Kroger: Fuel Points Program Explained

What is Kroger?

Kroger is the second largest grocer in the United States and the largest supermarket operator by revenue. Kroger Co. Family of Stores operates in 35 states and the District of Columbia: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Per Kroger’s website, The Kroger Co. Family of Stores includes: Baker’s, City Market, Dillons, Food 4 Less, Foods Co, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Gerbes, Jay C Food Store, King Soopers, Kroger, Mariano’s, Metro Market, Pay-Less Super Markets, Pick’n Save, QFC, Ralphs, Ruler, Smith’s Food and Drug. Harris Teeter, which is not included in this list for some unknown reason, runs a virtually identical program, but more on that later.

What are Kroger Fuel Points?

The Kroger Co. Family of Stores Loyalty Program helps you save on fuel every time you shop. Whenever you shop and use your Shopper’s Card, you’ll earn 1 Fuel Point for every $1 you spend on eligible items.

You can redeem Fuel Points you’ve earned at any Fuel Center or at partner fuel stations. The program is not valid in Missouri (where Kroger is hardly present anyway, and Ruler Foods, one of Kroger-run chains, unlike all other subsidiaries, does not appear to offer their own digital coupons) or where prohibited by law (not sure what that means, seems like some sort of boilerplate language to me).

Let’s dive into the fine print of the program and enlarge it:

Excludes fuel purchases, gift cards/certificates, lottery, mail-order services, money orders, postage stamps, product deposit (if applicable), service fees (including pickup and delivery), promotional tickets, tax, and tobacco. Alcohol, fluid milk and milk products are excluded in some areas. Some Pharmacy exclusions apply. The loyalty program can be modified or discontinued at any time without notice.

How do I earn Fuel Points?

Earn Fuel Points any way you shop, in-store or online with pickup, delivery, or ship through our website (…)

• Gift Cards: Earn 2 Fuel Points for each $1 spend on most gift cards. Kroger Family of Stores Gift Cards, Green Dot prepaid reloadable products, MoneyPaks, American Express Variable Load Gift Cards, Visa Variable Load Gift Cards, and MasterCard Variable Load Gift Cards are excluded.

See their weekly ad (or follow our site) to know when 4x points are offered, on which gift card brands, and whether they are sold in stores, online, or both. A digital coupon is usually required for in-store promotions, but not for online purchases. In addition to week-long (or sometimes even three week long) promotions, once in a while there are one-, two- or three-day long online-only promotions, which may not be advertised in the flyer.

How does the program work?

Let’s just continue reading the terms linked above, shall we?

Fuel Points redemption offer is for one purchase of fuel not to exceed 35 gallons, subject to credit and debit card fraud prevention limits on the amount of purchase and gallon limits less than 35 gallons by order of local officials in certain jurisdictions (typically during specific hours of operation when fuel dispensing equipment is unsupervised). We reserve the right to charge a minimum amount per gallon if the discount is greater than the price per gallon.

Well, great for those of you who drive a gas guzzling monstrosity! Or a truck… Or can find some creative way to pump the 35 gallons all at once. 1,000 Fuel Points equals $1 off per gallon, which means that you can save up to $35 – but the fewer gallons you get, the less you actually save.

We picked 1,000 Fuel Points as an example above on purpose. Let’s continue with the FAQ, and the reason will become evident:

Is there a limit to how much I can redeem?

At Kroger Family of Stores Fuel Centers you can redeem up to 1,000 Fuel Points for $1 off per gallon. Fuel Points are redeemable in 100 point increments, up to 35 gallons of unleaded, mid-grade, premium, diesel or E85.

A dollar saved is a dollar earned, and with 1000 Fuel Points saving you up to $35 on gas purchases, during 4x promotions you “earn” up to $35 in savings for every $250 in third party gift card purchases (in addition to your credit card rewards). What exactly the $250 tied up in gift cards may be worth is a separate question, but undoubtedly Kroger runs a very generous loyalty program and frequently offers even more generous promotions.

Buried in their terms, this statement is actually important:

Offer, discount and redemption locations vary by market

What this means is that there are some markets, where – mostly for competitive reasons, or at least for historical reasons that started out as competitive and then were forgotten all about, maximum redemption is not limited to 1,000 Fuel Points per fill up. If the price of gasoline is $3.05 per gallon, for example, you can redeem 3,000 Fuel Points, pump 35 gallons, and pay just $1.75 total.

By the same token, there are less fortunate markets, where Kroger does not operate any Fuel Centers of their own. There you are only able to redeem 100 Fuel Points at a time for 10 cents off per gallon at participating Shell locations.

Other important things to know (quoting from FAQ):

Is there a limit to how many Fuel Points I can earn?

There is no limit to the number of Fuel Points that you can earn each month.

When do Fuel Points expire?

Fuel Points expire the last day of the month after they are earned. For example, Fuel Points earned in May expire on June 30th. Monthly balances do not combine across months – each month is a separate earning period.

Where can I redeem my Fuel Points?

Fuel Points can be redeemed at our Kroger Family of Stores Fuel Centers and participating Shell locations. To find the redemption location near you, click here.

Is there any risk involved?

Well, yes. There is the risk that your points will expire unused. If that happens, you can usually get a one time courtesy extension, but don’t count on it happening again. But the greater risk is that you may be suspended from the program and lose your earned points due to a mere suspicion of violating the terms:

Selling or purchasing Fuel Points is prohibited. No discounts to dealers, wholesalers or fleet programs. No cash back. We may suspend or remove you from the Kroger Family of Stores loyalty program or earning Fuel Points due to suspected violation of these terms or because of fraudulent activity or suspected fraudulent activity.

This isn’t something that they would need to prove, nor something that you would be able to appeal. Are they overreaching by telling you what you may or may not do with your points? Perhaps. As the party keeping track of the records (after all, your point balance is just a record in their database), they can certainly refuse to recognize your purchase or sale of points – that is, they will not agree to consider a different person entitled to use them just because you told them so.

It is not illegal for you to buy or sell fuel points, but it is not illegal for them to freeze your account either. They can’t obligate you to refrain from selling points any more than they can obligate you to pay for your groceries while hopping on one foot – however, they can (and sometimes do) take your points away. You probably will not get in trouble for letting friends and family use your points (but, speaking of boilerplate language, let us just say that “nothing in this article constitutes legal advice”, hehe) – but there may be certain usage patterns that they are on the lookout for. Bottom line – do not accumulate more points than you can afford to lose.

There is a slight problem with one of their practices though: you receive no notification whatsoever if your account is frozen. You will still have access to it and will still see your point balance (until the expiration date) – nothing will indicate that the account is frozen – except you will not be able to use your points at the pump (or earn more of them). You may continue making new purchases, completely unaware of your account status. If you think that advertising something with no intention of providing it is deceptive, you may want to take it up with your state’s AG.

Harris Teeter

At last, getting back to the subject of Harris Teeter, as promised – this chain, acquired by Kroger over a decade ago, operates stores in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. For the longest time, they had their own loyalty program, similar, yet slightly different from the rest of Kroger-owned chains. While the programs were separate, Harris Teeter made it possible to earn their version of fuel points for buying gift cards via their website.

Eventually, the programs became interoperable. However, you may still need to log in to their website or mobile app and clip their digital coupons in order for in-store purchases of third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards to receive 4x points during promotions (by the way, same is true for at least one other Kroger subsidiary, Food4Less).

For some reason, Harris Teeter Gift Card website is still around, even though it is redundant at this point. Typically they run 4x promos concurrently with Kroger’s Gift Card website, but otherwise they do not always show same gift card promotions and specials as Kroger’s website.

Keep in mind that online gift card purchases from both websites are processed by Blackhawk and do not code as groceries.