Buy discounted gift cards for the stores and restaurants you already use, and everything you buy with them costs less. Look for warehouse club multipacks, holiday bonus offers, and resale sites that guarantee the balance. Pay with a credit card that earns rewards on gift cards, and spend each one within a few months.
Paying $80 for $100 in restaurant gift cards takes 20% off meals you’d have eaten anyway. The catch is finding cards that cheap, then keeping the discount once you have them.
Start at a warehouse club. Costco says its restaurant gift cards typically sell at a 20% to 25% discount, as eGift cards or physical multipacks. Some restaurant chains add a bonus card over the holidays. The Cheesecake Factory’s annual holiday offer has given a $15 bonus card for every $50 in gift cards, usable only from Jan. 1 through Feb. 28.
Resale sites such as CardCash sell other people’s unwanted cards at discounts that vary by store. Kroger, the grocery chain, gives 2 loyalty points for every dollar spent on most gift cards, and every 100 points takes $1 off groceries, a 2% return.
Paying with a rewards credit card adds to the discount, but check its terms first. Cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards points, for one, earn none on gift cards. For online orders, start at a cash back shopping portal, which pays you back a percentage of the order, then pay with the gift card. Some stores pay no portal cash back on the part of an order paid by gift card, so read the store’s terms on the portal before you buy.
Then protect the discount. Check a resale card’s balance the day it arrives, since CardCash refunds a balance that comes up short only if you report it within 45 days of purchase. Don’t stockpile cards, either. A chain that closes unexpectedly can leave its cards useless, the Consumer Federation of America warns. And skip prepaid Visa and Mastercard gift cards, which add a purchase fee to the face value, such as $5 on a $50 card at Target.
Start with the store where you spend the most, and buy no more than about three months of your usual spending there at a time.
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