Overview

Target has a promotion. You can get free $10 Target gift card for a $50 or more Applebees GC purchase. They offer this type of deal occasionally, but this deal is 20% back. It is a high return. It’s available both in-store and online. The offer ends on April 18th, 2015.

Limit

They say, “Quantities limited.” So, when GCs are out of stock, they stop this promo. And it seems that you can get only one $10 Target GC per transaction. At Target.com, when I add a $50 Applebees GCs in a cart, a free $10 Target GC appears in a cart, too. But even if I change the quantity of Applebees GC, there is only one free Target GC in a cart. And, I don’t know what’s going to happen to in-store purchase.

How will you receive Target GC?

Online, you will receive an electric gift card. During a check-out, you need to enter an email address to which you want them to send EGC. The email address doesn’t need to be the same as one from your Target’s online account.

In-store, you will probably receive a physical gift card. And most likely, it’s a paper card without a silver scratch. All numbers are exposed from the beginning. Be careful with these GCs. Target reuse them over and over. If some crooks keep the numbers, they can snatch the amount of GCs. I suggest moving the balance to another GC as soon as possible. If you don’t have one, you can buy new GCs with GCs.

Is it profitable?

I just don’t want to use GCs at a restaurant. I’m not interested in saving money at a restaurant by using GCs. All I care about this promo is if it’s profitable when I sold to GC exchange sites. At the time of writing this post, the highest rate is 76.5% from Giftcards.com. If you sell $50 Applebees GC, you will receive $38.25. Say you shop at Target very often, and consider $10 Target GC as cash ($10USD). After you sold, you would have $48.25.

It’s a loss of $1.75. However, you should know a few things about GC purchases at Target before a conclusion.

Things you should know about GC purchases at Target

Cash Back Portal – You may earn cash back from a portal. I bought 3rd party EGC a few days ago. Portal site sent a confirmation email, and pending cash back was posted. (Soon after, I bought $400VGC via the same portal site. I received a confirmation email as well, but this time, it says $0. See details here.)

5% REDcard Discount – 5%-discount used to be applied on 3rd party GC purchases, but no longer applied. This change happened just a week ago. Online, I can’t find any GCs with 5% discount applied since then. I don’t know about in-store purchases.

Pay with Target GCs – You can use Target GCs for GC purchases except Visa, MasterCard, and American Express (available in-store only.) Although 5% REDcard discount is gone, you can get 5% or more discount by using Target GCs. You can find 4 to 6% discount GCs at GC exchange sites. Buying and using discounted GCs might as well get a discount at check-out.

So, is it profitable?

Say you buy a $50 Target GC with 4% discount at raise.com. You save $2. Then you buy and sell a $50 Applebees GC at the rate of 76.5%. You have $38.25(check)+$10(TargetGC)+$2=$50.25. It is slightly profitable. Considering with credit card reward from the transaction at GC exchange site, it is a good deal. And there may be cash back from a portal. Most importantly, I can carry out an experiment of cash back portal without losing money.

Conclusion

I purchased one $50 Applebees GC with Target GC, via the same cash back portal site from a few days ago. So far, I have received a confirmation email from Target. That’s it. Not yet, an email of $10 Target GC nor an email from the portal. I will update a result here when I receive.

Update 4/15/2015

I received $10 Target eGC next day. And almost the same time I received an email from the portal site. Unfortunately, the amount of cash back is $0. Cash back for the transaction of the other gift card from a few days before still exists in my account, without clawback (still pending, though.) Depending on gift cards, you may earn cash back with GC purchases.