Caribgrl

This is probably an old question. But does Chase frown upon buying say Visa gift cards from the grocery stores? Because this would help me to achieve my 2nd quarter bonus as well as I can use the cards while on vacation. I don't want to do anything that Chase may look at as suspicious .

snic

Do you buy gift cards a lot? Then they might notice a pattern and take action. But many people legitimately buy several hundred dollars worth of gift cards at once. So doing that once in a great while is probably not going to raise any alarms.

Caribgrl

If anything I've usually bought restaurant and store gift cards but never VISA gift cards. I want VISA GC's to take with me on vacation.

bgriff

I don't know if it plays out any differently for Visa gift cards, but I have bought multiple hundreds of dollars of store gift cards before (for example, when drug stores was a bonus category, I bought a bunch of Amazon and Target gift cards -- for personal use, not to resell -- at Rite Aid) without any trouble.

Given that the Freedom is limited to $6000 of spend each year it's probably hard to get so carried away as to anger Chase. Other cards with higher potential may be a different story.

That said, I'd still try to keep it to a few hundred dollars at a time and space it out if possible. A single $1500 transaction could raise some flags.

Caribgrl

Yeah just looking to get two to three hundred for restaurants. Thanks

bgriff

Keep in mind that if past history is any guide, restaurants is very likely to be the 5% category for next quarter. But of course you could still get restaurant gift cards and use them this quarter, or save them for the 4th quarter or beyond.

proth

I have spent $1000 in one visit to maximize my Chase Freedom spend for a quarter early last year. Specifically, it was a quarter where gas station spend was 5x - I bought 5 $200 Speedway gift cards. I drive, so I always need gasoline!

This quarter, somewhere around June 25th or so, I'll top off this quarter by purchasing Stop & Shop gift cards to finish out my $1500 spend. ALWAYS allow a few days for the charges to hit your account!!

Caribgrl

Right. Just that we're going on vacation before the next quarter so that's why I need them now. One last...Will Best Buy allow you to use their GC's to buy VISA GC's? Just thinking this may not look so bad to Chase.

sdsearch

Visa gift cards, plural, yes maybe, depending on the amount.

One Visa gift card bought at the very same time as one or more grocery items, once in a rare while, probably not. (You don't want an obvious purchase amount like $505.95 which is a $500 gift card with a $5,95 activation fee. Something like $511.43 because you also bought some produce that's randomly priced would look a lot better as a purchase amount.) That'll look like you just did a big grocery shopping trip.

But try to repeat that often, and it might be a different story, because then it no longer looks like ordinary grocery shopping.

So if you really want to have it appear more normal, and yet buy multiple Visa gift cards, you have to swallow bigger percentage activation fees, buy buying lower-amount Visa gift cards (which typically have the same activation fees as $500 cards). Multiple purchases of a bit over $200 (again, with randomly priced groceries added in) are much less likely to draw attention than multiple purchases of just over $500.95, but you're paying more (percentage-wise) in activation fees to make it much less obvious to Chase.

Caribgrl

Got it. Thanks for the responses.

Steve in Olympia

krazykanuck

Same. My Freedom card activity this month is a series of $505.95 transactions at Kroger. What's it to Chase that I have a very ravenous and remarkably consistent diet?

Obligatory disclaimer that we all have varying risk tolerance levels, experience doing this, and histories with Chase. My Freedom card in particular I've been doing this for years.

KRSW

Definitely doesn't make sense -- I've earned ~33,000 miles with Kiva (via PayPal), lost $2.19 out of $9500 lent... so I've "paid" $2.19 for 33,000 UR points -- MUCH better deal... and with this quarter's category being PayPal, this is a no-brainer. That $9500 doesn't include the $3k I'm in the process of sinking into Kiva over the next few weeks. Assuming the same types of losses, $0.69 for 15k UR points? Yes, please!

lkar

I don't disagree with you. I don't do Kiva and also don't do grocery gift cards to money orders which I think are clearly a better deal than paying 2.9 percent. I wasn't trying to suggest there aren't better MS opportunities to earn the 5x. I was merely saying that for me, with three cards, buying 22,500 points in five minutes from my couch for $130.50 is great. I'd take it every quarter.

honores41

I completed my quarter today 2 500 visa gift cards in my Kroger. I did last week legal 500 purchases in groceries. Easiest 7500 UR ever................