Updated 5/7/2013 with new cash back rates
In a previous post, I showed that it was possible to increase credit card spend (and thus earn points and miles) by buying and selling discounted merchant gift cards. See “Churning merchant gift cards” for more information. If you’re interested in doing this, it’s helpful to have a “cheat sheet” showing where to go for the best deals. When looking to do gift card arbitration (buy low, sell high), start with GiftCardGranny.com to find the best buy and sell prices. Then, use the table below to figure out your total costs:
Buying gift cards:
Gift card re-seller | Cash back portal | Cash back % | Cash back type * | Notes |
Cardpool.com | TopCashBack | 2% | % of face value | Cardpool only offers cash back on the first $1000 in transactions |
PlasticJungle | TopCashBack | 1% | % of transaction |
|
EBay merchant | EBay | 2% | % of transaction | Cash back is in the form of EBay bucks which can be used for future purchases |
GiftCertificates .com | uPromise | 5% | % of face value | |
GiftCardMall.com | TopCashBack | 2% | % of face value | 1% cash back for Visa gift cards. |
Selling gift cards:
Gift card buyer | Cash back portal | Cash back % | Cash back type * | Notes |
Cardpool.com | TopCashBack | 4% | % of face value | Cardpool only offers cash back on the first $1000 in transactions |
GiftCards.com | No current options | % of face value | GiftCards.com limits you to $500 in sales every 6 months. | |
PlasticJungle | TopCashBack | 1% | % of transaction |
* Cash back type: some portals offer cash back as a percentage of the gift card’s face value, others offer cash back as a % of the transaction amount.
NOTE: GiftCardGranny sell prices for PlasticJungle are not always up to date. To get an accurate sell price from PlasticJungle you need to actually enter a gift card number into PlasticJungle’s web site to get an offer.