$10 Bonus On Whole Foods Gift Cards With Amex

July 26, 2012

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3 min read

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Whole Foods launched a promotion that gives shoppers a $10 bonus when they register a Whole Foods gift card to auto reload using American express.

Here's how the promo works:

Register a Whole Foods Market gift card, or log in if you already have an account
Select "Auto-Reload," and schedule a reload amount of $100 or more
Receive a bonus of $10 on the card with the first reload
Receive an additional bonus of $5 every third time the card is loaded with $100 or more

The rest of the terms state: Cardmembers who have enrolled in auto-reload of their gift card with a value of $100 or more will be given a bonus of $10 for the first reload, and $5 for every third reload of $100 after that through October 31, 2012. This is limit one bonus per American Express card holder, even if you reload multiple gift cards. Cancellations of the auto-reload schedule will cancel the bonus schedule and make the credit card ineligible for further Whole Foods Market auto-reload bonuses.

So, you can only register once per Amex cardholder, and your auto-reload must remain in place through the promotion or your bonus will be cancelled and your Amex card will be ineligible for any more auto-reload bonuses in this promotion.

Still, if you shop at Whole Foods a lot and know you'll be using a gift card with at least $110 of value, you might as well get the 10% bonus with this promotion, and every third time you reload it with $100 or more, you'll get another $5 bonus--not great at the equivalent of a 1.67% bonus, but every dollar counts. Plus, remember, if you use the Premier Rewards Gold, you'll be earning 2x points on each dollar you spend to auto-reload the gift card, since the card gives 2x points on groceries. It's like you'd be using your credit card just to directly make purchases at Whole Foods, only you'll be getting little bonus value on them as well, so $100 in auto-reload spend would get you 200 Amex Membership Rewards points plus the $10 bonus. That's enough to get an extra scoop of tofurkey salad at the prepared foods counter.

Hat tip: TPG reader Ryan.

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.