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AMEX Offer: $25 Statement Credit on $50 Smart & Final Purchase (Pics of Gift Card Rack)

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(Hat Tip to Shawn @ Frequent Miler)

Good evening everyone, I know I am super late to the party, but better late than never.  This morning, AMEX released a few new AMEX Offers and there was 1 in particular that got a massive amount of attention.  There is a Smart & Final offer where you can get a $25 statement credit after spending $50+.  You can get the offer 3 times per enrolled AMEX card!

Smart Final AMEX Offer

After work, I went home, grabbed my 6 enrolled AMEX cards and drove to my local Smart & Final.  It was my first time in the store and the only Smart & Final within 20+ miles.

Smart And Final Store Front

Here are some pics of the gift card rack at my local Smart & Final store.  There are Visa, MasterCard, and AMEX Gift Cards in $100 denominations.  They also have a few other retailers, similar to the gift card rack at most grocery stores.

I need to book a Southwest Airlines flight soon, so I grabbed a few Southwest Airlines Gift Cards and made my way to the cashier.  My dreams crashed to the ground when he told me I couldn’t pay for any gift cards with credit cards – cash or debit cards only.  I found that really hard to believe, so I asked why.  He told me that his manager would not let him accept credit cards for gift card purchases.  I think this is a store-specific issue since many people on Twitter have told me that they were able to buy gift cards with credit cards and even do split tender on the $100 Visa/MasterCard/AMEX Gift Cards.  I walked out of the store empty handed, but I will try again at a different store.  I am 90% sure the next store will be more credit card friendly, but if not, I still have until June 30 to find a helpful Smart & Final.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Have a great evening everyone!


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65 thoughts on “AMEX Offer: $25 Statement Credit on $50 Smart & Final Purchase (Pics of Gift Card Rack)

  1. Kent C

    I had no problem at my store either but the cashier did tell me she was overwhelmed with syncers. She said a whole bunch of gift cards and visa m/c cards were sold. She was friendly but you could tell this may not sit well with management. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had enough of the gift card buyers at your store (and possibly others) and said no more. In other words, we know why you are in here. Now go buy $50 worth of food,etc like the promo was intended. Who ever said we were normal?

    Reply
    1. Kent C

      I also wonder if denying the use of a CC for store gift cards is a violation of a vendor contract retail stores have with those cards/companies. If I were the bank issuing those store gift cards or the restaurants, etc, I would be pretty pissed if CCs were allowed by right and then a customer willing to buy them was told no.

      Reply
        1. C.N.

          I guess I won’t bother wasting my time stopping by that store…I suggest you stop by Mariscos La Costa on your walk down to S&F from Fruitvale, it’s right on the way on International(@ 37th Ave.)

          Reply
      1. Jeff

        I bought $100 amex gc’s in separate transactions. I think $200 or $300 triggers a manager override. They’ll probably want a manager to confirm the transaction anyways. 3x$100 with 6 cards at each store. I guess you could probably do all $900 (3x$50 on each your cards) in one go at one store but I didn’t want to hold up the line. There plenty of Smart & Final’s around anyways.
        Plenty of gift cards too, lots of $100vgc/mcgc/agc, shell or arco $50, southwest etc… I doubt they’ll run out any time gc’s anytime soon.

        Reply
  2. iahphx

    If it doesn’t work out, I guess you could always buy food. :)

    A couple of years ago, my primary local East Coast supermarket (Shoprite) did an AMEX promo where you got 20% off. I thought about buying gift cards, but I realized it was better to just buy store gift cards and get the discount off of food I would have bought anyway.

    Of course, this was before I started “collecting” AMEX cards to take advantage of all these AMEX offers (particularly Small Business Saturday). These days, I wouldn’t need enough food and would want to also buy gift cards for other stores.

    Reply
  3. SethM

    Just after reading your Post at around 10.20 AM local time i took an early lunch break and went to Smart & Final and cleared out the inventory of 6 $100 VISA Cards split tendered to 2 AMEX Cards for each $100 transaction. Made sure they were not tampered with. (so important). If there were any $200, $300 cards sold by Smart & Final, i didn’t see those denominations. An elderly gentleman thinking i was the only person came in my line but i had already started my swipes. Got really frustated. Got an email for using my AMEX offers for all the credit cards * 3. Now hopefully the credits post. Can’t wait to hug my wife tonight and go through her wallet and extract her AMEX cards and do the same thing. :).

    Reply
    1. Paul

      Sigh.

      If you are going to do GCs/split tenders in multiple transactions, ask them to close the register so somebody doesn’t unload a cart full of groceries and then gets pissed off by the pissant buying GCs and wasting everyone’s time. Many people get pissed off when somebody writes a check these days….imagine how frustrating it is when some twat does 6 split payment transactions!

      FWIW, my local SWs allow a maximum of two transactions per visit. That’s a reasonable number for everyone to remember. If you can’t get it done in two, get out of line and don’t be a DB about it.

      One of my pet peeves about this hobby is people who do stuff like that.

      Reply
    2. Karthika

      I don’t know if I can ask it off, I did not understand what you did at the store. Did you buy 6 $100 VISA gift cards which means splitting the $600 between your 2 AMEX cards for $300 each? I am sorry if hurt you asking this.

      Reply
  4. alex

    If you’re ever back in Irvine, Grant, the one on culver had tons of Amazon GC’s (I got some of those). I also went to one in Santa Ana, where there was the huge giftcardmall rack and VGC’s $100 . Neither store gave me issue

    Reply
      1. Alex

        I’ve lived in Bay Area before (berkeley) as well as OC now. Theyre both great places, I likewise kind of miss the Bay Area sometimes! Good thing it’s just over an hr flight away ….!

        Reply
  5. Smitty

    I’m going to start calling this the mother of all AMEX sync deals. I’ve got 15 amex cards I can use this with, for 3 transactions per card, totaling 45 transactions in all. I’ll probably sprinkle those around various gift cards as well as the $100 visas if I can find them. Total haul should be over $1,100 in free money. I love this hobby. I’m sure there will be others who make out even better than I do.

    Reply
    1. Grant

      I’m sure there are. Nice $1000 of profit you got there. I feel like this deal is going to die soon, so better get in now if you can.

      Reply
  6. bayguy

    My wife was able to buy 3 visa 100$ cards from same Pleasant Hill store. Looks like Amex sent them a memo about the promotion and allowing credit for GC sales. She was shown a memo by one of the counter clerk. She also got Gas, Food GCs and we will return for more.

    This is absolutely wonderful free $900(have 12 cards).

    Reply
    1. Grant

      Dang, that is the store I went to. When did she go? I went the day the Amex Offer came out and they said no credit cards for GC purchases.

      Reply
  7. bayguy

    She went yesterday(17) and I am following you on the blog. She knew about the challenge and decided to try anyhow.

    If you have more cards to use, you can visit the store and talk about memo(if they refuse)

    Reply
  8. Rich

    I live in the South Bay and went to my local S&F and bought $300 worth of gift cards, went back 3 days later and was told you can not buy gift cards with a credit card! WTF!

    Reply
  9. Bayguy

    Final update: Completed offers on all my cards(Free 900$). I was able to buy 100$ GCs(both Visa & Master Card), Gas GCs with multiple swipes.

    You can go to Pleasant Hill without any doubt.

    Reply
    1. Grant

      Awesome, I’ll do that Monday night after work. Do you remember the name of the cashier or manager you spoke with? Lots of GCs left for me?

      Reply
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  11. bayguy

    I don’t remember the names(worked with 3 cashiers over 2 days) and didn’t need manager intervention at all. Visa 100$ are not there but Master Cards are still available(as of yesterday afternoon),

    Reply
    1. ell

      Do you have any update up phoenix stores? I’m planing to fly in next week to PHX any thing i should know beforehand?

      Reply
        1. ell

          Thanks i actually flew down to phx to do this promo i had over 60 cards it worked fine no amex problems (i called in before), split transactions worked like a charm, some stores check ID

          Reply
  12. pete

    Limited to 3(x) $50 transaction with $25 credit ACROSS ALL AMEX ACCOUNT, so how do you get more than $75 credit statement?

    Reply
    1. Grant

      The limit is per enrolled card, not per individual Amex account. You can get 3 $25 statement credits for each enrolled Amex card.

      Reply
  13. Kalboz

    Well, for a family of 4 we need lots of groceries. No need to buy cards, just straight up groceries. For 3 cards it would a total savings of $225 until the end of the promotion!

    Reply
  14. Kalboz

    During this morning shopping trip to S&F, I asked the Santa Ana store cashier if they accepted CCs for gift cards (Visa & MC). He said so long as your ID matches your CC you can shop away for GCs. I didn’t ask him about the split tender though – maybe during the nexr shopping trip!

    Reply
      1. Kalboz

        Split tender was also successfully done this morning using two AMEX cards, twice. Already received the AMEX confirmation email for the $25 discount each. Bought (4) $50 major department store GCs as we are planning above-the-range microwave oven & vent purchase (currently retailed at ~$480 including delivery & installation). Two more of the same GCs in the planning. We are holding off until the 4th of July sale and that will place our purchase at better 50% off the sale price.

        Will report on the final savings when we pull the trigger!

        Reply
        1. Grant

          Thanks for the update. Glad you scored some more gift cards and I’m sure you will be able to find some great deals during the 4th of July holiday weekend.

          Reply
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