Gift Card

New Amex Offer $10 back on $200+ AmEx GC

Posted on July 3, 2014July 7, 2014 by admin

There is new Amex Offer through July 30, 2014. You will get one-time $10 statement credit when you spend the total of $200 or more on American Express Gift Card. The offer is available online only, www.americanexpress.com/gift-cards.

I have two American Express cards for Amex Offer. One is Blue Cash Preferred, and the other is Serve. However, you can’t use Serve for the purchase of AmEx GCs. They don’t accept Prepaid Cards as a payment.

Please don’t forget to click a link of shopping portal. As of July 1st 2014, the best rate is BeFrugal’s 3% cash back. Once the rate was down to 2.5%, but it slightly went back up.

Visa GCs issued by Bancorp Declined by Walmart MoneyCenter Express

Posted on July 3, 2014July 3, 2014 by admin

On June 29th 2014, I went to Walmart MoneyCenter Express (ATM) to reload Serve with the following four gift cards:

(1) $500 Visa GC issued by MetaBank, I bought at a grocery store
(2) $200 MasterCard GCs issued by U.S. Bank, I bought at Staples
(1) $100 Target Visa GC issued by Bancorp, I bought at Target.com

Except for a Target Visa GC, the others were successful to reload Serve. I tried twice and also tried to reload another card (Walmart MoneyCard Preferred) with Target Visa GC, but all attempts failed. ATM seemed to recognize the card as a debit card and even prompted me to enter PIN. But, they declined the transaction in the end.

At first, I thought it was a temporary problem. It did happen to me before. A Visa GC had declined one day, but the same GC accepted on the other day. However, after I went home and searched about this on the internet, and I saw the websites here and there. It seems Walmart started being picky on types of debit card for reloading BlueBird/Serve/Walmart MoneyCard.

According to the websites, Vanilla Visa GC and OneVanilla Visa GC are no longer accepted at Walmart ATM. Both GCs are issued by Bankcorp, which also issues Target Visa GCs. Many people experienced the same problem, so probably, these GCs are no longer available for Walmart Swipe Reload.

When I go to Walmart next time, I will give it another try.

Target Visa GC & ShopDiscover w/free shipping on $50+

Posted on July 1, 2014July 31, 2014 by admin

I received an ad from Target. It seems that Target has new shipping policy, “free shipping on all orders of $50+.” I checked if this is eligible on the purchase of gift cards. I added $100 Target Visa Gift Card to a cart and chose credit card for the payment method. I made sure that it was free shipping. (Just a week ago, I did the same thing, and they charged $1.95 for shipping.)

Now that shipping cost is free, there is nothing for me to stop purchasing Target Visa GC. I used “Discover it” card, and most importantly I entered Target.com through ShopDiscover. I received thanks-for-your-order email, and there is no cancellation email (please read the posts: Target Visa Gift Card and ShopDiscover 1&2). The next day, I received an email from ShopDiscover. The card arrived a week later.

It proved that Target kept cancelling my orders because I used Target GCs as a payment method. I don’t know why they accepted the first order (I used Target GCs for the purchase of Target Visa GC.) Anyway, I won’t do that again. It is not comfortable to receive an email of cancellation right after a check-out.

In this transaction:

I paid a purchase fee (-$6.00)
I earned 5% cash back from ShopDiscover (+$5.30)
I earned 1% cash back from Discover (+$1.06)
Total +$0.36 profit

This isn’t a lot, but I always redeem Discover’s reward for 20% discounted gift cards, so $6.36 will be worth $7.95 for me. I get $1.95 profit.

Target accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and PayPal. You can convert AmEx GCs into $100 Target Visa GCs for 70¢ per card. AmEx GCs have fewer features than Visa GCs. They don’t have PINs so you can’t get cash back at registers. Once you get Visa GCs, ~~you can load BlueBird/Serve at Walmart~~ and ~~get cash back at registers depending on the stores~~. Visa GCs are easier to be converted into cash than AmEx GCs.

As I mentioned in the earlier posts, it is a great money maker when it is on 4th quarter of Discover’s promotion (rotating category: online shopping). And if ShopDiscover’s seasonal promotions give additional 5% cash back on purchases at Target.com, that would be so great. Because cash back from ShopDiscover is unlimited, while cash back from rotating categories are capped at $1500 of purchases. And if this happens in 4th quarter, you will get total 15% cash back!!! However, I’m not sure that the cash back rate of Target.com is raised up by 5% in the past. I have never paid attention to it. I will need to keep an eye on the cash back rate of Target.com.

Please note that it seems that Walmart kiosk no longer accepts Target Visa GCs for reloading BlueBird/Serve, read this post for the details.

Attention! Lands End Gift Card not Redeemable at Sears or Kmart

Posted on June 28, 2014June 28, 2014 by admin

This first happened to me a month ago (May 2014). I purchased Lands End’s e-codes at Raise.com. I wanted to buy something at Sears.com, but I got an error message “please enter valid card number and PIN.” However, at Land’s End.com, it was valid. I called the number for automated balance inquiry of both Sears and Lands End. It was the same as online. Sears told me invalid number, while Lands End has no problem.

I thought this e-codes were something special that were available only at Lands End. I contacted with Raise and told the problem, and they refunded several days later. Because the e-code I got was not as described in their website. They describe that Lands End gift cards are also available at Sears and Kmart.

Today, I just redeemed my Discover credit reward for Land’s End e-code which is 20% bonus ($25 e-code for $20 reward dollars.) And this e-code also has the same problem. This time, I can’t blame on Discover because terms and condition of Lands End gift cards doesn’t say you can use it at Sears or Kmart. It just says “redeemable at landsend.com and in Lands’ End consumer catalogs, including Home, Women, Men and Kids.” It doesn’t mention about Sears or Kmart at all.

I called Lands End customer center. They told me Lands End gift cards (LEGCs) were redeemable at Sears and Kmart, and I saw an error message because of a problem in the website. So I called Sears customer center. They told terms and condition of LEGC has changed, and LEGCs are no longer redeemable at Sears or Kmart.

This problem, however, affect on newer LEGCs. I have several LEGCs that I got a few month ago, and they don’t show an error message when I enter numbers at Sears.com. Something in common is that some LEGCs that I got recently can’t use at Sears.com or Kmart.com.

What about in store? My local Sears has Lands End inside. There is no partition. All cashiers look the same. I guess it doesn’t matter which gift cards (Sears/Kmart/Lands End) you use in my local Sears. I went to Sears to make sure. I showed a print-out of e-code to a store clerk at a cashier of the tool section, which is clearly not Lands End. The clerk told me it was redeemable at only Lands End section. I mentioned that I used to use lots of LEGCs at Sears and Kmart, both in store and online. The clerk said “About a month ago, the rule of LEGCs has changed. Now, LEGCs are redeemable at Lands End section only.”

However, you can use Sears and Kmart gift cards at Land End. And I verified that old LEGCs (that is more than a month old) continue to use at Sears and Kmart.

I have redeemed Discover’s reward for LEGCs all the time, but I won’t do it anymore. That’s because I don’t shop any Lands End’s products. I have been using LEGCs for purchases at Sears and Kmart. Fortunately, I only redeemed $20 (and got $25 of LEGC) today. I have over $700 reward right now. Thank God, I didn’t redeem all of it.

From now on, I will redeem Discover’s reward for Sears or Kmart gift cards which are offered by 10% discount, or Staples gift cards which are offered by 20% discount. But Staples GCs are only a denomination of $25 and physical card only.

Anyway, if you use gift cards to save money on purchases at Sears or Kmart, you’d better avoid purchasing LEGCs. At least, LEGCs from Discover’s reward redemption is no longer good for Sears and Kmart. And gift card exchange sites, such as Cardpool, ABC Gift Cards, you will need to confirm that LEGCs are redeemable at Sears and Kmart. At eBay auction, it is the same, you should contact the seller and make sure of it before bidding. And one more thing, if you see a picture on the right in eBay listing, it is a great chance that the item is “NEW LEGC”, meaning that you can’t use at Sears or Kmart. It will be clear if you ask the seller about it, though.

Take precautions when purchasing Lands End Gift Cards!!!

Target Visa Gift Card and ShopDiscover 2/2

Posted on June 20, 2014July 1, 2014 by admin

I have received the second email from ShopDiscover. Now for sure, cash back is available for the purchase of Target Visa GCs. I added one Target Visa GC and tried to check out with Discover it card. Then I knew I was completely unaware of shipping cost. It is eligible of free shipping when you purchase with REDcard, and when checking out with Target GCs they didn’t charge shipping cost, either. Anyway, they charge $1.95 for shipping, if I buy (1) $100 Target Visa GC with Discover it card:

Pay a purchase fee (-$6.00)
Pay shipping cost (-$1.95)
5% cash back from ShopDiscover ($5.30 <– $106 x 0.05 not applied for shipping)
1% cash back from Discover ($1.08)
Total $1.57 loss

Shipping cost is the same, $1.95 if you order five gift cards. But still, the total of cash back doesn’t cover purchase fee and shipping cost. It is not worth a try. Now my choice is to give up or find a way to buy Target Visa GCs with Target GCs. Why did the first transaction go through? Why did the second and third attempts also go through, but cancel a minute later? The following I can come up with:

My account is blocked because of the first purchase made with Target GCs
The second purchase is too close from the day of the first one
I clicked ShopDiscover’s link

Maybe my account is blocked. I had the same experience on Sears purchases. I ordered and checked out something at Sears.com. They cancelled my orders right after sending thank-you-for-your-order emails. My Sears account was blocked becasue I used SYW Max program, which is free shipping on almost all items for $79 a year, for my eBay business. I dropshipped tons of items to customers on eBay for more than 6 months. Sears detected and blocked my account.

But. what I bought at Target.com is only $100 gift card. I don’t think it is a big problem. The first purchase is 2 weeks ago. Again, it is only one $100 gift card I bought. The details on the page of Target Visa GC says “Limit on number of cards purchased.” It can’t be you can buy only one gift card a month.

The emails telling me that the order was cancelled is exactly one minute after a check-out. It seems to be automated. They don’t want to give cash back on the purchase of gift cards, so maybe they set to cancel the orders checked out through ShopDiscover. This may be the cause of cancellation. To find the answer, I made another attempt. I clicked a link on Coupay.com and checked out (1) $100 Target Visa GC with Target GCs.

It wouldn’t go through. Just like previous two orders, I received a confirmation email and then cancellation email. This time, however, things got worse. The refund are almost instanly come back to my gift cards on previous orders, but it didn’t on this order. What’s more, I couldn’t see the balance of gift cards, either. There was an error message when I tried to check the balance of gift cards.

The next day, it was available to get access to the balance of gift cards and I confirmed money was refunded. The series of incident scares me. I will no longer try to buy Visa GCs with Target GCs. The reason of cancellations hasn’t been clear yet, but I don’t want to risk losing money of Target GCs.

What I got from the experience is ShopDiscover will probably pay out on the purchase of Target Visa GCs. You can make profit when ShopDiscover has a promotion. During the promotion, some retailers cash back rate are added up by 5%. I’m not sure if there is a promotion that cash back rate of Target.com goes up to 10%. So, I will need to check every time ShopDiscover has a promotion. And using 4th quarter of Discover it card promotion, 5% cash back on all online shopping, will also make profit. (This promotion is limited on the total purchase of $1500, so it is better to use it for somewhere else, though)

Updated in June, 2014, Target introduced new shipping policy. All orders of $50 or more are eligible free shipping. With this new offer, I finally purchased Target Visa Gift Card with a credit card.

Experiment on BeFrugal.com Cash Back from Cardpool

Posted on June 19, 2014June 20, 2014 by admin

BeFrugal.com is one of my favorite online portals. It is very reliable and clear about cash back rules for each retailer. It has over 4000 retailers including some gift card exchange sites such as Cardpool, CardCash, and Raise.com. I have been earning 2% cash back on the purchases of gift cards from them without any problems, but one day I didn’t receive one from Cardpool. Apparently, I reached the limit. Here is the rule of cash back from Cardpool.

Terms & Exclusions for Cardpool:

2% Cash Back on Purchase of a Gift Card

4% Cash Back on Sale of A Gift Card to Cardpool

Cash Back only available for the first $1000 in transactions from your Cardpool account (this includes all history in your Cardpool account)

I had bought a lot of gift cards from Cardpool before I knew of BeFrugal.com. I haven’t earned the full cash back ($20 to $40) on the total purchases of $1000, but it stopped giving cash back. That means it doesn’t matter if you earned the full cash back, once the total purchases from Cardpool hit $1000, you won’t get cash back from them anymore.

I carried out an experiment: If I open a new account at Cardpool.com, will I get cash back on the purchase of another $1000? I use a different email address and set a password. That’ it. And then I bought some gift cards from Cardpool through a link of BeFrugal.com. I can’t change my address. I even used the same payment method.

Success! It is still pending, but cash back showed up in my account.

CardCash.com has the same rule for cash back. Once it hit the total purchases of $1000, I will open a new account and see if cash back is available on another purchase of $1000. Raise.com doesn’t have a description about the limit. So, probably cash back from Raise is unlimited.

All you need is a different email address. In this way, you can practically earn unlimited cash back from Cardpool and CardCash.

Target Visa Gift Card and ShopDiscover 1/2

Posted on June 18, 2014July 28, 2014 by admin

I found that you could buy Target Visa GC with Target GC, but it seems it wouldn’t go through anymore. I succeeded for the first attempt. And 3 weeks later I tried to purchase (4) $100 Target Visa GCs. Checking out was done smoothly, and I received “Thank you for your order” email. However, in just one minute, I was received another email telling me the order was cancelled. The email doesn’t say what exactly the problem. The first thing I came up with is the payment method I took. The description of Target Visa GC at Target.com says:

I thought using Target GC was the problem, but it might be that I ordered too many cards. So, hours later, I made another order of (1) $100 Target Visa GC. And this time, too. The order was cancelled a minute after I was received thank-you-for-your-order email. I got disappointed. This strategy won’t work, and I should spend all Target GCs (which I bought from gift card exchange sites) for merchandises.

But, the next day, an email I received from ShopDiscover brightens me. Although I clicked through a link at ShopDiscover, I didn’t expect cash back from them. That’s because the first successful order was made through Coupay.com, and I didn’t receive cash back from them. I clicked the link of ShopDiscover just in case.

ShopDiscover’s cash back bonus for Target is 5%. For the order of (4) $100 Target Visa GCs, I could have gotten $21.20 as the email says. And if Target accepts credit card for the purchase of Target Visa GCs, you will receive 1% (or more, depending on credit cards) cash back. For example, when I buy (1) $100 Target Visa GC with Discover it (which gives 1% cash back on all your spending):

Pay a purchase fee (-$6.00)
5% cash Back from ShopDiscover (+$5.30)
1% cash back from Discover (+$1.06)
It is slight, but there is a profit, $0.36!

Visa GCs can be used as a debit card. Depending on stores, ~~you can get cash back at the register~~. ~~You can load your Bluebird or Serve at Walmart~~. They are easy to convert into cash. The point is you don’t lose money in this transaction. You can use this strategy as one of your manufactured spending. Compared with buying Visa GCs at Staples, it is a worse deal, but it is always better to have many options for your manufactured spending.

So far, I have received only one email from ShopDiscover. For the second order (1x $100 Visa GC), I haven’t received. It will probably be sent tomorrow. This strategy is mostly relied on Cash Back Bonus from ShopDiscover, so I want to make sure of it. And then, I will make another order with a credit card.

Why do gift cards on ebay sell for more than face value

Posted on June 13, 2014June 13, 2014 by admin

Sometimes, gift cards on eBay are sold at prices more than their face values. You may be wondering why it happens. I am, too. I went online to research and saw lots of discussion in many forums. From them, I learned cash back or promotion can explain some of them. And today, I experienced that myself. I bid at eBay auction and won. The price is more than face value of the gift card, 104.44%. Here is a detail.

The item was $500 Target gift card. It was auction style listing and ending in a few hours when I saw it. Before logging in eBay, I received an email from eBay that notified me about eBay Bucks promotion. It was:

Earn 10% eBay Bucks on every qualifying single item of $250 or more on June 4th to June 5th

I received an email 3 hours before the promotion started. I have seen the same type of eBay Bucks promotions throughout the year (sometimes 4%, qualifying on $50 or more purchases, etc.), but they appear at random. So, you need to keep an eye on your emails.

$250 is not cheap (at least, for me). You shouldn’t buy something expensive just to meet requirements for 10% eBay Bucks. But if you choose gift cards for stores that you regularly shop, it will be fine. So I chose Target gift card and bid at the auction. I won the auction for $522.22, which was my max bid. I will get $52.22 in eBay Bucks. Considering this, I got $500 Target gift card for $470. It is exactly 6% off. According to data at GiftCardGranny.com, 6% discount is more than the average for Target gift cards and 5% REDcard discount as well. It won’t take a month for me to spend $500 at Target, but I can even boost up spending by using this strategy (of course, without frittering away).

6% discount is not only the bargain I got from the transaction. That is because I earned 0.5% cash back ($2.61) from BigCrumbs.com. And I paid with American Express gift card linked to my PayPal account. When I purchased AmEx GC, I earned 4% equivalent reward ($20.88) from Fuel Rewards Network.

This is why I spent more money for a gift card which has less value. However, the money I paid is only 104.44% of actual value of the gift card. I still cannot understand why some gift cards or reload packs are sold at 150% to 200% price. In the forums, people are saying that it’s fraudulent, money laundering, or stupidity. But I feel that there must be a secret, and I hope I will figure it out someday.

Earn 3X Gas Rewards on GC purchases at Stop and Shop

Posted on June 8, 2014June 8, 2014 by admin

6/6/2014 thru 6/16/2014, you can earn 3x gas rewards when you purchase any gift card at Stop & Shop. I was lucky enough the store has $20-$500 Visa gift cards. I knew the store had lots of gift cards including Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, but I have never seen $20-$500 gift cards. There is a bunch of them now. It seems the store have just restocked them. Without thinking, I picked up and took it to the cashier. I had it loaded $500, and a fee is just $5.95. That is only 1.19%.

I used American Express Blue Cash Preferred so I will get 6% cash back ($30.36) in addition to 3x gas rewards (1500 pts = $1.50/gal).

I don’t know full potential of Visa GC, but at least I know that you can load American Express Serve at Walmart and withdraw money to your bank account. There is no fee in this process. It is just you need a trip to Walmart, and it takes up to 5 days to withdraw money to your bank account.

On the other day, I tried to get cash back with Visa GC (issued by the same bank, MetaBank) at the register of Target, but it couldn’t succeed. A PIN pad said, “Access denied, contact issuer”. At that time, I used $100 Visa GC (issued by the same bank, MetaBank), and tried to get $40 cash back. What if I choose a smaller amount of cash back? What about other stores. I will have to find out.

Of course, you can use the gift card normally, at grocery stores, gas stations, online purchases, etc. After you add the GC to your PayPal account, you can spend it on eBay purchases, too.

You don’t have to buy Visa gift cards. Any gift cards except Stop & Shop gift cards are eligible for 3x gas rewards. I chose $500 Visa gift card because:

A purchase fee is the lowest against a face value of gift card
I can use anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted
There is a way to turn it into cash
It may be possible to get cash back at the register
I can buy gift cards at Stop & Shop or elsewhere again

If I buy an amazon gift card with the Visa GC, there is no credit card cash back. However, since there is no purchase fee on amazon gift cards, you can buy $500 amazon gift card with $500 Visa gift card. And I will get another 1500 pts! This is just one example, but starting with $500 Visa GC, you will be able to choose a lot of options and earn a lot of gas rewards as well!

Target Visa Gift Card Tips and Tricks

Posted on June 6, 2014July 7, 2014 by admin

Target sells gift cards online. They sell not only their own GC, but also other store’s GC and Visa GC. I added Visa GC to the cart and choose Target REDcard as a payment method to see if REDcard-5%-discount would apply on the purchase. The result was NO. The discount DOES apply on other store’s GCs, but NOT on Visa or Target GCs. When I was doing this research, I noticed that I might be able to choose Target GC as payment for the purchase of GCs. I could check the box next to Target GC, and there was no error message so far. But I didn’t have any Target GC so I couldn’t go further at that moment.

Soon, I went to GiftCardGranny.com and searched for Target GC. I found many 4% to 5% off gift cards. I bought 2 e-gift cards at Raise.com and immediately tried to use it.

It was successful!

I was able to buy a Visa GC with Target GCs.

At Target.com, the highest denomination of Visa GC is $100, and it charges $6 fee. Although I used Target GCs I got only 4.5% off, I didn’t lose money in overall transactions. Because:

I bought $106 Target GC for $101.23 (+$4.77)
Befrugal.com gives 1% cash back on purchases at Raise.com (+$1.01)
1% cash back from credit card (+$1.01)

Total $6.79 covers a purchase fee of Visa GC!

This isn’t the only discovery about Target Visa GC. The GC arrived a week later. On the same day, I went to Costco and see if I could get cash back at the register. I bought two $25 Costco Cash Cards. I swiped the GC and enter the PIN. And then a button that said, “20” appeared on a touch panel of card reader. I press the button and a cashier gave $20 in cash.

Although the description on the small paper card inside the package of the GC (“When swiping the card, always select credit, not debit, since there is no PIN”), a card reader wouldn’t let me choose between credit or debit. It just prompted me to enter a PIN. Whatever the 4-digit numbers you enter for the first time will be the PIN of your Target Visa GC. If you forget the PIN, go to mybalancenow.com. You can reset, and 4-digit numbers you will enter next time will be a new PIN. All these information can be found in the website. You can also check the balance, view transaction history, and assign the zip code in this website.

I bought $200 Visa GC at Staples.com in the same way. It is still on the way. When I receive it, I will try to get cash back at the register. And I will order another Target Visa GC and try to get cash back at different stores. I will need lots of Target and Staples GCs!

Updated July 7th 2014, cash back with purchase won’t be successful. I don’t know if it is not accepted anywhere, but at least not at Costco, where it used to be accepted.

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