the way it works is that it's ok with no problem... until it isn't. it's the outliers who kill it usually. the dolts who go in and buy 4,5,10 MO at a time and get noticed or become the topic of conversation. people fail to understand that the supervisors at the local level have a predictable Maslow's HofN approach: they don't want to lose their job. if something looks suspicious and worrying, they'll nip it. 'yeah, the guy who buys all the MO always has me do $500 at a time. i think he uses gift card'. mgr, 'ok, no more gift cards for MO. no more split payments'. and, done.

had this happen to my 3 nearest stores. now, fully 1/2 of my stores are either dead or dead on certain shifts. me. i never do more than 2 at a time, never 999.31 and never the same amount. i vary the value of VGC's so my credit card statements aren't always the same amount. so, some 480,482.69 487, etc. so, if i get 2, 1 will be 1000, the other for 482. looks a bit more 'real' on both sides.

Yeah, I bought a 275 and a 200 paid the extra 69 cents. The balance of the card will pay my water bill on evolve.

I know there are some other MS'ers in my area, as the inventory of OV's drops faster than my purchases. Luckily, I seem to be the only consumer of VR's at my local supply. I counted the last few times and no one else buys.
Which would be fine as I am not the type that would hide them. I know I don't have to worry at one source as the last times I have bought the manager points to me and tells the CSR "he is the only one allowed to buy with CC, he has a history here and there is too much fraud". It pays to be pleasant with people.

I would KILL to get my hands on VRs.

I spent a good day driving around and checking out all gas stations, none to be found in the Bay Area. Forget drug stores. And even supermarkets are very stingy when it comes to RIs

What is OBC?

Well said :) ^, the one element that one can really control in this game is that.

you should probably PM OP.

Just got an email that 4x FP for GC is back, but unable to load the coupon onto the card. Hope they fix it...

Same email - same problem loading.

i thought this was on until the end of the month anyway?

Looks like 4x coupon is fixed now.

No, it was until Sep 2nd - I loaded up for Sep and Oct, but might need few more fillups. My BBGC route seems to cause some issues recently, still on the fence. $100 VGC do not make much sense to me.

PS. New one is valid until 10/4, so first few days of Oct will be the sweet spot for me.

Thanks for the update. My account also has a "Save $5.00 when you buy TWO (2) $25 Staples Gift Cards" digital coupon as well.

Can you please explain BBGC route?

Mine too. Wish I saw it 3 day ago :)

Sure - buy BBGC and use them at Best Buy to buy something

Is BB allow to buy VGC with BBGC?

Read thru the bestbuy thread for info.

Just went to buy one (1) 500 USBVGC from Krg, same store I have usually been buying 3K at a time for months. The cashier made an elaborate display of asking "will you be paying with cash or debit" in a weird voice...

-Umm... credit?
-OH NO, you can't buy those with credit!
-oh wow, ok, is that a new policy?
-The cashiers have been doing it all wrong. They should never have been selling them for credit...

I say thanks guess I don't want it then, buy groceries, leave...

Like I said, I have been buying tons at this Krg. Lots of cashiers recognize me. Have bought at managers station many times...

Just hoping this is a case of a cashier needing to play the foil and not actual change of policy. Will try again later. Anyone else notice any Krg problems with CC?

As I am beginning to think about MS, I went to two local Krogers here in Athens... they both have a sign up on the gift card display indicating "Debit Card or Cash Only" for gift cards.

Always say debit when asked debit or credit, if they are small enough to figure out the difference great, but most don't even know the difference.

At my usual go-to Krogers today, there was a handwritten sign that said
"We are experiences difficulties with our prepaid gift cards (Visa/Mastercard), and they are unavailable for sale"

The entire rack had been emptied of all VGCs and MGCs.

This is one of the busiest Krogers in the system, located in the city where Krogers is headquartered, and in a neighborhood where a lot of the Kroger brass lives. The store tends to be on the forefront of current Kroger concepts. I surely hope that it's not the harbinger of the end of GCs at Krogers.

But I'm afraid that the clock is ticking on the apocalypse...

Business as usual at my location last night. Didn't really need one but thought I would test it out.

yeah, i don't need one right now either. Stopped by another Krg for 1 just to give a try and it was fine. Will just have to try to avoid that cashier when I go back to other store next time.

4x fuel pt on GC purchase coupon loaded for me. I had to refresh the site 3 times after getting errors but it finally worked.

4
 

Last month in some areas of the country, the 4X also worked on the VGC. Has anyone gotten lucky this time?

It worked for me this morning in Utah as it usually does. I got 4x on the two $100 fixed visa gift cards and the $50 Home Depot card. I bought. I did not get any fuel points on the two variable load visa gift cards I bought. It has been that way for me for months.

$200 Visas over?
 

I've noticed that the various Krogers on my route have started filling in the spots where the $200 Visa Metabank GCs are on the shelf with other cards. Also haven't seen them in some time.

Are they no longer issued?

They would be so cool with the 4x bonus going on right now....

I've never seen a $200 visa or master card at Kroger. Safeway on the other hand.....

My local Kroger pulled all variable visa gift cards. All that is left are the ones with multiple small value visa gift cards in one package. The store isn't out; rather, it no longer has spots reserved on the display for them.

So you need to ask for them?

I was at Kroger today and there was actually a new graphic on the variable load Visas - the slots were full. Sadly they were also in the spot where the $200 fixed ones used to be.

Well, today I was at another Krogers...not my usual go-to, but one I've frequented before. Bought a total of $5K of the $500 US Bank VGCs. no problemo.

Hopefully the issue at my other go-to Krogers was a temporary glitch related to that problem with US Bank properly loading the VGCs.

Mine did this too. I thought they were done but they just rearranged the racks and had new graphics on some cards. The downside was that they also rotated all of the old stock forward. That meant the old USB cards with flimsy packing were in the front. Had to dig for slightly more secure cards.

What's the most $500 VGCs have you bought at kroger? Always scared to get more then a $1,000.

I've done 2K before. Usually the more affluent areas don't have a problem.

YMMV with cashier. I've had cashiers with whom I've done 3-4k at once. One of them tells me about someone who frequently does $10k worth at once. Others I'm not confident in pushing for more than $1k with.

Sky's the limit.

lol...really??
I think the most I've bought is 6k...they don't care.

Kroger is cracking down on these purchases. Tread lightly.

Ditto that. I got shut down at my local Kroger. They later reinstated ability to purchase with very low limits on a daily basis.

A little more details? More details? PM if needed... Are they basing it on ID, Kroger+ or payment method? What kind of totals did you have? Is per store basis or shut down is regional?

This is the last thing I need right now.

Thanks.