The Offer
- H-E-B grocery chain is offering a free $20 H-E-B gift card with coupon when you buy $100 Vanilla Visa gift card. Must clip coupon first.
- Similar offers available for American Express gift cards and Mastercard gift cards.
The Fine Print
- Expires 1/28/25
- Limit 1 per phone number with digital coupon
- In-store only
Our Verdict
We’ve seen HEB offer this kind of deal many times before. In the past, buying a variable-load card, e.g. a $500 card, worked for some, but not for others; hopefully the HEB experts will let us know if it works this time. Yet others are told they can’t use a credit card at all, only debit.
Even buying $100 Visa card could make sense on its own since the $20 covers more than the activation fee, plus you get a grocery multiplier. Use a card that earns a bonus at the grocery.
Hat tip to reader Atomic
I used not have issues with contactless payments in the parts but today either they are eliminating or don’t allow it for gift cards. Same store worked last week and not today
Same here, I wasn’t sure if this was only at my store. Last week I purchased one gift card with mobile wallet without any issues, yesterday I tried again and the register was giving some type of error message saying acontactless payments are not allowed for the purchase gift cards, this kind of restriction makes no sense
I just got the Citi AA Biz MasterCard and am working on meeting SUB. I know HEB does not share L3 data with AmEx. Does Citi care about gift card purchases?
another naive question. Can i use these cards to pay Texas registration renewal at HEB or Kroger?
Yes. P1 has done this numerous times at HEB. However, the card terminals at the HEB money center, where they do registration renewals, only allow for debit transactions. So make sure you know the pin beforehand.
thanks. Do you all not worry about the actual $ value in the cards? I have seen many cases in target that people buy gift card but find its actual value is 0. Scammers get the card numbers in advance from these shops (target) and take the money out moment card is loaded.
There is that risk, but that is why I never buy gift cards with a debit card. Also, it is usually pretty obvious if someone tampered with physical packaging, or if all cards nationwide were compromised, it is widely known.
If you don’t feel comfortable buying gift cards, there is no necessity in doing so. There are other ways to churn 🙂
ok thanks. Good to know, credit card purchase will cover stolen/tampered gift cards.
Well, YMMV on that (especially depending on the card issuer, ie some banks hate customers buying gift cards, like US Bank), but it will at least give you an avenue of dispute with the retailer if it ever came up.
I saw several comments not that long ago on one of the Office Depot threads of something similar happening, and the retailer resolved it. Versus if it was debit, some retailers may just tell you to go pound sound (and that money would have come directly out of your bank account with little recourse).
In general, using a credit card is always better than using a debit card.
ok thanks. I used chase freedom flex on this to cover 5% points. For some reason, my tmobile account did not accept this visa/master card. last time, it did not accept amex gift card too.
Some online retailers will not accept cards that do not allow you to set a zip code.
For Vanilla Visa, you can’t set the zip code any more. I’m not sure if you can set the zip code for the variants of MC and Amex offered by HEB.
They should all work for in person transactions, regardless of the zip code being set.
update: I directly used master card in TX DMV Website to pay for the registration renewal fee (also they give 1$ discount for paying online)
does anyone know, how does chase freedom flex card code HEB? (is it grocery)? so, I will get 5% in chase points?
Yes, I used it and it codes as grocery
It’s grocery, for both in-store and curbside.
thank you
I noticed that at self checkout mobile wallet is disabled for gift card purchases, unfortunately nerfing USBAR. Have used mobile wallet at regular checkout for gift cards with no issues previously, as well as self checkout
no way! I used to always do self checkout for these gift card with my UBSAR. Sucks!
Where was the register you tried checking out at? I was able to grab the gift cards at a manned register (15 items or less) and was able to use Google Wallet with my Freedom Flex to check out without an issue. I did get a little stick of beef jerky to make the purchase not entirely composed of gift cards.
Side note, but you may not want to use USBAR for this based on other DPs of sensitivity to buying gift cards.
Self checkout, 10 items or less
Another dp – went to the 15 items manned register this time, and same flag occurred – could not do contactless payment for gift cards. Could be location dependent.
Another DP – went to another HEB location and WAS able to use mobile wallet at self checkout to buy gift cards, so it does appear to be location dependent
They rolled out the restriction during this week, in my area my local HEB was taking mobile wallet payments the weekend this deal was going on (tested it at SCO) The following Tuesday, I got the message saying contactless payments was not allowed for the purchase of gift cards, this time paying at a regular register. Also I wasn’t even using my phone to pay, I was tapping my physical card at their terminal
Works on $500 variable load vanilla mc. Was required to check out at money services since ordinary registers are supposedly limited to $500 gc per transaction.
Aren’t return is higher with $100 purchase instead of $500?
$500 generates more credit card cashback for the same fee
I believe that money services registers don’t take credit cards, only debit cards (according to the cashiers).
I was able to use a credit card today, but due to no fault of heb, Chase Bank put a fraud alert on the first transaction that I was able to resolve through their automated SMS system, but then when I tried a second gift card, I had to call in and literally talk to three different departments to get the issue resolved. Still worth it though.
Went today and purchased one $100 visa, one $100 Amex and one $100 MC. I’ll then around and then pay my groceries with these cards along with my three $20 HEB gift cards. Great deal
how did you get 3? was this in self checkout or at register?
Register. I had all three coupons in my HEB app. Checked out at register with no problem.
thank you. I clipped coupon for just visa. just clipped other two.
I did the same. Great offer.
What other chain stores around the US have similar deals to HEB? Preferably in the DC/VA/MD area.
Usually I use the Staples Visa GCs to pay my insurance and Vanilla failed to work there. However it worked on the Target app purchasing a Disney GC.
Last time I bought a Vanilla VGC was late 2024 for the CVS 10% off deal. Had a ton of trouble using it. Does HEB have the same “brand”/”style” VGCs as CVS?
Yes