Month: October 2015

All About 1800flowers Gift Card

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Basic

1800flowers gift card is redeemable at 1800baskets.com, 1800flowers.com, cheryls.com, fanniemay.com, harrylondon.com, fruitbouquets.com, and thepopcornfactory.com. You may also use it to order by phone and purchases at participating retail stores. A physical card has no magnetic strip. It only has numbers printed on the back of the card. (19-digit of Serial Number and 4-digit of PIN without a silver scratch) Gift cards are redeemable for regular merchandises, not for another gift card or membership of free-shipping program.

Where to Buy

You can find discounted gift cards at gift card exchange sites, such as ABC-Giftcards and Raise. A discount rate is relatively high. It’s around 15% or more. However, the best place to buy is their own website. That’s because shopping portals pay cash back for purchases of gift cards. And it’s usually higher than GC exchange sites. Discover Deals offer 15% to 20% cash back.

How to Redeem

After you choose an item, shipping address, and a gift message, you will see a page as a picture below. Enter a serial number and PIN. And then click “Apply”.

GC redemption and Cash Back Eligibility

According to terms of DD for 1800flowers, gift card redemption is not eligible for cash back. When you make a purchase with a gift card through DD’s 1800flowers link, DD sends a confirmation email and even posts cash back, but cash back will usually be canceled in the next statement. But there may be a way to get around this. Click here to see more details of the online portal.

How many gift cards can be used per transaction

1800flower gift cards limit 2In checkout page, it says,

Limit one Gift Card, Voucher, Fresh Rewards Pass and/or Saving Pass per order. If you have any questions or you do not have your PIN, please call 1-800-993-1192 Monday to Friday from 8am-8pm EST for assistance.

But it’s not true. You can enter 2 GCs per order without any problem. When you enter numbers of 3rd GC, you will see an error message.

You can apply up to 2 gift cards per order. Call 1-888-216-0235 to apply more gift cards to your order.

It sounds you can apply more than 2 GCs if you call the number, but I haven’t done it yet.

Don’t throw the gift card until order was processed and shipped

Say you used two gift cards, the gift cards had enough balance to cover the entire purchase. When you apply a gift card, the website shows an amount they charge on the gift card and the remaining balance of it. Card#1 was redeemed the whole amount and now zero balance. They charged the rest on Card#2. However, gift cards are not charged when checkout. They will be charged when items are shipped. And most importantly, amounts they charge on gift cards are sometimes different from amounts you see at checkout. You believe that Card#1 was fully redeemed, but it may not be charged at all, and the whole amount was charged on Card#2, or they charge different amounts on the both gift cards. These things happened to me so many times. So, it is very important that you keep gift cards until your order was processed and shipped and then check the remaining balance of the gift cards.

Other deals

1800flowers has its own reward program called Celebration Rewards. You can earn 1 point on every dollar you spent. Every month, they issue Saving Pass if you earn enough points. A minimum is 200 pts and worth of $20. Simply put, it’s 10% back in point. Saving Pass is just like e-gift card. It has 19-digit of Serial Number and 4-digit of PIN, and you can use them in the same way as gift cards. But remember that there is an expiration date. Saving Pass is valid for 90 days after it’s issued, and points are valid for two years. You can earn reward points by purchasing gift cards, but not on redemption. Celebrations Rewards is common program among all participating brands including 1800baskets, Cheryl’s, Fannie may, harrylondon, fruit bouquets, and The popcorn factory.

Summary

  • You can use gift cards at all participating brands including 1800baskets.com, 1800flowers.com, cheryls.com, fanniemay.com, harrylondon.com, fruitbouquets.com and thepopcornfactory.com.
  • You can use up to 2 gift cards per transaction.
  • You can earn cash back from DD for the purchase of gift cards, but not on redemption (according to terms of DD.)
  • You can earn Celebrations Rewards points for the purchase of gift cards, but not on redemption (for sure.)

1800flowers and Shopping Portals and Partners

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Many portals offer a good rate for the purchase at 1800flowers.com. I personally and exclusively use Discover Deals for 1800flowers. The following information is only from my experience with DD. So, results may not be the same when you use other online shopping portals.

GC purchase

Purchases of 1800flowers gift cards are eligible for cash back. The gift card is redeemable at 1800baskets, Cheryls, The popcorn factory, Fanny May, and fruit bouquets, too.

GC redemption

According to terms of DD, GC redemption is not eligible for cash back.

Purchase with coupon

There are always some coupons available. When you click through 1800flowers link and use coupon, you may receive a confirmation email of cash back from DD, but it will be clawed back.

Others

Shipping, Tax, or other service fees are excluded. A confirmation email of cash back won’t be sent until an item is shipped or delivered.

6 Brands, 1 Account, 1 Checkout

In 1800flowers website, you can visit stores of other 5 brands, 1800baskets, Cheryls, The popcorn factory, Fanny May, fruit bouquets with 1-click on the tabs. When you enter 1800flowers first, then click the tab of 1800baskets, a web address is www.1800flowers.com/1800baskets-home. If you click other tabs, it’s the same, www.1800flowers.com/other stores name-home. Even if you buy a bucket of popcorn, a web address always starts with 1800flowers. If you enter the Cheryls website and then buy a fruit bouquets’ item, a web address always starts with www.cheryls.com.

You can take advantage of this fact when cash back rates of 6 brands are different. For example, when 1800flowers’ cash back rate is 15%, and 1800baskets’ is 20%. Even if you want to send flowers, you’d better enter the website via 1800baskets’ link. After you enter the website, go to 1800flowers by clicking a tab and check out normally. You will get 20% cash back although it is 1800flowers’ item. And a difference of cash back rate is NOT only thing you can take advantage……

Card Link Partner – Shop Your Way

There are two types of partner. One is the Card-link partner. When you purchase something at 1800flowers.com with linked credit cards, you will receive a reward of that partners program. SYW (Shop Your Way) reward program is a good example, and I believe it has the best offer of all. You can link up to 5 Visa and 5 MasterCard credit cards. When you use linked credit card at participating merchants, you will receive SYW points. SYW has many merchants as card-link partners. Rates vary by merchants. 1800flowers offer 20% back in SYW points. Other 5 brands also are all participating and usually offer the same rate. So, you don’t have to worry about which website to enter to check out. Around the end of 2014, the rate jumped up to 40%. If you bought $100 GC at that time, you’d earned $40 in SYW points (+$20 from DD, $10 in Celebration Rewards, and your credit card reward.) I like card-link partners very much because you can earn cash back from a portal at the same time.

Promo Code Partner – Rapid Rewards

The other types of partners issue promo codes. When you check out with a promo code, you will receive their rewards. Rapid Rewards is very popular, and it offers a relatively high reward for minimum spending requirements. Promo code (RR22) is always available. A minimum purchase is $29.99, and it gives 1000 Rapid Rewards points. And the points count towards Companion Pass (but not A-List, A-List Preferred.) Rapid Rewards sometimes offers temporary promo codes that offer more points. However, the points earned through these codes may not count towards Companion Pass.

Other Partners and Programs

There may be other partners from time to time. Around May 2015, Fuel Rewards Network was the card-link partner. At that time, you were able to get all rewards from DD, SYW, Rapid Rewards, and Fuel Rewards Network with a single transaction. (see details here)

1800flowers has its reward program called Celebration Rewards. You can get 10% back towards future purchases. You can earn the points even when you purchase GCs but can’t earn it when you redeem GCs.

New Amex Offer $10 back for the purchase of Amex Gift Card $200 or more

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New Amex Offers are available. I glanced all of them, and one is a really good offer.

Get a one-time $10 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to spend a total of $200 or more online at americanexpress.com/gift by 12/31/2015

I’m glad that all of my Amex credit cards have the offer. And, it’s funny!? Amex Serve also has the offer. I believe that Amex doesn’t accept GCs including reloadable prepaid cards. Last year, they offered exactly the same one for my credit cards and Serve. Redeeming the offer with credit cards was no problem, but I couldn’t do it with Serve because they declined the order and sent an email saying ” At this time we do not accept gift cards as a form of payment.” Money was on hold for around two weeks and returned. (see details here) Then, around two months later, Amex credited $10 to my Serve account as “Good Faith Credit” because they offered something that was impossible to redeem. (see details here)

Now, there is the same offer to my Serve card. What is going to happen this time when I use Serve for the purchase?

Probably, the order will be declined, and luckily get $10 good faith credit later or they don’t give me good faith credit this time.

Whatever it happens, I don’t lose money. So, I checked out $200 gift card with Serve via Topcashback (1.5%) portal. As I expected, I received an email of “You just used your Amex Offer” right away. And, 15 minutes later I knew that my order was approved. I was surprised. Last year, they said in the email, “At this time we do not accept gift cards as a form of payment.” So, do they accept GCs as a form of payment now? Can I use Amex GCs to buy Amex GCs?

If they accepted Amex GCs for Amex GCs purchases, and cash back from portals pays $2000 GC purchase, it would be great. For example, you order $2000 Amex GC via 1.5% cash back portal (say you have enrolled in premium shipping plan) and you use that GC for smaller denominations of Amex GCs purchases.

  • 1st order: spend $2003.95 out of your pocket and earn $30 cash back
  • 2nd order: spend $1003.95+$503.95=$1507.90 with $2000GC and earn $15+$7.50=$22.5 cash back
  • 3rd order: spend $503.95 with $1000GC and earn $7.50 cash back
  • Now you have 4 Amex GCs, $1988.15 in total (2*$500, $496.05, and $492.10.) and earn $60 cash back!

However, the rule of cash back has changed recently. They pay cash back for the purchase of $200 or less. A purchase fee of $200 GC is roughly 2%. 1.5% cash back isn’t good enough to earn extra cash back.

Please note that I’m not sure that Amex accept Amex GCs for Amex GC purchase. And my order ($200 GC purchase with Serve) can be declined in the future.

Update 10/09/2015

$200 Amex gift card (the order placed on 10/3) has arrived on 10/6, and $10 statement credit has been posted on 10/9. So, they now accept Serve as a payment for the purchase of gift cards. What about other cards? Probably, they accept Bluebird as well, but what about Amex Gift cards. Can I buy a gift card with a gift card over and over? On the order placed on 10/3, I didn’t use a promo code to waive a purchase fee. That was stupid of me because cash back earned from Topcashback is only $3. It won’t even cover a purchase fee. I shouldn’t have expected cash back and just used a promo code. So, on my next order (paid with one of my Amex credit cards), I used a promo code. However, just in case I clicked Topcashback’s link. Then, I received email from them and saw $3 pending cash back posted in my account. I hope this won’t be clawed back.

Things You should know before buying Visa Gift Card from giftcards.com

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Visa gift cards are available to purchase online at giftcards.com. The highest denomination is $500, and a purchase fee is $6.95. (It used to be $4.95. It’s increased recently.) And they also charge a shipping fee. There are several options for shipping, and I will show the details later.

Update 11/18/2015, Giftcards.com removed $500 VGCs from the option about a month ago. The highest denomination of VGCs is now $250 with $4.95 activation fee.

Update 11/27/2015, Giftcards.com put back $500 VGCs! A purchase fee is the same, $6.95. I don’t know the exact date they were back.

First of all, I’ll show the details of the gift card itself.

Features

The card is issued by the Bancorp Bank. It’s the same bank as Vanilla brand gift cards, but the cards from giftcards.com are NOT Vanilla. You can use them at Walmart. So far, I have been using them for only reloading Amex Serve, and they were accepted at Walmart kiosk, Money Center, and Family Dollar.

Design

Your name, expiration date, and card# are embossed. On the top right corner, there is a small print “Gift”.But it’s so tiny that you can remove it by a knife, sand paper, or conceal it by a sticker.

The card needs an activation at giftcards.com or over the phone. You will see or be told a pre-set PIN at that time, and you can change it to your own PIN later. Unlike VGC from Staples, there is no way to register your name and address. I think it’s already registered because my name is on the card and accepted at Walmart. So, I don’t really care.

Fees

The minimum cost per card is $6.95 (purchase fee)+ $1.99 (USPS first class mail) = $8.94. Before they raised a purchase fee, there was always a promo code to waive a shipping fee (UPSP first class mail only), but I can’t find the code anymore. I think they stop offering free shipping codes. All I can see now are codes for free personalization or free greeting card. For your information, you can check current promo codes on the activation page of the website. Activate (Enter a card number of) any VGC from giftcards.com (it doesn’t matter if the card has been activated) and it shows one promo code. Refresh the page to have it changed to a different code. I used to do this until a free-shipping code showed up, but now it never shows up.

There are several other shipping options:

  • $7.45 USPS Delivery Confirmation
  • $16.56 FedEx Express Saver
  • $18.08 FedEx Two Day
  • $45.00 FedEx Priority Overnight

All these options are charged per order while $1.99-USPS First Class is charged per card. Now that they don’t offer a free-shipping promo code, you’d better order 4 or more cards and choose $7.45-USPS Delivery Confirmation. (There is no option of $1.99-USPS First Class when you added 4 or more cards to a cart, anyway.)

Besides, I had a bad experience with this option on the last order. I bought two $500 VGCs. A purchase fee was $4.95 per card back then, and shipping fee $1.99 x 2=$3.98 was weaved by a promo code. A week later, only one card arrived. I waited for another week, but the other one didn’t arrive. So, I sent an email to a customer service. They told me that I needed to pay $4.95 for a re-issue fee. I called the customer service to make sure, and their answer was the same. The envelope might be lost in transit. Or, it is possible that giftcards.com forgot to send one envelope in the first place. Either way, it is not my fault. But, I’m the one who has to pay the extra money. I don’t think it’s reasonable. So, I canceled the order and received a refund of $500 ($4.95 didn’t come back.)

From this experience, you should avoid $1.99-USPS First Class. Order 4 or more cards at a time and choose $7.45-USPS Delivery Confirmation. If you order four cards, the shipping cost is $1.86 per card. And a purchase fee is 6.95. The total fee is $8.81 per card. It’s expensive for $500 VGC, but “G-Money” will reduce the most of it.

G-Money

You can earn G-Money Points on every order at giftcards.com. Earn 1 point on every $1 spent. 1 point is worth 1 cent, and you can redeem for future purchases. That is to say, it’s 1% back loyalty rewards program. The points are redeemable at giftcards.com only. However, since you can redeem for VGC purchases, you can consider them as cash. And, a purchase fee and shipping fee are also eligible for the reward points. For example, when you bought four $500 VGCs with $7.45 USPS Delivery Confirmation, you pay $2035.25 and earn 2035 points. When you repeat this transaction, you earn and redeem around $20-worth of GMoney on every order. ($2035.25-20)/4=503.8125. The fee will be less than 1%!

Update 11/18/2015, A purchase fee, Shipping fee, and G-Money redemption are no longer eligible for G-Money. If you buy $250 VGC, you earn 250pts=$2.50. When you redeem this points on the next $250 VGC purchase, you will earn 247 or 248 pts. Here is the calculation of $250 VGCs version when you buy eight VGCs. A total cost will be $254.95*8+$7.45=$2047.05. You will earn $20-worth G-Money on the first order, but if you keep using G-Money for the following orders, you will earn a little less than $20 G-Money. But, let’s make it simple, say you earn $20 G-Money every order, you pay $2027.05. $2027.05/8=253.4375. As you see, the fee is now more than 1%.

Update 11/27/2015, I also found that there is 1% cash back deal from some shopping portals, Simply Best Coupons, ShopAtHome, and Panda Cash Back. I just checked out four cards via SBC’s link. However, it seems you can’t earn G-Money on VGC purchases, instead.

giftcards.com 500 visa gift card

And, there is a promo code for free shipping. It’s valid for USPS First Class mail only. So, I don’t recommend using it.

giftcards.com free shipping promo code

Summery

Card#, expiration date, and your name are embossed on VGCs. The highest denomination is $500 with $6.95 fee. The cheapest shipping cost is $1.99-USPS First Class Mail. There used to be promo codes to waive this fee. It may be available sometimes in the future, but I wouldn’t use it. $1.99-USPS First Class Mail isn’t reliable. You’d better choose $7.45-USPS Delivery Confirmation. Giftcards.com offers their own rewards program. It gives you back 1% of every dollar you spend at giftcards.com. And most importantly, VGCs from giftcards.com are WM, TGT, and FD friendly.