<prompt> Human: I have a travel rewards card and referred my friend whos a couple years older and married. In an effort to be savvy, she bought 2k worth of grocery store gift cards to hit the sign up bonus in time. Instead of receiving her bonus after a couple months as expected, she got an email saying her purchases were not valid fine print says no gift cards. So now she lost the 50k points statement credit and still had an annual fee. Just thought Id share in case this wasnt common knowledge. Apparently, CC cards verify your purchases for sign up bonuses.  <response>: So read the fine print before trying to redeem pointscash back should really be the title of your post. 