The internet is a great place to purchase gift cards for thousands of merchants at a discount. While you need to play ahead and know what stores you are shopping at in the near future, this is a great way to save money. Some merchants also sell eGift Cards which means you can get access to it almost immediately. Not only that, using gift cards is just a regular form of payment, so that can also be combined with any specials, promotions, deals that are currently at the store.
So here are a list of the top places to purchase discounted gift cards:
- Cardpool – get $5 off your first order with this link and the person referring you will also get a $5 bonus (disclosure: this is my referral link, but feel free to post yours in the comments section as well)
- Gift Card Rescue
- Card Cash
- Raise – currently has a promotion for $5 off if you spend $75+ on gift card purchases (use promotion code RAISE75AF – expires 8/31/14)
- Gift Card Zen
- Card Flip
Each site is very different in many factors: Their guarantee policy (all of them have one, they are just different in the time span you have), the discount for each merchant’s gift card, whether or not the sale physical gift card vs. egift cards, etc.
In my opinion, they are all pretty much the same and the discount is the most important deciding factor, in my opinion (as long as it has a guarantee policy). The site GiftCardGranny.com compiles many of the above sites and will actually be ably to compare the discount for the particular gift card you are looking to purchase.
I took a look at 5 random stores, and here is how they compare.
So you can see they are all pretty comparable. Some sites are better for some merchants, while other sites are better for other merchants. Keep in mind though that the sites do not always have the gift cards currently in stock and the dollar amount available can vary.
Feel free to share your experiences with purchasing gift cards at a discount!
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
what do you suggest is the best deal for the following:
I want to supply my 14 year olds with reloadable visa cards ($25 to start) that I can reload weekly for their allowance to do what they want.
I’ve been playing the GC game for a long time – both buying and selling. 100K+…
Gift Card Zen is, by a wide margin, the easiest to deal with and offers the best support and service – both buying and selling. I spot-check pricing with GCG and if they’re not the best price, they’re less than a point off and they’re worth it.
@Michael – probably the best thing for this is a paypal account with a business debit mastercard (don’t have to have/be a business to get the card, it’s just a paypal technicality thing) and you just transfer $25 into it every week. No fees this way. Every other way has lots of fees.
@Michael – The other option is a bluebird account/card you can create subaccounts and monitor and transfer money. You can find more information about it from bluebird.com or anywhere on BoardingArea.