Kroger wants your stimulus check

I got this from The Consumerist earlier today -- Kroger will add 10% to your stimulus check if you convert it into a Kroger gift card. So if you are expecting to receive $600 next month they will give you a gift card worth $660. Apparently Sears is offering the same thing. I'm always leery about gift cards, especially in such large amounts. Have you been reading lately about stores filing for bankruptcy and not honoring gift cards? How about gift cards with expiration dates? And what about the ones that charge you a "small monthly fee" each month you don't have any activity on them? Granted, if you were planning to use your stimulus check to buy a new refrigerator or washing machine at Sears anyway you probably don't have anything to lose by converting the check to a Sears gift card and then turning around and using it for your pre-planned purchase.

My family is expecting a check for $2100 next month. I don't think we are going to convert it to a Kroger gift card even though we could then eliminate that line from our budget for a very long time. I'd worry about what would happen if I LOST that card. That's just too much money to have tied up in one place, especially considering our usual spending habits. Even though it seems like we do most of our regular grocery shopping at Kroger, we only spent $1400 there in all of 2007. In the "grocery" category of our budget we spent a total of $2500 in all of 2007. That includes all grocery-type shopping (and coupons) at Target, WalMart, Kroger, Albertson's, Tom Thumb, and CVS.

So take these offers made by Sears and Kroger with a grain of salt. And remember...if you have credit card debt you are MUCH better off putting this check onto those debts than going out and spending more money.