Originally Posted by ejs621

I can buy an Amex gift card with a credit card at the following locations Jewel (Albertsons), Dominicks (Safeway), Meijers, Walgreens and CVS. The "hefty fee" is $6.95 per $100 Amex gift card.

Originally Posted by ejs621

..I do things the Flyertalk way, give a gift card. I get the points or miles and the recipient gets the gift card. Newlyweds always appreciate a Home Depot or even a Macys gift card, which are purchased at face value and do not have any additional fees....

Originally Posted by Happy

Purchasing a store GCs at grocery stores has been a MAIN Stay for many people for many years when the 5% rebate on Grocery spending was still widely available. It is a standby old trick but it may be new to some who just get into the mindset of accumulating points and miles.

Originally Posted by Happy

6.95 on a $100 is 6.95% - that is hefty in my standard when people are ga ga on the 2% cash rebate CCs. You are paying 6.95% to earn a 2% return, or in the theoretical sense of 1c worth per mile, that is only a 1% return on the mileage card. (Let's not going into the hypothetical value of how a mile / SPG pt worth when you redeem the premium cabins / resort at Moorea).

Most experienced FTers would not pay more than 1.4 cent per mile on things purchase - that translates to 1.4%. Therefore a 6.95% fee is Hefty.

S Florida basically has ONE Grocery Store Chain - that is Publix. Albertson was driven out several years ago. Winn Dixi tried hard to stay but with the Super WalMart compete with them on the low end, they are closing stores every year. Publix is NOT even interested in buying Winn Dixi closing store locations after it has done so on some choicy ones from Albertson 3 years ago. So basically we who live in Florida, and in particularly in South Florida, have no option like folks living in other parts of country where competition among grocery chains are fierce.

Incidentally, Publix chooses to remain a Private company and reportedly the most profitable grocery chain in the country. Supposedly it is among the best companies to work for also.

But if one is interested, there are plenty of store GCs to choose from Publix, and you can certainly pay it with your CCs or Publix own GCs. I do that whenever I have a need for a GC of some sort and I could not get it "free".

To take things further, you can redeem Macy card at a good discount using TYPs. At least that is the last time I look. So if you are able to earn 2% (or as high as 10 to 12% in the good old days on the PPE card), and pay only 85% of the face value to redeem the Macy Card, it is a good deal.

Purchasing a store GCs at grocery stores has been a MAIN Stay for many people for many years when the 5% rebate on Grocery spending was still widely available. It is a standby old trick but it may be new to some who just get into the mindset of accumulating points and miles.

Originally Posted by thehawk75

I never give gift cards any more. I give $1 coins

Newlyweds also appreciate them, since it seems recently that 80% of them are going to celebrate their honeymoon in Vegas anyway... And if not, it's simple enough for them to spend or deposit the coins (not like I'm giving them a quantity like that in my mint orders). Also, they like the fact that they aren't limited to 1 store. Presentation is also nice. Put a number of rolls into a nice box, put some tissue paper in there as well, wrap up the box, put on a bow, and attach a nice card from Mr. and Mrs. thehawk75



Couldn't agree more. I used to make all my purchases at Home Depot in 'Home Depot gift cards' bought the previous day at my local 'Vons' supermarket. Using my credit card at Home Depot would only net 1% reward, but, buying the gift cards (at face value of course) at the supermarket netted 5%.

BTW, it seems 5% is making a return. No where near as good as it used to be with Gas/Groceries/Drugs. Now it seems those offering 5% are copying Discover Cards strategy of 'rotating the 5% categories' each quarter. Chase immediately comes to mind as doing so. Unfortunately it seems (initial observation anyway) they're offering the same categories of merchants for the 5% reward at the same times. So you're still not really getting any additional time with your favorite 5% categories by having multiple cards. Kind of the same annoyance as when you're watching TV, and the channel you're watching goes to commercial, so then you want to flick to other channels to see what's on, only to find out all other channels have gone to commercial at the same time.

Originally Posted by thehawk75

BTW, it seems 5% is making a return. No where near as good as it used to be with Gas/Groceries/Drugs. Now it seems those offering 5% are copying Discover Cards strategy of 'rotating the 5% categories' each quarter. Chase immediately comes to mind as doing so.

Originally Posted by ejs621

I would think that Flyertalkers would be very pleased with 43.165pts and 14.39miles per dollar.

Cheers!

Originally Posted by dweick

I wouldn't be pleased at all to pay $1737.31 for 25,000 non-flight miles.

Originally Posted by ejs621

As opposed to paying $25,000 for 25,000 non-flight miles? Where can you get 14.39 miles/dollar?

Cheers!

Originally Posted by ejs621

Some Flyertalkers might approach the discussion as follows:
I can by an Amex gift card at a grocery store with a credit card that doubles my purchase in points or miles. Therefore, a $100 Amex gift card would earn an additional 300 points with a Hilton Amex card or an additional 100 miles from numerous airline cards. The cost for these additional points/miles would be the "hefty" fee of $6.95. The return for the $6.95 would be 300pts/6.95 or 43.165pts/dollar, the return for miles would be 100miles/6.95 or 14.39miles per dollar. I would think that Flyertalkers would be very pleased with 43.165pts and 14.39miles per dollar.

Originally Posted by ejs621

My initial disagreement was that you could not buy AMEX, Visa or MC gift cards with a credit card. Now, back to the US Mint discussion!

Originally Posted by ejs621

As opposed to paying $25,000 for 25,000 non-flight miles? Where can you get 14.39 miles/dollar?

Originally Posted by dweick

Who is paying $25,000 for 25,000 non-flight miles? Nobody I know of.

There is no net cost to purchasing $25,000 of US Mint coins and depositing them at your bank. The cost per mile is zero. You pay nothing for the miles, you pay $25,000 for the $25,000 worth of coins.

There is a net cost to purchasing $100 Amex cards and paying a $6.95 fee. The net cost, assuming you can cash out the Amex card, is $6.95

Originally Posted by dweick

Who is paying $25,000 for 25,000 non-flight miles? Nobody I know of.

There is no net cost to purchasing $25,000 of US Mint coins and depositing them at your bank. The cost per mile is zero. You pay nothing for the miles, you pay $25,000 for the $25,000 worth of coins.

There is a net cost to purchasing $100 Amex cards and paying a $6.95 fee. The net cost, assuming you can cash out the Amex card, is $6.95

Originally Posted by ejs621

Great way of giving a gift. The only problem, I would have is the weight of carrying the coins around. I can just imagine if you unrolled them and just put them in the box. "Look Honey, someone gave us gold Krugerrands!" That would be priceless!

Originally Posted by dweick

Who is paying $25,000 for 25,000 non-flight miles? Nobody I know of.

There is no net cost to purchasing $25,000 of US Mint coins and depositing them at your bank. The cost per mile is zero. You pay nothing for the miles, you pay $25,000 for the $25,000 worth of coins.

There is a net cost to purchasing $100 Amex cards and paying a $6.95 fee. The net cost, assuming you can cash out the Amex card, is $6.95