One of our favorite techinques for saving money is purchasing gift cards in the secondary market. By following these instructions, a person can save up to 15% at a specialty store or restaurant, 5% to 10% at major retailers.
The basic idea here is that there are a lot of people out there with gift cards that they don't want. Someone may have received a Lowe's gift card, but they prefer Home Depot. Someone may have returned an expensive item to a store, and they received store credit in the form of a gift card. People who do not want these gift cards sell them on the secondary market at a discounted price.
What many people do is they purchase these gift cards for retailers or restaurants that they would frequent regardless of whether or not they had a gift card. If they are going there anyway, they might as well use these gift cards and save money.
Discounted Gift Cards can be purchased at the following reputable online locations:
- http://www.swapagift.com/
- http://www.giftcardbuyback.com/
- http://www.cardavenue.com/
- www.ebay.com
There is some risk involved in purchasing gift cards online, so here are some tips:
At swapagtift.com and giftcardbuyback.com you have the option of purchasing directly from the website. On swapagift.com one can see which cards are owned by the site, they have a little logo next to them. Buying directly from the site is a safer bet.
On eBay, one can take a close look at the feedback score and past sales items of the seller, which we strongly recommend. We have tips for purchasing items off of eBay, including gift cards on our eBay Tips page.
Here are some examples of how much a person can save:
Lowe's 10% - swapagift
Olive Garden 12% - swapagift
PetSmart 14.5% - swapagift
Fuddrucker's 15% - giftcardbuyback.com
One great thing about saving money using this technique is that a person can still use coupons. One can use a restaurant coupon from the Sunday paper, or from an entertainment coupon book to get a "buy one get one free" and then use a discounted gift card to save even more money. Most of the time using more than one discount at a time is not allowed, but in this case it works just fine.
TIP -- The value of a gift card can be determined by calling the phone number on the back of the card. An automated system will ask for the account number on the card. When this account number is entered, it will tell you the amount of money on the card. This can be useful when buying a gift card from someone in person. It is also a good idea to check the card value when a card is recieved in the mail from one of the above mentioned websites. If the balance is different from what you ordered, complain immediately.
If you have any gift cards that you don't want, it's easy to sell them for cash at one of the above mentioned sites too.
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