Negative Changes To Kroger Gift Card Purchases & Fuel Points Program
There are some changes coming out for the Kroger Fuel Points program and gift card purchases that will be a blow to some resellers. These changes will not affect the majority of Kroger customers since most people just buy a few gift cards during the promos. For people like us this is a points earning blow though.
Details on the Changes
Kroger is rolling out the following changes, already in effect:
- Gift card purchases are limited to $500 per transaction.
- Used to be $1999.99 at self checkout and pretty much unlimited at customer service.
- A limit of 6 swipes per credit card per day.
- This has been in place for a while but it is much more important now.
Why These Changes Matter
For most people this won’t seem like a big deal. But for people that took advantage of the Kroger gift card sales or the 4X Fuel Points promos this is a big hit to those endeavors. You are now limited to $3000 per credit card per day and that is only if you can find a friendly cashier that will allow you to do 6 separate transactions.
For people that were able to manufacture points with the fuel points promos, selling the gift cards and the fuel points for break even, this just cut them off at the knees. It was easy to rack up tons of points, especially in the lucrative grocery store category, going this route. Now what is possible is minuscule in comparison. Unless you are a glutton for punishment and want to do a ton of purchases every day for days on end. Acting this way will most likely lead to suspicion and eventual shutdown though.
Final Thoughts
There will still be some value in the Kroger 4X fuel points promos but it will not be the windfall it was for many that knew how to play it right. Let me know if this affects your points earning plan at all.
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Mark – Just for my clarification regarding buying gift cards at Kroger’s – from what I’ve read, you can only buy $500 total in gift cards (or just 1 gift card of that amount) per transaction, correct? What if someone buys $2,000 or more in gift cards (for a chain of stores like Kohl’s, Target, etc)? Is that a no-no?
The limits are just for Best Buy
[…] The hits keep coming in this space, sad! Negative Changes To Kroger Gift Card Purchases & Fuel Points Program. […]
IMHO, a great example of “why we can’t have nice things.”
Did anyone really think people were going to continuously walk in and clean out the gift card rack, and the store wouldn’t put in some kind of “one to a customer” rule?
Visited 3 different Ralphs this am to ms gebits for fuel points. Purchased 15×100, 13×100 and 15×100.
[…] to Milestomemories, Kroger stores now limits us to just $500 in gift card purchases per transaction. Previously, it […]
Source….?
A few different readers reached out.
Mark. SoFi rate dropped to 1.6%
Rick i
I saw that with the Fed lowering the rates I figured it was coming 🙁
Does this apply to the purchase of variable load visa gift cards that don’t earn fuel points?
I believe so
I usually purchase 2 $500 visa gift cards at one time going through self checkout. Would there be anything to prevent me doing these as 2 separate transactions?
I think it would be fine.
This will def. hurt me. I used to do 3 x $500 and 1 x $475 at my Harris Teeter through self check out with no issues for my many (4) amex gold’s and 3% cash back cards for grocery. UGH
It blows
It’s killing me. I’ll need some time to mourn. 😉
Tough way to kick off the weekend that is for sure 🙁