Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. I’m sure everyone knows about the recent Discover ApplePay promo, but if not, please read Frequent Miler’s post. Since I live and work in the Bay Area, I take BART almost every day and spend about $225 a month on BART costs. I shared my experience loading my BART Clipper Card at Whole Foods during the last 2 Whole Foods AMEX Offers:
- 9/1/2015: 1,000 Membership Reward Points after spending $50 at Whole Foods
- 5/21/2015: $15 statement credit after spending $75 at Whole Foods
On my way to work yesterday, I stopped at my local Walgreens in San Francisco and asked to load $50 to my BART Clipper Card. The cashier was very friendly and knew exactly what to do. When it came time to pay, I used my iPhone 6 with ApplePay to charge my Discover It Credit Card. The purchase went through fine and appears to be a standard Walgreens purchase.
Frequent Miler reported yesterday that Discover has started to show a gift card warning/disclaimer when using ApplePay. I’ve used ApplePay 3 times at Walgreens and have not seen the warning/disclaimer myself. I think this is just a scare tactic by Discover to deter (not prevent) people from buying $10,000 of gift cards (which I’m sure some of you have already maxed out). If Discover (or any other credit card company) had the ability to identify and not award miles/points/cash back on the purchase of gift cards, they would have done it already and the whole gift card MS space would be dead by now. Regarding the ApplePay aspect of the transaction, I have no idea what data Apple, Walgreens (or any other merchant), or Discover are able to see. My next Discover It Credit Card statement closes on October 1 and I should be able to view my statement a few days later. I will report back on my findings when the statement is available.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great weekend everyone!
It’s called level three merchant processing if they want they data on what was purchased they can get it. To look at it another way shopping portals don’t pay when you buy gift cards at certain places, sometimes things slip thru but they do have the ability to tell what was bought.
Ahh yes, L3 data. Do you know how L3 data works with ApplePay?
Hi Grant,
Thanks always for the post. I’m fairly new and also live in Bay Area. Do you know any working kate at walmart in bay area?
Hi David, the only Walmart I’ve been to in the last 9 months is in Fremont, not sure they have a Kate or not. Jump on the Redbird bandwagon :)
No working Kate there. I still by at least a couple times a month for MO. Cashier’s at CS desk are always nice and accommodating though.
Thanks for the data point Trevor :)
Yup, seems like no kate in Bay Area.
On the side, I went to Walgreens today and they accept cash only now for all gift cards. I tried to buy a shell gift card and system freeze. The cashier is very surprised as well.
I then went to staples and all the good gift cards on the rack are gone; it’s like a robbery. I was able to pick up one Target gift card.
What city in the Bay Area did you go to Walgreens? I will try the Walgreens near my work in SF tomorrow morning.
I went to the one in Fremont. Any luck with SF?
I haven’t been yet today, but I might go tomorrow morning.
The warning is in the Apple Pay wallet underneath the Discover Card image. Is L3 data similar to the airline ticket details shown on statements, or is that another level?
@Grant if you have the option at work, you should fund commuter costs through your employer so that paid through pre-tax deductions. You should come out further ahead than the 22% Discover bonus.
Yes, I do that option at work. I can put $130 per month onto my CommuteEase prepaid debit card which can be used tax free for public transportation. My company also reimburses us up to $200 per month for transportation costs. I got a great deal going :)
Discover may do the Diners Club thing and flag people who surge and make $3,000+ grocery purchases.
We will see. I haven’t heard any reports yet of being flagged by discover.
Anyone knows if you can buy $500 visa cards at Walgreens with Apple Pay ? I tried 2 ToysRUs and neither of them had the $500 visa cards
I’ve bought a few $500 OVGCS at Walgreens using ApplePay and Discover.
Good to know, I will try the 2 Walgreens near me.
Good luck, let me know how it goes.
So you can exchange all $500 prepaid MS/V/AMEX gift cards at WM for a MO? Or only certain ones, if so which? Ty in advance!
You can only use certain Visa and MasterCard gift cards to buy a money order at Walmart. I don’t buy money orders, so I don’t know which bank issued gift cards work.
Any word on if this pays out yet for the visas?
No we have to wait until early October
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Just got an email saying my $1000 gift card purchases at Walgreens are invalid. So sad….
What date was your transaction? After 9/17?
I got two emails from Discover a few hours ago. Here is what each one says regarding Apple Pay and gift cards …
#1 recieved 11/5 11:13 PM EST
Important info about extra rewards with Apple Pay
Future gift card purchases will not earn extra rewards
Dear Mark xxx,
We’re writing to let you know that your gift card purchase made with Apple Pay at Walgreens #97xx for $504.40 on September 23, 2015 will be rewarded 10% Cashback Bonus® as a one-time courtesy. Gift card purchases are not currently included in this promotion, and any future gift card purchases will not qualify.
As a reminder, now through December 31, 2015, you’ll get an extra 10% Cashback Bonus® on up to $10,000 in purchases when you shop in stores and use your Discover card with Apple Pay, excluding gift card purchases.
Sincerely,
Discover Card Customer Service
#2 received 11/5 11:11 PM EST
Important info about extra rewards with Apple Pay
Gift card purchases will not earn extra rewards
Dear Mark xxx,
We’re writing to let you know that your Apple Pay purchase on September 21, 2015 for $521.59 at Walgreens #97xx included a gift card. The gift card portion of your purchase does not qualify for the 10% Cashback Bonus® promotion.
As a reminder, now through December 31, 2015, you’ll earn an extra 10% Cashback Bonus® on up to $10,000 in purchases when you shop in stores and use your Discover card with Apple Pay, excluding gift card purchases.
If you disagree with our finding and contend that your purchase did not include a gift card or a portion of your purchase qualifies per the terms of the promotion, let us know with supporting documentation in the next 21 days. Documentation can include store receipts or invoices, but cannot include your Discover card statement. You can send documentation via email:
•Scan and then e-mail to (removed so post doesn’t get flagged as suspicious or spam, Will post to dress in reply)
Sincerely,
Discover Card Customer Service
My fiance has yet to receive any emails and we have used Apple Pay to buy gift cards at two different Walgreens at least 10 times each so far.
/Mark
Thanks for the data points, Mark. Strange that your early VGC purchase was not honored, but your later VGC purchase was honored.
Third attempt to post my message. My first post was a copy of the two emails I got from Discover regarding Apple Pay purchases and gift card. The second post got lost when my browser froze and rebooted so frustrated about that, third time the charm. The first email pretty much said that gift card purchases would not be honored in the second email said that as a courtesy they will honor the one time gift card purchase of $504.95. Hopefully my message went into moderation and Grant or the moderators allows it to post. My fiancé has yet to receive any emails from Discover regarding this matter. We have both went to Walgreens to purchase gift cards and other items at least 10 times so far. We always either buy additional items on top of the $500 vanilla gift card and or pay some small amount of cash to make it not look like an obvious gift card purchase. So I wonder how they know? The email which said that gift cards would not receive the bonus had an email address you could use to dispute them not giving you awards by sending in your receipt so maybe they’re just flagging purchases over $500? Maybe we need to be buying smaller denomination gift cards or they just simply have a way of telling you bought a gift card or not.
Hi Mark, I just rescued your message from the spam folder. Thank you for sharing your data points.
No problem, thank you. Happy to help. You guys are great. I’m a newborn but learning quickly! Thanks again!
The email address in the email from Discover to dispute GC purchases/ AP rewards is
promoverification@discover.com
Yes, I wonder how many emails are going to show up in that account by tomorrow…
Hi Grant,
I ride BART almost everyday into SF for work. I wonder if Clipper card reload at Walgreens using Apple pay is considered gift card purchase. Do you have any idea?
Thanks,
Erik
I tried this exact thing, but I don’t have a definitive answer for you. Im not sure if Discover will consider this purchase as a gift card.