Kroger has reversed the ban on Visa CCs, will now accept at all locations

[Occam]

https://www.businessinsider.com/kroger-reverses-visa-credit-card-ban-2019-10?r=US&IR=T

[centex]

I'm thinking word of the 'ban' never got to Texas since my local Kroger never stopped taking them...unless their gas stations were using a different processor, which is possible I guess, but not likely.

[Occam]

6 hours ago, centex said:

I'm thinking word of the 'ban' never got to Texas since my local Kroger never stopped taking them...unless their gas stations were using a different processor, which is possible I guess, but not likely.

"Kroger stopped accepting Visa credit cards in April at its Smith's Food & Drug chain, which has more than 130 stores in seven states. The move followed an earlier ban on Visa credit cards at Foods Co., another Kroger supermarket chain."

 

Presumably it was a pilot program and they (predictably) lost a lot of business so never rolled it out Kroger-wide.

 

I know they lost mine. I used to buy fuel there weekly but haven't in 6 months - my only 5% gas card is a Visa. I pretty much stopped buying groceries there too because all but 3 of my recent MSRs have been on Visas.

[cv91915]

The only Kroger that's convenient to the Mud Hut doesn't take Apple Pay, but they take Kroger Pay.

 

As if.

 

It's also a really dumpy store relative to the affluence of the area. 

 

The aisles along the front and the back of the store are clogged with displays, making it impossible for two carts to get past each other.  Someone always has to pull over and yield the right-of-way, sometimes to multiple oncoming carts.

 

I wouldn't go there at all, but TAD likes to have his prescriptions filled there because it's on his way home from work (which begs the question: if it's that convenient for him, why do I have to make a special trip to Kroger to pick up his prescriptions?).

[centex]

4 hours ago, cv91915 said:

The aisles along the front and the back of the store are clogged with displays, making it impossible for two carts to get past each other.  Someone always has to pull over and yield the right-of-way, sometimes to multiple oncoming carts.

 

I use that as one of my bones of contention whenever I fill out the surveys...typically no attention gets paid, but it WAS interesting how quickly they got moved when I used terms related to litigation and liability in one of the responses. 

[Occam]

The Smith's nearest me has half-deserted self checkout and 4x fuel points = $1/gal gas discount. The organic food section is always crowded so I skip that and buy just enough "groceries" from the display at the entrance to cover my fuel needs. The fuel points work at Shell too and Shell always takes Visa.

[centex]

1 hour ago, Occam said:

The Smith's nearest me has half-deserted self checkout and 4x fuel points = $1/gal gas discount. The organic food section is always crowded so I skip that and buy just enough "groceries" from the display at the entrance to cover my fuel needs. The fuel points work at Shell too and Shell always takes Visa.

The fuel points are the reason I do most of my grocery getting from Kroger...ditto on the prescriptions since it is treated as a new prescription each time, which is 50 points.  Animal prescriptions filled there ALSO get the 50 points. 

 

I'm on the fence about signing up for the fuel VIP...the fact they are now advertising 400 extra points to sign up for the $40 program suggests the take rate has not been what they hoped for.  The VIP program gets double points on the groceries.

 

I've done the math and just am not sure I would do much more than breaking even or maybe saving $20 on the year...I can be a cost nit, but $20 just isn't that big of a deal, especially with a program that might not last the year...I do a lot of driving, but a chunk of it is to places where my interim fuel fill-up won't be at a Kroger. 

 

Admittedly, I have not tried to use them at Shell, but I remember in the early days, the conversion was not the same as with the Kroger pumps.  Are the Shell discounts a dime a gallon for every 100 Kroger points?  And can that be stacked with the discount on the Shell card?

[cv91915]

To make sure I get 1.5% back on my purchase I will restart a $3 eBay purchase in another browser on the rare occasion I forget to begin at TopCashBack, but I have zero patience for grocery store fuel programs.  

 

[Occam]

4 hours ago, centex said:

Are the Shell discounts a dime a gallon for every 100 Kroger points?  And can that be stacked with the discount on the Shell card?

It varies by region. In much of the mountain west it works exactly the same as Kroger: 100 pts = $0.10 off with a maximum of $1 off for 1000 Kroger points and max of 35 gallons. It used to be the same in at least part of TX... I haven't tried there in years though.

 

In some states the limit is lower at Shell, and some places in the east let you use up to 2000 pts for $2 off. Apparently it sometimes works at other gas chains in the eastern US too.

 

It stacks with the (grandfathered) Penfed 5% cashback. It used to stack with the Shell fuel rewards you could link to any CC. But that stopped working a few years ago.