The Offer
Direct Link to offer (login required)
Check your Safeway Just4U for a digital coupon to get:
- $10 off when you buy $100 in Visa gift cards.
The Safeway deals are usually at Von’s, Albertson’s, Randall’s, Tom Thumb, Acme, Shaw’s, and Jewel too.
The Fine Print
- One time use
- Valid through 11/9/19
Our Verdict
Remember to save the offer first to your card before use. You won’t get fuel points on Visa/MC gift cards. Make sure to use a card that earns at a high rate on grocery store purchases. This version of the offer does work on the variable cards.
Hat tip to reader Celia
I had an “interesting” experience today: at my usual Vons the variable VGC was not loaded (“unable to process”), but my Amex was charged for the full amount. They manually refunded the cost of my transaction to the same Amex card. I do hope that the refund posts smoothly. That was the first time this happened to me. Looks like the issues with Metabank are starting to pile up.
Looks like this is related to some Amex-related issues happening today.
This offer can no longer be added.
I got 500 vgc and added into Venmo. However, when I try to transfer to my friend, it always returns “Transaction Declined”… Is this method dead? Is there other way to cash it out?
found and added this coupon… will used 4% back on my BOA card… thanks for this!!
Which BOA card? BOA cash rewards card maximum is 3.5%, isn’t it?
They might be referring to getting double cash back this quarter that’s available to some people so 2% grocery is 4%.
I want to share my experience with the variable MC giftcards from Safeway. About 2 weeks ago, I bought 2 x $500 MC GCs and was able to liquidate them by buying 2x $500 MOs in one transaction at Harris Teeter without any issues. Each MO had a fee of $0.99 which I paid with cash.
This past Monday I bought two more MC GCs and on Thursday tried to unload them at a different Harris Teeter, but their POS declined the first MC GC that I swiped without any reason other than the message “Unathorized” on the card reader. I thought maybe this HT POS was programmed differently so I ended up using my personal debit card and the transaction went through. However, when I checked the bank statement of the decline MC GC, I found out its available is $0.00. I called MC customer service and they also noticed the transaction was made at the 2nd HT and the balance is 0. The rep told me to check with HT to make sure they didn’t charge more than the actual cost. On Friday evening, I went back to HT and was told they did NOT overcharged.
Today (Sunday) I went back to first HT where I had success liquidating the 2nd MC GC that I bought on Monday. To my surprise, their POS also declined it. This time I decided to cancel the whole transaction. Went home and checked the balance. The available balance is also 0. What?
I’m short of $1k now and hoping the money will return. Anyone had the same issue? If so, was the money eventually credited back to your cards? What actions did you take to get the money back? Thanks.
I’ve had this happen A LONG TIME AGO (2016) and it came back after a few days with no intervention from store or gc. Good luck.
It happened to me on 10/27 Sat when I tried to use three MCGCs in three failed transactions at Kroger. I thought I needed a pin to set up i/o using the last 4 but I could not even check the balance on one of the cards. It turned out one card out of three did not get the fund back after the voided transaction.
Called the Master Card CS and was told to wait for 24 hours. Waited for one day but the card still showed $0 balance today.
I also went back to Kroger but was told there is nothing available for a voided transaction.
I went ahead and talked to the dispute department with Master Card. Requested to start a dispute process and I should be receiving paperwork to file within 24 hours.
Will wait for a week to see if I get the money back to my card but if not, will definitely file a dispute.
Did you buy MO or use the MCGC to purchase regular items?
I’ve heard a long time ago that the Metabank version is not working the same as the UsBank version. I personally do not have any experience but here’s my observation:
MC GC by Metabank always gets processed CREDIT at some merchants (McDonald, Dollar Tree, Walmart) without anyway to intervene first hand! There’s a possibility that your MCGC previous time was a USBank? and this time might be a Metabank?
Also the POs hard coded for these prepaid cards sometimes.
Sorry that your cards were compromised. The same thing happened to me over the summer when Safeway had $10 off variable VGC’s. I went ahead and called Blackhawk Network to file a claim. The whole claims process looks like this:
1. First level of reps will take down some basic info and escalates your case to the claims department
2. The claims department reviews your case and will reach out to you via email asking you to send in the following: a standard form they provide, front and back picture of the gift card, picture of your receipt, picture of the transaction from your credit card company
3. The claims department reviews the items you sent in and gets back to you in about 30-45 days. If successful, they will send you an email saying that the case is resolved and a new gift card is going to come to you via snail mail
4. A new gift card arrives in the mail about 30-45 days later
The whole process takes about 90 days. Hope this helps
While I think above is good info, I would maybe first read the newest comments here https://www.doctorofcredit.com/staples-no-purchase-fee-on-200-mastercard-gift-cards-10-20-10-26/#comment-831692 and on reddit.
Seems like its a more general problem atm and might fix itself by eventually crediting back the amount to your card.
Hope you get it sorted out 🙂
I read somewhere that MO at Kroger is dead? Is it so? In past when I have used these deals I have got MOs at Kroger, so want to be sure before going for them.
I just got a MO at kroger using MCGC so it is definitely not dead systemwide. Some local stores might be dead but that is always YMMV.
Its dead and im out of $1000 as money didnt return to mcgc. Careful, now dealing with a nightmare.
Same here. mcgc transaction was not approved but money was taken out of the mcgc which showed in the transaction at Kroger last week.
If the MCGC transaction was not approved, then the funds would not have been withdrawn from your card. It might take some time for them to refund the funds back onto the card. Have you contacted the MCGC customer service to confirm that there is no recourse to get back the funds?
I know places like WM when a transaction has failed or the MO machine didn’t print out the MO they should have provided you cash since the funds would be withdrawn from your account.
Still $0 in my mcgc cards since 10/22. Filed dispute with Meta on 10/29.
Any more data points? I think the last MO I got at City Market (kroger) was this past Friday, and everything went fine with two $200 visa gift cards from the OM deal.
Safeway still works for Amex purchases of VGCs, correct? They don’t send L3 data to Amex, do they?
Correct. I just hit the 6K limit on my BCP last month and am seeing a pending cashback in my account.
Safeway 100% sends L3 detail to Visa, so would assume it’s the same for Amex. I’ve never had an issue with earning points for non-SUB spend on the Gold or BCP, but wouldn’t risk it for SUB.
How do you know Safeway sends L3 data on personal Visa cards to Visa, not just from the enterprise and government Visa card purchases that require L3 data from merchants?
Amex is both the network and the issuing bank so they could do that for consumer cards more easily, but do they?
https://www.visa.com/supplierlocator-app/app/#/home/supplier-locator
Also, just because we can’t see L3 data in our online banking portal doesn’t mean they aren’t capturing it. My guess is Safeway pays lower interchange fees in exchange for providing this level of detail. Alternatively firms like Kroger have decided the lower fees aren’t worth the value of the data they would be providing Visa and AmEx.
Ah, so you assumed that’s the case for personal cards. I see. What you are saying is 100% true for government and corporate credit cards from what I’ve read. But consumer cards have stronger regulations and privacy expectations, for good reason. So I’m not sure there is any evidence that they necessarily pass along line item detail like govt/corp cards do, which absolutely require L3 data. Every time I’ve asked my banks about it, they say they have no way of knowing what I bought with my personal cards, even when that merchant sends them L3 data for govt/corp cards.
From what I’ve read elsewhere, the risk is that your bonus would be clawed back later IF you met the MSR for SUB buying GCs, however, I’m working on Delta and HHonors MSR and AMEX doesn’t/Can’t claw back on partner points, do they? Once its in my DL account, Amex can’t send negative points. I’ve only seen DPs where MR points got clawed back. I’m guessing it could happen with cash back cards as well, but not Airline points.
If the terms for the bonus exclude gift card purchases and/or the terms for their rewards in general exclude gift card purchases, they’re adhering to their terms and you aren’t, so it’s within their right if they clawback. Having said that, it’s not always easy for them to know, which is why you get speculation about whether they receive L3 data for personal card transactions, etc.
“AMEX doesn’t/Can’t claw back on partner points, do they?” Not if you spend them quickly enough, but they can always close all your accounts.
what is sub and non sub?
Sign Up Bonus
Make sure it appare the zip code you are visit, otherwise would not work
Do you know how this applies to ACME? I have no Safeway near me, but can’t search for ACME on the offer page.
Download the ACME Just4U app, you should be able to find it there if its available. I dont have one near me, only Jewel so i have to use their app.
Definitely available on Acme. Logon to their site (no need to install the app if you don’t want to) and go to Just4U and click on “Gift cards” on the left menu.
If you sign up for a new account, you might also want to check “Personalized Deals” because you may get some $1 off any item category coupons (you need to unclick Gift Cards before doing this).
Worked on variable this morning.
Confirmed working on variables.