Are you struggling to think of something to buy your friend for their birthday? Choosing a gift is always challenging, and spending hours in front of your computer staring at offerings from online retailers is a waste of your time.
The chances are you’ll end up buying something your friend doesn’t want, and they’ll either want to exchange it, or they’ll never use it. Great, now you wasted your time finding the gift, and your money purchasing the item.
Instead of going to the hassle of gift shopping, why not buy your friend a gift card for their birthday present? Gift cards are awesome, they let your friends and family choose whatever they want, and they get more value out of your gift. Plus, buying a gift card is effortless, and you don’t need to spend hours online trying to make your selection.
All you need to do is plan your budget, and then buy the gift card for the set amount, that’s it – your gift shopping is over.
What if there was a way to save on your gift card? You can save more money by using a discount gift card platform when making your purchase. With a discount gift card, you get more spending value than what you pay for the card, saving you money on the deal.
Here are our top choices for discount gift card websites you can visit today. Buy your friend a present, or use the gift card yourself to save on your purchases throughout the month.
Cardpool
Cardpool is the best online destination for gift cards from big-box retailers like Target, Best Buy, and Lowe’s. This platform even offers discounted gift cards for Whole Foods, saving you money on your grocery shopping as well.
Cardpool states that it offers up to a 35% discount on gift cards from retailers, and these savings area great way to reduce your grocery bill or buy a friend a gift card for a special occasion.
Cardpool offers you the option of downloading an electronic gift card, or receiving a physical card in the mail, delivered by USPS. Shipping on physical gift cards is free, so you don’t have to worry about any shipping costs eating into the savings you make with purchasing the card.
You also have the option of printing out your gift card online, and Cardpool has dozens of partner merchants where you can spend your cards. Use your gift card to make purchases in-store or online, wherever you are in the United States.
If you do your shopping at Walmart, then Cardpool offers gift cards in plenty of denominations, starting at $21.52, and you get a 3.5% discount across the board, regardless of the denomination you choose.
Whole Foods gift cards are also available on the site, in denominations of $28 to $40, sold with a 0.5% discount. While that might not sound like much, it adds up over the years grocery shopping, saving you a bundle of money on your groceries.
Target gift cards on the site come with a 2.5% discount, with denominations in $100. Other prime retailers offering discounted gift cards on Cardpool include the likes of Home Depot, Gap, Best Buy, and even Starbucks gift cards.
Gift Card Granny
We love Gift Card Granny. This site offers discounted gift cards from numerous retailers, collecting gift cards from different platforms and bringing them all under its range. The site also provides you the option of selling your unwanted gift cards, but you’ll have to take a loss on the face value of the card when selling. Still, if you want quick cash from your gift card, then this site is an excellent option.
Gift Card Granny flips your unwanted gift cards for a profit, and everybody wins in the deal. Gift Card Granny offers some seriously deep discounts on gift cards, with some going for 65% less than the face value of the card.
First-time visitors to the site might think that it’s a scam when they see the level of discount on offer. However, we can assure you it’s a legit platform, and all the gift cards we bought worked fine, without any hassles when checking out at the retailer.
Gift Card Granny also features a balance tool on its platform that lets you verify the funds on the card before you make your purchase. Overall, it’s hard to beat the kind of value on offer on this platform, and we highly recommend it as your first stop when searching for gift cards.
CardKangaroo
This discount gift card platform offers some deals of up to 35% off of gift cards from select retailers.
However, it doesn’t have the same kind of range that’s on offer at Gift Card Granny, but there are some retailers on the site that you can’t find on others, making CardKangaroo worthy of mention in this review.
CardKangaroo offers you discounted gift cards from leading retailers, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
You can spend hours wandering through the offers on this site and be careful that you don’t end up overextending your budget. There are plenty of great offers available, and it’s challenging to keep from buying as many as you can afford.
GiftCards.com
This website is another excellent platform for picking up gift cards with discounts of up to 35% on selected cards. The site stocks cards from more than 100-top retailers, including the likes of Target, Walmart, and Best Buy.
However, not all the gift cards are physically available, and if you do want delivery of a physical card, the company charges you a $2 postage fee. You’ll only receive your card in the mail 7 to 10-days after your purchase, which is something you want to keep in mind if you’re buying it as a present for a friend or family member’s birthday.
Most of the discounted gift cards on offer at this site are only available in discount code format, but that’s not so much of a hassle if you’re buying them for yourself. Most of the cards on offer come with denominations ranging between $25 to $35, and all of them come with up to a 3.5% discount.
We found some Whole Foods gift cards, with a 5% discount, which is a far more significant saving than we expected. We also came across some Starbucks gift cards, with values ranging from $25 to $85, and discounts of up to $10 per card, depending on the denomination.
The types of cards, denominations, and discounts available, all vary depending on supply and demand. So, make sure you check in early with this site if you want to buy cards to spend on shopping holidays like Black Friday.
Raise.com
We like using Raise.com to find entertainment and restaurant discount cards. Some of the discounts on offer are as high as 20% on sites like MovieTickets.com. You also get a range of gift cards for tip retailers like Macy’s and Newegg.
We think that you’ll find the best selection of gift cards on offer on the internet at raise.com, with cards available from over 1,000-merchants, including well-known household name brands. Unfortunately, similar to Giftcards.com, many of the cards on this site only come in electronic format.
However, the site does let you print these electronic vouchers off yourself, allowing you to give a friend or a family member a physical gift on a special occasion. However, if you’re only looking for gift cards for online shopping, then this site is ideal.
If you don’t find a physical gift card, then raise.com doesn’t charge you for shipping, and you’ll receive the card in the mail via USPS. We found hundreds of discounted gift cards for Target on the site, with denominations ranging from $20 to $2,000, all with a 0% to 2% discount off of the face value of the card.
CardCash
CardCash has plenty of gift cards on offer from more than 550-merchants. Some of the cards come with discounts as high as 35%, and you also get plenty of options for physical cards as well. If you do order a physical card, the site ships it to you via USPS, with delivery times ranging from 5 to 7-days, but the shipping is free.
We found discount gift cards for Whole Foods on this site, with denominations ranging from $50 to $450, all with discounts of up to 6%, which is an outstanding saving when compared to other sites offering similar gift cards from the same retailer.
Best Buy also has plenty of options on the site, with gift cards ranging in denomination, up to $300, with discounts of up to 3%. We also found a few GAP gift cards with a variety of denominations, and discounts ranging from 9% to 11%, depending on the value of the card.
The large retailers represented on the site include the likes of Target, Home Depot, and Best Buy, with a variety of denominations on offer and discounts of up to 5% off of the face value of the card.
Daily Deal Sites
As the last stop in this review of the best discount gift card sites, we suggest you look into daily deals available on sites like Groupon, Moolala, and Living Social.
These daily deal sites don’t have the same kind of range as the other discount gift card platforms in this review. However, the daily deals on offer might be what you’re looking for, and all of these sites change up the offering every day.
Bookmark the sites and keep checking back each day; you never know what excellent deals you might find on offer.
We found a $20 Amazon voucher on promotion for $10, which was the best bargain we got while researching the platforms for this review. Keep checking back; you never know when you might get lucky.
Other Considerations to Be Aware of When Purchasing Gift Cards
If you’re buying a gift card as a birthday present for a friend or family member, then you don’t’ have to worry about this section. However, if you’re thinking about buying some of the deeply discounted gift cards to reduce your shopping or grocery bill, you need to take into consideration these cons of using gift cards.
Research shows that people don’t have the same level of financial respect for gift cards as they do cash. Therefore, people seem to spend whimsically with gift cards, and it could end up costing you more money than the savings you make with the card.
For instance, you might be inclined not to bother collecting your $0.20 change when paying with your gift card, losing out on the discount you got with the card in the first place. The discount you get with cards is not all that great, but when you consider the savings you’ll make on your purchases over the year, it makes a lot more sense.
Let’s say you spend $1,000 on groceries at Whole Foods each month, that’s $12,000 a year. Some of the 5% gift cards for Whole Foods we found on the platforms in this review, could save you $600 over the year on your purchases at Whole Foods.
Wrapping Up – Key Takeaways
Searching the discount gift card platforms is an excellent way to find a discounted card for a present for a friend or a family member.
These platforms also offer you a way to get extra savings on your shopping throughout the year, as well.
Some sites might also buy your unwanted gift cards but at a severely reduced value.
If you’re using discounted gift cards to save on your shopping, make sure you adhere to the rules of your strategy and don’t be whimsical with your spending.
1 Comment
well gift card gives an heavy discount, every new year i bought it on every christmas