My week started on Tuesday, when I picked up a $500 Visa gift card at a local Safeway store after hearing rumors of Safeway pulling Visa gift cards off the shelves. The transaction went smoothly and I thought that was the end of it. Then emails started flooding in. Safeway stores around the country had … Read more
Update: As of January 22, it seems all Safeway stores have in fact removed Visa gift cards from their racks. Yesterday, I reported that Safeway stores were pulling Visa gift cards from their shelves. Some reports indicate that this would be a permanent move due to massive fraud, while others think it might be a … Read more
Update: The Value Traveler spoke to a store manager at a VA Safeway and confirmed they’re pulling gift cards due to issues with fraud. Several readers from around the country have also emailed to confirm their Safeway stores have pulled Visa gift cards. The hits just keep on coming. Reader Holly just emailed me, saying her … Read more
Last year, I outlined some mistakes to avoid when manufactured spending, one of which was “not being discreet (i.e. don’t tell cashiers what you’re doing). I’m beginning to reevaluate this stance based on some recent experiences. For example, I’ve heard of gift card churners who have relationships with people at certain shopping malls and Walmart … Read more
I visited my sister last week and it was a very good trip. Not only because I got to spend time with her and my nieces, but it was productive in terms of manufactured spending. I unloaded a ton of Visa gift cards thanks to her help and finally beat that cough I’ve been battling for … Read more
I briefly mentioned RadPad recently in a post, explaining how paying rent through RadPad is one way to unload extra Visa gift cards, since they don’t charge fees on debit card transactions. Meanwhile, credit card fees are hefty at 3.49%. RadPad just announced the reduction of the processing fee on MasterCard credit cards to 1.99%. … Read more
The last miles-for-search tool is officially dead and we missed the funeral: On November 17, 2015 Hawaiian Airlines discontinued the search function on the Hawaiian MileFinder. I didn’t even get to give it a proper eulogy like I did for the prepaid cards we’ve lost over the years (i.e. “This is a terrible loss, but … Read more
American Express My Offers is a great program that offers lots of savings on everyday spending. I personally get enough value out of these targeted statement credits to off-set the annual fee on my SPG Amex card every year. This month, there are some really great offers available. Some of them are targeted. Be sure … Read more
It’s been a bad week for many folks out there who had their Serve and Bluebird accounts shut down. As I previously explained, I don’t think this news is quite as terrible as everyone is making it out to be. There are lots of other options out there for earning points and miles. Prepaid cards … Read more
Yesterday’s news of the mass shutdowns of Amex Bluebird and Serve prepaid cards came as a shock to many people. There were no quiet rumblings, in-store memos, or signs of trouble like when Vanilla Reloads and Redbird went down. It all came out of nowhere. As a result, lots of readers are left holding excess … Read more