I'm not sure if this is a well documented "hack" but does anyone else buy gift cards at the grocery store using high rewards credit cards such as the AMEX Blue Preferred card?
At my local supermarket (Kroger) you can buy gift cards at face value for most retail stores, AMAZON, and even can get AMEX, VISA, or MASTERCARD gift cards that are as good as cash with a 6% c.c reward. Kroger also often has 4X bonus fuel points on gift card purchases which if you have a kroger gas station can also help you save up to $1/gallon on gas
I wonder if you use the cash equivalent gift cards to then purchase other discounted gift cards such as those from RAISE.COM then you could reap an extra 4.5% savings for your dollars over just buying the giftcard straight with a 1.5% reward capital one quick silver card or if you use them to buy stock at loyal3.com you could effectively get more c.c rewards for buying stock if you are into that service.
Any thoughts or experiences using these types of strategies appreciated
I use the Amex with 6% back on groceries to buy Amazon cards. We buy a good bit from Amazon, so this is easy to do and makes sense. The only other stores we shop much at are Target and Lowe's, but since we already have their 5% back store cards, it's not worth buying gc's for them. Plus, Amazon cards are so easy to use (just load into account when purchased and the account will automatically apply to one's purchases until gone), so I don't have to worry about remembering to use them, or have a small amount left on a card, etc.
I will try to keep this strategy in mind if we have any other larger purchases at other stores (like at xmas)? But so far, we don't buy much else.
The other thing that I have to keep in mind is that for the Amex, the 6% is only for up to $6k of grocery spending a year. We spend about $5k just on groceries, so buying more than $1k or so in gc's won't be worth it (unless we get a second card, pay a second $75 annual fee, and keep careful track making sure to switch to it).
As far as buying Visa gc's with a cc, don't those usually have activation fees? How much does one really come out ahead?