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I was investigating the PenFed Cash-back Visa that pays 5% cash back on gas and .25% on everything else. I then saw the PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa that earns points: 5 points on gas and 3 points on groceries. I looked at the rewards page to see how you can redeem those points and prepaid Visa cards are an option, which would effectively work like cash back. prepaid Visa cards usually cost more than the dollar value but the fee is curiously missing from the PenFed page. IOW, a $500 card costs 50,000 points. A $250 card costs 25,000 and so on.
Does anyone have experience with this? Does Visa have some deal with the PenFed Credit Union that waives the usual fee? A looked at prepaid Visa cards at Staples where I get 5% cash back with my Chase Ink and the Visa prepaid cards have a $5.95 fee for a $100 gift card, which more than wipes out the cash back. What about PenFed prepaid Visas? I'm curious.
* BTW, the PenFed cards specify "paid at the pump" when it comes to the cash back on gas. Is that literal? Does that mean if you pay inside the 5% doesn't work? I would assume that if it does indeed work this way, it's to avoid people throwing soda, snacks and smokes into transaction and getting more cash back. I do it with my Chase Ink and it works because they don't specify "paid at the pump". I get the cash back for everything at the gas station. What about the Penfed?
I have the card and have reedemed some of my points for the gift cards.
If you receive a $500 visa gift card (for 50,000 points) it is loaded with $500 available.
You must pay at pump to receive the 5%. If you pay inside you will only get the 1%.
Hmm. I guess I will be using my AMEX BCP for inside the gas station purchases.
torchin,
SO the PenFed Visa prepaid cards come with no fee at all? Same as cash value with no strings or suprises?
ztnjpv,
Correct. I redeemed 25,000 points a few weeks ago and received a $250 card. No strings. Took a couple weeks to get the card though.
wow. I wonder how they do that. Must be some insider arrangement...maybe government related. PenFed must pay Visa a small fee for the card OR Visa let's the fee slide because the redemption of the perpaid card is done on the basis of accumulating points with a Visa credit card. That makes this card pretty sweet.
Does that $25 bonus work when redeeming Visa prepaid cards too? That would be an extra $125 in free bonus cards everytime you you redeem points for a $500 Visa card, right?
@Anonymous wrote:ztnjpv,
Correct. I redeemed 25,000 points a few weeks ago and received a $250 card. No strings. Took a couple weeks to get the card though.
Same here. 25000 points = $250 loaded on card. No fees.