The Offer
- This is an unadvertised deal but some AAA locations are offering fee free Visa gift cards for members.
The Fine Print
- Must be AAA member to purchase
- Monthly inactivity fee of $2.95 with 12 consecutive months of inactivity
Our Verdict
This deal is usually offered twice a year, once in May and then again in November. It’s odd they aren’t advertising it online this time. Keep in mind these purchases are tracked to your name and they sometimes shut people down. You can read more about that here or here. This usually codes as insurance or club services, I don’t think any cards earn a category bonus on these purchases.
Usually it’s offered in AAA mid Atlantic offices. Our datapoint of it working comes from AAA Carolinas.
I just talked to a clerk in a South Carolina AAA Travel Center and she confirmed that the no fee VGC deal is available here through June 30th. I plan to use an AMEX to help meet a minimum spend, given info that AAA does not report L3 data. If anyone knows otherwise, please give me a warning reply . . .
I also understand that one has to call Metabank to establish a pin for each card. Besides the hassle of a call, is this also where a shutdown may occur for activating too many cards within a short time?
Datapoint & warning — I picked up 5 X $500 at a AAA store in NC The cards are issued by MetaBank, but require that you call customer service to set PIN for each card. Huge PITA, at least for a lazy person like me.
Also: Person helping me in store said that the offer runs through June 30.
Anyone know of they report level 3 data? I need to meet the MSR on a BRG. Is it worth the risk?
THANKS!
Eduard, In the past, purchases of these cards have not show level 3 data on my credit cards that show level 3 data; i.e., the statement does not break down what the charges from AAA are. These same credit cards show level 3 data from office supply stores. If your area has a AAA Travel Center, it may be worth checking out if they sell vgc and what the fees are (even if they aren’t offering fee free cards.) It appears that the fees for the vgc vary from region to region.
Do you know what the purchase shows up as?
Hey thank you Perilous. I appreciate you sharing your experience. Does the travel center code as travel by any chance?
Thanks again! I will have to check out what’s available.
Four days ago, I’d reported (via last May’s thread on this subject) that I’d been told by my local Charlottesville mid-Atlantic office (where they’d participated in this promo routinely for the past four years) — that the deal wasn’t on for this year…. My local rep was certain of that. (and she made it sound like it was a no go for all of AAA Mid-Atlantic… Maybe though she was mis-informed. Curiously, my inquiry had started with the AAA Mid Atlantic HQ in Delaware — and they coyly didn’t answer my question, but instead routed my call to the local office…)
DoC Chuck noted that report four days ago — “bummer.” 🙂 So I’m curious DoC William to know more of your report today that the deal somewhere is back…. Like where? It’s not helpful to report vaguely that it’s for “select locations only.” Again, where? According to? You didn’t even mention the basics, as Chuck has always reported, that it was previously just a AAA Mid Atlantic promo. (one of dozens of AAA regional/local clubs)
So come on…. tell us more please. How did you find out about it? Is it being chatted about in another forum? If the deal is being offered at some AAA mid Atlantic offices, but not others, would it be so hard for them to let us know which are participating?
I told Doc about it. It IS being offered in AAA Carolinas. It was not advertised; I called a local office to ask, because they have offered it in the past when the mid-Atlantic region was offering it (typically May and November). In our region, it is being offered thru the end of the month.
Different regions have different policies on visa gift cards. Some don’t offer them at all. We were in Chicago a few months ago and stopped in a AAA office, and they limit purchases of vgc to $2000 a month, i.e., 4 $500 cards; however, their fees per card were $1 lower than what we pay in the Carolinas. A couple of months ago, one AAA rep in our region told my husband that vgc purchases were limited to $30K per year, even when he was buying a couple with a fee. Not sure if that rep was correct, whether that meant per family account or per person on the account, but when his account came up for renewal, he took me off his account, and I got my own. I actually paid less for my account that he did on his renewal because I found an online coupon.
YMMV on this deal. The tip was mainly for those who have had the deal in their area in the past and was intended to alert them that they may want to call up their local AAA and see if the deal was being offered this year.
Don’t blame Doc. It was me.
I don’t think anybody is blaming anybody, escot just wanted a bit more information. That’s my fault for not putting it in the OP. I’ve just updated it, thanks again Perilous!
Would hope your readers across the country would add any further data points of local AAA offices that are offering these VGC’s fee free…. Much appreciate Perilous chiming in to note her area — North Carolina — apparently is participating. (even as it’s not part of “mid-atlantic” AAA) So maybe this year we have some local/regional clubs offering the deal — on the anticipation that MidAtlantic is offering it again — except it may not (or may) be.
Many data points over the years to the point that AAA offices are not primarily retail stores and clerks, while helpful, have no idea how to activate cards, Many feel this is thus a big waste of time comoared to other vehicles.
Hmm I called my local AAA last week and they said they’d never heard of this promo in the past and were not currently offering it. This was in Minneapolis, MN.
Thanks for saving me a call/trip
It’s regional. Typically, it’s only been offered in the mid-Atlantic region.
https://midatlantic.aaa.com/
Say Mick, thought you understood (from our exchanges on earlier threads) that this fee free VGC promo had previously been confined to AAA Mid-Atlantic. Doc “Chuck” had written it up like clockwork twice a year, going back to 2015….. Minneapolis, alas, rather far far from the MidAtlantic AAA region.
On the other hand, this got me to checking — and in fairness, I don’t recall DoC (or the other sites promoting this deal) ever explaining that AAA remains a rather chaotic mish-mash of dozens of local/regional clubs…. AAA Mid-Atlantic, while hq’d in Delaware, by their own web site, seems to indicate their reach goes beyond the conventional geography of “mid-atlantic.”
Service areas apparently include: “Greater Hartford, CT Area, Cincinnati Tri-State Area, Miami County, OH, Greater Dayton, OH Area, Northwest Ohio, AAA Blue Grass & Bluefield Regions, Southern West Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, and parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. “
Some of us might have an old card no longer offered to new applicants that earns 3% at AAA locations. Sadly, the local office told me that they had a limit of $500 in cards per member per year. (Meaning only one $500 card)
I get emails for the AAA card every few months