Lock in eBay Gift Cards at 5% Off

Contents

1 5% Off eBay
2 My Thoughts

5% Off eBay

We’ve mentioned in the past that eBay is currently paying out on eBay e-gift cards purchased from Paypal Digital Gifts. We also mentioned that Ebates is offering 5% back on gift cards. This is a very odd phenomenon where gift cards are being bonused at a higher rate than other purchases.

You can now lock in 5% off all future eBay purchases, whether you’ll be purchasing gift cards on eBay or other products. Note, that officially eBay gift cards aren’t supposed to get cashback at all, so you won’t be able to file a missing cashback claim if it doesn’t post automatically. And there’s always the possibility of the cashback getting clawed back and not paid out.

5% is really a top portal rate for eBay and it may be worthwhile locking in all future purchases at the 5% discounted rate. And you’ll be able to get the portal cashback again – at whatever rate it will be – when you make the purchase. The 5% is just an additional bonus on top of that.

I have no idea how long this 5% will last, but it’s been a couple days now, both on Ebates and on FatWallet cashback sites. Hopefully, it will keep up.

My Thoughts

I was inspired to post this because Ebates just sent me an email confirming that I had received cashback for my eBay e-gift card purchase.

I had purchased the $100 Sears deal immediately but the $200 Sears gift card for $175 I held off on. I first purchased $200 in eBay e-gift cards and after getting those, I waited a few hours (for the activation to complete) and I then purchased the $200 Sears gift card. The confirmation just came in from Ebates reporting both cashback transactions in my account.

The first purchase is the 5% of $200 eBay e-gift cards, and the second purchase is for the $175 Sears gift card. (I now have $25 left over.)

The $200 Sears gift card deal is still around, so you may still be able to take advantage of the double-dip, with a risk of the Sears gift card dying.

Once I got that confirmation from Ebates, I purchased another $200 worth of eBay e-gift cards which I’ll use for some purchase in the future.

And remember that Frequent Miler reported that Chase INK is apparently paying out 5x on these eBay purchases.

[RELATED: Stacking Discounts with eBay]

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26 Comments

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tjp74 (@guest_94135)

March 26, 2015 17:43

#94135

Those of you wanting to use CC instead of PP balance… all you have to do is initiate the fund withdrawal into your checking account and your will see the option to use credit. It’s been like that since day 1 so I never keep any balance in PP. whenever I receive a payment, I do instant withdrawal into my account… I don’t see a reason why anyone would want to keep the cash balance.

Author

Chuck Sithe(@chucksithe)

March 27, 2015 13:23

#94553

tjp74

Thanks

tjp74 (@guest_94126)

March 26, 2015 17:34

#94126

I am experiencing exact same problem. I was able to make $500 worth of ebay gift card two times few weeks ago on two different ebay accounts. Since then, no matter what I do, I get same same “This payment cannot be completed and your account has not been charged. Please contact your merchant for more information.” error yet I have no problem paying for other ebay purchases using credit cards.

I have several ebay, paypal and chase ink cards. I tried various combination and even tried opening up a all new ebay and payal account just to see but same error…

Anyony successfully resolved this issue? or making purchase no problem?

March 27, 2015 13:22

#94552

I have problems lots of times on PP especially with e-gcs.

Haley B (@guest_68991)

February 1, 2015 15:05

#68991

Ebay site not ebags, damn auto correct.

Haley B (@guest_68995)

February 1, 2015 15:15

#68995

Haley B

Red triangle with an ‘!’ in it and red text “We’re sorry, but we can’t send your payment right now”

February 4, 2015 15:46

#70553

Paypal problems… Let us know how it goes.

Haley B (@guest_68989)

February 1, 2015 15:04

#68989

I’m running into the same issue, PayPal not letting it go through.
Ecard shows as active on ebags site (takes the $100 off).

I’m also only getting tracking on some orders with ebates.

Andy (@guest_67777)

January 30, 2015 16:48

#67777

Has anyone received an error when trying to purchase a merchant e-gc with an ebay one? I purchased my ebay gc without issue, but when I try to use that to buy an American Airlines gc I get an error that says, “We’re sorry, we can’t send your payment right now.” I’m doing a straight $100 purchase with a $100 ebay gc, so I’m not sure if the $0 balance is causing the issue. It’s been about five hours since I received the ebay gc in my email (the message says to wait four hours). Anyone else run into this one?

Charlie (@guest_67921)

January 30, 2015 21:19

#67921

Andy

It happened to me last night, but it cleared itself up this morning

January 31, 2015 21:24

#68626

Let us know how it goes. Maybe it sometimes takes more than 4 hours.

Andy (@guest_70929)

February 5, 2015 10:08

#70929

Chuck Sithe

So I was able to resolve the initial issue, but going back to purchase another ebay gc has been a monumental hassle. I’ve had to call PayPal multiple times to get other purchases pushed through. Unfortunately the CSRs can only put a note in the account that I want to make the purchases, but they claim the account flagging is a system action they can’t change. YMMV, I’m sure, but be ready to jump through some hoops.

charlie (@guest_67588)

January 30, 2015 09:26

#67588

How soon did you get the confirmation email from Ebates ?

January 30, 2015 11:49

#67624

charlie

Took me around 24 hours.

Dave (@guest_67150)

January 29, 2015 15:51

#67150

Not sure why my prev posts didn’t go through.

Is there a way to use credit card for eBay purchases if I still have a large PayPal balance?

January 29, 2015 18:33

#67238

Dave

Sorry for the delayed response.

Paul (@guest_67079)

January 29, 2015 14:14

#67079

Dunno if I’d get too excited – this is what Ebates has in their fine print about the 5% eBay cash back…easy to claw back if they want…

Special Terms and Exclusions −
Exclusions: Cash Back is not available within the following categories: eBay Motors (including Vehicles, Motorcycles, Boats, and Powersports; excluding Parts & Accessories), any form of Real Estate, eBay branded Gift Cards, Bullion, and Heavy Equipment within the Business & Industrial category.

January 29, 2015 15:49

#67147

Paul

Yeah, it’s always possible. But I’ve already gotten payouts on some ebay e-gc with topcashback, so I’m hopeful.

sam (@guest_67070)

January 29, 2015 14:09

#67070

can I purhcase ebay gift card and use it to purchase sears gift card?

January 29, 2015 18:30

#67234

sam

Yes, I’ve done so many times.

David (@guest_67065)

January 29, 2015 13:59

#67065

How are you paying for the purchase with Chase Ink– or any cc, for that matter? When I add something to my cart, it automatically defaults to Paypal as payment method, and doesn’t give me an option to use credit card. I do have a few hundred $ in my PP account. Does my PP balance have to be lower than purchase price to use credit card?

January 29, 2015 18:32

#67236

David

Yeah, this is an old quirk of Paypal that they won’t let you use any payment method other than your Paypal balance, when there’s a balance. If there’s no balance, you should have no problem.