Lots of retailers try enticing us to buy their gift cards as holiday gifts by offering a bonus gift card with each gift card purchase. See a list of gift card deals in this Slickdeals thread, though it’s not a complete list.
The most common to offer this are restaurants; some other retailers do as well, like Barnes & Noble or Children’s Place. It’s important to realize that the bonus gift cards are typically promo cards which have expiration dates and sometimes have limitations. Some of these gift cards deals are online, some in-store, and some both.
It’s fun to see when we can stack the bonus deal with another offer, in this case Amex Offers.
Ruby Tuesday Stack
Ruby Tuesday released a new Amex Offer deal today:
- Get $10 back or 1,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend $30 at Ruby Tuesday in-restaurant by December 31, 2017
Ruby Tuesday has a $15 for $50 holiday bonus:
- Buy $50 in Ruby Tuesday gift cards and get a free $15 bonus card; promo card will be valid 1/1/18 – 3/6/18
It’s clear in the FAQ that this offer is available in-restaurant as well. A potential stack would be like this: go in-store and buy $150 in Ruby Tuesday gift cards split across 5 registered Amex cards. You’ll pay just $100 after the Amex credit kicks in, plus you’ll land up with $45 in promo cards.
P.F. Chang’s Stack
Not long ago, Amex released a deal for P.F. Chang’s:
- Get $10 back or 1,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend $40 at P.F. Chang’s in-restaurant by December 31, 2017
P.F. Chang’s also has a $20 for $100 holiday bonus until December 31:
- Buy $100 in P.F. Chang’s gift cards and get a free $20 bonus card; promo card will be valid 1/1/18 – 3/31/18
In this case, I can’t find clear mention as to whether the holiday bonus offer is valid in-restaurant. It’s been that way in the past, and it’s probably that way this year too. A potential stack would be like this: go in-store and buy $200 in P.F. Chang’s gift cards split across 5 registered Amex cards. You’ll pay just $150 after the Amex credit kicks in, plus you’ll land up with $40 in promo cards.
Not nearly as good as the Amex offer, but BoA also has a 5% cash back deal at Ruby Tuesday. And if you sign up for the Ruby Tuesday email list, you can regularly get buy-one-get-half-off coupons to stretch out the gift cards.
Red Robin also does these gift card deals, and BoA sometimes has a 5% or 10% cash back deal for them, although I don’t see that one right now.
Split the bill for the gift cards buying $50 between an Amex and the BOA. I did a split once at another similar chain eatery; no reason to think Ruby T couldn’t do the same. Cheers! 😉
Texas Roadhouse always does holiday gift card deals. They may vary by each restaurant in specifics. My restaurant is doing a $20 discount coupon on a dinner for two when you buy a $100 gift card. The coupon expires 3/31/18, but they said they will honor it indefinitely at that location. Stack with Uber Visa Local Offer for 10% back + Chase Marriott Offer for another 10% back.
I have none of these offers…