Category: Gift Cards

The biggest volume gift card reselling platform Raise’s GCX, which incidentally via a broker is where most manufactured spender’s gift cards end up, recently made moves that seem to effectively push all but the top three or four sellers into insolvency unless they have a stable of private buyers or a mostly non-existent big alternative. Based on discussions with several anonymous brokers, the new normal is:

  • New tiers (that sound like Delta status levels) based on quarterly sales volume:
    • <= $19,999 for Bronze
    • $20,000+ for Silver
    • $100,000+ for Gold
    • $500,000+ for Platinum
    • $1,000,000+ for Diamond
    • $10,000,000+ for Delta 360 Diamond Plus
  • Platform selling fees ranging based on tier level from 15% to 6%-ish (that means if you sell BestBuy at 98.50% of face, you’ll take-home 83.5% after fees as a Bronze member, maybe up to 45 days later)
  • Penalties for cards that don’t sell quickly enough
  • Increased penalties for debited transactions (when a buyer says the card doesn’t work)
  • No more grace period for bad quarters, immediate tier demotion
  • Longer holding times before payout for many gift cards

If you want to sell on Raise / GCX and compete with the big three current sellers that are paying approximately 6-7% in fees, you’re going to have pay around $40,000 in extra commissions on your way to that tier too. That means:

  • Raise’s changes are forming an oligopoly of gift card resellers
  • Smaller resellers are going to drop out (I’ve heard of three already)
  • The bar to entry to be an effective bulk competitor is higher than ever
  • Competition for manufactured spenders selling gift cards to brokers will fall
  • Manufactured spenders will see decreased profits as competition falls
  • The existing oligopoly will see increased profits as competition falls

Raise is likely to have a simpler business and a smaller support staff with these changes, but they’re also leaving themselves vulnerable to a new marketplace competitor with lower fees and a penchant for marketing that could take over as the new de-facto gift card resale platform. Watch for turbulent times in the short term, and (hopefully) a new reseller focused marketplace in the medium term.

Oh, and since we haven’t talked about Pepper for a while, let’s take a tangent from the main topic to mention Pepper’s weekend: they were offering 20% back in Pepper Coins for Best Buy purchases, and 25% back for Target purchases. Completely auspicious right?

Happy Monday!

GCX/Raise’s totally original status program elite bag tag.

  1. Do this now: Register for AA’s widely targeted promotion for 500 Loyalty Points for each AA flight in March, up to 5,000 bonus points total. Flights need to be booked (or rebooked) after registration to be eligible. (Thanks to VFTW)
  2. Capital One has a widely targeted offer for 5,000 bonus miles with a 1,000+ mile transfer to JetBlue TrueBlue. The transfer ratio is awful other than the bonus, so your best bet is to transfer 1,000 miles exactly and earn 5,600 TrueBlue miles. On the plus (?) side, 5,600 miles is enough for some short-haul basic economy tickets.
  3. The American Express Hilton cards have an increased sign-up bonus:

    – Honors: 70,000 points and a free night certificate after $2,000 spend in six months
    – Surpass: 130,000 points and a free night certificate after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months

    In case you’re in pop-up jail on those and don’t know how to get out, you can find smaller bonuses that are mostly popup immune for the same cards here.
  4. Staples.com now sells virtual Visa gift cards with gargantuan fees, topping out at $9.95 for a $300 virtual Visa. I guess maybe you can make this make sense if you’re good at alt portals.

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. The Chase United Quest’s $125 annual United credits are changing to TravelBank credits in March, which makes one of my least favorite cards slightly more attractive.
  6. Breeze Airways 45% off of base fares with promo code ESCAPE for travel from March 5 through September 9, and it must be booked by tomorrow.

Happy Thursday friends!

JetBlue basic economy still includes a circa 2012 screen with at least one burnt out color channel and complimentary screen covering.

If you missed yesterday’s post because I can’t tell the difference between AM and PM, please find it here. If you missed it for some other reason, well, I don’t know what to tell you.

Anyhoodles:

  1. I heard from about a dozen people yesterday that the Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card was being converted to a generic Citi ThankYou Points card; let’s just say don’t believe everything you read on the internet. There are multiple variants of this card, and I believe only the old Sears Silver version one is affected. Nothing to see here, move along.

    Since no one asked, I bet this happened because Sears is a dead brand and Citi was up for contract renewal on the co-brand trademark, then decided that even $2 to maintain the co-brand wasn’t worth it. (Thanks to Eugene)
  2. The IHG Business program, which is free to register for, is offering double points on stays booked by June 30 for stays through November 30. Registration also includes elite night credits for spend in multiples of $3,000 which might be applicable to exactly two of you. (Thanks to FM)
  3. The Barclays JetBlue Plus Mastercard card has an increased offer for 70,000 bonus miles after $1,000 spend in 90 days.
  4. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  5. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins stores have 8x points on Zillions Zift gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per account. Giant Foods does too, except at 4x because reasons. The current Pepper climate means that ebay gift cards are usually the best conversion for bulk resellers from the Zillions of Zift options. (How is was that even a valid sentence? Churning is weird.)

Have a nice weekend friends!

A churner descends into madness while trying to redeem Zillions Zifts.

Before we dive in let’s start with a quick American Express shutdowns update: There were no reports of new shutdowns yesterday. Are we out of the woods yet? I think that’s highly unlikely, but you never know I guess. Anyway, let’s dive in to today’s news.

  1. Southwest registration is open for a limited scope promotional Companion Pass:

    – Book a round-trip or two one-ways by tomorrow night
    – Fly by the end of March
    – Earn a companion pass valid between August 7 and October 8

    This works on award and paid tickets, and if you’ve already got something booked you can cancel and rebook too.
  2. The American Express personal Hilton cards have new no-lifetime language (NLL) links:

    – Aspire: 150,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Surpass: 130,000 points after after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Honors: 80,000 points after $2,000 spend in six months

    These are popup resistant links.
  3. The Synchrony Virgin Atlantic Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 60,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days.

    On the one hand the mileage bonus is low compared to other sign-up bonuses, but on the other hand it’s Synchrony so that’s a nice win with the right playbook.
  4. The Capital One Venture card has a sign-up bonus of 75,000 miles and a $250 Capital One Travel credit available by referrals (and publicly available too, but use a referral from a friend instead).
  5. Singapore KrisFlyer has 30% off of award tickets in both economy and business class on various routes booked by February 28, including:

    – LAX-SIN
    – JFK-FRA
    – SFO-SIN
    – SEA-SIN

    Travel is valid in March with some route specific black-out dates. (Thanks to FFB)
  6. Alaska has an award sale with teeth through tomorrow night:

    – Transcons at 15,000 points
    – West coast to Hawaii at 7,500 points
    – West coast to Mexico at 4,000 points

    The left-coasters have a better pick but there are gems for the other coast too.
  7. Saks is behind on their bills to suppliers according to the Wall Street Journal, which probably only matters if you’re a supplier or a gift card reseller. (Thanks to nobody65535)
  8. MasterCardGiftCard.com has a promotion for a free $10 gift card with the purchase of a $100 gift card using promo code bonus25. (Thanks to Past_Reality_1909)

Have a nice Wednesday!

A churner dives in.

  1. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. It’s almost like it’s predictable that the Visas will go on sale the week after Mastercards do. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $200
    – Don’t forget about your American Express Business Gold monthly credit
    – Look for ‘Anywhere cards’ which may be cheaper as long as you can liquidate them

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, the President of all Mastercards, sent out mid-month February offers. We’ve seen:

    – $75 statement credit after in $750 in online spend
    – $100 statement credit after $1,000 in online spend
    – 15,000 ThankYou Points after $1,000 in online spend
    – 250,000 Shop Your Way points after $750 in online spend

    It stacks with the other ongoing offers too, obviously. Now we just need Lowe’s or Home Depot to sell Visas or Mastercards online to make the stack even easier. (Thanks to Cashback Cowgirl, Matt, Santosh, and Brandon)
  3. Citi ThankYou Points has a 20% transfer bonus to Qatar Privilege Club Avios until March 15. Of course you can transfer these Avios to British Airways, FinnAir, Ibera, Aer Lingus, and Vueling after they’re in your Privilege Club account.
  4. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 50% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy through the end of March. The main utility here is that Marriott can transfer to JAL Mileage Bank, and you get bonus miles at 60,000 Bonvoy points intervals. The math means:

    – 40,000 Ultimate Rewards → 60,000 Bonvoy Points
    – 60,000 Bonvoy Points → 25,000 JAL Mileage Bank miles

    In other words, you’re getting a 1:0.625 ratio from Ultimate Rewards to Milage Bank which isn’t great, but isn’t awful for the utility of JAL’s own upgrades and expanded award availability.
  5. The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express has a targeted heightened offer of 150,000 Bonvoy points and $250 statement credit after $6,000 spend in six months. See previous discussion on JAL MileageBank for an alternate use for the card.

    There is commentary on various forums on the internet that this is a modified link, but I believe the commentary is incorrect and there’s no abnormal risk in this link, rather it’s using a different campaign code than the previous version of the offer.

Happy President’s Day!

The Presidential Citi Shop Your Way Rewards salary beats the average US Government Job *circa 1940.

The Pepper gift card reselling platform, the current mass market frontrunner in the race to move funds from venture capitalist bank accounts to your wallet, has a few newsworthy updates:

  • They got a loan last week, and they did the most Pepper thing possible when filing: The CEO’s name is spelled wrong. (This is probably a bridge loan, VC funding definitely doesn’t look like this)
  • Yesterday, they offered (with most of the cash back coming in a couple of weeks):
    • Unlimited Amazon gift cards at 25% off
    • Walmart gift cards at 24% off, up to $1,500 per account
    • HomeDepot gift cards at 22% off, up to $3,000 per account

I think it’s clear that Pepper is eating most of the cost on these offerings, which could lead you to a few conclusions:

  • They might be trying to pump sales in anticipation of funding hurdles and are fiscally fine
  • They might be trying to make payroll and are fiscally almost dead
  • They’re just benevolent and like giving away money, but they have plenty of it

One of those three is probably right. Make your risk/reward calculations accordingly. Since no one asked: I’ve been bringing down my Pepper float to smaller numbers gradually over the last couple of months, and I’m approaching zero but not there yet.

Finally, I want to add something to a common argument I hear about Pepper, which is “Who cares if I lose the $20,000 I have floated to Pepper right now? I made way more than that.” It’s a good point, but I’d like to offer that if you can catch the falling knife, you can make “way more than that” and still not lose $20,000.

Happy Thursday!

Live view of Pepper manufactured spenders.

  1. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s Q1 promotion for a $50 gift card after each two nights stayed, up to a whopping 2x$50.

    In what might be the lamest churn known to the community: You can book the Best Western Hollywood Plaza Inn for $76.80 with AAA or similar discounts, and 2*$76.80 =$153.60. That means you can churn $50 Best Western gift cards for only $153.60, and get two nights in a hotel that probably won’t kill you and two elite night credits too.
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercards through February 18.

    Pepper: (1) is still alive, (2) maybe got a bridge loan, and (3) continues to kill the bulk resale market for everything but BestBuy and lululemon.
  3. Meijer MPerks has 50,000 MPerks Points with the purchase of most $500 third party gift cards including BestBuy and Apple through February 15, limit 50,000 points per account.

    Marrying MPerks and buyer’s groups are an occasionally profitable way to cash out mPerks Points on something other than paper towels. (Thanks to GCA)
  4. Southwest will extend their schedule tomorrow morning for flights between October 2 and November 1. Southwest expert Brian M predicts that flights around this window are highly likely to have substantial schedule changes, so gamers will game (but only starting tomorrow).
  5. Turkish Airlines has two February promotions:

    – 50% rebate on mileage bookings in all cabins for two passengers traveling by February 23
    – 15% off of paid flights for card holders with code USCARD15 booked this month for travel by the end of April

    If you don’t already have the credit card, it’s probably not worth your time, just get a Citi Double Cash and Strata Premier instead for much better earning, especially when paired with a Rewards+ for its 10% redemption rebate.
  6. FlyingBlue’s February promo rewards include the following US cities for travel through July 31:

    – New York
    – Denver
    – Houston
    – Raleigh/Durham
    – Boston

    Prices are 18,500 miles in economy with good availability, or 60,000 miles in business with better than normal (but still not good) availability.

Happy Wednesday!

Best Western Hollywood Plaza warning: The Front desk doesn’t know random facts about an airport over 15 miles from the property. Imagine!

  1. The Chase Southwest Plus, Priority, and Premier cards currently have a bonus only available via referrals through March 25 for:

    – 30,000 Rapid Rewards Points
    – A Companion Pass good through February 2026

    As usual for any offer, use another player’s referral or one from a friend and make their day.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard sent its beginning of the month bonus offers. We’ve seen:

    – Spend $800+ at home improvement, get 10% back up to $100 monthly for three months
    – Spend $1,000+ at home improvement, get 15% back up to $175 back monthly for three months
    – Spend $1,000+ at home improvement, get 175,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points monthly for three months
    – Spend $1,000+ anywhere, get 100,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points through March 31

    (Thanks to Dave, Matt, and Cashback Cowgirl)
  3. Staples stores have fee-free gift $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction. Why nine? I don’t know, but at least they’ve held that line for all of 2025 (as opposed to 2024 when the limit seemed to have been the result of a random dice roll).

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through February 17. Virgin Atlantic’s own metal awards recently have great availability, but they also have variable pricing. Finding space isn’t typically the issue; rather the issue is finding space that’s cheap enough for your taste.
  5. Avianca LifeMiles has a 15% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards through the end of the month, the bonus will be awarded by Avianca within 24 hours of the transfer, making it a somewhat speculative play.
  6. If you travel in paid premium cabins from BOS, LAX, SNA, BUR, ONT, LGB, JFK, LGA, EWR, or HPN (lol), check this link for a targeted offer for Delta ecredits. (Thanks to Ok-Anywhere6998)

Happy Tuesday!

Pictured: Delta plane holding on the runway at HPN.