So I have 125k of student loans to pay - there is a website called Gift of College that allows you to pay student loans with credit cards. You can purchase these at HEB grocery stores. The Ascend card doest 6x points at grocery stores. If I buy the gift card at HEB will this code as a grocery purchase?

May do a small purchase (gum, bread, milk...) and see what HEB codes?

If other things at this HEB grocery count as grocery purchase, then buy something else small (that's really grocery-ish) along with each gift card on the same purchase, and that should not only post as a grocery stores, but also not "smell" like a gift card since adding another small item will make it be a slightly different purchase amount each time.

Still, if you try to buy $125k (or even a small fraction of that) in gift cards at grocery stores, and are not doing much other shopping at HEB grocery stores, you risk Amex smelling that something's up and requesting details on one or more of you purchases, and then possibly shutting you down. Ie, techniques that work for a small number of gift cards occasionally may not work for large number of gift cards. And Amex is worse than banks about caring whether you buy gift cars or not (Chase, Citi, etc, they don't much care, but at Amex it's officially against the rules in many cases).

Target did not code as groceries for 4x points on amex gold, sadly.
Instacart coded perfectly.
My local liquor store was coded as "merchandise: grocery stores" (or something like that), but I didn't get 4x on it. Initiated a ticket about this one, given that on my statement it says "grocery stores".

It will. HEB codes as 4x on the Gold card, and I presume all the other Amex cards with a grocery bonus.

It might be better to put this spend on American Express Gold because 4 Membership Rewards points converts to 8 Honors points, with the flexibility to transfer to many other programs.

Thats a great idea, I hadn't really thought about that. I was going to do in chunks. 1k a month for monthly student payment amount, then my employer gives me 20k once a year (15k after tax) that I was going to put towards loans. Maybe I will break that up into smaller purchases. I hadn't really thought about getting flagged by AMEX. Maybe i can spread it across multiple cards, get one in my wifes name as well as mine. What do you think is reasonable spend at a grocery store? 3k?

The challenge is that I am not making the purchase as I don't live near an HEB. I was going to have a friend do it for me and don't want to inconvenience him too much. Would you think multiple 1k purchases over a few weeks would raise less flags?

Bear in mind that the Gold card supermarket category is capped at $25,000 per year. That won't quite support $12,000 + $15,000.

How are you planning to have your friend make purchases of this size with your card?

Does Amazon Fresh code as groceries for 4x on Amex Gold?

Curious to know if there's any update on this?

Yes, it coded as 4X on my Gold.

Possible to have Amex fix their categorization?
 

I noticed for the first time that Fred Meyer (PNW Kroger brand + home goods, like a Superwalmart) is not earning 2x even though I'm exclusively purchasing groceries there. I'm wondering the thoughts of the forum on trying to get these fixed, it's only to the tune of $100-$200/mo but that would mean since April ~1400 points (everyday 2x on groceries). But also is there any chance Amex would consider re-categorizing this store? If not I will try to get a Kroger gift card from another local chain QFC and use it at Fred Meyer.

i was on the phone with amex customer service for an unrelated issue and i took the opportunity to ask why BC Ferries is not categorized under transportation and thus earning 2 pts per dollar (cobalt card.)
I was told that it's how BC Ferries categorized their business, not amex.
one would think that something as obvious as that was self-evident but apparently not.

Fred Meyer has decided to not categorize as groceries. You would need to buy a Kroger gift card from one of the other chains like QFC where they categorize as groceries. I am sure that is what others do. I think issue applies for V/MC usage as well.

It is correct that the merchant does most of the categorization assignments. Except for super large merchants (over $1 million in AmEx charges), most merchants use acquirers who handle the merchant mapping assignment via OptBlue.