I was able to get a $100 gas card for $76 by stacking four discounts. This post will provide an illustration of how I got this deal. Although you probably won’t be able to do the same exact deal described in this post following the process outlined in this example will allow you to buy other gift cards at a significant discount.
The first thing I did was buy a discounted Ebay gift card at Office Max. Since I get 5% cash back at office supply stores using my Chase Ink card I consider this a $5 discount off $100. If you would like to apply for a Chase Ink card please consider using my Chase Ink Referral Link. I’ll get points for referring you and you will get 60,000 Chase Ink points (worth $725 towards travel or $600 cash) after spending $5000 in three months after opening the card.If you don’t want to get the credit card it is also possible to buy Ebay gift cards for 5% off at Target when you use your Redcard. You will want to be careful if you choose that option since some people report getting their Redcard shut down for buying too many gift cards. A safer option is to buy an Ebay gift card directly from Ebay when they have them on sale. They seem to offer their cards at a discount every month or two
The next thing I did was visit eBay through a cash back shopping portal such as Splender or iConsumer. At the time I bought my gift card iConsumer was offering 3% cash back. It is usually around 1% cash back. That isn’t much, but if you’re going to make the purchase anyway you might as well save a little money.
The third thing I did to save money was to buy the discounted Ebay gift card to buy a discounted gift card on eBay. At the time eBay was offering $100 gas cards for $92.
The fourth discount I received was from eBay Bucks. If you’re enrolled in eBay Bucks you get 2% back in eBay Bucks on most of the purchase you make on eBay. They occasionally have promotions offering an even greater percentage back. At the time I bought my gas card they had a promotion offering 10% back in eBay Bucks. That is as good as I’ve seen them offer for general purchases, although they sometimes offer even higher percentages back on specific categories.
Here is how the math works out. The $100 gas gift card was on sale for $92 for a savings of $8. I used an Ebay gift card that I bought with my Chase Ink which I consider to be a 5% discount. Five percent off $92 is $4.60. The cash back shopping portal paid me 3% cash back which is $2.76. Ebay gave me 10% back in eBay Bucks. Ten percent off $92 is $9.20. So $92-$4.60-$2.76-$9.20= $75.44. I went ahead and rounded up to $76 since some of the discounts or rewards earned from the purchase are not in the form of actual cash. Either way that is a pretty good discount on gas. Of course, I use a gas rewards card when I fill up to save even more money.
The deals aren’t always that great, but stacking the discounts and cash back it is possible to save a nice amount on lots of gift cards. In fact, I have bought gift cards off of eBay and turned around and Sell gift cards for cash at Raise.com or Sell Your Gift Cards For Cash at Cardpool.com! I wouldn’t recommend that as a way to make money, but it is a good way to help meet minimum spend to earn a credit card bonus.
Let me know if you have any questions about any of the discounts or cash back.
Lots of work but sounds well worth it. Now make sure to get gas at the cheapest price possible so that you don’t undo any of your hard work!