Update 5/16/25: Deal is back through 6/16/25. Stack with portal. (ht to totalshelter8501)
Update 4/6/25: Deal is back until 4/30/25. Hat tip to Celia
Contents
The Offer
Check your Chase Offers for the following offer:
- Earn 5% cash back on your Giftcards.com purchase, with a $50 cash back maximum, including taxes and after any discounts. Offer expires 12/31/2024
Our Verdict
Max it out by spending $1,000. Deal is better than it seems as Giftcards.com has so many sales, you can view current deals by clicking here.
Used PayPal, and credit didn’t show up. Anyone else?
Declined on 2 attempts to purchase these through InboxDollars (3%) with my wife’s CSP. At first I thought it was because I was using my own GiftCards account (so different name from the credit card) but then when I set up a GC account for my wife it still was declined. She didn’t get a fraud warning from Chase, and there isn’t a $1 pending charge on her account.
On the Chase offer it says “Offer not valid on purchases made using third-party services” but I wouldn’t think that would come into play here, and at any rate I wouldn’t expect them to deny the charge.
Any ideas?
My P2 has this on her new CSP so this will go toward her SUB. Hard to imagine Chase can complain about maxing out a specific offer they have with giftcards.com … is that right?
Is there any better way to play this than buying 4x $250 VGC’s through Befrugal.com for 2% cashback, and hopefully getting the $50 max on the Chase Offer?
Sounds like a plan. Chase won’t care how you spend the money.
Sadly I think if you’ve used this offer before, it no longer appears.
Yeah, that’s how Chase operates. But I got the offer on my new Chase card I opened since the last round. Now if only GC.com would let me buy VGCs again…
FYI Rakuten is at 3% and doesn’t seem to exclude the VGC or MCGC. That more than wipes out the fees plus a little extra.
Anyone used this 2 or more in this iteration? I used it once for a small amount and it credited, but the offer is still there. The fine print on this offer does say “Offer expires 4/30/2025. Offer valid one time only.” So I guess not.
I’ve noticed Chase doesn’t always take away the offer once you use it.
HarryTheFirstHarry
No offer on my two Chase cards.
Can someone tell me what the advantage is of doing this vs. ODOM using a Chase Ink Cash during periods of no activation on Visa/MasterCard gift cards?
No trip needed.
Also, Cash back vs Chase points
wish I knew what folks here are buying. The egift cards have a 5.95 fee, and the limit is 250.00. So, 4 250 cards are equal to 24.00 that’s not spendable. We can do better in groceries if you have BCP or Discover and Citi Dividend. They are 5% in groceries this Q. AMEX BCP is 6% back in groceries and 1k by buying 2 Vanillas is about 14.00 in fees.
Vanillas are difficult to liquidate. Also, buying gift cards with credit cards is becoming increasingly difficult in grocery stores. Most stores don’t allow beyond a certain amount. YMMV
I see your point. My area is still great for liquidating and buying. This hobby is becoming geographically dependent.
It has been for a while now.
What’s best way to liquidate these things?
While most grocery stores in my area only sell Vanilla, Lidl sells VGCs that you can register, so they’re useful for paying online, including income tax. I can only use Vanillas when I can physically swipe.
That’s interesting. I’ll have to check out Lidl’s Visa GCs next time that I’m in the area. I am curious to see which company services their cards and what fee that they charge.
When buying online you can also get portal cashback, which makes up for the higher fees. Though, liquidating 2 $250 cards may involve more fees than 1 $500.
My bank actually allows MCGC for car payments, but not VGC. I go through a portal that gives 2% back so that nearly wipes out the fees. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t bother with these deals.
Rakuten has 2% cb, but these ecards are a trouble to use.