Nomoneyinmybank

You cannot use Lowe's GC to buy another GC at store. I've asked before and they always look at the card before swiping.

mia

In my experience you will receive better answers if you mention what you already know (or think you know, even if not verified), rather than just asking a naked question. When you list a seven stage process we cannot know which stage(s) you are concerned about.

Explore

As Q2 winds down, I haven't maximized my Chase Freedom spend and won't do so without MS. We don't eat out at chain restaurants and don't shop at Lowe's. Any ideas on buying gift cards that can be liquidated for something else, but can't be purchased at office supply stores where I could use my Chase Ink for 5x any day? BTW, we don't need Amazon GCs at the moment.

GrjApp

Not sure if not shopping at Lowe's is lack of need or for some other reason, but if you do want to check it out, I found Petsmart gift cards there that worked out nicely for me for this quarter. I don't remember what else they had, maybe Petco and a couple other things on top of the usual restaurants and Lowe's cards.

fwoomp

If you eat out at non-chain restaurants, get gift cards/gift certificates at them. I don't eat at chain restaurants, either, but was surprised once I started asking around how many local places have them. (Specific to OP and other Bay Area folks: if you go to The Counter or Pizza My Heart, by any chance, they do. I know the first is a chain and a second a chainlet, but plenty of single-outlet places do, too.)

BOGO

At my Lowe's in North Texas, they sell a few Grocery store gift cards: Whole Foods, Albertson's , and Tom Thumb (Safeway). I know that I have been able to purchase other gift cards at Tom Thumb using a Tom Thumb Gift card (including buying Visa Gift cards). The Tom Thumb gift cards say that you can't get fuel points using them, but I have been able to get them anyway when purchasing Sears cards but not for purchasing Visa GC.

FlightNurse

OK you need to ... YMMV here..

Not all grocery stores will allow you to use their GC to purchase VGC... BUT you can use Safeway GC to purchase fuel. Now I haven't tried to purchase VGC at Safeway with their GC will do that tomorrow.

nick_technology_rules

Anyone had a luck in buying VISA gift cards at lowes in bay area?

I am new to this game. What do mean by MS? I read it everywhere.

bjk497

For those still with a lot left for Q2 spending, there is a pretty easy way to spend $1,000 fee-free on "restaurants". If anyone is interested, send me a PM

KRSW

A lot of yokel local places will let you do a pseudo gift-card if you're a frequent flyer there. I made a deal with a bar/restaurant I frequent up in St Pete when I'm in the area... $300, one-time charge and we'll just keep a balance going. They save on swipe fees, I get my 5x UR points.

pritomd

I noticed the Q4 bonuses on the Freedom calendar say Amazon.com (and more this fall). Does this indicate there will probably be more categories, such as an everyday spend place like maybe groceries, gas or restaurants? I guess it *will* help with Christmas shopping but otherwise I don't do too much on Amazon.

jamesteroh

In the past department stores have always been a q4 category. With the Amazon prime store credit card that gives 5% back, bonus categories for Chase and Discover really don't do me any good outside of third party gift cards that amazon sells that aren't eligible for the 5% statement credit.

I wish they would bring back charitable donations for a q4 category like they had a few years ago. Making my year end charity donations was a very easy way of maxing out my q4 bonus that year. Hopefully discover will have online payments as a q4 category this year since my church now accepts paypal for pledge payments

KRSW

I'll take 5x UR points over 5% back. Redeemed correctly you should always get >$0.01/point. 1.25 cents per point to 2 cents per point is reasonable, so potentially up to 10% back if you're willing to dig.

Is it wrong to admit that I've also pondered donating to my church via rewards CC instead of cutting paper checks, for the points I'd get out of it?

Part of me wants to go ahead with it since it'd be a substantial # of points earned. The other part of me worries about the transaction fees incurred by the church that would take money out of actual ministry. Again, with the amount involved the transaction fees wouldn't be inconsequential. Very low overhead at the church, so money in goes straight back out to the community.

I'm torn.

jamesteroh

Nothing at all wrong with it, and I've done the same thing. I'm on my church's finance committee and since we put a paypal link on our home page we have seen donations go up. Some people that have moved away will check out our webpage to see what is going on and decide to make donations since it's so easy and some shutin's will do the same.

If Discover has a 5% cash back bonus this year on online purchases (charity donations made online qualify, you just have to call discover if the CB bonus doesn't appear because it was coded wrong) and you are feeling really guilty about the transaction fees what you could do is pay the transaction fees as well. IIRC with paypal you can arrange the transaction so that you get charged the credit card fees and the recipient receives the net amount. Just increase what you would give by the transaction fee. Even if you are looking at 2.5% transaction fee you are still coming out ahead with the 5% cash back. Everyone wins, the church is getting the same amount and they don't have to deal with running the check to the bank and you win by getting cash back plus you can deduct the transaction fees you added to the donation on your taxes.

I did great the last time Chase had charities in q4 bonus a few years ago. Delta did a deal with three charities and each one that you donated $500+ to you received 5K bonus MQM's. I did donations to all three, got a tax deduction, received 7,500 in Chase points and the 15K MQM's was enough to bump me up an entire elite level at Delta.

t325

So I'm wondering, how smart is Chase's system at cutting off 5x at $1,500?

I think I'm going to end up around $50 shy of maxing out my rewards. The way I've been MSing some of my 5x is with $200 MGCs at BBB ($6.95 load fee) and unloading to RedBird. My question is, if I spent $200 (well $206.95 but lets call it $200 for easy math) at BBB, is Chase's system smart enough to give me 5x on the first $50 and 1x on the remaining $150? Or is it dumb enough to give me 5x on the entire purchase that puts me past the $1,500 threshold?

It comes down to whether or not I'm paying $6.95 for 400 (5x$50 + 1x$150) UR points, or $6.95 for 1,000 UR points. If it's the former, it's not worth it to close the gap with MGCs. If it's the latter, I'm heading to BBB to clear out their inventory of $200 MGCs