Quick Deal: Buy $100 MC GC and make $14 (Updated 11/21)

Milenomics reader Kathy (Thanks Kathy!) mentioned to me earlier this week that Albertsons would be having a holiday gift card deal.  The deal is for an assorted list of store gift cards, and Mastercard Gift Cards as well.  Buy $100 in Gift cards get a coupon for $20 off of $20 worth of groceries.

I visited my store today, bought a $100 MC GC and received a $20 coupon.  I then spent the coupon on groceries and bought another MC GC to make sure this worked more than once.

You cannot buy variable load cards to get this to work.  We won’t earn a ton of miles on this deal, but this is a really good moneymaker, and one I wanted to share with you all.  Each time you do this you’ll earn $14 net, and the points on the $100 GC purchase.  Not the best way to earn miles–but a great way to save big on your Thanksgiving feast. I ended up spending $24 (including the 5.95 x 2 GC fees) for $52 worth of groceries, I also earned 400 miles ($200 x 2).

coupon
Sorry for the blurry photo. They took my coupon and I almost forgot to get a photo of it.

The deal runs 11/20 through 12/3 (coincidentally the same end date as the current Safeway promotion, which is less of a moneymaker but a better way to earn miles).  This one isn’t really a Milenomics MMR worth deal–so I’ve filed it as a quick deal instead.

Update:

Readers Matt  and Mary both report that 2x$10 coupons printed for them.  Matt mentioned his store has the following type of printing in the circular:

Albertsons 2

Strangely the wording on the deal above is the same as at my store: EARN $20 off your next grocery purchase. Offer valid 11/20/13 – 12/03/13 *See store for participating gift cards. $20 free grocery coupon issued at checkout and may be redeemed on your NEXT grocery purchase. Coupon expires (1) week after issuance. Coupon not valid for previous purchases and cannot be used to purchase gift cards. Limit one coupon per qualifying and redeeming transaction – see coupon for additional restrictions. While supplies last. No rain checks. Gift card brands are subject to availability and selection varies by store – product offer may not be available in all States. See gift cards for details, terms and conditions and (if applicable) fees. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. **Qualifying MasterCard gift card purchases limited to $25, $50 and $100 denominations only. The MasterCard Gift Card is issued by U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from MasterCard International Incorporated. MasterCard and the MasterCard Brand Mark are registered trademarks of MasterCard International Incorporated.”

If you’re stuck with 2 $10 coupons try to break up your shopping into 2 purchases and use one coupon on each. I’d be surprised if a checker would deny that, but I agree with Matt, 2 $10 coupons are not as useful as 1 $20 coupon.

About the author

- Written by Sam Simon. All ideas are my own, but I encourage you to see my point of view and I promise I'll try to do the same. Connect with me on Twitter @Milenomics.

Comments

  1. Great news! Nice to be able to feed my BB and make a little profit on the side. Thanks to both you and Kathy!

    Not only do I live near an Albertson’s but we have a brand new Safeway in the neighborhood and they have been running many great deals – like two for one virgin olive oil – so spending the $10 coupons I keep getting for the gift cards has been a breeze. I may not be earning tons of points but I am meeting several minimum spends and filling my pantry in the process. With no CVS stores in my state, we take what we can get!

    1. Elaine, I agree– I’ve got to be careful posting all of these–to many of these and Milenomics becomes “Deal-nomics” 😉

      Glad you’re able to take advantage of both of them. Even though these two deals are easy money makers–try to think of ways to cut your costs by pooling trips (say Safeway-Albertsons-WM-Home) in a loop.

      The danger in these money makers is that once they’re gone we’ve learned some bad habits that drive up our Cost Per Mile when there aren’t coupons and deals to rebate our $$ costs.

  2. Back from Albertson’s where I bought a $100 MC gift card and received two coupons for $10 each. They state they are valid for one per transaction per day, so not quite as good a deal as advertised. The $20 coupon would be much easier to redeem.

    1. Was the deal in your weekly flyer the same as in the title image from the post? Odd they gave you $10 x 2. I agree $20 is easier to get rid of :

  3. The deal was the same only spread out the width of the paper. And it says “Free $20 grocery coupon issued at checkout and may be redeemed on your NEXT grocery purchase”. Technically I can only use on of the $10 coupons each day. 🙁

    1. Matt: I did some searching in other states’ Albertsons circulars and found the wider one. Strangely the wording says $20 off your next–so I’m not sure why 2x$10 printed. Even though they say limit one I would be impressed if anyone at the store limited you.

  4. Sadly, my only Albertson’s give the two $10.00 per transaction per day. I will try to invoke the advertising since I do have coupons reflecting this as well. Anyway, I could always max it out for each day until the deadline.

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