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Shop Smart with Gift Cards: 10 Sites to Find Discounted Gift Cards

Who doesn’t like a good discount? But do you know what’s better than a hefty discount on a product you’ve been longing to get for a long time? A discount on a gift card that you can use to buy anything you want from your favorite physical or online store.

In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about shopping with gift cards, including what gift cards are, how they work, and where you can find and buy the best discounted gift cards. By mastering the art of gift card shopping, you’ll be able to save a lot of money with minimal effort.

What Is a Gift Card?

A gift card is essentially a special debit card with a specific amount of money available for use. Gift cards can be broadly divided into two categories:

  • Closed-loop gift cards: This variety of gift cards is issued by retailers, and it allows cardholders to purchase goods and services only from the issuing retailer. Most major retailers these days offer closed-loop gift cards because customers enjoy buying them as gifts for others. Typically, it’s not possible to reload closed-loop gift cards, which means they essentially become useless once the preloaded balance is all spent.
  • Open-loop gift cards: These gift cards are offered by major credit card issuers, including MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discovery. Unlike closed-loop gift cards, they can be spent in any physical or online store, just like regular debit cards. The biggest downside of open-loop gift cards is that they usually require an activation fee, which is one reason why they’re not nearly as popular as closed-loop gift cards.

These days, gift cards can be distributed in a purely digital form, making it easy for anyone to buy and sell unused gift cards online.

Unlike coupon codes, which can be found on websites like CouponKarma, gift cards can be used multiple times until the balance reaches zero. It’s always a good idea to combine coupon codes with gift cards to save as much money as possible. That’s why we recommend you check out CouponKarma before every purchase, regardless of how small or large it may be.

Where to Buy & Find the Best Discounted Gift Cards?

Not all people who buy a gift card or receive one as a gift have the opportunity to use it or return it. Instead, they decide to sell it at a loss, hoping someone will buy their discounted gift card. If you’re a smart shopper, that someone could be you.

There are many websites that buy new gift cards from customers and sell them at discounted prices. Such websites make money either by taking a flat commission based on the gift card’s selling price or by selling gift cards for slightly more than what they purchased them for.

Is it safe to buy discounted gift cards online? Yes, it is, but you need to choose a trustworthy gift card website, such as one of those featured in the next section of this article. A dishonest gift card website could sell you an empty card or spend the balance before you have a chance to do so yourself.

Top 10 Best Website with Discounted Gift Cards

The best discounted gift cards rarely stay available for a long time, which is why you should bookmark the best websites with discounted gift cards and visit them on a regular basis. When you spot an attractive deal, grab it before it’s too late.

1. Raise

Raise offers a broad selection of discounted gift cards, allowing you to save as much as 30 percent at thousands of your favorite stores, including Target, Starbucks, Walmart, The Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, and others. New members can get 10 percent off all discounted gift cards, and long-term users can unlock special promotions and other perks, such as free shipping. Raise has a clean layout that makes it effortless to find new and trending gift cards, and the website has countless satisfied customers who rely on it every single day.

2. Gift Card Granny

When was the last time your grandmother gave you a gift card as a birthday or Christmas present? If you don’t remember, then it might be the right time to replace your grandmother with a digital one! Gift Card Granny is a reliable website with discounted gift cards where you can save money on clothing, gas, groceries, travel, and other purchases.

3. Cardpool

Would you like to save up to 35 percent when shopping at Macy’s, AutoZone, Patagonia, and other places? Then you need to check out Cardpool, one of the best websites offering discounted gift cards. At the time of writing this article, Cardpool features nearly 400 gift cards, which isn’t a lot when compared with other similar websites, but they’re all working and available as online purchases. In fact, Cardpool has temporarily stopped selling physical gift cards in response to the current situation, but the site expects to resume normal operation as soon as lockdown restrictions are lifted.

4. Gift Card Wiki

Admittedly, Gift Card Wiki doesn’t have much in common with Wikipedia in terms of design and content, but it can’t be denied that it’s an excellent repository of discounted gift cards. The site is home to the GCW Trading Club, which is a private Slack group administrated by GiftCardWiki Team for gift card bulk sellers.

5. Giftcards.com

With a domain so recognizable, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that Giftcards.com is one of the largest and most visited websites selling discounted gift cards. The site offers not only closed-loop but also open-loop gift cards, making it very easy to choose something for you or your loved ones. If you own a business and would like to make your employees happy, you can use Giftcards.com to buy discounted gift cards in bulk with your business logo printed on them.

6. Gameflip

Gameflip specializes in unspent video game gift cards. On the site, you can find Steam cards, PSN, Xbox Live, Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play cards, all available with a nice discount attached to them. There are no hidden fees to worry about, and Gameflip offers excellent buyer and seller protection to prevent fraud and scams. In addition to video game gift cards, Gameflip also sells games and in-game items, making it an easy choice for all avid gamers who don’t like spending more money than absolutely necessary.

7. RetailMeNot

RetailMeNot is a large platform dedicated to helping brands drive sales with strategic promotions, deals, and discounts. A consumer, you would be hard-pressed to find a major website that’s not offering irresistible deals on the site. RetailMeNot can even help you save money on prescription drugs, thanks to its RxSaver coupon finder, which is available as a free mobile app for Android and iOS.

8. GiftCardBin

GiftCardBin describes itself as the best place to buy and sell unused gift cards, and we can certainly see why the site thinks so highly of itself. The number of discounted gift cards in its catalog is impressive, and so is its 100-day money-back guarantee, which is long enough to give even the biggest skeptics out there the confidence to buy and use a discounted gift card to save money.

9. CardCash

CardCash features gift cards of over 1,200 different brands spanning all categories, including sports, apparel, food and beverage, home and garden, shoes, pets, and more. It offers unprecedented 45-day purchase protection on all gift cards, so you can rest assured, knowing nothing will stop you from spending the entire balance. All CardCash users should download the site’s app, which is available on the App Store and the Google Play Store. The app is easy to use, and it gives you access to the best gift cards out there with a simple tap of your finger.

10. Gift Card Spread

Gift Card Spread, commonly referred to simply as GC Spread in the gift card community, offers a wide selection of unused gift cards at great prices. The site is committed to providing the best customer service possible, and its online reviews tell us that it’s doing something right.

Honorable Mention: Zeek.me

Zeek.me used to be a popular website with discounted gift cards, offering excellent deals for top retailers like Argos, John Lewis & Debenhams, and others. The site accumulated more than a thousand reviews on Trustpilot before it was discontinued. All initial reviews were positive, with reviewers praising available discounts as well as the ability to pay using cryptocurrency, most notably Bitcoin. Unfortunately, even popular gift card websites sometimes have to close their doors, and Zeek.me became one of them in 2020. That said, its legacy continues to live on even today.

Conclusion

As long as you select a reputable gift card website, the risks associated with buying and using discounted gift cards are greatly outweighed by the amount of money you can save. All gift card websites featured in this article are verified by real users, so you can use them without any worries.

Stephanie Bryant

coupon specialist, 10 years in coupon shopping business

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