Tag Archives: Gift Cards

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Ebates 16th Birthday = 16% Cash Back at 150+ Merchants (May 11-18)

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Good evening everyone, I hope you all had a great Mother’s Day weekend.  If you love online shopping, this next week is going to be a lot of fun for you.  Ebates is turning 16 years old on May 11 and they are celebrating their Sweet Sixteen with 16% cash back at 150+ online merchants.  All the major online retailers are going to participate in this week-long promotion.  If you are new to Ebates, please sign up for a free account here.  You will receive a $10 bonus after your first Ebates purchase.

Ebates 16 Percent Cash Back

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Reminder: OC Meetup at In-N-Out Saturday May 9 at 12pm

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Good afternoon everyone, this is just a friendly reminder for all readers in the Orange County area.  Please join me and many others like me for lunch at In-N-Out as we discuss miles and points.  All levels of expertise are welcome, from beginners to experts.  I will also have a pseudo-memorial for my beloved Redbird Cards, such a tragic event, please come out and pay your respects to a great friend who died too soon.  RIP old buddy :(

OC Meetup:

In-N-Out Tustin District Map

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Sam’s Club Membership and Complete AMEX Offer Ordering Process

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Good morning everyone, this post has a lot of screenshots showing the entire ordering process to complete the SamsClub.com AMEX Offer.  As a refresher, the AMEX Offer will give you a $20 statement credit after spending $20 or more on SamsClub.com (does not work for in-store purchases).

Sams Club AMEX Offer

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Guest Post: Macerich Visa Gift Card Purchases Posting as a Cash Advance

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Good morning everyone, my friend Nigel has written another great guest post for me.  If you are unfamiliar with NIgel, he has written a few other guest posts as well:

Without any further ado, take it away Nigel…

Year to date, I’ve already MS’d $125,000 worth of VGCs between my two local Macerich Malls.  Grant calls me a heavy-hitter, but I call myself a savvy MS’er.  There are people out there that cycle that amount or more in a single month.  In my experience, Macerich Malls are easier to do business with than Simon Malls, so I typically find myself at the Macerich customer service desk twice a week to purchase several VGCs.   Continue reading →

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Redbird Credit Card Reloads Dead: “Able to Load $0.00 with this Payment Method”

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Good morning everyone, I just got back from Target in San Francisco and I have some bad news to share.  I brought my Chase Freedom (Visa), Citi Double Cash (MC), Bank of America Virgin Atlantic (MC), and AMEX Old Blue Cash to Target to see if any of those credit cards could load my Redbird Card.

Target San Francisco

During the loading process, I spoke with a cashier and the store manager.  Neither of them mentioned any memo or said anything out of the ordinary.  Both had loaded Redbird Cards before and knew the process.  This is how the transaction went:

  • Please load $987.00 to my Target Redcard
  • They swiped my Redbird Card and entered the amount on the cash register
  • I swipe my credit card on the POS credit card terminal and the screen shows $987.00 and the signature box
  • Before I even sign the screen, the cash register prints out a receipt and shows an error message on the cash register’s screen, “Able to Load $0.00 with this Payment Method”
  • We repeat the process a few times with different credit cards and at different registers
  • Every time the result is the same, “Able to Load $0.00 with this Payment Method”

Some ideas and thoughts:

  • AMEX for Target (AFT) credit card loads are probably dead as well, but I didn’t have my AFT card with me to try
  • Gift cards and debit cards might work, but I didn’t have either with me to try
  • Cash reloads probably still work, but I didn’t have any cash to try

Where do we stand now?:

  • Do gift cards with PINs (Visa and MasterCard) still work?
  • Which gift cards still work (Vanilla Visa, Bancorp, Metabank, etc.)?
  • How long will gift card reloads work before Target starts blocking those (like Walmart did)?
  • Will there be any online loading options similar to AMEX Serve?

If you have any data points, specifically related to gift cards, please let me know below.  Have a good day everyone.

P.S. NoonRadar has a great summary of what is currently working for Redbird reloads here.