For the past several months, the 5% back Visa gift card has been a staple of many MSers. Mainly available at Simon malls (also online and at some other stores), these cards earn an additional 5% back (deposited on the card) when used at participating merchants.
Multiple reports on the Points With a Crew miles and points Slack channel, as well as on Flyertalk, are reporting that they were told by their Simon Mall cashiers that CVS was leaving the 5 back program. Doctor of Credit also has an article on it. Most are being told that CVS is leaving effective immediately, but that already purchased cards will earn the 5% through 1/20.
5 back cards will still be available to purchase, but you just won’t get the 5% cash back if you spend them at CVS. Guess that means a lot fewer trips to the post office for me (SEE: Today a US postal worker straight up lied to my face). I am completely not surprised by this – I think most of us have realized for quite some time that this train was bound to stop before too long…
The real question will be whether purchases made between now and 1/20 will still get the 5% back at CVS. I could see arguments either way – you could possibly tell when the card was purchases by the timestamp of the official load, but I could also see that could be difficult to enforce / code in a short time. My GUESS would be that all cards will still get 5% at CVS through 1/20 (or 1/19?) but I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable floating a lot depending on it.
Let’s all have a moment of silence for the CVS / 5-back train…. 😉
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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