Thursday, July 8, 2010

Its Like Printing Money!


UPDATE - I was able to do this deal twice today and the gift cards went through just fine to buy more. It probably just takes a bit of time for them to activate. But I did have another problem - the $10 cat beeped when I went to use it on another gift card. The cashier said it was coming up as expired, which it obviously wasn't. They entered it in as a $10 cash payment. I may try this one more time tomorrow and if it beeps again, I'll think I'll call it quits. Maybe it was just a fluke and I won't have a problem. We'll see, a great deal either way!

Ok, so here's the lowdown on this deal. At Stop & Shop, when you buy $100 worth of Visa gift cards, you get back a $10 catalina. These cards have activation fees, so to get the most for your money, get a $100 gift card, which carries a fee of $5.95. After the $10 catalina, that's a profit of $4.05. Here's where it gets even better, you can use the $10 catalina on the purchase of another Visa gift card!

So I bought:
  • $100 Visa gift card + $5.95 activation fee
  • Total was $105.95 - paid with my Discover (love those reward points!) and got back a $10 cat
Then I turned around and used that $10 catalina on another $100 Visa gift card, paying only $95.95. According to Slick Deals, folks have used their gift cards to cover the cost of the second gift card. I tried to do this but the card beeped, so I chickened out and used my Discover again. Its no biggie, I'll just use these to buy gas if I can't "roll" them into more. I'm going to do some research on Slick Deals and try and figure out what I did wrong. A bunch of posters there have bought many cards with this deal and haven't had a problem. I selected "credit" as how I was paying, maybe I was supposed to select gift card? I'll figure it out.

The deal is good until 7/15, so plenty of time to get in on this deal if you want to.

9 comments:

Sam said...

I am so jealous! If you can roll it, you could end up with some super handsome profits off that!

The cards might have beeped because they take awhile to actually activate. You might have tried to use them again while they were not quite ready?

spaghetti0625 said...

Oh I gotta find a stop and shop...I wanna try this!!!!!!!

mb said...

did the card go through by selecting "credit" or "gift card?"
i'm trying to explain the deal step by step to my dad who lives near a stop and shop :)
-mb

frugalsuz said...

mb,
I selected credit, then cancel when it asked me for the PIN, then ok. It worked just fine!

Mary said...

OK, question about RA Up+ rewards? Off topic, I know, sorry.

I got the $10 John Frieda reward on my receipt. I then drove to another RA about 20 minutes away, and when I went to use it, it beeped and also said something about already used or expired.

This was at a 2nd RA where the manager always gives me grief. I should *never* go there. But I did.

The first clerk that rang me up took all my coupons, including that $10 reward, and told me I was $2.50-something short, so I threw in a bunch of candy bars to get me over my negative balance - guess I added wrong? I though I was in the positive range. Anyway, half way thru the transaction, the nice clerk has to go help someone at the photo counter and the mean manager comes over. Somehow, she made me void the entire transaction and she started over. I was pretty mad by that point and somehow now my $10 reward beeps and she says something to the effect of, "this has already been used". I laughed and said, "well, I just got it 20 minutes ago - look at the time on the receipt (I had ripped it off it right in front of the other gal) and they would have taken it if I'd used it, right?" and she said, "Well, did they hand it back to you?" Um, no, BECAUSE I JUST GOT IT. I said, well, can you manually input it? Her answer, "Ma'am, (hate that when people call me ma'am), this is a new program and it takes 24 hours for the coupon to activate." Just minutes before she had said she didn't know why it wasn't working, and now she pulls 24 hours out of thin air. Hmmm, no, I wasn't buying it. This is the same manager who told me minutes before I couldn't buy "all" her Stayfree because she had to have some for other customers. Arrgh.
I didn't even have anything in my basket at that point- I was just checking out what they had left in stock.

So, I ended up putting about half my items back and said I'd be back in 24 hours and I hope she had "enough stock" so I could buy what I couldn't get today. She is such a witch.

Anyway, has anyone else been told the Up+ rewards take 24 hours to work? or was that a bunch of crap from a lady that really hates me using coupons?

Joelle said...

Hey Frugalsuz!

Found a new $5/25 Riteaid printable coupon from Redplum.com -use zip code 99208 to find it!

Joelle
The Coupon Posse'
thecouponposse.com

Heather said...

There are no Stop N Shops in my area but I found the same deal at Safeway. Only problem is that my Safeway will only take cash or debit cards to purchase the Visa Card. Not sure if it is the store's policy or the cashier's!

frugalsuz said...

Mary,
There have been a ton of glitches in the system with the UP Rewards. I don't know why yours didn't go through, but there's no way they take 24 hours to activate. That's the store's BS because they didn't know what else to say. You can always call 1-800-RITE-AID if you're having trouble with a store and see what they say.

Mary said...

Thank you! Programming that number into my phone right now!!!

Old Helga the Bad Manager is gonna hate me before this is over!!!v