Carnival Gift cards at Grocery Stores

[wrightkj]

11 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Welcome to cruising and Cruise Critic wrightkj! You don't have to have insurance through Allstate (although I do) to set up an account for rewards.  I get notified through a Cruise Critic thread that a promo code is available so I can accrue points that are needed to buy gift cards through Allstate.  10,000 points are needed to buy a $1,000 gift card for $900.  Right now Allstate only has $100 and $500 gift cards available and since they are not ecards they charge to mail them therefore reducing the percentage off.

AARP has Carnival ecards (no charge for emailing) but you need a membership (which I have since I am old😁) and there is a limit to how many you can buy per month.  I haven't had an issue with the number per month.  I like the ecards because you can save them to your Apple wallet.  

Here's the link to the CC thread about gift cards:

Hope that helps!!

I have the AARP membership, so I used that and will probably go back over the next couple of months to get discounted cards to pay for internet/drinks/etc!

[nydney1]

Meijer used to offer 10% back up to $50 on gift cards several times a year. This included Carnival cards. I used to purchase them with my Hilton card so I would get points for Hilton and also a kick back from Meijer.

[sanmarcosman]

21 hours ago, Calnev1 said:

getting about 4 dollars back in gas on your $100 Carnival gift card purchase.  That would then be about a four percent discount on the Carnival GC purchase.  But I am sure someone has actually figured this out.

$4 will almost get you a gallon of gas. 

[mmtska]

On 5/4/2023 at 7:59 PM, Buffalobills said:

They don’t sell them at Target anymore either. 

Ours has them. 

[Eli_6]

If you get $1 off per gallon of gas per 1000 points and you get 2000 points per $500 purchase, that would come out to a $60 savings (assuming a 30 gallon tank) so slightly better than the Allstate or AARP.  But, if you have a smaller tank, not as good of a deal. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Eli_6

[maluhia87]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:14 AM, Calnev1 said:

 I dug a bit deeper into the Kroger gas program on the internet and see there are further restrictions that could make it difficult to get full value.  It appears you can only use the fuel points at Shell gas stations or Kroger gas stations.  And at Shell gas stations you can’t use more than 100 Kroger fuel points each fill up for a max discount of only ten cents a gallon.

 

The rules change based on the Kroger variant of store that is in your area. Shell is not our gas station partner.  If you also have the AMEX Blue Cash Preferred you get an additional 6% back for a grocery purchase.  We plan our fuel purchases to maximize the 35 gallons and between the two discounts, it is a 20% saving.  

[ibarrio]

4 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

If you get $1 off per gallon of gas per 1000 points and you get 2000 points per $500 purchase, that would come out to a $60 savings (assuming a 30 gallon tank) so slightly better than the Allstate or AARP.  But, if you have a smaller tank, not as good of a deal. 

 

I wonder if you can use Visa gift cards (Kroger x 4 points event) on AARP? It would be a nice double dip if you can 

[wemjam]

1 hour ago, ibarrio said:

 

I wonder if you can use Visa gift cards (Kroger x 4 points event) on AARP? It would be a nice double dip if you can 

AARP takes VISA as payment so I would assume it likely would work?

[ibarrio]

14 minutes ago, wemjam said:

AARP takes VISA as payment so I would assume it likely would work?

I use my Visa debit card on AARP with no issues but some places will not take a Visa Gift card for some reason. I just paid for the drink package using AARP carnival gift cards but next time I need one I will try a Visa gift card from Kroger. I do believe you cannot use any gift card other than Carnival  while on board 

Edited May 8, 2023 by ibarrio

[Calnev1]

2 hours ago, ibarrio said:

 

I wonder if you can use Visa gift cards (Kroger x 4 points event) on AARP? It would be a nice double dip if you can 

 

I use VISA gift cards all the time to buy Carnival gift cards on AARP.   The only catch is that you can't use multiple forms of payment for one gift card (e.g, you can't use multiple $200 Visa gift cards to buy a $500 Carnival Gift card).  In practice, that means in a single transaction I will buy two $100 Carnival Gift Cards for $180 on AARP and then have $20 left on my $200 Visa Gift Card.  I save up these partially used Visa Gift Cards and use them to pay down my USAA insurance bills online.   USAA will let you use as many  VISA gift cards as you want.  You can also use them up on Amazon, although that is a bit more hassle.

 

Having said all that, I am not sure that the Kroger 4x event is by itself a good way to buy VISA GCs.   That is because VISA GCs have a purchase fee.   For a $200 VISA GC, that fee would be $6.95 (or more), or about 3.5%.  How much is Kroger 4x worth?   Its not clear to me that it would be worth much more than 3.5%.   You also could mitigate this fee by using a credit card that gives you a lot of points or cashback at grocery stores, such as the AMEX Blue Cash card which, as someone has noted, has 6% cash back at grocery stores.  SO yes that would be worth it in combo with the Kroger 4x.    Or you could buy these GCs when they are on sale with the purchase fee waived, which happens at various office supply stores and sometimes Lowes.  I have a credit card that gives me 5% back at office supply stores, so I use that to get VISA GCs when the purchase fee is waived.  And sometimes I can get 5% back at Lowes on another credit card I have.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Calnev1

[Calnev1]

8 minutes ago, Calnev1 said:

 

  How much is Kroger 4x worth?   Its not clear to me that it would be worth much more than 3.5%.   

Fyi, I am quoting myself because I think the value of the Kroger 4x depends a lot on where you are and how much gas you can buy and use.  So please don't flame me if you get much more value from the Kroger 4x where you are and in your personal circumstances. 

[Calnev1]

3 hours ago, maluhia87 said:

The rules change based on the Kroger variant of store that is in your area. Shell is not our gas station partner.  If you also have the AMEX Blue Cash Preferred you get an additional 6% back for a grocery purchase.  We plan our fuel purchases to maximize the 35 gallons and between the two discounts, it is a 20% saving.  

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Calnev1
found the answer to my question

[ibarrio]

It would be a nice double dip/savings for the Phoenix area...which has some of the highest gas prices in the nation. I'm talking right up there with California gas prices. I put gas at Costco but my wife uses the Fry's points to put gas. 

[maluhia87]

1 hour ago, Calnev1 said:

How much is Kroger 4x worth?   Its not clear to me that it would be worth much more than 3.5%.    

If you get the full 35 gallons the discount is 14%.  I've done the math on this a number of times.  Much easier to fully use when there are two vehicles. 

You are shifting the discount from one thing to another. 

[cmichael1221]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:11 AM, ProvoAggie said:

Raise.com also allows you to get 8% back and you can purchase any exact amount you want up to $1000 at a time I think. So you can buy a $1000 one and get $80 back...and then you can immediately use the $80 towards another one. It's nice because when you have $293 left on your balance you can just buy a card for $293 and not have any extra.

I love Raise for the exact amount concept - I'll usually buy one on board the last night of the cruise and apply against my balance!

[Calnev1]

1 hour ago, maluhia87 said:

If you get the full 35 gallons the discount is 14%.  I've done the math on this a number of times.  Much easier to fully use when there are two vehicles. 

You are shifting the discount from one thing to another. 

I did the math in post #18 above, and agree that hypothetically you can get up to a 14% discount from the Kroger 4x.  But there are a bunch of reasons why I don't think I could get close to the maximum discount.  The biggest reason is that the price of gas at the Costco near me is generally eight to ten percent better than the starting price of gas at all the other gas stations around here, and so if Kroger partnered with one of those other stations the value of the Kroger deal would fall off sharply.  Still some value though.

[cmichael1221]

2 hours ago, Calnev1 said:

 

I use VISA gift cards all the time to buy Carnival gift cards on AARP.   The only catch is that you can't use multiple forms of payment for one gift card (e.g, you can't use multiple $200 Visa gift cards to buy a $500 Carnival Gift card).  In practice, that means in a single transaction I will buy two $100 Carnival Gift Cards for $180 on AARP and then have $20 left on my $200 Visa Gift Card.  I save up these partially used Visa Gift Cards and use them to pay down my USAA insurance bills online.   USAA will let you use as many  VISA gift cards as you want.  You can also use them up on Amazon, although that is a bit more hassle.

 

Having said all that, I am not sure that the Kroger 4x event is by itself a good way to buy VISA GCs.   That is because VISA GCs have a purchase fee.   For a $200 VISA GC, that fee would be $6.95 (or more), or about 3.5%.  How much is Kroger 4x worth?   Its not clear to me that it would be worth much more than 3.5%.   You also could mitigate this fee by using a credit card that gives you a lot of points or cashback at grocery stores, such as the AMEX Blue Cash card which, as someone has noted, has 6% cash back at grocery stores.  SO yes that would be worth it in combo with the Kroger 4x.    Or you could buy these GCs when they are on sale with the purchase fee waived, which happens at various office supply stores and sometimes Lowes.  I have a credit card that gives me 5% back at office supply stores, so I use that to get VISA GCs when the purchase fee is waived.  And sometimes I can get 5% back at Lowes on another credit card I have.

I buy the waived fee Visa/MC's all the time with my Chase cards for the 5x points - ONLY issue I've had with AARP is running a bunch of transactions in a row, with different cards... Seems to raise a red flag sometimes.

 

[Calnev1]

4 minutes ago, cmichael1221 said:

I buy the waived fee Visa/MC's all the time with my Chase cards for the 5x points - ONLY issue I've had with AARP is running a bunch of transactions in a row, with different cards... Seems to raise a red flag sometimes.

 

I know what you mean.  My wife and I have separate AARP Rewards accounts.  What I do now is alternate accounts from day to day.   That is, on day 1, I buy gift cards on my account.  On day 2, I buy them on her account.  On day 3 I buy them on my account.  (repeat, repeat).  Since I have started doing this, no problem with my AARP gift card purchases going through.

[cmichael1221]

2 minutes ago, Calnev1 said:

I know what you mean.  My wife and I have separate AARP Rewards accounts.  What I do now is alternate accounts from day to day.   That is, on day 1, I buy gift cards on my account.  On day 2, I buy them on her account.  On day 3 I buy them on my account.  (repeat, repeat).  Since I have started doing this, no problem with my AARP gift card purchases going through.

Nice, good idea!  I usually book cruises fairly last-minute and need lots of gift cards right away... I should start 'laundering' the Visa gift cards into Carnival gift cards before I need them! 🙂

 

[ProvoAggie]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:26 AM, Calnev1 said:

This is interesting.  Raise.com is a third party reseller of gift cards, which means that someone else had that gift card before you bought it and so has the gift card code and pin.  Are you concerned that you might buy a gift card from raise that someone else might use before you do?  That would concern me.  But raise probably has protections in place against this,

 

So Raise has a couple of different ways that they sell cards. One of them is as a reseller. If I buy a card from another individual at a discount I just buy it right before I plan on using it and use it right away. I'd never hang on to a card from them.

 

In addition to that though, they also have partnerships with some companies where they sell new gift cards and instead of giving a discount, they give you a credit back towards your next purchase. This allows you to buy a card for the exact amount you need and it's a new gift card. I still use them right away but it's also probably a bit safer. I just buy a $1000 card, copy and paste the number into Carnival and then use my $80 towards the next card until my amount is paid off. I've done it now for 2 cruises with zero problems.

[Calnev1]

3 minutes ago, ProvoAggie said:

 

So Raise has a couple of different ways that they sell cards. One of them is as a reseller. If I buy a card from another individual at a discount I just buy it right before I plan on using it and use it right away. I'd never hang on to a card from them.

 

In addition to that though, they also have partnerships with some companies where they sell new gift cards and instead of giving a discount, they give you a credit back towards your next purchase. This allows you to buy a card for the exact amount you need and it's a new gift card. I still use them right away but it's also probably a bit safer. I just buy a $1000 card, copy and paste the number into Carnival and then use my $80 towards the next card until my amount is paid off. I've done it now for 2 cruises with zero problems.

So when you buy the Carnival Gift Cards from raise.com at the 8% discount you buying a new gift card?   If a new gift card, that would definitely be something I would consider.  I presume you pay raise with a credit card.  I wonder if you could use Visa Gift Card to pay for your raise transaction.

[ProvoAggie]

2 minutes ago, Calnev1 said:

So when you buy the Carnival Gift Cards from raise.com at the 8% discount you buying a new gift card?   If a new gift card, that would definitely be something I would consider.  I presume you pay raise with a credit card.  I wonder if you could use Visa Gift Card to pay for your raise transaction.

That is correct. When you go to the Carnival Page you'll see "Cash Back Gift Cards" and "Discount Gift Cards." The Discount ones are discounted on the front end and are from other users. The Cash Back ones provide the discount back as a credit and are new cards. You do buy them with a credit card and I don't see why a Visa Gift Card wouldn't work but I've always just used my AmEx.

[Calnev1]

18 hours ago, maluhia87 said:

If you get the full 35 gallons the discount is 14%.  I've done the math on this a number of times.  Much easier to fully use when there are two vehicles. 
 

In thinking about the Kroger 4x, I realized that there could be another way to take advantage of that promotion.

 

AARP sells many different grocery store gift cards at an 8% discount.  Among these discounted GCs are grocery stores under both the Kroger umbrella and Albertsons umbrella.  So when Kroger is running one of  its 4x gift card sales, could you buy a discounted Kroger gift card at AARP and then use that Kroger gift card to buy Carnival Gift cards at Kroger?  The math is pretty good.  I think this could potentially produce a discount of up to 27%:  5% off from the VISA gift cards that you use to buy the 8% off Kroger GCs that you then use during the 14% Kroger 4x GC sale.  (If you can get the 14% value from Kroger 4x sale…..).

 

Likely,  the fine print of the Kroger GC says you aren’t supposed to use that GC to buy other gift cards at Kroger.  That is true with Albertson’s GCs (which I buy all the time from AARP).  But one time I (accidently) tried to pay for a combined purchase of groceries and GCs at  an Albertsons using  Albertson’s GCs.  And it worked!  Then I tried it again later and it didn’t work --  they made me ring up the stuff separate.  YMMV.