Month: April 2015

Free $10 Target GC with a $50 Applebees GC purchase

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.

5% REDcard Discount no longer applied to GC purchases

It happened for a few weeks in April. 5% discount IS applied to GC purchases, except for Visa, MasterCard, Amex or Target.

Overview

It seems that Target implemented a new rule on gift card purchase. 5% REDcard discount is no longer applied to any GC purchases.

Target Gift Card

5% discount had been never applied on Target GCs purchases. So, the change doesn’t affect on Target GCs purchases.

Visa Gift Card

A few weeks ago, Target started selling high denomination of Target Visa gift cards ($200 and $400) online. And 5% discount was applied to these purchases. I believe this deal had been available for a week or two after their debut at Target.com. However, this deal ended last week. The VGCs of other denominations have been available since way before. But 5% discount wasn’t applied on these GCs purchases.

MasterCard Gift Card

The available denominations of Target MasterCard gift cards are $25, $50, and $100. It had been several months that they sell MCGCs, and 5% discount was applied when you check out with REDcard. This deal have ended at the same time as $200&$400VGCs’ deal ended.

3rd Party Gift Card

The 5% discount had been applied on 3rd party GC purchases for years, but it’s ended as well.

Cash Back from Portals

Generally, you don’t get cash back on GC purchases. Back then, ShopDiscover ( a former version of Discover Deals) paid cash back on GC purchases except Target GCs. I used to buy a bunch of VGCs through it. After ShopDiscover stopped being a partner with Target, I couldn’t find any cash back portals that pays on GCs purchases until yesterday.

I purchased one 3rd party e-GC yesterday. The main purpose of this purchase was to make sure if I can still buy 3rd party GCs with Target GCs, and just in case I clicked a link on one portal site. The order went through successfully. And the portal site sent me an email that told me I earned cash back. I checked my account and saw a pending cash back posted.

Soon after, I purchased one $400 VGCs with a regular credit card, via the same portal site, hoping for the same result. I received an email as well. This time, however, it clearly says that the amount of cash back is $0.

Summary

5% REDcard discount is no longer applied to ANY GC purchases. You can still use Target GCs for GC purchases except Visa and MasterCard. So, you can still save money on GCs (again, except Visa and MasterCard) by paying with Target GCs which you buy with discount at eBay, cardpools, etc. Cash back deals vary by portals and GCs you purchase.

This story is limited to online purchases . I don’t know outcomes for in-store purchases.

Updated 05/02/2015 – I noticed that 5% REDcard discount on 3rd party GC purchase is back again. I haven’t actually checked out, but the discount appeared in a cart after I choose REDcard as a payment method. I did that for several 3rd party GCs and confirmed that the discount was applied. Unfortunately, it didn’t applied to Visa, MasterCard, and Target GC purchases.

PayPal Extras MasterCard Extra Bonus Rewards Offer

I received a new offer for PayPal Extras MasterCard. A type of offer is an extra bonus point with a purchase.

paypal offer

Overview

You can earn one extra point for every dollar spent through April 30th. It includes PayPal and eBay purchases.

  • 3X points for every dollar at gas stations and restaurants are now 4X
  • 2X points for every dollar at PayPal and eBay are now 3X
  • 1X points for every dollar on all other purchases are now 2X

Limit

Extra bonus points you can earn through this offer is capped at only 2200 pts.

Activation

As usual, you need to activate the offer by clicking a link in the email to earn bonus points.

paypal extras mastercard extra bonus rewards offer

Summary

This offer is not exciting. Any types of promos that offers extra bonus points aren’t really great. That’s because there is a limit of reward points you can earn in a year (50000 pts.) Besides, a maximum bonus points you can earn through this promo is only 2200 pts. However, the email implies that there will be another offer the following month. I expect the other types of offers for the next one, like statement credit or gift card.