In my last post,
"There's a Hole in Your Pocket", I talked about how you can easily earn cash back on many of your online purchases. In this post, I'll talk about how to save even more on many purchases, both on-line and in-store. Advance warning, this one does require a little bit of pre-planning but can save you a ton of cash!
We've all gotten gift cards at some point (either wanted or unwanted). Retailers love them because they are getting paid up front and many gift cards ultimately go unused.
Enter the gift card resale market. Did you know that there are many outlets to sell your unwanted gift cards? Which also means that outlets exist to buy someone else's unwanted gift cards, often at significant discount. Depending on the retailer, it is often possible to get gift cards for up to 20% off their face value!
Are you a Starbucks fanatic? How about saving an extra 10-15% off your daily caffeine fix?
Do you buy a lot of stuff at craft stores like Michaels? Wouldn't it be nice to save an extra 25% off all your purchases there and still be able to use their coupons too?
Is it time to fix up some stuff around the house? How about saving an extra 10% at Lowes or Home Depot?
There are multiple web sites that sell 3rd party gift cards at a discount. Some of those sites are:
As with the cash back portals, different sites will have varying discounts depending on the merchant card you are purchasing. The easiest way to see who has what card and at what discount available when it comes time to purchase is
Gift Card Granny. Simply go to
Gift Card Granny and search for the store you need a card for. Using Michaels as an example, there are currently 457 cards listed with an average discount of 18.4%.
So, how can you best maximize your savings?
- Think about where you tend to shop the most. If there is a store that you always shop at, I recommend keeping a few gift cards on hand at all times for that store. As you deplete your supply, reorder some more to maintain a constant supply. I always keep gift cards for Lowes, Home Depot, and Michaels on hand.
- If you know you have a large purchase coming up, order discounted gift cards to pay for it.
One caveat to this is in regards to the extended warranty protection that is offered by most credit cards. If you are buying electronics or appliances and your credit card offers extended warranty protection, make sure you weigh the value you place on the warranty protection against any savings you would get by paying with a gift card. Many times the gift card savings has a higher ultimate value than the extended warranty protection, but this can definitely vary.
