A couple of days ago, GiftCardMall suddenly disappeared from cash back portals.  I had listed GiftCardMall as one of the best ways to buy $500 Visa cards in the post “Best options for buying $500 Visa gift cards,” but they pulled out of their affiliate channels the same day I posted.  Luckily, they’re back!

FatWallet:

1% cash back, but terms exclude Visa gift cards:

TopCashBack:

2% cash back for regular gift cards. 1% cash back for Visa gift cards:

Sign Up Links

You can find links to sign up for the above cash back portals and others on my “Sign-Up Links” page (which can also be found under the Resources menu of any page on the Frequent Miler site).

UPDATE: During the day, GiftCardMall changed the upper limit of their gift cards from $1000 to $500.  This can still be a money maker at 2%, but it’s not as good of a deal as it was.

Today only (Monday, April 29 2013), the cash back portal, TopCashback, is offering 2% cash back when buying gift cards after clicking through to GiftCardMall.  TopCashback usually offers 1.5% cash back for GiftCardMall, but the rate is going to dip down to 1% as of Thursday, May 2nd.  So, the expected cash back schedule for buying Visa gift cards at GiftCardMall via TopCashback is:

• Monday, April 29: 2% cash back
• Tuesday & Wednesday: 1.5% cash back
• Thursday and thereafter: 1% cash back

PINs

Now that Visa gift cards can be setup with PINs, they have become more interesting since they can now be loaded to Bluebird (see “Gift card PINs” and “Bluebird swipe reloads via ATM” and “Better than free manufactured spend“).

I’ve tested Visa gift cards from GiftCardMall and I found that, once activated, it is possible to simply use the last 4 digits of the gift card as its PIN (you can also set your own PIN online if you prefer).  Using the last 4 digits as the PIN, I successfully loaded my Bluebird card at Walmart.

Buy with Amex gift card

If you want to buy these gift cards with an Amex gift card, please read this post: How to use Amex gift cards to buy GiftCardMall gift cards and earn a profit.  Many questions you may have are (hopefully) already answered there.

TopCashback Notes

The following information was sent to me by TopCashback.  If you’re interested in their business model and how it affects promotions like these, here you go:

TCb makes money through the Google Ads that are dotted around its pages (and clearly marked as non-cashback earning) and by selling on-site advertising space to merchants. In the latter’s case, the merchant *must* also offer an increased rate of cashback – so members are gaining a little bit extra as well.

Cashback rates are always at least 100% (where allowed) of what TCb’s paid. If a cashback rate increases for a period of time, that’s either because a) the merchant has bought advertising space so has had to increase its cashback rate to be in line with the TCb advertising rules or b) there’s some spare TCb marketing budget that can be put towards offering members a higher rate of cashback with a particular merchant for a small period of time.

If a cashback rate decreases, it’s because c) TCb’s spare marketing budget has been removed from the rate; d) the advertising period for a merchant has finished, so the rate’s dropping back to its standard amount or e) the merchant has said it is lowering what it is prepared to pay TCb as standard. Nonetheless, regardless of which reason, the cashback rate displayed will be 100% of what TCb is paid.

Related posts and links

• Sign up for TopCashback: Sign-Up Links
• Read more:
  • How to use Amex gift cards to buy GiftCardMall gift cards and earn a profit
  • Learning Amex gift card rules the hard way
  • Better than free manufactured spend
  • Amex takes away $3K cash back gift cards
  • Gift card PINs
  • Bluebird swipe reloads via ATM

In my recent post “Better than free manufactured spend” I showed that it is possible to make a slight profit when buying Visa gift cards at GiftCardMall.com by first going through the cash back portal, TopCashBack.  I suggested, too, that you could earn even more money by first buying American Express gift cards to get cash back and then using those American Express gift cards to buy Visa gift cards.  Here’s how…

1. Go through a cash back portal to buy American Express gift cards.

TopCashBack and BigCrumbs currently offer the best cash back rates (1.5% and 1.4%, respectively).  Via either portal, search for “American Express Gift Cards” and click through to the Amex gift card store.  When going through a cash back portal, American Express has recently added a top limit of $500 per card that can be purchased, but you can get around this limit by buying a personalized card (for details, see “Amex takes away $3K cash back gift cards“).

2. Register your American Express cards

Once you receive your American Express card(s), call 1-877-297-4438 to register each card with your full name and address.  You will need to talk to a person to do so (press 0, I believe).

3. Go through TopCashBack to GiftCardMall to buy Visa gift cards

You can buy Visa gift cards with values of up to $1000.  You will be charged $3.95 for each card, plus shipping charges.  Since you can’t easily split the payment across multiple credit cards, I’d recommend picking a value less than $1000 to cover fees and shipping.

For example, let’s say you have a $1000 American Express gift card.  You can’t easily use it to buy a $1000 Visa card because the total charge will be $1003.95 plus shipping.  If you choose the cheapest shipping option, the total will come to $1006.94. You won’t be able to use your $1000 Amex gift card for that purchase.  To make things work, you can instead buy a $993 Visa gift card so that the total will come to $999.94.  Trackable shipping is $2 more, so you could order a $991 Visa gift card to stay on the safe side.

Shipping charges go down slightly as you add more cards to your order so it may be necessary to test different combinations to find the optimal Visa card value for your needs.

When you check-out to pay, make sure to use the exact same name and address that you registered to your American Express gift card in step 2.

Also, do not try to place this order from a foreign country or when browsing via a VPN service.  I recently had my order stopped when going through a VPN.  I called GiftCardMall and found out (after they investigated) that the order was blocked due to a foreign IP address (even though I had chosen a Washington DC gateway).

Alternate Plan

Instead of buying sub $1000 Visa gift cards, another option is to buy GiftCardMall Choice Cards to cover fees and shipping.  For example, buy a $10 Choice card and then use it along with a $1000 Amex card to pay for a $1000 Visa card.  This approach takes planning, though.  I tested it successfully, but it took two days for my Choice e-gift card to arrive.

Cash Back Portal Tips

Things can go wrong when going through online shopping portals. The main risk is that your click-through may not be tracked properly.  To increase your chances of success, please see “How to ensure your portal points“.  Also note that if you place more than one order (e.g. you check out and pay more than once), then you should go through the portal each time first. 

Related Posts and Links

• Sign up for TopCashBack and/or BigCrumbs: Sign-Up Links
• Read more:
• Learning Amex gift card rules the hard way
• Better than free manufactured spend
• Amex takes away $3K cash back gift cards
• Gift card PINs
• Bluebird swipe reloads via ATM

Today only (Monday, April 22 2013), the cash back portal, TopCashBack, is offering 2.5% cash back when buy gift cards after clicking through to “American Express Prepaid and Gift Cards”.  TopCashBack usually offers 1.5% cash back for American Express.  A competing cash back site, BigCrumbs, currently offers 1.4% cash back.

Note that TopCashBack will run a one day special for GiftCardMall a week from now (Monday, April 29).  On that day they will increase the GiftCardMall payout from 1.5% to 2%.  See “Better than free manufactured spend” for thoughts about how to leverage these promotions.

This post was written yesterday, so I didn’t have a way to capture a screenshot showing the temporary 2.5% cash back rate.  Instead, you will see below an expert artist rendering of what the screen may look like today:

Tips

• American Express gift cards (and prepaid cards) cannot be used as debit cards.
• Do not use Citibank cards to buy these gift cards as Citi is known to treat these purchases as cash advances (and will charge high fees).  If you are unsure whether your bank will treat these purchases as cash advances, you can protect yourself by calling and asking for your cash advance limit to be reduced to zero (some banks won’t allow it to go all the way to zero, but at least you should be able to lower it to less than you plan to pay online).
• Don’t go overboard.  If you buy tens of thousands of dollars of gift cards per month with one credit card, you are very likely to be targeted for a financial review.
• American Express has strict, but not clearly defined limits regarding how much you can buy per transaction.  See “Learning Amex gift card rules the hard way.”
• To pay less in fees for Amex gift cards, buy the cards shown in the top-left corner of the Amex Gift card page.  These cards can hold values up to $3000 each.  By going with larger value cards, the shipping and fees become a smaller percentage of the total.
• You may be able to find Amex discount codes online to save on shipping or to waive gift card fees.  TopCashBack, though, says “coupons that are not displayed on the TopCashback site, will nullify eligibility for cashback.”  So, it is safer to go without discount codes.
• You can order a customized gift card with your name on it, and a custom $ amount, by scrolling to the bottom of the Amex page and looking for the tiny link to “Gift Cards” (under the YouTube Icon).  See screenshots here: “Amex Gift Cards, this and that.”
• Don’t be surprised if it takes several months for cash back to become payable.  I bought a $3000 gift card through TopCashBack in January.  Within hours TopCashBack reported the transaction as pending (which was comforting), but 3 months went by before the cash back became payable.
• I can verify, from personal experience, that American Express does award miles / points when you use their credit cards to buy these gift cards.  That may change at any time, though.  So, go slow and check your statements regularly.

Quick update: In the recent post “Gift Card Churning Deals” I said that TopCashBack would offer 2% back for American Express Gift Cards bought today (March 12th).  It turns out that they are experiencing technical difficulties with Amex.  As a result, the promotion has been delayed.  I’ll report back once the issue is resolved and a new date has been set.

Lately I’ve written quite a bit about credit card churning (see, for example, “Million Mile Madness: The big churn story“).  Now that I have 10 new credit cards coming my way, its time to find ways to meet my minimum spend requirements.  That’s where gift card churning comes in.  Fortunately, there are several current and upcoming deals that will help:

Staples $15 rebate on $150 or more in Visa prepaid cards

I reported this deal last week, and it is now live until March 9th.  Readers are reporting that the online rebate form allows you to select a check rather than a Visa card if you prefer.  Best bet is to buy a $200 Visa for $206.95.  You’ll make a small profit.  Plus, if you use a card that gets a good bonus at office supply stores (see Best Category Bonuses), you’ll earn lots of points.  Sadly, limit is one per household.

Amex gift cards 2% cash back, March 12th

Next week, TopCashBack is planning a one day special in which they’ll bump up the payout on American Express Gift Cards to 2% from the usual rate of 1.5%.  This could be a great way to get ahead on paying taxes (see “Pay federal taxes by credit card, almost for free“).  Or, if “almost free” isn’t good enough, see “Pay Federal Taxes via Credit Card for Free.”  The rates listed in the latter post are out of date, but the general ideas still work.  If you don’t have big tax payments to make, see also “Using the Target Amex card to run up spend.”

Plastic Jungle 3.14% cash back, March 14th

TopCashBack will be celebrating Pi day (3/14) by bumping up the PlasticJungle payout from 2.5% to 3.14% just for that one day.  PlasticJungle buys and sells discount gift cards.  By going through TopCashBack on March 14th, you can get back 3.14% of the buy or sell price.

TopCashBack reliability

Quite a few readers have reported serious frustrations with using TopCashBack, and many have stopped using the service altogether.  I can’t speak for others, but I can describe what my experience has been.  In my case, the reliability of the portal seems to be linked to specific merchants.  That is, with some merchants I’ve never received cash back whereas with others cash back has been relatively quick and reliable.  Here are some specific experiences:

• CouponTrade (now called Raise): Terrible experience.  Never received cash back except from a TopCashBack customer service courtesy adjustment.
• Vision Direct: Cashback from a July 2012 purchase still shows as confirmed, but is not yet payable 8 months later. 
• American Express Gift Cards: Purchases from January 11 still show as confirmed, but not yet payable.  Often the process takes about 3 months, so I’m not yet concerned about this one, but I don’t yet have proof that this merchant is reliable through TopCashBack.
• The following have all moved reliably through the phases (from pending, to confirmed, to payable) for me:
• PlasticJungle
• Cardpool (Note: Cardpool has specific limits on cash back)
• Staples
• Marriott
• DrugStore.com

Of course, your experiences may vary, but I thought it might be helpful to show where TopCashBack has worked for me and where it has not.  What have your experiences been?

Related posts and links

• Amex Gift Cards, this and that
• More cash back for Amex gift cards
• Pay federal taxes by credit card, almost for free
• Pay Federal Taxes via Credit Card for Free
• TopCashBack referral link
• BigCrumbs referral link

I’ve reported before that it is possible to get 1.5% cash back via TopCashBack or 1.4% cash back via BigCrumbs when buying Amex gift cards online.  Here are some miscellaneous updates on that topic…

Financial review fears

Some people who have ordered large amounts of gift cards from American Express, using American Express credit cards to pay, have suffered through American Express financial reviews.  This means that American Express freezes all of you Amex card accounts and requests documentation (such as tax forms) to prove to them that you are able to sustain such high levels of spend (and to pay it back).  Regardless of whether the financial review satisfies American Express, its probably an event that you would prefer to avoid.  So, just note that as a caution before you buy too many gift cards!

FatWallet vs. TopCashBack

Currently, the difference in payout between FatWallet and TopCashBack is very small (1.4% vs. 1.5%).  In general, people have had very positive experiences with FatWallet (see, for example, “FatWallet sets a high bar for cash back portals“).  However, experiences with TopCashBack have been mixed.  While I haven’t had much trouble, some readers have reported so much trouble that they’ve vowed never to use the site again.  Again, just consider that a caution.  As long as the difference in payout is so small, you may be better off going with FatWallet.

Discount codes

There are usually discount codes available to either reduce shipping charges or eliminate fees from Amex gift card purchases.  However, readers have reported problems with codes I’ve reported in the past.  One reader reports success with the code “PHONEGIFT3” but when I tried it I received an error.  Another reader reported success with the code “EMSVCA” but that too gave me an error.  It seems that if I start my session in BigCrumbs or TopCashBack, the codes don’t work.  If I go directly to Amex, the codes do work, but then I won’t get 1.4%/1.5% cash back. 

The one code I’ve found that does seem to work after going through a cash back portal is AFLQ12013.  I’ve tried this successfully from both BigCrumbs and TopCashBack. This code subtracts $5.95 from your shipping charges. 

Have you used any codes successfully lately with a cash back portal?  If so, please report the codes in the comments below.

TopCashBack confirmed

A number of readers have reported frustration with TopCashBack for various reasons and have questioned whether they will pay out reliably for Amex gift cards.  This is just one small data point, but its worth noting that my transactions from January 11 have moved from pending to confirmed:

While this is reassuring, its also a good reminder that getting cash back can take a long time (from any portal).

Free Money

It looks like you can get cash back for ordering free American Express prepaid gift cards.  BigCrumbs offers $7 back and TopCashBack offers $10.  I experimented by going through TopCashBack to American Express Gift Cards and I searched for Prepaid Cards.  I then ordered one for my wife.  You can get one with no money loaded on it and there is no charge.  I later received confirmation from TopCashBack that $10 was pending (and the status is now “confirmed”):

Each person (based on SSN) can order up to 3 free prepaid cards, so this can be up to $30 free money per person.  I wonder if one were to cancel the cards if they could order more…?

To find the prepaid cards, go to the gift cards section, scroll to the bottom and look for a tiny hyperlink titled “prepaid cards”:

Reader Tip: Adding your name to the card

This tip comes from a reader who noted that Amex allows you to add a message to each gift card and that the message appears at the bottom of the card in the same place that a name would usually appear on a credit card.  Soooo, if you plan to use these gift cards for yourself, simply put your own name in as the message.  That way, if a store asks to see your ID, they can compare the name on your ID to the one on your “credit card”.

To get to the customizable gift cards, scroll to the bottom of the gift card screen and look for the tiny “gift cards” hyperlink:

Then, select “Custom Message Gift Cards”.  Warning: I have not tested whether this will result in cash back if you came from a cash back portal.  I expect it will, but I don’t yet have proof.

Related Posts and Links

• FatWallet sets a high bar for cash back portals
• TopCashBack sign-up referral link
• BigCrumbs sign-up referral link

Recently I detailed how to “pay federal taxes via credit card for free.”  The process works, but is fairly complicated: first buy Amex gift cards and get cash back, then use those Amex gift cards to buy $1000 Visa gift cards, then use those Visa gift cards as debit cards to pay taxes at a very low rate.  If you need to use more than two debit cards, then you need to call in to use those cards since the web sites will accept only two. 

By doing all of the above, the cash back you receive offsets the costs of buying gift cards and paying taxes.  But it can be a pain in the you know what.  Luckily, thanks to new developments, there’s now an easier option…

Reduced Amex fees

Last week, a reader named Robert alerted me to the fact that PayUSAtax now charges only 1.89% for American Express credit cards.  Previously, 2.29% was the best available rate for Amex cards.  This is big news because we can now simplify the process and still pay almost nothing for taxes (I’ll detail the steps below).

A full list of service providers that accept credit cards for paying federal taxes can be found here: Pay Taxes by Credit or Debit Card.

TopCashBack joins the game

Another new development worth sharing is that TopCashBack now offers cash back for American Express Gift Cards.  They currently offer 1.5% cash back, which slightly beats Big Crumbs which currently offers 1.4% cash back.  Full details can be found here: More cash back for Amex gift cards.

Pay Taxes inexpensively

Thanks to the two new developments listed above, it is now possible to pay taxes for considerably less than 1% in fees.  Here’s how.

1. Go through BigCrumbs or TopCashBack for cash back

Log into either BigCrumbs or TopCashBack.  Search for American Express Prepaid and Gift Cards.  Click through to the American Express Gift Cards store.

2. Buy gift cards

There are two versions of the American Express gift card shop.  One is intended for personal use and one for business.  Only the personal one is available through TopCashBack, but both are available through BigCrumbs. (Edit: both personal and business cards are available through both portals). The personal site limits orders to $5000 per month whereas the business site limits orders to $75000 per month. 

In order to minimize fees, I recommend buying fewer, larger gift cards.  The limit, per card, is $3000.  For example, if you want to pay about $5000 in taxes, then buy two $2500 cards.  If you need to pay less than $3000, then buy just one card.

Reduce shipping charges by $5.95 by using the promo code AFLQ12013.

Pay with the best rewards credit card available, but do not pay with a Citibank card as Citi treats these purchases as cash advances.  If you’re unsure about whether your credit card company will treat these as regular purchases, call to set your cash advance limit to zero before purchasing gift cards.

3. Use gift cards to pay taxes

Go to PayUSAtax to pay your federal taxes using your American Express gift card as a credit card.  PayUSAtax will charge you 1.89%, so make sure to have that much available on your gift card.  For example, if you have a $3000 gift card, then you can pay as much as $3000 / 1.0189 = $2944.35.  [Note, I haven't had a chance to test this part out fully yet.  Some merchants put a small hold on a credit card first to verify the card before accepting payment.  If this happens here, you may need to make a slightly smaller payment].

4. Calculate cost

If you go through TopCashBack and buy a $3000 gift card using the shipping promo code, you will pay a total of $3006.95.  Then, you should get $45 back from TopCashBack (it may take a few months to become payable), for a total cost of $2961.95.  With your gift card, you will be able to make a tax payment for $2944.35.  The rest of the gift card will be used to pay the processing fee.

• Total cost: $2961.95
• Taxes paid: $2944.35
• Cost to pay taxes = $2961.95 – $2944.35 = $17.60
• Cost as a percent of taxes paid = $17.60 / $2944.35 = .6% (i.e. considerably less than 1%)

.6% is not free, but the points or miles earned when buying the gift cards are most likely worth considerably more.  Even with a basic 1% cash back card, you would make a profit! 

If you go through BigCrumbs rather than TopCashBack, the savings are similar.  The total cost to pay $2944.35 in taxes comes to $20.60, which is only .7%.

[Hat tip to Eddie and bluto for correcting my math!]

Related posts and links

• More cash back for Amex gift cards
• Big News at BigCrumbs
• Pay Federal Taxes via Credit Card for Free
• How to earn 5 points per dollar paying taxes
• How to pay Federal taxes with a Vanilla Visa
• Pay Taxes by Credit or Debit Card
• How to See if Your Credit, Debit, & Gift Card Tax Payments Are Received by the IRS
• TopCashBack sign-up referral link
• BigCrumbs sign-up referral link

TopCashBack now offers cash back for American Express Gift Cards.

One convenient way to meet credit card spend requirements quickly is to buy gift cards.  American Express gift cards, in particular, are convenient because they can be purchased online through cash back portals, so that you actually profit a bit when making the purchase.  You can then use those gift cards at any place that takes Amex for payment.

TopCashBack currently offers 1.5% cash back for American Express gift cards, which slightly beats BigCrumbs, which currently offers 1.4% cash back. Some people do better with BigCrumbs by setting up accounts for their relatives and referring themselves. Each referrer gets .2% cash back, and the referrer of the referrer also gets .2% cash back. So, it’s possible to get as much as 1.8% cash back from BigCrumbs, but this clearly violates their terms & conditions. Personally, I wouldn’t do this, as it crosses my ethical line.

There are two versions of the American Express gift card shop. One is intended for personal use and one for business. Only the personal one is available through TopCashBack, but both are available through BigCrumbs. (Edit: both personal and business cards are available through both portals). The personal site limits orders to $5000 per month whereas the business site limits orders to $75000 per month.

On Friday, last week, I tested out TopCashBack by going through their portal to buy a $3000 Amex gift card.  Two days later, 1.5% cash back showed up in my TopCashBack account as pending:

It is not unusual (with any cash back portal) for it to take a few months before the cash back becomes payable.  It will be interesting to see how long this one takes.

If you’re interested in saving money buying gift cards via TopCashBack, here’s how…

1. Log into TopCashBack

Search for American Express Prepaid and Gift Cards. Click “Get Cashback Now”.

2. Buy gift cards

In order to minimize fees, I recommend buying fewer, larger gift cards. The limit, per card, is $3000. Also, coupons are usually available to reduce gift card shipping fees. For example, you can reduce shipping charges by $5.95 by using the promo code AFLQ12013.

If you buy more than one gift card, you might do better to use a code that removes each card’s $3.95 fee. Try code EMSVCA.

Pay with the best rewards credit card available, but do not pay with a Citibank card as Citi treats these purchases as cash advances. If you’re unsure about whether your credit card company will treat these as regular purchases, call to set your cash advance limit to zero before purchasing gift cards.

3. Calculate Savings

Let’s show an example: If you go through TopCashBack and buy a $3000 gift card using the shipping promo code shown above, you will pay a total of $3006.95. Then, you should get $45 back from TopCashBack.  Your profit, then, would be $45 – $6.95 = $38.05.  As a percentage, the cash back gives you a savings of 1.27%.

About Prepaid Cards

American Express offers free prepaid reloadable cards through their site.  Since, TopCashBack advertises $10 back for prepaid cards, I went through the portal and ordered a prepaid card to see if I would get $10 for free.  So far, this “purchase” hasn’t shown up in my TopCashBack account, but I’ll let you know if or when it does.

Related posts and links

• TopCashBack referral link
• Big News at BigCrumbs
• BigCrumbs referral link
• Pay Federal Taxes via Credit Card for Free

Online shopping portals are a great option for earning extra points or cash back for things you would have bought anyway.  Before buying something online or booking travel reservations, I always start with the best portal finders to find the portal that offers the most points or cash back for the online vendor where I want to shop.  Then, by going through a portal to the merchant I would have shopped at anyway, I earn extra points or cash back.  Usually its possible to take advantage of all of sales and discount codes and still get the extra kickback (although some merchants won’t give points for certain discount codes).

Gift Card Double Dip

In some circumstances, it’s possible to double your points or cash back through a “double dip”.  The idea is to go through an online portal to a merchant and buy yourself a gift card.  Then, go through the online portal again to use the gift card.  For example, let’s say that Old Navy is offering 5 miles per dollar through an airline’s shopping portal and you plan to buy $100 worth of stuff.  In that case, you may be able to go through the portal to buy a $100 Old Navy gift card in order to get 5X or 500 miles.  Then, if you go through the portal a second time and use the gift card to buy the things you want, you may earn another 5X or 500 miles.  In total, you would earn 10 miles per dollar (1000 miles) with this technique.

Double Dip Experiments

Double dipping doesn’t always work.  Not all merchants give points or cash back for gift card purchases.  And, not all merchants give points or cash back for the use of gift cards.  The trick is to find the merchants that give points and cash back for both.  Through the Frequent Miler Laboratory I’ve been tracking my own and readers’ double dipping experiences.  Of course, we’ve only tested a small handful of merchants and portals so the lab data is only helpful if we happen to have tested a merchant of interest to you.

Portal Terms & Conditions

Often, the fine print on a portal page will say something like “Not eligible on gift cards.”  What does this mean?  Does it mean that you won’t get points for buying gift cards, or that you won’t get points for using gift cards?  In some cases, I’ve found that despite the fine print I’ve received points for both buying and using gift cards.  In other words, the Terms & Conditions are often wrong.  Where those terms mostly come into play is when you do not get points you were expecting and you try to get help.  In that case, the portal’s customer service rep is likely to point to the T&C and say “sorry, gift cards are excluded.”

TopCashBack’s Merchant Survey

The cash back portal, TopCashBack, sent a survey to each of its listed merchants asking specifically whether they offered cash back when customers bought gift cards and/or used gift cards.  So far, they’ve received 48 responses and, even better, TopCashBack offered to share the responses with us!

Caution

Before I show the results of TopCashBack’s survey, I need to point out a couple of things: First, just because a double dip works with TopCashBack, that does not mean that it works with all portals.  Usually, merchants treat all portals the same, but some do not (Staples, for example, seems to have specific rules for each portal).  Second, just because a merchant reported that they give cash back for gift card purchases, does not mean that they are correct!  Shopping portals are (mostly) automated systems, and there is often a disconnect between what people believe automated systems do and what they actually do.  Only direct experience can prove the survey results right or wrong. 

One reason, in particular, that I’m wary of the survey results is that all but one responding merchant said that they pay cash back for gift card sales, but only 12 reported paying cash back for redemption of gift cards.  In practice, I usually find the opposite.  In my experience, most merchants pay points or cash back when you pay with a gift card, but relatively few pay points or cash back when you buy a gift card.  Why are the results so far off from my own experiences?  It could be due to simple selection bias: perhaps the stores that reward gift card purchases are eager to sell gift cards and so were more likely to respond to the survey.

Another thing to watch out for is the fact that merchants don’t always treat their e-gift cards and physical gift cards the same way.  There have been quite a few times where I’ve received points or cash back for buying physical gift cards, but not e-gift cards from the same portal/merchant combination.  In general, if you have time to wait for a physical gift card, you have a better chance of getting points or cash back.

Double Dippers

The following merchants reported that they give cash back for both buying and using gift cards (current cash back rates through TopCashBack are listed in parentheses):

• Ahnu (8%)
• Athleta (5%)
• Banana Republic (5%)
• Best Western (5%)
• EyeBuyDirect.com (10%)
• Gap.com (6%)
• Old Navy (5.5%)
• Perry Ellis (9%)
• Teva Footwear (8%)
• The Tire Rack (6%)
• Tsubo Footwear (8%)

Marriott (5%) was also on the list, but with the notation that gift card purchases were only awarded cash back until 12/31/2012 (i.e. not anymore), and they were unclear about gift card use, but seemed to indicate that cash back would be awarded.  In my personal experience, Marriott does give cash back for gift card use as long as you do not use a special corporate code or government rate when booking your stay.  Since Marriott no longer gives cash back when buying gift cards, you can still look to other options for double dipping.  For example, buy Marriott gift cards at a discount from Plastic Jungle (but go through TopCashBack first!), then book your stay through TopCashBack, and pay for the stay with your gift card when you check out of the hotel.

Maybe Dippers

The following merchants reported that they do give cash back for purchases of gift cards, but did not answer the question of whether cash back is given when gift cards are used.  My guess is that many of these would work for double-dipping, but only through experimentation can we find out for sure:

• 4 Wheel Parts (6%)
• 6pm (7.15%)
• AutoZone (8%)
• Bass Pro Shops (6%)
• Canvas4Life (15%)
• EC Research (20%)
• Etnies (15.1%)
• JeGem (21%)
• Lids.com (15%)
• Lowe’s (2%)
• Nearlynatural.com (12%)
• Paperstyle (2%)
• Plastic Jungle (2.5%)
• Portero (3%)
• QVC (6%)
• Restaurant.com (35%)
• Scrubs & Beyond (8%)
• Staples (5.5%) [Staples gift cards cannot be used online]
• TABcom Outdoor (13%)
• TABcom Pets (9%)

A few of the above merchants sell gift cards for use with other businesses.  Plastic Jungle, Staples, and Restaurant.com (sort-of) sell gift cards for other merchants, so hybrid double-dips may be possible through these merchants.  For example, you could go through TopCashBack to Plastic Jungle and buy a discounted Sears gift card, then go through a portal to Sears to use that gift card.

Regarding QVC, last May a reader who goes by carwag25 tested a double dip by buying and then using an e-gift card through the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  She received points for using the gift card, but not for buying it.  So, despite QVC’s presence on this list, I would use caution before buying QVC e-gift cards through a portal.  If physical gift cards are available, that would be a safer bet.

No Dippers

The following merchants reported that they do give cash back for buying gift cards, but explicitly said that they do not give cash back when gift cards are used for payment:

• Accessory Geeks (18%)
• Dennis Kirk (4%)
• Discount WatchStore (8%)
• Food Network Store (8%)
• GiftCertificates.Com (6%)
• Land’s End (6%)
• Mountain Hardwear (8%)
• Online Sports (10%)
• Reebok (10%)
• Revzilla (5%)
• Shoebuy.com (17%)
• Sony (6%) [no cash back for purchases e-gift cards]
• Sorel (8%)
• StreetSideAuto (7%)
• Wetsuit Wearhouse (5%)
• WU Pay (1 – 7%)

Note that with both Shoebuy and Sony, I have received points back when using gift cards after going through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, so my guess is that the answers for these merchants are incorrect.  These things can vary by portal, though, so I may be wrong.  Also, merchants can change their gift card policies at any time, so my experiences may be out of date.

Both GiftCertificates.com and WU Pay sell gift cards to other merchants, so hybrid double dips are possible.

Next Steps

Obviously, if you expect to make large purchases at any of the above listed merchants, this data may be useful to you to earn extra cash back.  If you prefer earning points and miles, the data above is a useful indication of what might work, but it is no guarantee. 

Many thanks to TopCashBack for sharing this information with us!

Related posts and links

• Read more about TopCashBack
• Sign up for TopCashBack (if you use this link I’ll receive a small referral bonus once you earn cash back)
• Read about the best ways to find portals here: Portal finder fight! Round 2
• Visit the Frequent Miler Laboratory 
• Learn the art of gift card churning, here: The art of gift card churning @ #chicagoseminars