Good morning everyone, I had a fun-filled evening last night. After work, I drove to my local Staples and Smart & Final store (which happen to be next to each other) and did a bit of shopping. My first stop was at Staples to buy some gift cards…
Currently, Staples has an Easy Rebate on Visa and MasterCard Gift Cards. Purchase more than $300 in gift cards and receive a $20 Staples Gift Card. I would recommend buying all Visa or all MasterCard Gift Cards and not mix-and-matching, just to be safe. All the Visa Gift Cards were sold out, so I bought 2 $200 MasterCard Gift Cards.
After putting those gift cards in the car, my next stop was Smart & Final for some gift cards.
These pics are from last week, so some of the gift card inventory was a little different, but there were still plenty of gift cards to choose from. I played it safe and bought 1 gift card and asked the cashier and manager if I could purchase a few more. They said it would not be a problem. I bought 5 more gift cards and let all the “regular / non-gift card” shoppers go ahead of me so I wouldn’t upset anyone waiting behind me. After I finished purchasing those gift cards, I put them in my car and went back in for round 2. And then again for round 3.
The cashier was very cool and friendly. He knew what was going on and did his best to go fast. Unfortunately, AMEX does not like seeing multiple $50 charges on the same card, at the same store, within a few minutes of each other. Luckily, the AMEX app showed the fraud alerts as a notification which I could easily clear up in 2 seconds. Then I was back in business. I asked the cashier if he had any credit cards and he said he just had a Wells Fargo credit card that he didn’t really use. I told him to just make 1 small purchase on the card each month and pay it off. That will help his credit score, little by little, over time. I try to help where I can :)
Back home, I organized all the receipts, activation slips, and gift cards. Here is my total haul:
- 8 x $50 Southwest Airlines Gift Cards
- 5 x $25 Starbucks Gift Cards
- 2 x $50 Home Depot Gift Cards
- 2 x $20 Sees Candy Gift Cards
- 1 x $50 at PF Changs, Macy’s. and Nordstrom.
- A few other gift cards are not pictured that I had already used up.
My email had many emails from American Express. Honestly, if you have a few AMEX credit cards with this offer, it may make sense to do a mileage run or mini weekend trip to a city that has Smart & Final stores. 6 credit cards x 3 transactions x $25 statement credit = $450 in cash back. Surely you can find a cheap flight/hotel somewhere. Just think about it for a second…
All that MS worked up an appetite, so I walked over to Chipotle and used my newly purchase Chipotle gift card to get some chicken tacos, chips, and guac. Delicious as always!
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
Thank you Grant for initially posting this deal. I would have never checked my Amex account to see that it was there.
You’re welcome. I hope you were able to take advantage of the offer.
Are you actually going to use all those gift cards or you will liquidate them?
I will use SWA and all the restaurant cards. The Home Depot, Macy’s, and Nordstrom gift cards are presents for my parents.
Now I want Chipotle
Go. Eat. Chipotle.
LOVE Chipotle! We’re getting a new one in Dublin soon :D
About time! Go on the opening day, they normally give out free/cheap food.
Are these available on amex sync or only if they’re in your account on offers?
I think both ways.
Did the same thing but bought 6 $50 Amazon gift cards and will be using them at Amazon to buy Bose noise cancelling headset for for half price thanks to the statement credits. Only wish I could find a cash back or airline portal for Amazon or figure out how to use Amazon Gift cards to purchase on portals?
I would have bought Amazon GCs if they had any at my store. You can always use my Amazon affiliate account. At least one of us will earn some money :)
Never mind, I see the above. Are there Smart & Final Stores located anywhere but Southern California? I have no idea where they are and I don’t want to type in a zillion zip codes to find out.
Just go to Google Maps and type “smart and final near” your zipcode. They zoom out to see them. I’m in Northern California now but they are all around CA.
Hi Grant
I have three Amex cards, but I got Smart and Final offer for only one card. Is there anything I can do to get this offer for my other cards?
Yes, set up separate twitter accounts for each card, and then sync them via Amex Twitter sycn (https://sync.americanexpress.com/Twitter/Index). Once that is done, you can just tweet #AmexSmartFinal in each account and you will have the offer on all the cards.
Thank you Smitty.
You can use AMEX Sync to add the offer to your other cards.
Grant, I have 11 AMEX cards with the Smart & Final offer but live in Virginia. Can I just FedEx them over to you to buy some gift cards and send back to me? I can trust you, right? :)
I did consider seeing if a flight out to CA would make sense for $825 in free money.
Is CA the only state with Smart & Final stores? Could be a good excuse for a vacation.
Good point. The deal could probably create a self funded vacation opportunity!
No doubt! The greatest Amex offer.
I was planning to go to Smart & Final on a layover in SFO and SAN.
Any issue with buying gift cards with credit cards?
Do all S&F sell gift cards?
I had no problem using my Amex to buy store gift cards, but the cashier did a visual check of my ID. No swiping or scanning like at CVS or Target! I did not attempt to buy Visa gift cards. This S&F had signs announcing this promotion, so at least the cashiers are aware of the promo. I used it to buy a Shell gift card which I normally wouldn’t do, but there’s one station near me that has competitive, no credit card surcharge pricing. Plus when you use a Shell gift card you get a 5 cent/gallon instant discount. A small bonus!
Thanks askmrlee!
I’ve never seen a sign for the promo. Good time on Shell GCs.
I’m in the Bay Area as well and I bought Amex GCs (I prefer them over Visa GCs for easier Redbird loading…also I think the fee is $1 less per card?). Didn’t even check my ID. I was able to use my husband’s Amex credit card as well to fully max out this deal.
If there are S&F stores by SFO, you should be able to buy GCs with CCs. I bought my GCs on the East Bay side.
Which store did you have luck at? I’m in the East Bay also. Thanks for the great info.
The only S&F close by is Pleasant Hill and they can help you out. Just be friendly and don’t slow down the checkout line.
Thanks. I had luck yesterday at the Hayward S&F. No problem splitting the payments. Now how do i liquidate all these VGCs? I haven’t dealt with these since the beginning of bluebird. I’ve been a little out of that loop.
Haha you gave a year of catching up to do. Do you have a Redbird Card?
Yeah, I’ve been got the REDCard and a Serve. Just haven’t played around with gift cards in a few years. When i tried to link a debit card on both red and serve it said it had to be in my name. What else can i do? Just load it in the store?
You can load the gift card to both your Serve Card (Walmart) and your Redbird Card (Target) in store.
You have to load the gift cards in store. Online reloads will not work.
Hi Grant, how do you set the fraud alert to let it show on the Amex app? Thanks in advance for your help.
If you have the AMEX app on your phone, you should get an email and a push alert when there is suspicious charge.
Hmm. Had paid much attention to this sync deal, since there is no S&F in the Midwest. But then I realized that I have to be in Vegas next month for work. BINGO!!! Plenty of them there. Guess I’ll be doing a little MS while on a biz trip.
I see Visa and MC GCs in your pic. Assume we can get these too?
Thanks for the heads up on the ‘weekend trip’!
This is good to know…Vegas, here I come…would hate to sit in a plane all day to travel to Cali, but don’t mind Vegas!
Vegas is only 40 minutes closer than CA!
Yes you can get whatever GCs you want. Some people but the $100 VGCs and do split tender with 2 AMEX CCs. Have fun in Vegas. You’re guaranteed to make money as long as you go to S&F, not the casino.
I would have hit up the Coldstone, too! ;-)
Hoping you didn’t swipe up all the GCs before I can get there!
I left plenty of cold stone and other GCs.
I live in Vegas and have been denied purchase of gift cards unless with cash or debit card at Smart & Final. Tried 3 stores now with same response. Do not count on taking advantage of this promotion in Vegas!
Shawn at Miles to Memories lives in Las Vegas and was able to purchase them at his local store. You might want to reach out to him for help.
I picked up a bunch of $100 mastercard gift cards at my local smart and final. When the cashier saw a bunch of gift cards she asked right away if I wanted to do split tender at $50 per card. It was very easy!
Dang, doesn’t get any easier than that. Nice job Chris!
My local S&F told me you cant do split tender on gift cards! They wouldn’t even try. I bet it would work if they at least tried! I was still able to just get regular gift cards though so not a total loss
It’s possible if they want to. Glad you did t leave empty handed.
i bought Amazon gift cards but I never received the emails and the credits never posted. I asked Amex why and they said that it will take up to 90 days but not to worry because Amex has my back.
Should I be worried? I’ve never seen a credit take more than a minute to post.
Most credits take 1-2 business days after the initial charge posts to your credit card. If you log into your AMEX account, can you see if this card has the offer attached?
Yes, and AMEX confirmed that it is attached.
I see, and you made purchases over $50?
Yes, I made 1 purchase of $50 one 1 day and 2 separate $50 purchases the next. All $50 exactly.
You should be fine then, just wait a few days and your credits should post automatically.
These credits still haven’t posted! Do I really need to wait 90 days and then complain to AmEx?
Thanks.
Hmm, if the charge shows on your Amex card for more than 3 or 4 days without the statement credit, I would contact Amex and see if they can expedite the statement credit.
Thanks Grant for this awesome information. That means if I have 6 AMEX credit cards, I can do the same like you. When I purchase $900 Gift Cards in total, I can get $450 statement credit back.
Yes exactly. Good luck!
So we went to the Smart and Final in Vallejo, looked around a bit and my husband proceeded to purchase just one home depot gift card and the checker told him they could only be purchased with a debit card or cash. How did you get the Pleasant Hill store to change its policy. I was too tired to approach the manager and just left.
Apparently the manager just changed her mind and started allowing credit cards. There might be a memo or something from American Express.
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