My wife and I are on a 5 year, 50 state road trip. Since mid-March, we’ve pretty much been hunkering down and not moving every 5-7 days like we normally do, so we’ve both had more time on our hands than we normally would when traveling and actually trying to see stuff.
Shae has spent much of that time teaching online through Outschool, while I’ve spent some of that extra time producing resources for this site that I’d not normally have had time to produce. That includes:
After about 6 weeks in Pueblo, CO, we’re moving again tomorrow as our Airbnb reservation is coming to an end, but we’re then staying in the same place for a few weeks. That’ll give me time to work on some additional resources, so I wanted to see if there are any gift card-related resources you’d like to see?
For example, that VPN post came about because someone had asked about it and so I wrote that post to collect data points. The gift card balance checker came about because I knew from personal experience that it’s a pain having to search online for balance checkers, especially seeing as the first result on Google usually isn’t to the gift card balance check page in the first place.
I’m planning on creating several resources relating to the loyalty programs of the main grocery store chains that are particularly of interest from a gift card perspective (i.e. Kroger, Safeway/Albertsons, Giant/Martin’s/Stop & Shop and Giant Eagle). For example, sometimes people wonder how a Kroger 4x fuel points promotion can save you up to 14% on gas. Rather than having to type that out every couple of weeks when a new 4x digital coupon appears, I can link to that post which will go into much greater detail about how that works, along with some other nuances about each program.
In addition to that though, are there any other resources you’d find helpful? Something you’d like to be able to bookmark that you could refer back to in the future? If so, let me know in the comments below. I can’t guarantee that it’ll be something I’ll be able to produce, but I’ll certainly do my best if it’s achievable.
Could you also add the Speedway loyalty program to that list, how it works, perks, scaling? Thanks for all you do!!
That’s a great idea! I’m still fairly new to the Speedway program and just recently had it explained to me somewhat, so hopefully when I publish that then readers who are more well-versed in it can help contribute other details about how it works.
What gift card sites allow you to use a VGC, MCGC, or other prepaid cards for payment. Sometimes a discounted GC is the easiest way to liquidate a MCGC. For example, AARP allows gebits but Pay with Ibotta and MyGiftCardsPlus do not.
Good thinking. I’ve not tended to try redeeming VGCs and MGCs that way and so I don’t have much to contribute in that sense, but I could certainly set up a resource to collect data points similar to the VPN post – thanks for the suggestion.
I just read your post about Logan’s Roadhouse in Chapter 11. Of course, I had purchased $100 of GCs from Sam’s right before COVID. Perhaps a post on what to do when we’re in this situation of holding GCs for closing places? Should we try to sell? Do the sellers (in this case, Sam’s Club) have any responsibility to reimburse folks? Is there a place to claim the loss? Thanks!
Thanks for your suggestion. With regards to your particular situation, although they’re in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, you should still be able to order carry-out from them at the moment, so your gift cards aren’t worthless. The bankruptcy protection is to protect them from their creditors for now, so it’s a different situation to them permanently closing their doors (which could still happen).
Maybe a database of whether a portal successfully tracks and pays out when buying or using gift cards at different online retailers..
That’s a great suggestion, although it would probably take me a little while to work out how to set that up. In the meantime, the Frequent Miler Lab has some data points like that: https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/laboratory/
[…] asking recently which gift card-related resources you’d like to see created on this site, Kent asked for a resource that collected data points on which sites and apps […]