[Update] Complete List of Methods to Buy Gift Cards with Discounts and Bonus Rewards

[Update 6/1/22: Topcashback now sells gift cards with the cashback going to your Topcashback account. Added to the list below.]

We write a lot about obtaining gift cards at a discount. These deals are useful for personal use, for gift card reselling, and for merchandise reselling. Below is a list of all consistent methods to buy gift cards at a discount or with some other kind of bonus rewards and miles.

The goal of this post is to create a single place to reference and quickly review the various options when the need for gift cards arise. We’ll keep it updated as things change.

We undoubtedly missed some ideas, maybe even some obvious ones; we’ll rely on reader’s comments to fill in the gaps and complete the resource.

Store + Online Options

  • Buy discounted gift cards utilizing one of the dozens of gift card deals you see, including many we post here on the site. Examples: eBay comes out with deals weekly, Kroger sometimes has coupons, Samsung Pay deals, etc.
  • Buy gift cards at merchants that have Amex Offer deals. These can be online deals or store deals. Sample deals: $10 off $50 at Lowes, Home Depot, or Kohl’s; you can buy third-party gift cards in those stores and lock in the $10 discount anywhere. Occasionally, there’ll be an Amex Offer for a place like Staples.com where you can buy third-party gift cards and lock in the discount anywhere.
  • Buy third-party gift cards at Target stores or target.com and pay with REDcard for a 5% discount. Usually instant delivery, YMMV.
  • Buy third-party gift cards at Staples or staples.com and pay with INK Plus/Cash to get 5x. Not instant delivery for staples.com.
  • Buy third-party gift cards from wholesale clubs like Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s. They usually offer slight discounts as the standard price on third-party gift cards both in-store and online (1, 2, 3). Not instant delivery for online orders.
  • Upgrading gift cards. This is highly YMMV, but some stores such as grocery stores might allow you to use their store gift card to buy another third-party gift card. If you can somehow buy the store’s gift card at a discount, that discount can then be locked in virtually anywhere with a third-party gift card purchase. Amazon.com is one such example (see below).

Store-Only Options

Online Options

  • Buy third-party gift cards on Amazon.com (our affiliate link) and pay with a 5% Amazon card or pay with Amazon gift card you purchased elsewhere at a discount. Stack with some other Amazon savings ideas. Gift cards usually come two minutes later.
  • Redeem your Discover cash back for gift cards instead of cash. You can get 10-20% extra on many major brand gift cards (Staples, Lowe’s, Whole Foods, etc.), and many of then have an e-card option which comes instantly.
  • Use a cash back portal and buy directly from whichever merchant you need. (Theoretical example: buy Sears gift cards from sears.com or Best Buy gift cards from bestbuy.com.) This doesn’t work most of the time since portals typically don’t pay out for gift card purchases, but occasionally portals pay out for gift card purchases. Check FM Lab.
  • Get 5x INK Plus/Cash by purchasing gift cards within your Verizon Wireless app. The gift card will be added to your Verizon bill and earn 5x when paid. Comes instantly.
  • Buy gift cards with the MPX app to get bonus United miles on the purchase. Gift cards issued instantly.
  • Buy first-hand gift cards from Raise.com and earn Raise Cash Back to be used for any future Raise.com purchase. Instant delivery. You can specify an exact denomination. Payment with credit card, Paypal, or Samsung/Apple/Google Pay.
  • Buy gift cards with the Slide app, a product of Raise.com, and get 4-5% off at over a hundred retailers. Instant gift card delivery. Get your cash back via Paypal or Venmo. You can specify an exact denomination. Payment with credit card, Paypal, or Apple Pay.
  • Buy gift cards with Pay with Ibotta and get cash back (debit card only, since June 2020)
  • Buy gift cards from Fluz and get cash back.
  • Buy gift cards from CrayPay and get a cash discount on the purchase. Gift cards issued instantly.
  • Buy gift cards with the Spent app and get a cashback on the purchase. Instant??
  • Buying dining gift cards with the EarnWallet app and get rewards back in the form of gift cards.
  • Rakuten/Ebates sells gift cards with cashback earned to your Rakuten account (direct Rakuten link).
  • Topcashback sells gift cards with cashback earned to your Topcashback account (direct Topcashback link).
  • Buy gift cards from giftcards.com to get a bit back from a cash back portal and g-money on certain brands. Not instant delivery, AFAIK.
  • Buy gift cards from Giftcardmall and get a bit back from a cash back portal. Not instant delivery.
  • Buy gift cards from Mygiftcardsplus and get a cash discount (cashed out via Swagbucks or MyPoints). Not instant delivery.
  • Buy gift cards from Egifter and get Insider points back. Go through a portal too. Fast delivery.
  • Buy gift cards from giftcertificates.com and get rewards back from the portal on most brands. (Delivery speed?)

 

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007
007 (@guest_1545419)
January 30, 2023 16:33

Does TopCashback code as online shipping for BofA?

007
007 (@guest_1547395)
February 1, 2023 18:03

Updating: despite fairly recent report in Payments Workshop of TopCashback gift cards coding as online purchase with BofA, for me it did NOT count as online shopping category for BofA customized cash rewards card.

Eric
Eric (@guest_1547520)
February 1, 2023 20:40

I just checked my recent purchase and it also did not count for online. I’ll post an update in the Cash Rewards post.

007
007 (@guest_1547679)
February 1, 2023 23:40

Thanks, Eric . Any good options left that count for online purchase as far as gift cards?

Eric
Eric (@guest_1549584)
February 4, 2023 13:03

Raise counted the last time that I used it but that was several months ago so it might not anymore.

What else have you tried?

007
007 (@guest_1549622)
February 4, 2023 13:55

Thanks, might check out Raise again. Honestly, I was working on a Biz Plat MS after inspired to apply by Chuck’s post so was mostly buying e-gift cards on amazon using my AmEx (they aren’t able to tell that these are gift cards, to my understanding). Fluz doesn’t count but that is old news. I’m mostly buying DoorDash GCs these days as we spend a lot on DoorDash but have DashPass through Chase Sapphire Reserve so can’t use any other cards directly.

M
M (@guest_1390244)
June 3, 2022 01:39

It would be much more useful to find at least one good route to SELL giftcards.

augustus
augustus (@guest_1390642)
June 3, 2022 17:25

If there are any current avenues to redeem, that would be super valuable to know about.

TDD
TDD (@guest_1390738)
June 3, 2022 21:31
  M

You can sell digital gift cards on Raise.com but you have to pay a 15% fee. And to sell a physical card involves an additional 1% fee. So essentially you need to buy gift cards at a greater than 15% discount to make it profitable. There are opportunities, but they are all one-offs that will net you a few bucks every time. Certainly not enough to make this a full time business. Profit below assumes you sell the card at full price, no discount. CC points assumes 1% cash back. -AMEX/Chase Amazon 20% Promo, max $10 off $50. Profit: $2.50, plus $0.50 in CC points. -AMEX/Chase Amazon 20% Promo, max $20 off $100. Profit: $5.00, plus $1.00 in CC points. -Albert Bank debit 20% Whole Foods boost, max $5 off $25. Profit: $1.00 -AMEX Delta offer $100 off $300. Buy physical card to trigger. Profit: $52.00, plus $3.00 in CC points. -AMEX Delta offer $125 off $300. Buy physical card to trigger. Profit: $77.00, plus $3.00 in CC points. -AMEX offer $20 off $100 to various stores (Adidas, LuluLemon, etc.). Buy physical card to trigger. Profit: $4.00, plus $1.00 in CC points. -Paypal B&H Photo $75 off $375 offer. Profit: $18.75, plus $3.75 in CC points. If you value Best Buy points and certificates and shop there a lot, the BB credit card regularly offers some good deals. It’ll usually be like, spend $100 in store and get a $20 reward certificate. Or spend $150 and get $30 certificate. On the low end these deals are a mere 3%. But on the high end I have seen 25%. Very regularly is 20% value. Take the $30 for $150 deal. Buy 3x$50 physical gift cards (Amazon, Shell, etc.) for $150. You get a $30 reward certificate plus $7.50 in Best Buy rewards and you sell for $126. So essentially a $13.50 money maker. I haven’t seen anything REGULARLY other than the weekly Albert Bank offer, but I’m not doing all that selling for a measly $1/week. It barely covers the cost of gas driving to and from Whole Foods. If you want to do EVERY SINGLE store 20%+ cash back offer that pops up on AMEX, you could do that and score $4 per $100 each time. Right now I have the following stores which offer physical GC’s (you rarely can do e-gift cards because they are normally through cashstar and won’t trigger the AMEX promo): $60 off $300 to Tori Burch ($12 profit) $5 off $15 to Jersey Mikes, 3x ($2.60 per $15, or $7.80 total) $25 off $125 to LuluLemon ($5) $20 off $100 to Columbia ($4) $15 off $75 to Men’s Warehouse ($3) I’m not too hot on shelling out $520 (after cash back offers) and sitting on it, waiting for it to sell, for the opportunity to make a profit of $31.80 plus $6.45 in cash back for a grand total of $38.25, or 7.34%. I will say this about the AMEX offers though. While the profit… Read more »

Resis
Resis (@guest_1772543)
January 7, 2024 10:53

Thank you for this very helpful description. I wish I had read it when you first posted, because I’ve recently been wasting my time doing comparisons and running calculations, just to repeatedly conclude that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

Yukun
Yukun (@guest_1389816)
June 2, 2022 13:11

OfficeMax/Office Depot is not giving any rewards back on routine purchases of gift cards. There are occasional promotional offers that give rewards/discounts back, but no rewards on non-promotional purchases of closed-loop, 3rd party gift cards.

Gerald
Gerald (@guest_1389796)
June 2, 2022 12:48

Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I’ve had instant delivery of e-gift cards that I’ve bought at Target.com.

Yukun
Yukun (@guest_1389814)
June 2, 2022 13:10

Target delivers e-giftcards very quickly…usually instantly.

CongestionCharge
CongestionCharge (@guest_1389820)
June 2, 2022 13:17

Same

Holly
Holly (@guest_1390093)
June 2, 2022 20:08

Same. I get Delta gift cards very quickly and you can use them right away.

atexit8
atexit8 (@guest_1389675)
June 2, 2022 10:16

TopCashback’s cashback for Walmart eGift card is 0.98%
Raise’s cashback for Walmart eGift card is 1.5%

Doesn’t it make more sense to stick with Raise?

Steve L.
Steve L. (@guest_1389616)
June 2, 2022 08:32

Get 5x INK Plus/Cash with Gyft when paying with Paypal. Gift cards issued instantly.

I don’t think this is the case anymore. I did this back in 2019 but it has since ended. Can anyone confirm?

Otto
Otto (@guest_1389633)
June 2, 2022 09:11

I used to do this years ago too but it did stop working at some point. I have not tried recently though. The original blog post seems to be pretty old based on the old comments here, so my guess is some of the details here are outdated.

CT
CT (@guest_1389561)
June 2, 2022 02:54

I don’t know if anybody mention this but https://www.giftcardwiki.com is a great tool to find out which discounted gift card sites has the best deal on the brand of gift card you want. I use it all the time. It’s basically like cashback monitor for cash back sites.

Steve L.
Steve L. (@guest_1389619)
June 2, 2022 08:35
  CT

Just bookmarked this site you provided. Thanks!

Maybe Frugal
Maybe Frugal (@guest_1389634)
June 2, 2022 09:13
  CT

This is my go to as well.

Ian
Ian (@guest_1389653)
June 2, 2022 09:48
  CT

https://www.cardbear.com/ is another great tool to use. I always use Card Bear in combination with Gift Card Wiki to find the best deal, as I commonly find that the two websites locate different deals.

betterplanetbob
betterplanetbob (@guest_1254699)
September 16, 2021 23:23

Beware of Google Play Store e-gift cards from Sam’s Club. My code was already redeemed by some hacker in their system before it was ever emailed to me. Many product reviews on samsclub.com say the same.

Armella Gottschalk
Armella Gottschalk (@guest_502866)
October 28, 2017 20:08

What about giftcardgranny.com? I find that to be the best resource (of all I’ve found, including the above) for finding discounted electronic and physical gift cards. While you can’t “game” the website with cash back, Giftcardgranny does have a rewards program that’s worth looking into. Check out the “Earn Free Gift Cards” section to learn about their rewards: https://www.giftcardgranny.com/.

OR 97
OR 97 (@guest_502720)
October 28, 2017 09:42

giftcertificates.com seems to have decent portal payouts:

https://www.cashbackmonitor.com/cashback-store/giftcertificates.com/

There is a pretty good list of retailers, although they do restrict payouts on some:

“Not eligible on SuperCertificate Redemptions, orders placed through Giftcertificates.com business accounts, or orders placed through Gc Incentives business accounts. Not eligible on Premium Gift Card Purchases including: Amazon.com, Best Buy, Chipotle, Darden Restaurant brands (Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, Cheddar’s, Longhorn Steakhouse, and Yard House), Delta Air Lines, Dicks Sporting Goods, Dunkin Donuts, Gamestop, The Home Depot, iTunes, Lowe’s, Michael’s, Nordstrom, Petsmart, Subway, and Whole Foods. Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site.”

OR 97
OR 97 (@guest_503070)
October 29, 2017 08:47

Quite variable depending not only on merchant and type of card (physical vs e-gift) but also in the amount. Anywhere from 24 hrs to ‘5-10 days’, so plan accordingly. Look at Gap as an example: all physical GCs are 5-10 days except for the $100 denomination is 24 hrs. All Gap e-gift cards are 5-10 days except for the $100 which is 48 hrs. Who knows why…good points/miles/cash back though