Are Gas Cards a good idea?

[Girlzilla88]

@Loquat     Wait so you're telling me you could buy Gift Cards with your Credit Card?!!?!?!     OMG that is awesome and great news I never knew I thought they are like Lottery and you just have to pay Cash for them O.O

[K-in-Boston]

@Girlzilla88 it depends on the retailer; it's actually a great use of the Target cards, for example, since you get 5% off gift cards (excluding Target ones) when you use the card.

[Loquat]

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@Girlzilla88 wrote:

@Loquat     Wait so you're telling me you could buy Gift Cards with your Credit Card?!!?!?!     OMG that is awesome and great news I never knew I thought they are like Lottery and you just have to pay Cash for them O.O

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@Girlzilla88 You sure can.  You can buy any gift card that Lowe's sells with your Lowe's store card.  Same can be done with the Amazon store card.  And the best part about Amazon's store card you can earn 3% cash back (non prime) or 5% (prime) on gift card purchases.  

[Girlzilla88]

@Loquat  @K-in-Boston    My mind is so Blown right now this may take some time to process XD   Ty both

[Anonymous]

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@Loquat wrote:

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@Girlzilla88 wrote:

@Loquat     Not trying to change the subject but how did your Lowe's card assist you with all that stuff?!    Am I missing a secret?!

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@Girlzilla88 Before changing careers I used to travel...a lot.  During that time my BK13 was still alive and well on my reports.  I couldn't get a major to approve me as my BK was very fresh.  I was able to obtain a Lowe's card and was able to get the limit pretty high in a short period of time.  

Traveling without a major credit card can be a real pain.   I obtained a secured card for the sake of car rentals but I didn't deposit a lot because at the time I didn't have a lot.  Having the Lowe's card allowed me to buy Hotels.com gift cards which meant that most hotels only held a small deposit for incidentals.  When it came to booking my travels I would buy Delta gift cards from Lowe's in $500 increments so I was able book air travel without the need of a major card with a high limits. 

For the times when I had to fly with other carriers I was able to buy Visa/Mastercard prepaid cards to book those.  I did that for a while and then I was able to get approved with a decent limit for PayPal Credit.  PPC really made things even easier as I could book flights directly with all the U.S. domestic carriers and pay with PayPal and I was able to get 6 month of no interest while I waited for my employer to reimburse me.  

I always bought gift cards from Lowe's for the places I frequented such as Starbucks, a few of the major pizza chains, back then Quizno's and Mr. Goodcent was popular sandwich joints.  I could get Best Buy gift cards for electronics or just pay directly via PayPal Credit.  Back then you could also buy Amazon gift cards via PayPal Digital Gifts and were able to pay for them with PPC.  Also back then I was able to link my PPC account as a backup to my PP Business Debit card.   If I needed to shop at Macy's or a lot of the department stores, I could usually find gift cards for them between Amazon and Lowe's or again just buy a prepaid VS/MC card.  One could accomplish a lot if they opened their minds and got creative which is exactly what I had to do. 

As you can see from most of my post about store cards, I usually defend them in the sense that they're not useless.  They may not been for some, or even many, but useless they are not.  At one point I think I also had a PayPal Smart Connect.  It was a line of credit to be used with PayPal that was back by Synchrony whereas PayPal Credit was backed by Comenity at the time.  I'm not sure the Smart Connect product is even around anymore though.

But yea, that's how I navigated my life until I was able to get back into the good graces of the major lenders. 

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@Loquat impressive, kudos for thinking outside the box!

[UncleB]

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@Loquat wrote:

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@Girlzilla88 wrote:

@Loquat     Wait so you're telling me you could buy Gift Cards with your Credit Card?!!?!?!     OMG that is awesome and great news I never knew I thought they are like Lottery and you just have to pay Cash for them O.O

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@Girlzilla88 You sure can.  You can buy any gift card that Lowe's sells with your Lowe's store card.  Same can be done with the Amazon store card.  And the best part about Amazon's store card you can earn 3% cash back (non prime) or 5% (prime) on gift card purchases.  

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+1

Whenever it's been a few months since I've used my Lowe's card I'll stop by and pick up a $25 Amazon gift card (which are like cash for me).

Unlike Amazon and Target there's no credit discount or cash back (at least on the PLCC, not sure about the Lowe's Amex) but it's a great way to generate activity to keep the account alive during 'dry spells.'

[longtimelurker]

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@Loquat wrote:

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@Girlzilla88 wrote:

@Loquat     Wait so you're telling me you could buy Gift Cards with your Credit Card?!!?!?!     OMG that is awesome and great news I never knew I thought they are like Lottery and you just have to pay Cash for them O.O

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@Girlzilla88 You sure can.  You can buy any gift card that Lowe's sells with your Lowe's store card.  Same can be done with the Amazon store card.  And the best part about Amazon's store card you can earn 3% cash back (non prime) or 5% (prime) on gift card purchases.  

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Right, and Amazon also sells gift cards for a number of grocery chains (as well as restaurants, clothing stores, gas, etc).   If you can put up with the inconveniece of using a gift card, and have prime. unlimited 5% can beat BCP (if you use the stores that amazon sells!)

[Anonymous]

5% gas sams card. Or ft knox CU

[Loquat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

5% gas sams card. Or ft knox CU

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The only issue with Sam's Club is that you have to have a membership.  If one already does then it's a non issue but I don't think it'd be worth it to get even their cheapest membership just to save on gas...unless you're buying a lot of gas.

[Wavester64]

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@coldfusion wrote:

You'd normally be better off with a Visa/Mastercard offering cashback on gas purchases either directly ( like WF Propel 3% on gas, BoA Cash Rewards selecting gas as the 3% category,  PNC Cash Rewards 4% on gas)or a 1.5/2% unstructured cashback card.

One problem with retail cards is that they generally have toy limits, are comparatively inflexible because they're only useful at a specific merchant, and issuers don't like to see a lot of them on a profile. 

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@designated_knitter Adding to what @coldfusion said - if you're a Verizon Wireless customer, you might want to consider getting a Verizon VISA (issued by Synchrony) for 4% (Verizon $) CB that can go towards your cell bill