Category: Gift Cards

1. If you sign up for a free Target RedCard debit card (no credit pull) by July 17, you’ll earn a $40 coupon off of a $40 purchase at Target. Is this deal churnable? I’m not sure yet. This pairs well with the NBA basketball cards that some of you are slinging. I haven’t touched the card resale market yet, but I know some are making five-figures before being banned by Target and spinning up a new account to start all over.

2. News has been trickling in about the Citi Custom Cash card for about a week. The latest developments are that you’ll soon be able to product change to this card from another card (for me, the AT&T Access card that I can’t convert to an AT&T Access More card no matter how hard I try), and now that Citi will give a $300 bonus after $1,000 spend through Thursday for opening the card in branch. The card is probably going to turn into a Miles Earn and Burn “Unsung Heroes” card in the future but we’ll need some real-life experience with it first. In theory it’s an easy-ish $300 cash back every year card with no-annual fee. Stay tuned.

3. Try this link or this link for a no-lifetime language American Express Business Platinum card with a 150,000 Membership Rewards sign up bonus after spending $15,000. Keep in mind that there are credible rumors that the annual fee on this card will jump to to $695 in July, so plan accordingly if the card is interesting to you. I would go for this card other than I’m already over the supposed American Express ten charge card limit with my eleven charge cards and I don’t want to push it any further because frankly American Express is just too valuable. I’ll be able to close some of them starting next month. Thanks to yt-nthr-rddtr for the links.

4. Cash.app is back with a 5% off offer for each online purchase at Sam’s Club from now until Thursday, limit $400 spend per day. I like these for getting Visa and Mastercard gift cards, just make sure you shop through a portal. Portals don’t always track gift card orders at Sam’s, but often they do. When the portals track, it makes this nice two-pointer layup deal more like a three-pointer deal. See how I can sportsball metaphor with the best of them?

My new shirt in Cash.app green, because reasons.

There’s a lot going on to take you into the weekend. If it’s your thing, get out and enjoy the weather this weekend. I certainly will.

1. Yieldstreet is paying a $500 bonus for parking $10,000 with them for 60 days. I’ll be doing this one for sure; a few caveats: It seems like referrals aren’t eligible for the bonus so don’t use them, and their investments are possibly of dubious quality so make sure you’re confident in what you do. For me, I’m going to park $10,000 in their FDIC insured account and skip their investment options. My return will be the $500. Thanks to reader DC Domer for bringing it to my attention.

2. Staples has fee free Visa Gift Cards from Sunday through Saturday, limit 5 per transaction. Before buying though, make sure you can liquidate them somehow. There are definitely still ways out there, the absolute highest fee version of which is Bravo — but you can do better.

3. Check to see if you’re targeted for 30% or 40% back at Amazon when using at least one Discover point at checkout. I was targeted for 40% off, and I’ll be buying a BestBuy gift card which I think you could have seen coming from a mile away.

4. The Free-quent Flyer has a great article about where to credit flights when flying American, Alaska, or JetBlue now that weird partnerships have become the norm in the US. I’d recommend setting aside five minutes to read it sometime this weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Shouldn’t tennis doubles be tennis quad? I bet you didn’t see that coming from a mile away.

To triples in a row? What even is this week?

  • Office Depot/OfficeMax has an instant discount of $15 when purchasing at least $300 worth of Mastercard gift cards between now and Saturday. Two $200 gift cards worth (checks notes) $400, will cost you $398.30. Use a card that bonuses at office supply stores (duh).
  • Check your American Express offers for $150 back on $1,000 spend at Dell.com. Don’t forget about the Xbox gift card XBOX10 promo code, and ideally add this offer to a Business Platinum with unspent Dell credit if available. With XBOX10 and the resale rate hovering around 82%, this deal is profitable and you’ll earn a nice shopping portal bonus at Dell to boot.
  • PointApp has 10x earning at BestBuy between now and Sunday with a cap at $500 in spend. It’s definitely worth it for a few clicks to buy a BestBuy GC for resale if you’ve already got a Point card. They’re also offering a targeted 1,500 point bonus for using the card once per day for five days in a row, at least $5 per purchase. For this one, just use Debbit.
Remember, we do this so we can buy tickets and hang out at the airport for 14 hours due to a mechanical delay.

I had another Weekend Wisdom planned for today, but Meijer majorly blew it out of the water, clearly because they weren’t happy to be left out of yesterday’s Grocery Store Manufactured Spend Deals post, or something. So we’ll save the Weekend Wisdom for another weekend. In the mean time, this deal is crazy:

This includes BestBuy gift cards, which are currently selling at 96-96.5%. That means you can manufacture spend at 6% profit, plus grocery store rewards and credit card rewards. There are other options at slightly lower profit too. This is bananas, and if you’re near a Meijer you should hop on it. I’m unfortunately not near one myself, but I am almost ready to book a cheap round trip to Meijer country for a weekend getaway.

The only rental cars currently available in Meijer land, cause #carpocalypse

1. Check here for Chase spending bonuses between May 15 and August 15 on co-branded credit cards, like Hyatt, United, IHG, AARP, or Marriott if you’re a masochist. My Hyatt card offer was for 8x on Hyatt Properties and 5x for spend on travel or at gas stations, up to $1,500 per month. My United card got nicely worded “go eat dirt” letter.

2. Simon has 50% off of Visa Gift Card purchase fees using promo code FS50MAY between now and Friday. Just don’t use an American Express card when buying because you won’t earn points or rewards. Personally I’m still (im)patiently waiting for a new promo code at VanillaGift.com.

3. You can kill two birds with one stone with your Saks American Express Platinum credit; check out with PayPal after shopping through Rakuten and you’ll get 15x, your $30 Personal Platinum monthly PayPal credit, and you’ll still be reimbursed for your Saks purchase too.

4. The Point 1% cash back debit card is offering 10x points on Amazon purchases, or just 10% cash back on up to $500 in spend. This seems to be a recurring theme with Point, a few weeks ago the app was offering 15x on Target purchases on up to $500 in spend. With the Target deal I was able to buy gift cards and still got the 15x despite it being excluded in the offer’s terms and conditions. With the Amazon deal, I’m going to do the same thing and I’m 99% sure it’ll pay out. There’s also a BestBuy offer for 5x for what it’s worth.

If you already have the card, this deal is a no-brainer for a few clicks. If you don’t have it, should you get the card? I’m still not sure honestly: It has an annual fee of $49 so it’s not an obvious winner like Cash.app used to be, but if these deals keep coming it’s well worth the entry fee. If you sign up through anyone’s referral link you’ll get 10,000 points or $100 back after spending $1,000 on the card instead of the stupid $5 you get back for signing up directly with Point. So if you go for it, find a friend or another MS buddy and get a referral from them and you’ll both earn $100. Please just go that route, but if you can’t find anyone else with a referral link mine is here (*), as small as I can make it.

Swinging for Chase bonuses.

I put together a short post on Gift Card reselling in April, so I thought I’d give it another round for May because reasons:

  • Bad news for Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores: Gene pointed me at a memo advising that BlackHawk Network cards (like those from Staples or Office Depot) don’t work any more for PIN purchases over $100 at the customer service desk. I’ve also heard that in several regions these cards aren’t working for PIN card transactions any more at Kroger either. Make sure your liquidation avenues can still support unloading these gift cards before you buy more.
  • To counteract the above, the Just4U stores rewards program has two worthwhile coupons this week. Just make sure you add them to your accounts: Buy two $100 Mastercard Gift Cards and get $15 off, and buy two $50 Mastercard Gift Cards and get $10 off. Both of these deals are below cost deals, so no brainers. They’re also Mastercard Gift Cards, which I famously prefer over the Visa variants.
  • BestBuy gift card reselling rates went as high as 97.5% this weekend. When you include some of the current grocery store rewards promotions in the mix, you could do better than break even, and that’s not considering credit card rewards. Historically, the these rates get as high as 99%-101% during Q4.
  • Target gift card rates have sprung back to life, they’re in the 90-92% range right now. If you bought gift cards during Target’s Manufactured Spend Gift Card Weekend and haven’t unloaded them yet, perhaps jump on that.
  • Mothers day gift card promotions have been pushing resale activity into its first major bull market of the year. There were dozens of great deals this weekend, and I expect that a bunch more will crop up over the coming week. A few examples: Happy cards at Target, Happy cards at Kroger, and Adidas gift cards.

My suggestion for you: get set up on a few gift card reselling markets and start experimenting until you get your feet wet and get the hang of it. We’re starting to enter one of the busy seasons of the year so it’s an easy time to cherry-pick your deals. Also, please remember that everything can go wrong (c.f., The Plastic Merchant), so never spend more than you’re willing to float or eat as a loss, and diversify your holdings and resale markets.

A broken swing set, which has largely fallen down, rusted, and is in major disrepair.
Behold, the majestic swinging gift card resale market!

It’s time to slide into some easy weekend manufactured spend:

1. Lowes is offering a $15 Lowe’s eGift Card free with the purchase of a $200 Visa Gift Card in store. Currently, you can sell Lowe’s gift cards instantly at 80%+ of face, so that leaves a net cost of $194.95 after the activation fee. This is a great way to liquidate the Q2 Chase Freedom 5x earning at Home Improvement stores, which will net you, per card:

  • A $200 Visa Gift Card
  • A $15 Lowes eGift Card
  • 1,000 Ultimate Rewards
  • 600 JetBlue TrueBlue Points (don’t forget to register your Freedom cards here for 3x purchases at Lowes)

The deal runs April 22 through April 28. If you’ve been on the fence with MS or gift card reselling, this is a good one to use to get your feet wet. Note that the promotion terms explicitly state “Limit 2 per email address.” They’re practically asking us to just create more email addresses to scale this one (email is only required upon redemption, not during purchase). Hint: Not all Visa Gift Cards are equal.

Dean let me know about an AmEx offer floating around for 10% back at Lowe’s too, so check for that as a backup to your Freedoms.

2. Staples is back with $200 fee free Mastercard Gift Cards, limit 5 per transaction between Sunday April 25 and Saturday, May 1. Use a Chase Ink Cash, Chase Ink Plus, or American Express Business card with a +4x office supplies offer attached. Update: Thanks to reader Nutella for the correction on Mastercard instead of Visa.

Both of these gift card deals are issued by Metabank, so make sure you have a way to liquidate them. There are definitely ways to cash these out in person, just don’t try at a Walmart Money Center. There are ways from home too, especially if your cost is $194.45.

A man wearing a green shirt, black shorts, a blue bicycle helmet, and black hiking shoes with white ankle high socks sliding down a mostly dirt and weed hill, on his back, seemingly out of control.
Sliding into the weekend, smooth like butter.

Remember yesterday’s Alaska Airlines shopping portal bonus that I thought wasn’t worth doing? Well if you have an American Express Business Platinum card, it’s probably worth it now because Dell has a promo offer for 10% off of Xbox Gift cards with code XBOX10. To take advantage of it:

  • Ensure you’ve activated your Dell credit with your American Express Business Platinum
  • Check for any Dell cash back or 2x/3x spend American Express offers
  • Start at the Alaska portal for Dell Home, and click on SHOP NOW. UPDATE: RabbMD let me know that Dell Technologies earns 3x instead of 1x.
  • Add a $100 Xbox Gift Card to your cart
  • Add a $25 Xbox Gift Card to your cart
  • Checkout, and enter promo XBOX10
  • Pay with your Business Platinum

The promo will only apply to one card, but it’ll pick the more expensive one. So, you’ll spend $115, but you’ll get:

  • $100 back from AmEx as a statement credit (or more if you have an offer attached to your card)
  • 615 Alaska miles
  • $82-85 in resale value for the Xbox cards (thanks to Katie for the correction in rates)
  • 115 Membership Rewards points (or more if you have an offer attached to your card)
  • Rid of the Dell credit that expires June 30 and can be hard to use

If you have multiple Business Platinums, create new Dell accounts with new email addresses to use the code again, and don’t ever let the Business Platinum cards co-mingle between accounts. UPDATE: The code works on the same account multiple times, thanks to RabbMD for letting me know.

A prepared stir-fry of vegetables in a wok.
A stir-fry is just co-mingled ingredients.