Gift of College (GoC) now allows you to see stores that stock GoC gift cards. It doesn’t list stock levels or the max denomination, but below is a list of stores available and the max denomination they sell.
- Brookshire’s grocery: Sells up to $500 (TX, AR, LA)
- Foodmaxx: Sells up to $500 (CA & NV)
- H-E-B: Sells up to $500 (TX)
- Lucky Supermarkets: Sells up to $500 (CA)
- Save Mart Supermarket: Sells up to $500 (CA & NV)
- Barnes & Noble: Sells up to $200
- Target: Sells $50 and $100 cards
For more information on how and why you want to purchase these gift cards, I’d recommend reading this excellent resource by Frequent Miler. Keep in mind a lot of these stores are grocery and as such some cards earn at a high rate on these purchases. Fingers crossed we get more retailers added in the lead up to Christmas as I can see these being popular as gifts.
Hat tip to FM
View Comments (38)
Any problems with AmEx RAT team when buying GoC gift cards at stores that don't report level 3 data? Thanks!
any idea where to buy $500 goc gift card around metro new york area?
Any ideas for best credit card to use to buy these at grocery store if planning to buy >$10k/year?
Looks like Old Blue Cash no longer available for sign-ups... Also, not really sure how AMEX would tolerate that large an amount of gift cards on one of their cards, anyhow.
Thanks!
I used Blue Cash Preferred to buy ~$5k VGCs last year and there was no problem. I think Amex did not include BCP when it says no GC purchases allowed in some cards.
Thanks so much for the datapoint!
Went to a few HEBs around Texas last week and they've started requiring a manager's approval to sell denominations >$100. The managers have always been nice about it, but it's a bit more inconvenient now. At one store, the manager thought that only a maximum of $500 (including the fee) could be purchased in 1 transaction, although they offered to split it among 2 transaction so I could buy 2 $500 gift cards.
FYI: I went to a Lucky store in El Cerrito, CA today to buy my monthly $1000 of GoC gift cards. The cashier told me that he'd gotten a company-wide e-mail earlier this week that said that GoC gift cards may no longer be bought with a credit card. Was good while it lasted....
Could anyone confirm whether it's true for other Lucky store location in CA?
I visited the Lucky store in Redwood City, California, on Saturday, November 3rd. I took four cards up the register and the cashier asked a few other employees around who weren't sure. Then the cashier found a manager who seemed to hem and haw and finally said no because of payment by a credit card, citing the amount was too high ($2k).
They never tried the transaction, so I didn't get the sense that the registers were hard-coded against credit cards paying for gift cards.
I do think if I had tried just one or two cards if they might've put it through without question. But four was too much for these employees.
I went to three Lucky stores. Two of them didn't have these cards (despite being listed on the GoC website), and the third cited policy and refused to let me use cc to purchase. Store manager was summoned and backed the cashier up. I went back to the third store the next day and found another cashier who let me use cc without a question. So it's a hit or miss, though I fear getting too much attention and draw extra scrutiny.
What about Fred's? They have those in GA...do GA Fred's have GoC?
Yes Fred's has GoC, however, they do not allow you to pay with credit card. This is the case with the few fred stores I've tried in GA.
I ran $70k at TRU last year to frontload my daughters 529, $10k amex plat bus, $5k personal plat, $5k schwab plat (not to mention all of the other bonuses i hit. Never heard a word about abuse.
Two quick general questions: 1) is Amex catching these GOC purchases and negating points? 2) is there any way to do automatic payments on GOC to student loan company?
Successfully bought $2k worth with Amex at TRU before all the TRUs shut down. Super happy that Lucky Supermarkets are picking up GOC!
I read some posts around, and it seems like you can only withdraw the money in 529 plans for school-related consumption?(Like tuition & fees, books & supplies, etc.) How do you cash out these funds if you don't have a student loan?