Gift Card

Amex Sync Offers June 2014

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New Amex Sync Offers are available now. Don’t miss any of these great offers. Here are the offers I personally think it is useful.

  • Dunkin’ Donuts – Spend $5 or more, get $5 statement credit, thru 6/30/2014
  • Home Depot – Spend $75 or more , get $15 statement credit, thru 6/30/2014
  • BP – Spend $30 or more at the pump, get $5 statement credit, thru 6/30/2014
  • Exxon/Mobil – Spend $30 or more at the pump, get $5 statement credit, thru 7/31/2014

All of them are one-time deal. There are many other offers, but personally I’m not interested. I checked all offers and synced ones above yesterday. And  I used one of them today.

$15 credit on $75 or more at home depot

Gift cards come in handy when you get this kind of offer, especially when you don’t really want any merchandise at the store. I can use the exact minimum amount that needs to be qualified. In this transaction, I get two 20% off gift cards, which I will certainly use later.

amex offer confirmation email

Surprise! In less than 5 minutes, I received an email that I was able to make sure the offer had been successfully redeemed. This is something totally different than cash back from online portals, which may keep you worrying about it for a few days or even weeks.

I used “Serve” for the purchase. Serve is a great tool to meet credit card  minimum requirement, achieve sign-up bonus, earn cash back or mileage points etc. However, because of monthly limits of withdrawal, money in the account eventually adds up more and more if you don’t use the card for shopping. Amex offers let you spend money in the account effectively and wisely.

Target REDcard 5% Discount on Gift Cards

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I love Target. They sell everything. Since they start selling groceries, Target has been my favorite store I visit most frequently. I have REDcard which give you 5% discount on almost everything. Here is the list of items that 5% discount DOESN”T apply:

  • target redcardPrescriptions, Target Clinic services and Target Optical eye exams
  • Target gift cards and prepaid cards
  • Previous purchases
  • Target credit account payments, Target Debit Card cash back and cash advances on the Target Visa Credit Card
  • Target Commercial Interiors purchases
  • Gift wrap and shipping and handling charges on Target.com purchases
  • Where otherwise prohibited by law

From the list, I can clearly see that you can’t get 5% off on Target gift cards purchase, but what about other gift cards? What includes in “prepaid cards”? I had bought Boost Mobile’s refill cards and verified that 5% discount was applied on the purchases. I am not interested in other gift cards such as Starbucks, restaurant’s, and iTunes because you can easily find these gift cards with more than 5% discount on eBay. But, what about Visa and American Express gift cards?. Will I get 5% discount on these gift cards, too?

To check this out, I went online and added them to a cart, and chose REDcard as a payment method. As you see in the picture, REDcard discount doesn’t apply on Target or Visa gift card. .

discount on gift cards

And a purchase fee of Visa gift cards are expensive. $100 charges $6 purchase fee, and $100 is the highest denomination. Only Visa gift cards are available online. So, I went to the store to check the fee of American Express gift cards, but they are all the same. Here is a fee table of Visa and American Express gift cards being sold at Target

  • $100 Visa/Amex – $6 fee (6%)
  • $50 Visa/Amex – $5 fee (10%)
  • $25 Visa/Amex – $4 fee (16%)

Probably, all Visa and American Express gift cards being sold at Target charge at least 6% purchase fee. And also you can’t find any other bank gift cards at Target.

Here is a list of the other gift cards you can find at Target:

AT&T Go Phone
Apple ITunes
Bass Pro Shops
Boost Mobile
Xbox live
Chipotle
Dominos
T-Mobile Prepaid
Nook
Microsoft Office
Tracfone
Nintendo Eshop
Wendy’s
Texas Roadhouse
Southwest Airlines
Sonic
Spotify
Skype
Google Play
Facebook
Harley Davidson
Einstein Brothers Bagels
Fandango
Logans Roadhouse
Burger King
Spa Week
Pandora
Hulu
Groupon
Starbucks
Subway
BenihanaApplebees
Olive Garden
Red Lobster
Buffalo Wild Wings
Coldstone Creamery
Chilis
Red Robin
Ruby Tuesdays
Darden Restaurants
IHOP
Cracker Barrel
AMC theatres
Chic-Fil-A
PF Changs
Disney
Rhapsody
Verizon Wireless prepaid

This is not really a great selection, but keep in mind that Target has these gift cards, and you can buy with REDcard at 5% off price.

While I was poking around a shopping cart at Target.com, another question came up. Can I purchase Visa or other gift cards with Target gift cards? When entering billing information, all payment methods are choose-able. At that time, I didn’t have any Target gift cards. So, all I could do was check the box, and there was no error message so far. I really need to make sure of this. I will update a result in blog “Target Visa Gift Card Tips and Tricks“

buy gift cards by gift card

target covert visa gift card

ABC Gift Cards or CardCash

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abc gift cards does not equal cardcashI usually use Gift Card Granny to search discounted gift cards. In Gift Card Granny, you don’t see “CardCash.com” as a seller or buyer, but you see “ABC Gift Cards” instead. ABC Gift Cards and CardCash are both online gift card exchange marketplace, and it seems they are the same company. A gift card that is for sale at ABC is also for sale at CardCash. When you add one card to the cart of ABC, the card will disappear at CardCash, or vise verse. The prices of cards are also the same whether you buy or sell a gift card.

They are the same company. And they share an inventory. It is just they have 2 different web sites.

…….So What?

befrugal cash back cardcashThere is a big difference between two web sites for those who buy gift cards from them. Because BeFrugal.com offer 2% cash back on the purchase at ONLY CardCash.com. BeFrugal.com is very reputable and reliable online shopping portal. You don’t need to be a credit card holder to use the site. It is free to become a member, you can start earning cash back from Day 1. It has over 4000 merchants and lots of online coupons of each merchant. Cash back info appears on the same day of the purchase, and cash back will be available for you to request after 90 days of the purchase.

Plus, CardCash accepts PayPal as a payment. So, using PayPal Extras MasterCard give you 2X points (1.66% cash back) in addition to cash back from BeFrugal.com. It is just like eBay. eBay accepts PayPal and gives 2% back as eBay Bucks.

Here are other gift card exchange sites and cash back rates which BeFrugal.com offers

  • Cardpool – up to 4%
  • Raise – up to 2%

Neither Cardpool or Raise accept PayPal, so you can’t get 2X point.

All you have to do is to know – to know ABC has an identical site, CardCash and Befrugal.com offer 2% cash back on the purchase at CardCash. This is great. You do not only get discounted gift cards, but also get cash back on the purchase of them!!

Buy Visa Gift Card at Staples.com

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Many department or grocery stores sell 3rd party gift cards in stores, but not online. Most of them may sell only their own gift cards online. Target.com and Staples.com are kind of unique sites when it comes to their selling gift cards. Because they sell 3rd party gift cards in their own sites. Gift cards available at Target.com aren’t so great, but ones at Staples.com are very interesting. Here is a list of some gift cards available at Staples.com:

  • Staples
  • Lowe’s
  • Home Depot
  • Bed Bath and Beyond
  • Game Stop
  • Sears
  • Kmart
  • Lands End
  • Kohl’s
  • JC Penny
  • VISA
  • and more

There are a lot more stores’ gift cards being sold at Staples.com. The thing is that they are sold online, and a transaction is made within Staples. Because of these facts, you can get a reward from online shopping portal. In addition, if you have Chase Ink Cash business credit cards (or Ink Bold/Plus), you will get another 5% cash back (or 5x points) on the purchase at office supply stores. You don’t have to use Ultimate Rewards Mall, which give only 2% (or 2X). No matter which payment method you take, you can choose the best online portal. For Staples, it is ShopDiscover. Let’s see an example of $200 Visa gift card. The card charges $6.95 activation fee, and shipping is free. In the next statement, you will get $10 from ShopDiscover and another $10 (or 10,000pt) from Chase. So, the total of cash back will cover whole activation fee and even give you a $13.05 profit! Please keep in mind, it’s important to browse available coupons every time you shop online. It has been my habit to try online coupons before a checkout. This a good example of why you should get into the habit. I found this coupons in a coupon site. Usually, a purchase of gift cards are not eligible for coupons. So, I only tried to apply the coupon without much expectation. As a result, it went through. Unbelievable, I just bought $200 Visa gift card for $191.95, and later I will receive $20 cash back!

Staples coupon15 off on Visa GC

This Visa gift card is issued by MetaBank. There is no way to obtain PIN for ATM access to withdraw cash. Even so, you can use it anywhere in the U.S. that accept Visa debit/credit card. You can buy everyday items or even go back to Staples.com and make a purchase of other gift cards. If you buy $200 Home Depot e-gift card (no shipping, tax, or purchase fee), you will get 5% cash back from ShopDiscover again. (e-gift cards may not be eligible for cash back from online portal. I’ve done some tests and the result is here.) Staples has also many other gift cards available only in store, such as amazon, BP, Shell, etc. If you use Ink Cash credit card, you can get 5% cash back on the purchase of any gift cards in store. As you see, not only eBay or Cardpools, but Staples is also one of the best places to buy gift cards both in store and online.