How to Save Money Buying Discount Gift Cards

Did you know that you can save 5%, 10%, or even 30% from stores you regularly shop at without clipping coupons or waiting for sales? I know, sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it’s not!

There’s a new way to save money and it’s by buying discounted gift cards. There are many sites that offer this awesome deal and I’ll highlight a few of my favorites below. In addition to buying discounted gift cards, you can sell gift cards you don’t want on these sites to earn some extra money on gift cards you don’t use. In 2015, gift cards in the United States generated $130 billion in sales! That’s a lot of gift cards! Not all these gift cards get used and a lot of people would rather sell their unwanted gift cards for a discount rather than throw them away, lose them, or forget about them all together. For the smart, budget-conscious shopper, that means we can benefit from these discounts! If I can go shopping at Target with a $50 gift card that I only paid $40 for, and use my Target Red Card for another 5% off, and get Target points for my purchase, and use my Cartwheel App for coupons, and use an ibotta rebate or Checkout51 rebate after my purchase, and use printable coupons, well….you get the idea. Even if the only money-saving move you make is buying the discounted gift card, then you’re still better off than you used to be.

Below is a list of where you can buy or sell discounted gift cards.

This post contains affiliate links/ads, see my disclosure for details.

Raise.com is one of the most popular gift card exchange sites. You can buy or sell gift cards through them and they offer a 100-day money-back guarantee. This means you’re protected from gift cards that don’t have the correct balance, if you don’t receive your gift card, etc. Raise has been around since 2013 and been featured on NBC, USA Today, Time Magazine, Today Show, and more! Check them out here.

Cardpool is very similar to Raise and another great resource for discounted gift cards. They have a huge variety of stores to choose from, have been around since 2009, and featured on Rachel Ray, the NY Times, Fox, to name a few. So far they’ve saved people over $32 million with discounted gift cards! Click here to see how you can save money with Cardpool.

Giftcards.com is a bit different than Raise and Cardpool as they are primarily a place to create your own personalized gift cards (like add your own picture to a Visa gift card). However, they do offer discount gift cards and you can sell your gift cards through them just like the other sites. Their selection isn’t as big, but they do have some great deals on the cards they offer. Check them out here.

I used to think that restaurant.com was just for, well, restaurants. They still have their amazing restaurant gift cards, but now they also offer movie tickets, travel deals, and local deals too. So while my main recommendation is to buy restaurant gift cards through them, explore their site and see the other awesome deals they offer now at specials.restaurant.com.

One last recommendation to get the most money out of your gift card is to shop online. Whenever buy anything online, make sure you do it through Ebates. They give you a percentage back on your purchase just for using their link when you go to the store’s website. Going through Ebates doesn’t change the price or anything about the website you’d be going to, so there’s no reason not to use them. For example, right now I could buy a Famous Footwear $50 gift card for $40 through Cardpool (that’s 20% off). I then go to Ebates and search for Famous Footwear. Currently, they’re offering 2% cash back for Famous Footwear. I click on that and I’m redirected to the Famous Footwear website. I start shopping in the sale section, here’s what I decide to buy: Converse Low Top Sneaker $15 (reg. $54.99), Aerosoles Pumps $23.99 (reg. $69.99), Roxy Slip Ons $18.99 (reg.$39.99). Famous Footwear has an online coupon code for 15% off so I apply that to my order. My total for all three shoes is $51.20 and I only paid $40.18. If I were to just walk into a store and buy these I would have paid $164.97! That a difference of $124.79 or 76% off!

Doing simple things like buying the discount gift cards, shopping through Ebates, looking for coupon codes, and shopping sale or clearance items really adds up!