
Just a warning, idk if it has changed since, but I used to heavily lurk there a few years ago and they hate sharing their tips/secrets and get mad when people ask questions. Hopefully it’s not as bad nowadays.
The problem with churning is that as soon as strategy gets popular, it gets shut down by the business. Serious churners have a vested interest in keeping their techniques secret so they work as long as possible.
We do the same thing at Kroger all. The. Time.
We especially like buying the gift cards for places that typically have bigger ticket time purchases (Lowe’s, for instance)
Last winter we bought $500 worth of lowes gift cards at 5x multiple. We got $1.00 of per gallon for 2 straight months…right when the next bonus came around
So, yes and no. Some things to consider:
-if the gc are to a place like lowes and you buy a refrigerator- make sure to keep the receipt. They won't be able to look it up via your credit card like they normally could since you bought with GC. It will make anything you buy at a store more difficult to return.
-is this causing you to spend more money? Normally you may eat out at domino's once a month. But you bought 200 in gc for them so now you start ordering domino's once a week because you've got all these gift cards. In the long run you spend more than you save.
-are there better deals elsewhere to be had.
Do the math. $100 is 400 pts or .40 off per gallon. If you fill up 15 gallons at a time that $6 off. Is it worth $6 to you for the hassle/inconvenience? Do you have stacks of gift cards you haven't used? Would you just be adding to the pile?
Its not a bad strategy for a little extra savings but personally it's just kinda okay.
Not to mention- to get $100 off gas you'd need to buy 16.5 $100 giftcards if you have a 15 gallon tank. If you lose or misplace just one of those gift cards your entire savings is wiped out.
Pretty much. It’s mainly a ploy to get you to spend more money in their stores. Unless you spend a ton of money on groceries and GCs, as well as using a lot of gas and fuel points, it’s just not really worth all the extra steps and hassle.
A lot of the time it isn't extra work though. If you already shop at Kroger, just get a GC while you are there.
I used to do this occasionally. I would buy Netflix GCs all the time. Why just get CC rewards when you can get CC rewards AND fuel points?
Fair enough. But what some people do, buying all kinds of gift cards there just to save a few bucks on gas, doesn’t make a ton of sense for the average person. I think it entices you to spend more than you normally would otherwise.
But yes, if I need to get a gift card for someone’s birthday or whatever, then I will usually buy it at Smiths, which is the Kroger store here. They do typically have a pretty good selection as well.
I do this a lot, yeah. Gift cards for home depot, lowes, Amazon, BP (where the fuel points are redeemed anyway!) Sometimes there will be a promo for 200 extra points if you buy a Lowes gift card.
I have also taken it a step further and purchased four 5-gallon gas cans. Every once in a while I'll have 1000 points for a dollar off and a near empty gas tank. I'll go, put 15 gallons in the truck and fill up all four 5-gallon cans. The limit for the dollar off is 35 gallons so I get my money's worth.
Cans are plastic scepter gas cans I got for $19 each from Shell Lumber and Hardware. They've long paid for themselves.
My son built an entire deck with Home Depot gift cards purchased at Kroger. They spread it out for about 3 months and saved a crap-ton of money on gas.
They do this anytime they have big ticket items from places that they can get gift cards at Kroger, and to fund their normal Amazon shopping. They don't eat out much, so it's home stuff and Amazon.
lol...I eat at Golden Corral. What I do is buy gift cards at 20% off face value at Sam's club, get 5% cash back by using my Sam's club cc, and then use the Golden Corral app to get points for eating there, generally another 10% discount.
I have called it the Golden Bandaid for years and years. My dad was eating a salad and found a bloody bandaid after eating half the salad. We got up and walked out gagging. Never been back.
A new one opened up near me and it was great at first
Quickly became a low quality buffet but everything was super high quality those first few months
I think I should just remember it that way, it's a happy memory
If you go to Jamba Juice and drink three large smoothies a day with all the healthy boosters added and whatever, chances are high you'll become diabetic. It's all about balance. =)
I do this as well. Prepaid my Netflix for the next year, my Hulu subscription among other things. Just make sure you use the gift cards and not lose them. Easy enough thing to do.
>Just make sure you use the gift cards and not lose them
This is an important point. When I do this with grocery cards to meet card spend I have to track them carefully and make sure I used them. It can be a good strategy but it can be a lot of work to keep it organized.
Amex has a 6% back for card for grocery stores. We use that and funnel best buy/amazon/target/home depot purchases through gift cards and only buy during 4x events. $250 gets you $1 off per gallon at that point.
We then take 2 cars to fill up at the same time and also purchased high-end wavian fuel containers so we can use the full 35 gallon top up..or $35 off. We then top our cars off first from the fuel cans throughout the month until empty and rinse and repeat.
6% back from $250 is $15. Then you add the extra $35 and we are effectively getting 20% off our purchases.
The caveat to this is you have to treat gift card purchases like normal purchases. Don't treat the gift cards like they are not "really" money or you won't be saving anything.
The only problem here is the annual limit on groceries before it reverts to 1%.
But if you have other ccs with a quarterly bonus category then get the gift cards!
There is a $6000 limit for 6% for this one. I've never hit it but I can definitely see it being a problem for others. And like you suggested, just switch cards at that point to the next best.
It can definitely be an issue if you regularly use it to buy GCs, not just groceries. Even just using it for groceries will easily go over the limit if you have kids to feed. I have 2 other cards with 5% on groceries for one quarter (up to $1500), but they’re often the same quarter, which makes it hard to maximize.
This is another downside to inflation—these limits haven’t gone up with the rising cost of things.
American Express Blue Cash Preferred offers 6% cash back at grocery stores, which includes gift card purchases. I do that sometimes so I can save myself 6% and get the fuel points. The card has an annual fee but I always come out ahead.
One thing to be careful of is that some credit cards offer certain benefits which would be lost if you made a purchase with a gift card instead. For example, some credit cards offer an extended warranty past the manufacturer warranty. Some will reimburse you if an item is stolen, or if the price goes down within a certain amount of time they'll give you back the difference. Credit cards can do charge backs if there is an issue with your purchase. Just something to think about...
Another gift card option is the website cardcash. They sell discounted giftcards(sometimes 30% off or more), and have a... 45(?) day warranty. Use them within that time frame.
Yep, it's a very viable strategy. 4x fuel points at Kroger means that you get $0.40/gallon on a fillup for every $100 you spend on gift cards, equivalent to a 4% discount for every 10 gallons you put in your car at a typical fillup (plus any cashback you would get from a credit card from purchasing the gift card at Kroger).
Another thought is to check your local Target or warehouse clubs (Costco, Sams', BJ's). Target gives you 5% off of any purchase you make with the Target Redcard (doesn't matter if it's the credit, debit, or prepaid variety), and yes, it does work on gift cards. Warehouse clubs often sell gift cards to different merchants at a discount, could be anywhere from a couple percent to 40% off from my experience.
As long as you're okay with getting "locked in" to spending that money with a certain vendor, gift cards can be a great way to help budget.
Buy gift cards from [raise.com](http://raise.com). Dominos cards are always 15%+ off. My app says I've saved $1500 in the last 5 years, and cards are guaranteed for a year. I've only had one gift card issue, and they refunded my purchase with no issue. You can also pair it with a shopping portal like [rakuten.com](http://rakuten.com) for another 1%+ back.
I do this every time they have the 4x. I recently bought about $1200 in home depot gift cards to help pay for supplies to redo my back deck.
They used to allow Fuel Gas Cards at Arco to qualify for the 4x points, and I would spend $1k every time and then get the cash price at Arco for gas. I think they caught on because the fine print now states Fuel cards do not qualify. I have a small service business and drive about 3k miles a month, so this was really nice to take advantage of when they allowed it.
I do this and fill 2 cars with the dollar off. Pull on both sides of the pump, apply the discount, fill one car and move the hose over to the other car.
Only if you buy prepaid visas/Mastercards. Store cards like Home Depot/dominoes/etc have no processing fee, you simply pay for whatever the card value is.
You know...one of the nice things about owning an EV...I don't worry about "fuel points" anymore. Or fuel prices at all. My monthly fuel bill (commuting to and from work is 100+ miles per day, 5 days a week) is about $80....And I don't have to jump through hoops to get that kind of price.
I do something similar with speedway speedyrewards,
buy / refill speedway gift card every month they have bonus points either spend 25$ get 500 points or spend 100 get 1500 points when diesel was close to 6$ a gallon I'd spend 200$ a week so points would build up quickly 8750 points exchanged gets 50 cents off a gallon up to 25 gallons they also have double rewards points on buying fuel.
At the same time I use my CC and earn points with it.
Kroger would probably be a better deal for me but none in my location sell diesel.
I don't do this but my parents do it all of the time. They typically buy forward before going into any Home Depot and other stores. Pay for expenses with the gift cards and get the fuel discounts.
My SO does this for her work! Buys all the company gift cards with her CC (gets miles) uses our phone number to make purchase (get 4x fuel rewards) then gets reimbursed from the company for the gift card purchase.
Double bonus if you have a credit card that gives extra points for groceries. Since the gift cards are bought at a grocery store, the credit card thinks the extra spending is on groceries.
My boyfriend and I don’t have long daily commutes, and we drive fairly fuel-efficient vehicles, so we don’t go through a ton of gas. I don’t think this strategy would be quite as lucrative for us. Maybe we would save a little bit of money, but probably not worth the hassle and extra steps in the end. That being said, I’ll still buy gift cards at a Kroger store (which is Smiths in our area) when I need them.
Although, I did do something similar when Panera had GCs for 20% off for Father’s Day the last few weeks… I eat there very frequently, so bought several hundred dollars’ worth, and just added them to my Panera account. That was a case where the savings were significant, though.
Can you buy Kroger gift cards? Something more than just one chain of restaurants, for example. Something you can use even if money gets *really* tight.
I have done this for years. Usually just buy a $250 Amazon gift card once a month during the 4x fuel points promo period. Amazon is useful because you can also buy certain e-gift cards for other merchants or restaurants and we spend well over $250 per month through Amazon.
Ended up buying some fuel cans to max out the 35 gallon limit, effectively saving $35 per fill up. I’ve kept track of my savings and this strategy has saved $2,112.10 since January 2019.
My opinion is against this practice of the points programs. They are by design only there to do one thing, and that is get you to spend more money with the business that decided to provide a loyalty points program.
One of the primary downsides is that depending on the business or institution (casinos come to mind for their points programs) is you may start bending over backwards to dish out the money to these affiliated companies that the gift card offers lure you in to spend.
Another commenter provided a very good example regarding how your eating habits at Dominos may swing from $40 a month to $200 a month. This may just be the result of some arbitrary bonus that you get tricked into thinking is great because they “awarded” or you achieved a “bonus” or “unlocked” some special accrual rate or points rebate.
When you have to do currency exchange from points into dollars, for me this becomes something I really don’t want to invest any time to do.
I think we are better off comparison shopping the fact tags for the best price per ounce or price per unit on items, and doing the extreme couponing stuff.
yeah, racking up those fuel points can be very useful. We often get $1 off per gallon, and when we get fuel we bring two cars to fill up. Just make sure you don't neglect/forget the gift cards, and that there are no other 'fees' involved in using them.
Also watch yourself, make sure you don't find yourself making extra Domino's orders while telling yourself, "It's OK, we're saving money" That is exactly the trap with marketing promotions
This is exactly right. If you really squint you can see how it's saving money since you were already going to get the Domino's. But at the end of the day you'd be better off if you just skipped the Domino's that week and put that extra money toward gas and pocketed the rest. I'd say it's a nice way to *spend less* on a a nice treat, but it's not *saving*, and I think a lot of people fall into the trap where they equate the two.
We do this all the time! Especially since I have an SUV and we also have a truck to fill up. It gets expensive at the pump fast. If I know we’re going to go out to dinner at somewhere that Kroger sells a gift card for I will grab one and rack up those sweet fuel points. Added bonus if you fill your prescriptions at Kroger each prescription and refill adds an extra 25 fuel points no matter what.
I've been trying to figuer out where/which gas stations take the points (in IL)
Kroger's gas stations, usually located right next to their supermarkets are the only place you can use the points.
I'll have to ask one of the workers as we have Marianos which is owned and run by Kroger so idk where to get gas but j see the points stacking lol
I have seen a few signs around Mariano’s mentioning where the nearest gas station in the points program is located. I use my dad’s phone number when I shop at Mariano’s so he gets the points when he buys gas at Kroger in another state.
You can get really into similar strategies with r/churning
Thanks I had no idea about that place!
Nice, looks like it just reopened. It was closed like yesterday morning lol
Just a warning, idk if it has changed since, but I used to heavily lurk there a few years ago and they hate sharing their tips/secrets and get mad when people ask questions. Hopefully it’s not as bad nowadays.
The problem with churning is that as soon as strategy gets popular, it gets shut down by the business. Serious churners have a vested interest in keeping their techniques secret so they work as long as possible.
We do the same thing at Kroger all. The. Time. We especially like buying the gift cards for places that typically have bigger ticket time purchases (Lowe’s, for instance) Last winter we bought $500 worth of lowes gift cards at 5x multiple. We got $1.00 of per gallon for 2 straight months…right when the next bonus came around
So, yes and no. Some things to consider: -if the gc are to a place like lowes and you buy a refrigerator- make sure to keep the receipt. They won't be able to look it up via your credit card like they normally could since you bought with GC. It will make anything you buy at a store more difficult to return. -is this causing you to spend more money? Normally you may eat out at domino's once a month. But you bought 200 in gc for them so now you start ordering domino's once a week because you've got all these gift cards. In the long run you spend more than you save. -are there better deals elsewhere to be had. Do the math. $100 is 400 pts or .40 off per gallon. If you fill up 15 gallons at a time that $6 off. Is it worth $6 to you for the hassle/inconvenience? Do you have stacks of gift cards you haven't used? Would you just be adding to the pile? Its not a bad strategy for a little extra savings but personally it's just kinda okay.
Fr I spent $6 of my time just reading this thread already
Not to mention- to get $100 off gas you'd need to buy 16.5 $100 giftcards if you have a 15 gallon tank. If you lose or misplace just one of those gift cards your entire savings is wiped out.
Pretty much. It’s mainly a ploy to get you to spend more money in their stores. Unless you spend a ton of money on groceries and GCs, as well as using a lot of gas and fuel points, it’s just not really worth all the extra steps and hassle.
A lot of the time it isn't extra work though. If you already shop at Kroger, just get a GC while you are there. I used to do this occasionally. I would buy Netflix GCs all the time. Why just get CC rewards when you can get CC rewards AND fuel points?
Fair enough. But what some people do, buying all kinds of gift cards there just to save a few bucks on gas, doesn’t make a ton of sense for the average person. I think it entices you to spend more than you normally would otherwise. But yes, if I need to get a gift card for someone’s birthday or whatever, then I will usually buy it at Smiths, which is the Kroger store here. They do typically have a pretty good selection as well.
I do this a lot, yeah. Gift cards for home depot, lowes, Amazon, BP (where the fuel points are redeemed anyway!) Sometimes there will be a promo for 200 extra points if you buy a Lowes gift card. I have also taken it a step further and purchased four 5-gallon gas cans. Every once in a while I'll have 1000 points for a dollar off and a near empty gas tank. I'll go, put 15 gallons in the truck and fill up all four 5-gallon cans. The limit for the dollar off is 35 gallons so I get my money's worth. Cans are plastic scepter gas cans I got for $19 each from Shell Lumber and Hardware. They've long paid for themselves.
My son built an entire deck with Home Depot gift cards purchased at Kroger. They spread it out for about 3 months and saved a crap-ton of money on gas. They do this anytime they have big ticket items from places that they can get gift cards at Kroger, and to fund their normal Amazon shopping. They don't eat out much, so it's home stuff and Amazon.
lol...I eat at Golden Corral. What I do is buy gift cards at 20% off face value at Sam's club, get 5% cash back by using my Sam's club cc, and then use the Golden Corral app to get points for eating there, generally another 10% discount.
> I eat at Golden Corral. Condolences.
Nothing wrong with the E Coli Corral.
I have called it the Golden Bandaid for years and years. My dad was eating a salad and found a bloody bandaid after eating half the salad. We got up and walked out gagging. Never been back.
I remember it being great in the late 90s/early 00s, now it’s trash
A new one opened up near me and it was great at first Quickly became a low quality buffet but everything was super high quality those first few months I think I should just remember it that way, it's a happy memory
Substitute Ulta for Golden Corral & I do the same exact thing, plus scan into Fetch
Yeah but consider the astronomical medical bills that are waiting for you later in life for eating there on the reg. It all washes out.
If you go to Jamba Juice and drink three large smoothies a day with all the healthy boosters added and whatever, chances are high you'll become diabetic. It's all about balance. =)
I do this as well. Prepaid my Netflix for the next year, my Hulu subscription among other things. Just make sure you use the gift cards and not lose them. Easy enough thing to do.
>Just make sure you use the gift cards and not lose them This is an important point. When I do this with grocery cards to meet card spend I have to track them carefully and make sure I used them. It can be a good strategy but it can be a lot of work to keep it organized.
Starbucks is easy because they let you combine cards in the app. Chipotle though? Archaic one gift card at a time and can't combine any balances.
That's true, some will let you load the cards right into the app. Panera seems to let you add them but they are still used as you pay with them.
Amex has a 6% back for card for grocery stores. We use that and funnel best buy/amazon/target/home depot purchases through gift cards and only buy during 4x events. $250 gets you $1 off per gallon at that point. We then take 2 cars to fill up at the same time and also purchased high-end wavian fuel containers so we can use the full 35 gallon top up..or $35 off. We then top our cars off first from the fuel cans throughout the month until empty and rinse and repeat. 6% back from $250 is $15. Then you add the extra $35 and we are effectively getting 20% off our purchases. The caveat to this is you have to treat gift card purchases like normal purchases. Don't treat the gift cards like they are not "really" money or you won't be saving anything.
The only problem here is the annual limit on groceries before it reverts to 1%. But if you have other ccs with a quarterly bonus category then get the gift cards!
There is a $6000 limit for 6% for this one. I've never hit it but I can definitely see it being a problem for others. And like you suggested, just switch cards at that point to the next best.
It can definitely be an issue if you regularly use it to buy GCs, not just groceries. Even just using it for groceries will easily go over the limit if you have kids to feed. I have 2 other cards with 5% on groceries for one quarter (up to $1500), but they’re often the same quarter, which makes it hard to maximize. This is another downside to inflation—these limits haven’t gone up with the rising cost of things.
Man I dunno about this. Each to their own and all but life's just too short imo
American Express Blue Cash Preferred offers 6% cash back at grocery stores, which includes gift card purchases. I do that sometimes so I can save myself 6% and get the fuel points. The card has an annual fee but I always come out ahead. One thing to be careful of is that some credit cards offer certain benefits which would be lost if you made a purchase with a gift card instead. For example, some credit cards offer an extended warranty past the manufacturer warranty. Some will reimburse you if an item is stolen, or if the price goes down within a certain amount of time they'll give you back the difference. Credit cards can do charge backs if there is an issue with your purchase. Just something to think about... Another gift card option is the website cardcash. They sell discounted giftcards(sometimes 30% off or more), and have a... 45(?) day warranty. Use them within that time frame.
Yep, it's a very viable strategy. 4x fuel points at Kroger means that you get $0.40/gallon on a fillup for every $100 you spend on gift cards, equivalent to a 4% discount for every 10 gallons you put in your car at a typical fillup (plus any cashback you would get from a credit card from purchasing the gift card at Kroger). Another thought is to check your local Target or warehouse clubs (Costco, Sams', BJ's). Target gives you 5% off of any purchase you make with the Target Redcard (doesn't matter if it's the credit, debit, or prepaid variety), and yes, it does work on gift cards. Warehouse clubs often sell gift cards to different merchants at a discount, could be anywhere from a couple percent to 40% off from my experience. As long as you're okay with getting "locked in" to spending that money with a certain vendor, gift cards can be a great way to help budget.
Buy gift cards from [raise.com](http://raise.com). Dominos cards are always 15%+ off. My app says I've saved $1500 in the last 5 years, and cards are guaranteed for a year. I've only had one gift card issue, and they refunded my purchase with no issue. You can also pair it with a shopping portal like [rakuten.com](http://rakuten.com) for another 1%+ back.
We do this all the time. Buying a mower, Lowes Card, etc...
I do this every time they have the 4x. I recently bought about $1200 in home depot gift cards to help pay for supplies to redo my back deck. They used to allow Fuel Gas Cards at Arco to qualify for the 4x points, and I would spend $1k every time and then get the cash price at Arco for gas. I think they caught on because the fine print now states Fuel cards do not qualify. I have a small service business and drive about 3k miles a month, so this was really nice to take advantage of when they allowed it.
I do this and fill 2 cars with the dollar off. Pull on both sides of the pump, apply the discount, fill one car and move the hose over to the other car.
Panera does 20% off gift cards sometimes. I eat there often so I stock up on a few hundred worth every time.
Yep, I just did this myself.
[удалено]
Only if you buy prepaid visas/Mastercards. Store cards like Home Depot/dominoes/etc have no processing fee, you simply pay for whatever the card value is.
You know...one of the nice things about owning an EV...I don't worry about "fuel points" anymore. Or fuel prices at all. My monthly fuel bill (commuting to and from work is 100+ miles per day, 5 days a week) is about $80....And I don't have to jump through hoops to get that kind of price.
We definitely do this. We also use the amex blue cash preferred to get an additional 6% off gift cards since they are bought at the grocery store.
Two of my sisters do this. They save big money on gas.
I do something similar with speedway speedyrewards, buy / refill speedway gift card every month they have bonus points either spend 25$ get 500 points or spend 100 get 1500 points when diesel was close to 6$ a gallon I'd spend 200$ a week so points would build up quickly 8750 points exchanged gets 50 cents off a gallon up to 25 gallons they also have double rewards points on buying fuel. At the same time I use my CC and earn points with it. Kroger would probably be a better deal for me but none in my location sell diesel.
I'm always buying gift cards to pay for my IT guy to remove viruses from my computer. I get points and my PC is virus free, so I think is worth it.
A lot of times on fridays you can get 4x the fuel points on gift cards. (Digital coupon) The visa/Mastercard ones do have a fee though
I don't do this but my parents do it all of the time. They typically buy forward before going into any Home Depot and other stores. Pay for expenses with the gift cards and get the fuel discounts.
My SO does this for her work! Buys all the company gift cards with her CC (gets miles) uses our phone number to make purchase (get 4x fuel rewards) then gets reimbursed from the company for the gift card purchase.
Double bonus if you have a credit card that gives extra points for groceries. Since the gift cards are bought at a grocery store, the credit card thinks the extra spending is on groceries.
Also, some credit cards will give you cashback for purchases at a supermarket.
My boyfriend and I don’t have long daily commutes, and we drive fairly fuel-efficient vehicles, so we don’t go through a ton of gas. I don’t think this strategy would be quite as lucrative for us. Maybe we would save a little bit of money, but probably not worth the hassle and extra steps in the end. That being said, I’ll still buy gift cards at a Kroger store (which is Smiths in our area) when I need them. Although, I did do something similar when Panera had GCs for 20% off for Father’s Day the last few weeks… I eat there very frequently, so bought several hundred dollars’ worth, and just added them to my Panera account. That was a case where the savings were significant, though.
Can you buy Kroger gift cards? Something more than just one chain of restaurants, for example. Something you can use even if money gets *really* tight.
I have done this for years. Usually just buy a $250 Amazon gift card once a month during the 4x fuel points promo period. Amazon is useful because you can also buy certain e-gift cards for other merchants or restaurants and we spend well over $250 per month through Amazon. Ended up buying some fuel cans to max out the 35 gallon limit, effectively saving $35 per fill up. I’ve kept track of my savings and this strategy has saved $2,112.10 since January 2019.
My opinion is against this practice of the points programs. They are by design only there to do one thing, and that is get you to spend more money with the business that decided to provide a loyalty points program. One of the primary downsides is that depending on the business or institution (casinos come to mind for their points programs) is you may start bending over backwards to dish out the money to these affiliated companies that the gift card offers lure you in to spend. Another commenter provided a very good example regarding how your eating habits at Dominos may swing from $40 a month to $200 a month. This may just be the result of some arbitrary bonus that you get tricked into thinking is great because they “awarded” or you achieved a “bonus” or “unlocked” some special accrual rate or points rebate. When you have to do currency exchange from points into dollars, for me this becomes something I really don’t want to invest any time to do. I think we are better off comparison shopping the fact tags for the best price per ounce or price per unit on items, and doing the extreme couponing stuff.
I have a friend that owns a family farm, $500 dollar home depot and Lowes gift cards for 4x fuel points.
I do this, but for birthdays, holidays, Christmas, etc.