One of the easiest money-saving hacks is to get discounted gift cards.
By buying another person’s unwanted gift cards online, you can get them for less than face value. You can use gift cards to save money on every online purchase and even in-person retail and restaurant purchases!
It’s no secret, I’m a huge fan of discounted gift cards. My wife and I scoured the web for gift cards when we were building our house and needed to go to Lowe’s for a supply run.
I also use discounted gift cards for online purchases to save some extra cash.
In most cases, you will save between 5% and 10% on discounted gift cards. But depending on which store or restaurant you need a gift card for, you can save up to 30%.
That means you’d only pay $70 for a $100 gift card.
Top Discount Gift Card Sites
There are many discounted gift cards sites, but not every marketplace is legit. Speaking from personal experience, only buy gift cards from places with buyer protection.
Unfortunately, credit card thieves buy gift cards and sell them to make a quick buck. Once the credit card is reported as stolen, the gift card balance is canceled.
Without the buyer protection, you can’t get a refund.
All of the recommendations below offer buyer protection. In most cases, you’re protected for up to one year from the purchase date.
I’ve had three voided gift cards and never had an issue getting a refund.
1. CardCash
CardCash is a gift card marketplace with competitive discounts of up to 35% off and a one-year purchase guarantee.
You will find many restaurant and retail brands here, too. Since CardCash also buys physical gift cards, you’ll find a large selection of them as well.
There can be hundreds of available cards for one brand, but their search tool helps you quickly find the best offer for your budget.
2. Gift Card Granny
Gift Card Granny is a “gift card search engine” that helps you quickly find a great offer. Type in the retailer you’re looking for and Gift Card Granny retrieves the prices from the various online marketplaces.
To make sure you never miss out on a gift card opportunity, you can install the Otto browser extension to find gift cards for every online purchase.
Besides getting discount gift cards, Gift Card Granny also has a loyalty program. You earn points for buying gift cards and opening sponsored emails.
These points can be redeemed for gift cards in the future!
3. Raise
One of the largest gift card marketplaces is Raise. You will constantly find flash sales that help you save extra money too.
I usually find myself using Raise more than the other marketplaces because of the selection and discounts.
There’s a quick turnaround in the Raise gift card inventory, which means prices and discounts are constantly changing.
Most gift cards sell within 24 hours, so it pays to check back daily if you’re looking to buy several gift cards at once.
Some of the discounted gift cards you can enjoy include:
- Airbnb
- Cabela’s
- Cold Stone Creamery
- Lowe’s
- Nike
All purchases are covered by a one-year guarantee. If your card is inactive, you can receive a full refund. The Raise customer support team has been very supportive when I have a question, too.
You can make extra money by selling your unwanted gift cards on Raise too!
4. GiftCardMall.com
GiftCardMall.com offers gift cards for sale from dozens of stores. You can shop for gift cards here by category, brand, occasion and more.
In the upper right hand corner of the site they have a tab that says “Discount Cards.” When you click on that tab you’ll have an option to buy discounted gift cards.
The types of gift cards and prices for the discounted cards vary daily. You can click on the “buy now” button when you view the cards, and that will pull up the offer price.
5. GiftCards.com
GiftCards.com advertises itself as the leading gift card website. This site has a rewards program that gives you G-Money points when you buy select gift cards from them.
You can save your G-Money points and use them for future gift card purchases.
When you click on the “Discount” tab at the top of the home page screen, the site will take you to a selection of discounted gift cards.
You can buy select gift cards for up to 25% off of face value.
6. Swagbucks
Swagbucks offers multiple opportunities to get free or discounted gift cards. Unlike the other gift card marketplaces, you don’t buy discounted gift cards from individual sellers.
You have these two options for getting discounted gift cards:
When you purchase a gift card on MyGiftCardsPlus, you pay face value for the gift card (i.e. pay $25 for a $25 gift card), but you get cashback as Swagbucks rewards points.
You can redeem these points for future gift card rewards. MyGiftCardsPlus also offers bonus cashback days and “Swag Ups” that let you earn extra points.
The second redemption option is redeeming your SB rewards points for gift cards on Swagbucks.com.
You can begin redeeming your points for gift cards when your balance reaches $3.
Swagbucks also pays you for these activities:
- Filling out online surveys
- Shopping
- Watching videos
- Conducting web searches
- Playing games
- Printing grocery coupons
7. Restaurant.com
For local restaurants, Restaurant.com offers excellent gift card options. My wife and I have purchased a certificate for date night from Restaurant.com.
Not only did we enjoy a meal alone, but we also got to try a new restaurant, too.
You can usually get gift cards for at least 50% off. For instance, $25 gift card usually costs $10 or a $50 gift card costs $20. With these discounts, you can easily get one of your meals for free.
Keep in mind that most of the restaurants have a minimum spending requirement of $30 to redeem the gift card.
This can be a perfect option if you bring the family or meet up with friends and split the bill.
8. eBay
My wife and I have also used eBay periodically to get discounted gift cards.
Personally, I prefer some of the other marketplaces mentioned above because they tend to offer better discounts. And, they have stronger buyer protection policies.
But you might decide to go with eBay to buy gift cards for online stores that don’t list on any of the marketplaces. One example might be online gaming websites.
Pay attention to these three factors:
- Shipping costs
- Seller feedback rating
- Selling price compared to other marketplaces
The shipping costs and seller feedback rating are the two most important factors. I only buy items like these from sellers with a positive track record because it means I’m less likely to get scammed.
Since shipping costs aren’t included in the “Buy It Now” price, look for this expense before you complete the purchase.
Personally, we have more success finding discount coupons on eBay than discounted gift cards.
When we built our house, my wife purchased several of Lowe’s coupons from eBay (the sellers received from the postal service when they changed their address)
. For us, these coupons are a better deal than the discounted gift card.
Of course, you can also pay for your purchase with a discounted gift card to save even more.
9. Craigslist
I recommend Craigslist for buying gift cards to local businesses that can verify the balance before you buy it from the seller.
Once again, when we built our house and it was time to buy flooring, we looked on Craigslist for a deal.
We ended up finding somebody selling a gift card at a discount to one of our local flooring stores. So, we met at the store and the cashier verified the balance before I paid for the certificate.
If you can buy used, the savings from using sites like Craigslist can be greater than the savings from buying from gift card sites.
It’s something to keep in mind when you need to make every dollar count.
10. Amazon
When you reload your Amazon gift card balance, you can get a $5 bonus. As you may notice, it’s very difficult to find discounted Amazon gift cards. In most cases, you can only get them through an online side hustle.
Whether you buy a gift card from Amazon or at the grocery store, you can qualify for this redemption bonus.
Summary
Making the effort to get discounted gift cards is a simple way to quickly save money at the cash register.
You can easily buy a gift card before you complete your online purchase, or you can wait a few days to get one in the mail.
If you’re ready to save up to 30% at stores you’re going to shop at regardless, discounted gift cards make sense.
