The idea of purchasing discounted gift cards is straightforward. You “stack” your discounts by combining Black Friday bargains with reduced-price gift cards used as payment.
And most merchants allow their gift cards to be redeemed either in-store or online.
Below are five methods to purchase gift cards for under their face value.
1. Online Gift Card Merchants
Retailers that focus on gift cards usually sell them at face value, but they do run promotions.
These offers are often limited in quantity and disappear quickly, so check frequently. You can sign up on Doctor of Credit to get phone alerts when these kinds of deals appear.
2. Secondary Discount Gift Card Marketplaces
Several sites facilitate buying discounted gift cards with leftover balances. The amount you save varies by popularity and by platform.
Gift Card Granny currently lists a Cold Stone Creamery card at 14% off and a 1800Flowers card at 8% off.
3. In-Store Promotions
I once purchased gift cards for a number of retailers at Dollar General at 15% off.
To locate these offers, review weekly circulars for stores near you. Gift card deals are typically found on or near the final page.
Gift cards at Sam’s Club (both online and in physical stores) frequently sell at a reduced price, though the selection can be narrow and the top discounts are often for restaurants. Right now you can buy two $25 cards for Olive Garden, Subway or Starbucks — a combined $50 value — for $39.98 online.
4. Use a 5% Cash-Back Category Card
If you own a credit card that awards 5% cash back in rotating categories, you can use it to effectively get 5% back when buying gift cards from retailers in those categories.
For instance, Discover’s 5% categories currently include Amazon.com, Walmart.com and Target.
Discover doubles your cash back after the first year, so new cardholders can effectively receive 10% back during that initial period.
Chase Freedom is another option with quarterly rotating 5% categories. Remember that with both Chase and Discover, you must activate your 5% bonus online at the start of each quarter.
5. Take Advantage of Amex Offers
If you have an American Express card, use Amex Offers to score discounted gift cards. Watch for offers at merchants that sell gift cards.
For example, one of my offers (accounts receive different promotions) included a $10 statement credit for spending $50 at JCPenney. I could purchase a $50 gift card at JCPenney for another store and receive $10 back.
American Express states the credit may appear within 90 days, but in my experience it usually posts within two weeks.
You could even obtain gift cards at no cost. I used a $10-back offer for any purchase at Newegg to buy a $10 Home Depot gift card three times. With no shipping fee, I ended up with $30 in Home Depot cards for free.
Prepare for Black Friday
To get ready for Black Friday, you may need to predict where you’ll spend the most and how much, so you can buy the appropriate gift cards ahead of time.
If you’re unsure, purchase cards for stores where you commonly shop. That way you can easily use or resell them after Black Friday if you don’t spend the full balance.
If you procrastinate (or are reading this on Black Friday itself), you can still buy digital gift cards and print them at home. Most sellers state it can take up to a day to email the printable link, but I’ve always received mine within a couple of hours.
If you’re a methodical shopper, you’ll compile a list of doorbusters and other items you intend to buy and where, then acquire the gift cards at the best available discounts. You’ll also employ…
Advanced Gift Card Techniques
Using discounted gift cards to pay for Black Friday purchases is a straightforward method to “stack” your savings.
You can boost your overall savings by layering additional strategies, such as paying with the optimal rewards credit card. Below are examples that show how to amplify those savings.
Example #1
Imagine Gap and Old Navy gift cards are 20% off at Staples. Purchase a $50 card with a Chase Ink or an American Express SimplyCash Business card (I carry both) to earn $2 cash back on the $40 purchase (5% back at office supply stores).
Then spend $50 on half-priced items on Black Friday and use the gift card, resulting in a net cost of $38 for items that would normally cost $100.
This demonstrates stacking three saving techniques: a sale, credit card cash back, and a discounted gift card.
Example #2
You plan to spend $140 at Michaels, so follow these steps:
- Visit Cashback Monitor and search for Raise to find which cash-back portal pays the most for purchases at that discounted card marketplace. Currently, Mr. Rebates offers 5%.
- Create an account at Mr. Rebates, since they provide 5% cash back when you shop at Raise through their link.
- Use the Mr. Rebates portal link to navigate to Raise.
- Browse Michaels gift cards there. At the time of writing, a card with $202.25 in value is listed for $174.95, which is about a 13.5% discount.
- Buy the gift card with a cash-back credit card, such as Citi Double Cash (2%) or Barclaycard CashForward World MasterCard (1.5%).
- Purchase items at Michaels that are at least 50% off on Black Friday.
Here’s how much you’d save on the first $140 of purchases if you bought only items discounted 50%:
- Half-off sale savings: $140.00
- Gift card discount: $27.91
- Portal cash back: $3.36
- Credit card cash back: $2.24
By stacking these four tactics, you save $173.51 and spend just $106.49 on gifts that would otherwise total $280 at full price.
Example #3
Add a coupon to the previous example and you’re using five savings methods for a single purchase. I once executed a five-level stack recently (not on Black Friday).
I earned portal cash back (1) when I bought a discounted gift card (2) with a cash-back credit card (3), then I used that gift card plus a coupon (4) to purchase items already on sale (5) — in that instance it was to get inexpensive cat food at Petco, but the tactic works at many Black Friday retailers.
Marcus Penn is the author of “101 Clever Ways to Make Money” and founder of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s worked as a repossession agent, walking-stick craftsman, search evaluator, property flipper, tram operator, process server, mock juror, and roulette dealer, and of the many ways he’s earned money, writing is his favorite so far.
