When you're about to buy something, you may be able to save money or earn extra miles by first buying a merchant gift card and then using that gift card to make your purchase.
Often, though, gift card deals take time. You may have to wait for gift cards to arrive in the mail, wait for an emailed gift card that comes hours or even days later, or drive to a different store to purchase the discounted gift card. The purpose of this post is to list options for buying gift cards right now. Whether you're in a store checkout line or making a purchase online, you'll find options below for saving money or earning extra rewards. We'll be keeping this post updated in the coming months and years, so keep it bookmarked.
Caution: When purchasing items with gift cards you won't get credit card protections such as extended warranties or price protection.
The options listed here let you specify an exact dollar amount that you need for your gift card and deliver the gift card instantly. The idea is that you can wait for the cashier to ring up your items so that you get a total amount owed and can then instantly purchase a gift card for that amount in order to save money or earn extra rewards.
This app is designed to let you buy new gift cards instantly and at face value. You can specify the amount you want on each gift card, but only to whole-dollar amounts and often within a tight range.
Swych sometimes offers promo codes that provide discounts on gift cards - sometimes for specific brands, other times for all brands. You can find any existing Swych gift card deals here.
Swych used to earn 5x on the Chase Ink Cash and Ink Plus cards when checking out via PayPal, but that no longer works.
This app offers an instant discount for a wide variety of first-hand gift cards and it lets you specify the exact dollar amount you want. It's therefore very much like the United MileagePlus X and Fluz apps above, except it offers a cash discount rather than rewarding you with miles or cashback. One benefit of this approach is that you save money immediately, rather than having to reach a payment threshold with Fluz. The rates are different across these different apps though, so that will influence which is better for each given transaction.
This option is relatively new and we don't yet know of a credit card that earns bonus points through it.
Bitmo works similarly to Swych in that you can only buy gift cards in whole-dollar amounts (e.g. $10, $25, $50, etc.).
Also similar to Swych, they sometimes offer promo codes that provide discounts on gift cards. You can find any existing Bitmo gift card deals here.
When the app first launched, payment could only be made directly from your bank account. In 2020 they started accepting payment via PayPal, so it's now possible to earn credit card rewards which makes the app more useful than it used to be.
Samsung Pay
If you have a Samsung device that's compatible with Samsung Pay, you can purchase gift cards for many different retailers which are available immediately. Depending on the gift card brand, your phone will display a scannable version of the gift card which might make the checkout process faster.
They also sometimes sell discounted gift cards, so you can find a list of the latest Samsung Pay gift card deals here.
The following gift card sellers offer options for buying gift cards quickly, but we wouldn't use these at the register:
Sells second-hand discount gift cards. Email delivery is often nearly instant (but not always). You used to be able to earn 5X rewards by paying with Chase Ink Cash or Ink Plus when checking out through PayPal, but that option no longer works.
CardCash has an app, but Greg had a lot of trouble using it as it kept asking him to log-in over and over (this was some time ago, so they might have improved its reliability since).
CardCash only guarantees the cards is sells for 45 days, so be sure to redeem them within that time, otherwise you have no recourse if the cards subsequently get drained.
Giant Eagle
(earn points)
(save $)
Giant Eagle is a grocery store that has a presence in a few states. In addition to selling gift cards in-store, they sell a wide range of third party eGift cards online.
They tend to run new gift card deals every week starting on Thursday - you can find the latest Giant Eagle gift card deals here. The deals are sometimes for bonus Fuelperks+ (their loyalty program which offers savings on groceries or gas), but other times they run discounted gift card deals (e.g. $50 Bath & Body Works gift cards for $40).
One of the best things about ordering gift cards online from Giant Eagle is that they process payments themselves. That means it codes as a grocery purchase which is one of the only ways (or the only way?) to earn a grocery store bonus for eGift cards.
This app and website is designed to let you buy new gift cards instantly and at face value. They occasionally run deals offering discounts, but they don't offer cashback or rewards otherwise.
Gyft used to earn 5x on the Chase Ink Cash and Ink Plus cards when checking out via PayPal, but that no longer works.
Gift cards are available through eBay or directly through this site. PayPal Digital Gifts usually sells gift cards at face value, but often has sales on select gift cards or offers bonus gift cards. You can find any current PayPal Digital Gifts deals here.
You used to be able to earn 5X rewards by paying with Chase Ink Cash or Ink Plus, but that no longer works.
Raise
(save $)
(earn points)
Raise sells second-hand discounted gift cards and has a decent app available. They sometimes release promo codes that offer additional savings on these already discounted gift cards.
When using the app, you can pay with Apple Pay or Android Pay in order to earn 3X rewards with the US Bank Altitude Reserve card. Alternatively, click through to Raise from a shopping portal to earn cashback / points / miles. Buying gift cards from Raise can also help you trigger shopping portal bonuses, despite the terms of those usually excluding gift card purchases.
Gift card delivery can be very fast, but they sometimes take longer when verifying orders.
In addition to discounted gift cards which are second-hand, you can buy first-hand gift cards which Raise calls "Cash Back gift cards". You pay full price for these cards, but earn a certain percentage back as Raise Cash which can be redeemed against a future gift card purchase. Cash Back gift cards aren't eligible for portal cashback, nor are they eligible for the promo codes that are sometimes released. The return you get on Cash Back cards can occasionally be larger than the discount available on discounted gift cards, plus there's no risk due to them being first-hand.
GiftCards.com offers G-Money Rewards when buying third party gift cards, sometimes offering bonus G-Money Rewards rates (e.g. 10% on Happy gift cards). G-Money Rewards can be used to discount future gift card purchases, similar to Raise Cash.
You can click through to GiftCards.com through a shopping portal to earn cashback / points / miles. Similar to Raise, buying gift cards from GiftCards.com can trigger shopping portal bonuses.
GiftCardMall offers a couple of ways to save on gift cards. First, they sometimes sell discounted gift cards - you can find any current deals here. Several different shopping portals have GiftCardMall listed, so you can often earn 1-5% cashback on third party gift cards.
Kroger
(save $)
(earn fuel points)
In addition to selling gift cards in-store, Kroger sells third party gift cards online. These purchases earn 2x fuel points at all times, or 4x when there's one of its fairly frequent promotions going on.
They often sell discounted gift cards, so you can find any current gift card deals here.
One thing to note is that payments are processed by Blackhawk Network (owner of GiftCards.com/GiftCardMall), so online gift card purchases from Kroger don't code as grocery purchases. You should earn a bonus by paying with a card that earns more in the Online Shopping category.
Newegg
(save $)
(earn points)
Newegg sometimes sells gift cards at a discount (e.g. $100 Lowe's gift cards for $90), or with a bonus (e.g. buy $25 Domino's gift card and get $5 Domino's gift card free).
They briefly offered Eggpoints when buying gift cards, but that benefit disappeared almost immediately. Depending on your credit card, Newegg might code in a bonus category (e.g. electronics store).
PayPal Digital Gifts has its own website (as mentioned earlier), but also sells gift cards on eBay. They sometimes run gift card promotions, so you can find any current eBay/PPDG deals here.
You used to be able to earn 5X rewards by paying with Chase Ink Cash or Ink Plus, but that no longer works.
Office Depot / OfficeMax sells third party gift cards on their website, but it's not as good as Staples' offering. That's because Staples processes payments for third party gift cards themselves which means it codes as 5X with Chase Ink Cash or Ink Plus. Office Depot / OfficeMax's offering on the other hand is processed by Blackhawk Network (owner of GiftCards.com/GiftCardMall), so it doesn't code as 5x.
As far as we know, they don't ever sell discounted gift cards, but paying with a card that earns more in the Online Shopping category should reward you. It's worth clicking through from a shopping portal in case gift card purchases track, but they've canceled every order Stephen's tried making, so he hasn't been able to verify if it tracks or not.
Best Buy
(earn points)
(save $)
You earn Best Buy Rewards when purchasing gift cards for both Best Buy and third party retailers.
They run gift card promotions at times too. That sometimes takes the form of a reward (e.g. buy $100 Hulu gift card & get $15 Best Buy gift card free), while other times it's a straight discount (e.g. save 20% on Showtime gift cards).
Best Buy Amex Offers can be triggered by third party gift card purchases, although Best Buy eGift cards don't trigger the statement credits because those particular transactions are processed by CashStar.
The following options are not recommended for instant gift card purchases, but may be useful when you're not in a hurry (or if you have Bitcoin for GiftMe purchases):
Sells second-hand discount gift cards. Frequently cancels Greg's orders. You may have better luck than him.
Requires Bitcoin to purchase discount second-hand gift cards. If you have Bitcoin available to spend, this could be a great option for buying instant second-hand gift cards. Use caution though as there are overwhelmingly negative reviews of their app.
Can be a great way to earn 5X with Chase Ink Cash or Ink Plus, but eGift cards are usually delivered the next day. We frequently see Amex Offers and Chase Offers for Staples which can offer savings on gift cards bought online.
Click through from a shopping portal because those purchases occasionally track.
We cover the most profitable and/or travel-related gift card deals here on Frequent Miler, so you can find all of those here:
We also keep a running list of all current Visa and Mastercard gift card deals here.
For all other gift card deals under the sun, check out GC Galore - Stephen's own site.
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