digitalpop

No, Safeway isn't cash-only at all. All GCs can be purchased with CC.

The only issue is that they recently pulled all $500 var Visa/MC GCs from the shelves and the register inventory system. They won't even ring up.

AMEX GCs, however, might still ring up. And the register should still accept CC payment for them. Would only be the usual YMMV for which cashiers will accept CC.

rseiler

The ultimate in good news/bad news then. So even if you find a var GC that fell between the cracks, it won't ring up.

I think the catch with AMEX GC though, as I found in the USPS thread, is that they tend to be considered credit not debit, so unloading them might be just as difficult as actual credit.

Alcibiades

No PIN = not debit

rseiler

Which I guess means that supermarket AMEX GCs do not support PINs? The one AMEX advertises on their site does though (edit: oh, I see it's for ATM use).

lobo411

I rarely shop at Vons/Safeway, but today I did. They had a big sign posted on all gift card displays reading:

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY (Gift Card Mall logo)
All Gift Card purchases with a CREDIT CARD (AMEX, Discover, MasterCard or VISA) will be limited to a maximum of $200 or 4 Gift Cards per transaction, per customer, per day. Gift Card purchases made with cash, check, or PIN Debit cards will be limited to $1,999.99 or 20 cards per transaction, per customer, per day.

Which seemed kinda silly to me, since they only had $25 V/MGCs in stock. Who in their right mind would go through the trouble and expense (service charge) of giving someone a $25 GC when they could just give that person two paper bills?

I checked the same store 2 months ago and they had plenty of $100s, so it seems that the denomination is going down all the time.

storewanderer

This $200 limit is a new chainwide policy, I saw it posted in a south also location.

Better than Publix with a $50 limit, ...?

calwatch

I noticed that last Monday and hadn't seen it before. The Albertsons around work has been out of high denomination VGC for some time now. But now they are out of variable eBay GC as well (I often buy 500 eBay GCs to then buy other products during eBay Bucks bonus periods). Very odd.

GetawaysRus

If a thief has a stolen credit card, he/she could purchase several $25 GCS and still profit despite paying the fee for the GC.

rasheed

This is too bad as there are a few high cost/value gift card types that are valuable to buy when there is a 5x groceries promo (rotating category) and a 4x gas points offer (haven't had one this year yet) at the same time. Now, it will be a bit more of a hassle to buy such cards.

I still blame the chain for not going to chip (although that doesn't stop physical card possession).

Rasheed

storewanderer

The signs I've seen do not have a limit for PIN-Debit based transactions. I also question how the "per transaction, per customer, per day" is tracked. Safeway's system is so poor, if I go into the Safeway Store and buy $100 of groceries, it takes 30 minutes before I can go to the Safeway Gas Station across the parking lot and redeem the 10 cents fuel reward because it takes that long for the system in the store to talk to the system at the gas station and attach a gas reward to my loyalty account. At Kroger the gas award availability process is instant. So I highly doubt Safeway's system can track gift card purchases on a "per day" basis.

Also no signs at the northern California Safeway near me either... and the assistant manager I spoke with was unaware of any policy limiting purchases with a credit card for gift cards to $200 but we did not try to see if something is hard-coded into their registers.

This type of policy is going to cause them a ton of problems during the holidays. Safeway just doesn't get it. Rather then hassle customers they need to get their Chip readers working. Now we have a gift card purchase transaction limit at the grocery store that founded gift cards in store (they previously owned Gift Card Mall). This is unreal. First they start demanding ID for all credit transactions over $50. Many customers pissed off. Many customers offended. Then they raise it to only needing ID on transactions over $100 but by that point most cashiers and customers were so fed up that the cashiers weren't even asking for ID anymore on any transaction. Even tenth rate chains like Winn Dixie and Food Lion have chip readers working, Safeway is really behind the curve.

Chelski

One Safeway near me had the $2oo limit for a long time even while having $5oo variables. Another would allow, well I'll just say lots, of gebits. Could hit any spending status in a single visit with the right CL. Now they all have the $2oo limit but their gas is normally $.3o-4o over the cheapest gas so not much of a savings back then.

rasheed

I saw the sign by customer service (including the PIN limit), right next to the $500 variable cards (gd).

I think they are pretty serious about this new rule, but I agree technically, unlikely much has been done. I think it will be up to the cashier to remember the rule if they scan more than $200 worth of gift cards and a person pays with credit. There are a few gift cards where one card alone is over $200 in price (non-variable) which I have no idea what they are going to do aside from not allowing credit (but are profitable to BH, Safeway and the merchant). I suspect sales of those cards will drop significantly (if a person is savvy to buy the gift card rather than go straight to the merchant, they are likely savvy to use their credit card for the points).

I spoke to the customer service center, and the agent indicated familiarity with gift card strategies (I was told how people doing home improvements load up on Home Depot cards to get their fuel points). Now, those Home Depot folks can just buy $200 HD per day, but if I want to get a single value card that is over $200 or not a multi-day hassle, I will be inclined to go to another chain in the area.

In my area, the gas rewards at Vons have been instantly available. Aside from the silly need to buy a Vons/Safeway gift card to get the cash/debit price (perhaps paying a fixed amount inside might work too, but I don't know), I find Safeway's fuel price on par with Costco/Sam's Club with no slow creep to lower prices like most stations (seems very formula-based to increase or lower prices).

When I combine gas rewards from gift card purchases, this is a very decent discount (up to $1 off per gallon). Especially since they have no silly 20 cents max use rule like Kroger/Ralphs/FFL at their own pumps. I miss those days of having an incredible amount of fuel rewards to use because of certain promo alignments.

Now, was there 'abuse' outside of variables MC/Visa? I have no idea if the arbitrage value existed on other merchant variable cards was worth it.

Last note, I usually have my card and ID proactively showing when I there is a large total (likely due to gift cards). Just having it voluntarily makes everything very quick even if the cashier just takes a quick glance. I know it is not acceptance standard, but at a grocery store, these large purchase are not the norm, and these stores are places where keeping good relationships are very useful sometimes.

Rasheed

statesmokes409

I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like BHN has finally advised these GC chains that they're eating interchange fees on >200 purchases.

littlewinglet

These same $500 vgcs that Safeway used to carry, are still sold at post offices all around me. Haven't tried to buy one bc I don't need them but I wonder if they'll ring up correctly. If that's the case, this refutes any theory that the changes have to do with BHN, interchange fees, or other costs, and is purely a security measure by Sefeway until the chip readers are working.

CWAL

$500 cards still ring up fine at stores which carry them. I've never used the PO to purchase GC, but IIRC, they went cash/perhaps debit only a while back.