Safeway Limits Select Gift Card Purchases to $500/Txn (Best Buy, iTunes, Google, Gamestop) [Vons, Randall’s, Albertsons, Tom Thumb, Acme, Jewel, Shaw’s]

A memo went around Safeway and affiliated stores introducing a new POS limit of $500 per transaction on select retailer gift cards. The following brands are affected: Best Buy, iTunes, Google Play, GameStop.

From what I understand this limit is already in effect, and it affects all stores in the Safeway family, including Vons, Randall’s, Albertsons, Tom Thumb, Acme, Jewel, Shaw’s. The actual wording in the memo is $500 per 5 minutes, so even a nice cashier might not be able to let you do back-to-back $500 transactions.

We just posted the other day about the same $500 limit at Stop&Shop. 

Thanks to my friend Jamie for tipping me off to this
    Chuck
  • On November 25, 2019, 23:28

View Comments (42)

    • Some Safeway affiliates near me have refused to accept CC for Visa/MC purchases which is new considering I've been buying from them for years now.

    • i put my ID and card together when I hand them over, even if sometimes I do Gpay. I thank them for checking. Fixing an ID theft problem some years back took a lot of effort / time. (that was a case of a flurry of iTunes gc at a CVS, right under the limit where cashiers were supposed to check IDs too. cops told us they took a ton of police reports on it, and they suspected it was a quasi inside job)

    • Half of my local Safeway's require ID to match to card now. Let's me know which ones have had more fraud, but the cashiers seem to appreciate that I have my ID out and don't give them any shit for it.

  • Can anyone confirm the 5 minute cool-down period? Or is it only limited to 1 card per transaction?

  • Any DPs if they also prevent buying GC with Safeway GCs now? I got a warning by a friendly cashier a week ago that they are planning to hardcode it, but she didn't have a date.

    • Still working today, 12/02 -- either super slow in rolling this out, or this was false information.

      Although, the cashier had to confirm the after I swiped the Safeway GC. As far as I remember this is new. In the past, the GC was automatically applied when you swiped. I guess this increases the chance of being stopped by the cashier.

    • @guest_849227 Still working as of a couple of days ago. Well, at least if you get stuck with a bunch of Safeway GCs, you can spend them organically on groceries and gas.

        • @guest_849535 YMMV on gas, depending on the presence of Safeway/Albertsons/etc.-owned gas stations in your area. Many in the Bay Area and Denver, for example, but none in the Midwest (as far as I know).

      • YMMV. Official policy is that you can't, but it's not hardcoded and depends on the cashier. I usually don't announce that I'll be paying with GC and see if they stop me. I say that I'll be paying with GPay, which is true -- but I try to swipe a GC or two.

        I have seen the full range: cashier doesn't know or care, cashier stops me after the first GC swiped but lets me complete the purchase and an overly eager cashier calling a manager and voiding the transaction.

  • The system won't let you buy more than one Best Buy, even if the checker lets you. 2nd card fails to activate (but they keep your money!)

    • I once had a $500 BestBuy GC balance wiped out minutes after purchase / activation. Thankfully Amex came to to the rescue, because Safeway was tough to deal with.

    • Yep datapoint yesterday attempted at two different stores to buy 1.5k and only 1/3 activated and I had to get 1k refunded back to my card. So transaction actually goes through but the system doesn’t activate more than one $500 card.

    • They state it's to help cut down on "VAF" or "victim assisted fraud". They define this as the unsuspecting individual who believes a scammer that calls them and tells the person to go buy gift cards to get person out of jail, pay IRS, etc. Then when the "victim" reports the loss, the retailer often makes them whole in some way (such as eating the fraud losses) instead of telling the victim to go pound sand and wise up.

      The "victim" willfully used their credit/debit card or cash to purchase the gift cards. What they do after that moment is entirely up to them and their responsibility. It's insane that it has gotten to this point where limits are being placed on purchases to essentially protect the stupid from themselves.

      • Those are all fair points, but how would you feel if it was your elderly widowed aunt who had $19,000 scammed out of her? society has guardrails on things not to protect the race car drivers, but for those who are less able/skilled/cunning etc.

        • How I would feel is different from what common sense restrictions should exist at the frikken grocery store.

      • Not the stupid, typically elderly with reduced mental acuity. They get scammed out of hundreds of millions a year - it's a cottage industry in Jamaica

        • A middle-aged teacher was on the news recently for falling for the scam. She cleaned out all of her accounts and then was trying to borrow money from her mother. Her ELDERLY mother is the one who informed her she was being scammed! (Just an interesting twist. Lots of people seem to be gullible.(

      • We need something like global entry/ TSA precheck for gift cards. Do a background check then let me MS without restriction with minimal supervision.

        Right now the karens think they are defending national security by not allowing me to buy a MO

        • Wow, it is amazing coincidence that the cashiers that give me a hard time are always named Karen or have a variation of the name.

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