Independent contractors seem to be good about letting Gene Grawe Fund supporters pay some or even all of their bill with GGF gift cards. Here are some of the anecdotes we’ve been made aware of over the last few years (my favorite is #10):
- GGF supporter bought a reloadable big box store gift card and gave it to a regular contractor who lets the customer pay each month’s invoice by reloading the gift card. Contractors spend a lot of money at Home Depot and Lowes and don’t seem to mind this reloadable arrangement. Especially the contractor whose wife keeps the books and grills him over every tool he buys. “Out of sight, out of mind”, is what he says.
- Instead of mailing a check, call in your contractor payment using a GGF Visa debit card. Many can accept credit and debit cards through Square or PayPal.
- One contractor lets a GGF supporter add in one $250 GGF Visa as part of his payment every time he does a job.
- Another GGF supporter takes his contractor buddy to the GGF office every few months so the contractor can pay his Woodmart bill.
- We heard one GGF supporter paid part of a large machine shop bill with $200 in GGF pizza gift cards. The happy machine shop employees had pizza for lunch every Friday for a month. The boss took credit for it, but I guess it was his money after all.
- Another GGF supporter went with his contractor to buy materials at Lowes. The supporter then paid the materials bill through the RaiseRight smartphone app.
- GGF supporter found out where his lawn service contractor buys gas everyday and then pays part of his monthly lawn service bill with a $100 gas gift card. The contractor loves the arrangement and so does the customer.
- Another GGF supporter tips his annual window washers with some $10 Hy-Vee gift cards instead of cash. You can buy gas, groceries, beer, or lunch with those. They always seem to be appreciated.
- GGF supporter bought his niece a $25 Lowes gift card as a house warming gift when she bought her first home. Then he helped her setup a RaiseRight.com account with the RaiseRight app and helped her register the Lowes card as reloadable. Now, the niece reloads the Lowes card whenever she has to go there to buy the dozens and dozens of tools, home repair and remodeling materials every new homeowner needs. The supporter earned more in tuition rebates the very first month than he spent on the $25 housewarming gift.
- A saavy, old GGF supporter talked a younger contractor into accepting $100 worth of Bath & Body Works gift cards as part of his payment for the contractor to give his wife. The naive contractor said his wife wasn’t into that kind of thing. Turns out she was! The old guy said the young contractor even thanked him the next time they spoke.
- Contractor figured out all the materials that were needed for a job and then paid the nearly $4,000 Home Depot bill with a couple of RaiseRight​.​com $2,000 eCards the customer handed him.
- One contractor let’s a lawn service customer pay part of his monthly bill with a few $25 Jimmy John’s gift cards and then the contractor treats his crew to lunch at Jimmy John’s once in awhile.
So don’t be afraid to ask your independent contractor for an occasional arrangement. It benefits both parties.
We’ve not heard of any problems, but it’s always best to make sure both parties are clear about what’s going on because in some cases using gift cards as part of a bill payment provides no proof of payment for either party. In other words, don’t hand the lawn kid a stack of pizza gift cards to give to the boss and expect it to come out well.
If you’ve heard of other stories, please let us know and we’ll add them here.
