AARP Carnival Gift Cards

[n6uqqq]

3 hours ago, Calnev1 said:

Oh, I forgot one other very good option for firing up your cashback on Allstate/AARP gift card purchases.   Each month the no annual fee Citi Custom Cash Mastercard gives you 5% cash back on whatever category of spend you do the most on, up to a max of $500 spend per month.  So one way you could use this card is keep it in your sock drawer, then on the first of every month go into the drawer and pull it out and buy a $500 Carnival GC on AARP or Allstate to get 5% back on your $450 purchase.  Then put the Citi card back into your sock drawer until the next month, when you buy another $500 Carnival GC.  Rinse and repeat every month.

 

The reason that I forgot about this is that my wife and I use our two Citi Custom Cash Cards in a different way --  to get cash back on funding our 529 college plans for our grandchildren.

This card is quite tempting I may have to add it to the stable. They are also offering 200 cash back for spending 1500 in six months! Do you know if there is a category that will qualify for Allstate rewards or AARP?

Edited April 28, 2023 by n6uqqq

[Calnev1]

2 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

This card is quite tempting I may have to add it to the stable. They are also offering 200 cash back for spending 1500 in six months! Do you know if there is a category that will qualify for Allstate rewards or AARP?

An excellent question -- and one that leaves me wondering whether an Allstate/AARP gift card purchase would actually fall in to a qualifying category triggering the 5% cash back.

 

Citi says the following about its 5% cash back categories:  "Each billing cycle we will determine your highest spend for purchases posted to your account in the following categories: Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transit, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Fitness Clubs and Live Entertainment."  When I look at the definitions of some of these categories, I don't see a clear fit for the Allstate/AARP GC purchases. And if your spending doesn't fit in one of these categories, you will only get 1% cash back not 5%.

 

In the past we have used our Citi Custom Cash Cards to buy Gift of College Gift Cards at our local supermarket.  Those have triggered the 5% cash back as grocery store purchases (remember, you don't choose your 5% category, it is auto triggered by the eligible category you spend the most in).  But maybe the 5% doesn't work for purchases directly from Allstate or AARP.  And we haven't tried it.  Sorry if I might have mislead on that.

 

On a related note, every few months Lowe's home improvement stores put Mastercard and Visa gift cards on sale.  Unlike the Staples and Office Depot sales of MC/Visa GCs I mentioned in a previous post, the Lowe's sale does not involve a waiver of the gift card purchase fee.  Instead, Lowe's will give you a $15 Lowe's gift card for every $200 MC or Visa gift card you buy.  In a sense, this is even better sale than what is offered by the office supply stores because the MC/Visa purchase fee is only $7 which is more than offset by the $15 Lowe's gift card.    And clearly Lowe's purchases fall into a qualifying category for the 5% Citi Custom Cash Card.   And Lowe's purchases also fall in this quarter's 5% cash back category for the Chase Freedom cards if you have those cards.  Unfortunately, the most recent Lowe's GC sale ended last week and its not clear when the next one will be.  In case you are wondering how you find these sales, a blogger like Doctor of Credit will post these sales as they occur, and you can make a note to check that website every week or two to see what is up.  That is what we do.

 

Apologies for the long post and for the way it careens around to the point of (almost) being off topic.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Calnev1

[Organized Chaos]

Oh yeah, well I have a debit card from my small, regional bank and I can use my points to buy junk from the site they've partnered with. How do you like them apples? 😝😂 I usually just get a Visa gift card.

 

Joking aside, I've gotten by without a credit card for years, but I think it's time to get back in the game.

 

Side note, I got 100 points from the memory game this morning. Didn't that used to give us 1,000 or am I thinking of something else?

[tw67]

1 hour ago, Organized Chaos said:

Oh yeah, well I have a debit card from my small, regional bank and I can use my points to buy junk from the site they've partnered with. How do you like them apples? 😝😂 I usually just get a Visa gift card.

 

Joking aside, I've gotten by without a credit card for years, but I think it's time to get back in the game.

 

Side note, I got 100 points from the memory game this morning. Didn't that used to give us 1,000 or am I thinking of something else?

I think the memory game gave us 1000 points when it was only on Tuesdays.  Like crossword is now.

[n6uqqq]

Well that didn't take long, the egift cards on Allstate are gone again already as is the entire egift card section.

Edited April 29, 2023 by n6uqqq

[tw67]

54 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

Well that didn't take long, the egift cards on Allstate are gone again already as is the entire egift card section.

Ugg.  Monday is May 1st.  Maybe they will be back...

[canes20]

1 hour ago, n6uqqq said:

Well that didn't take long, the egift cards on Allstate are gone again already as is the entire egift card section.

 

Guess I got lucky. Purchased $1500 on Paradise Wednesday to pay off the anniversary presents that I purchased from Effy. Really thought I had enough but the guy behind the counter was really good, and I managed to get a Tissot threw in for myself.

[Calnev1]

7 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

Well that didn't take long, the egift cards on Allstate are gone again already as is the entire egift card section.

And meanwhile AARP continues to offer discounted egift cards for Carnival, Princess, Holland America, RCL, Celebrity, and many other companies.   AARP recently added American Airlines gift cards.  The discount on these AA GCs is only 5%, but still a nice addition to AARP's inventory of discounted cards.

[tw67]

Happy May!

 

Scratch Game and Pac-Man are the only games listed, and no ecards.  

 

I am sure another game will be there tomorrow for the Tuesday only game.

[tw67]

For Tuesday the Match Game is back for 2K.  Still have the scratch game that hates me.... 🙂 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

48 minutes ago, tw67 said:

For Tuesday the Match Game is back for 2K.  Still have the scratch game that hates me.... 🙂 

Match Game was 1k for me.  I guess it likes you better.

 

Scratch game hates me too.  It seems I win at least twice per week with the wheel, but hardly ever with the scratch off.

[tw67]

2 minutes ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

Match Game was 1k for me.  I guess it likes you better.

 

Scratch game hates me too.  It seems I win at least twice per week with the wheel, but hardly ever with the scratch off.

No it is a typo!  I need more coffee!!  1k!!

[d-lite-n-cruisin]

Just purchased 3 - $500 gift cards this morning.  Interested to see how long it takes to receive them.   I will keep ya posted.  Thanks to everyone on this site who shares codes and other tidbits of knowledge.

 

Grateful,

Dan

[tw67]

GR8OUTDOORS    1K

[Eli_6]

I would advise against using gift cards on shore excursions. If you have to cancel, creates big headache.

[d-lite-n-cruisin]

34 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

I would advise against using gift cards on shore excursions. If you have to cancel, creates big headache.

I saw you post that earlier.  Definitely something to keep in mind.  I am doing it for the $1800+ for a drink package on a 15 day cruise and gratuities.

[Eli_6]

15 minutes ago, d-lite-n-cruisin said:

I saw you post that earlier.  Definitely something to keep in mind.  I am doing it for the $1800+ for a drink package on a 15 day cruise and gratuities.

It is probably fine for that.  Only reason I am canceling the excursions is because I booked excursions for Europe early and then after I had booked (with gift cards), Carnival released better excursions.  For whatever reason, Carnival's releases the European excursions at a slow drip seemingly one by one spread out over months rather than just turning on the faucet and releasing them all.  

[tw67]

33 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

It is probably fine for that.  Only reason I am canceling the excursions is because I booked excursions for Europe early and then after I had booked (with gift cards), Carnival released better excursions.  For whatever reason, Carnival's releases the European excursions at a slow drip seemingly one by one spread out over months rather than just turning on the faucet and releasing them all.  

I am having that problem on my Panama Cruise in November.  They released some, then for 2 ports they went away.  Port times were changed, then more excursions added no.  But only for one port, not the other port....

[momof3cruisers]

5 hours ago, tw67 said:

GR8OUTDOORS    1K

I’m new to this. Or back at it. Is this for AARP or Allstate? And which are the games on? I tried to get the Allstate one to work awhile back but couldn’t figure it out. I feel like my mother not being able to set the clock on her VCR. 😂

[n6uqqq]

1 minute ago, momof3cruisers said:

I’m new to this. Or back at it. Is this for AARP or Allstate? And which are the games on? I tried to get the Allstate one to work awhile back but couldn’t figure it out. I feel like my mother not being able to set the clock on her VCR. 😂

That code is for Allstate, and they are the ones with the games. Allstate is very fickle to join, you have to start by getting the app and signing up from it. At this point I would recommend buying the AARP for 12 bucks a year. They seem to always have the Carnival cards and many other decent gift cards. Allstate has been good but lately has become unreliable for the Carnival cards. 

[Eli_6]

On 4/20/2023 at 7:34 PM, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

My credit card had a great points for Carnival gift card rate, so I got $2000 worth of gift cards for "free."  Unfortunately, it was sent as twenty $100 cards. Spent quite a bit of time yesterday with the TA over the phone reading all those numbers. 

If you don't mind my asking, how many thank you points did you have to get that many cards?  My husband has about 11k thank you points on a card he hasn't used in years and I am trying to now figure out how to get on the Citi website to see about redeeming them, but the billing statement we have doesn't have the complete credit card number and we can't find the credit card either. I don't think they ever got used because TY points don't convert to British Airways Avios and that is usually who we fly with.  

[Eli_6]

Darn it!  Now I am on ThankYou dot com and there does not appear to be any Carnival cards. SIgh.  I see Princess and HAL, but no Carnival.  

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

6 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

Darn it!  Now I am on ThankYou dot com and there does not appear to be any Carnival cards. SIgh.  I see Princess and HAL, but no Carnival.  

Yeah... I saw that recently.  I got enough points for one more, but they were gone. But, like many other suppliers, they come and go.  But, I don't go on there often enough to have any idea how long before they are generally replenished.

[momof3cruisers]

8 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

That code is for Allstate, and they are the ones with the games. Allstate is very fickle to join, you have to start by getting the app and signing up from it. At this point I would recommend buying the AARP for 12 bucks a year. They seem to always have the Carnival cards and many other decent gift cards. Allstate has been good but lately has become unreliable for the Carnival cards. 

Thanks. I may just stick with the raise app and simply get them at 8% instead of 10. 

[Organized Chaos]

On 5/4/2023 at 12:43 AM, momof3cruisers said:

Thanks. I may just stick with the raise app and simply get them at 8% instead of 10. 

 

If you created an Allstate Rewards account online (without being an Allstate policy holder), then you'll probably have to call customer service and have that account deleted from their system. Then create one from the Allstate mobile app first. Again, that's only for non-policy holders. We can still join Rewards, but have to jump through hoops to do it.

 

AARP changed their rewards system a few years back. For Carnival cards, you no longer have to accumulate points, but you do have to be a paying member (you don't have to be 50 anymore).